Twenty years after the fall of the Berlin Wall this workshop explores causes and consequences of this truly historical moment, by looking at the revolutionary process itself and its cultural manifestations. The night of November 9th, 1989, was one of disbelief in the media images, exuberant joy, great expectations and some subdued fears of what was to come after 40 years of geopolitical certainties. “Now grows together what belongs together” was Willy Brandt’s dictum. What seemed only natural to most Germans didn’t seem so to most of their neighbors. The German Question that had appeared solved was suddenly on the table again, and it had to be settled in a wider context of further European integration. The fall of the wall was the symbolic and real culmination of an Eastern European rebellion against Soviet hegemony that had repercussions for Europe as a whole. It marked an end of the East West conflict and beginning of the political and economic transformation of the former East bloc.

This workshop looks at the wider societal implications of these revolutionary events from the perspectives of various disciplines. Panel presentations focus on the revolutionary transformation itself, on how these developments have been reflected in literature and even gave rise to a new genre – the “Wenderoman”, as well as on the nexus between democracy and revolution in Eastern Europe. A round table will look at the consequences of unification from a literary, historical and political science angle and bring together participants with personal experiences from East and West Germany as well as the US to assess how much the two parts have grown together, how far apart they still stand, and whether this reflects a wider East-West European experience.

PROGRAM

Welcome: Konrad Jarausch (UNC Chapel Hill, History

I. Panel:
THE FALL OF THE WALL: TWENTY YEARS AFTER
4:15 – 6:15 pm

• Konrad H. Jarausch (UNC Chapel Hill, History):
  "Germany 1989: A New Kind of Revolution?"
  Abstract and Bio
• William Donahue (Duke University, Germanic Languages and Literatures):
  “The Wenderoman -  Contemporary History and Literature”
  Abstract and Bio
• Milada Vachudova (UNC Chapel Hill, Political Science):
  "Revolution and Democracy - Political Trajectories in Eastern Europe after 1989"
  Abstract and Bio

Moderation: Holger Moroff (UNC Chapel Hill, Political Science)

Coffee Break: 6:15 – 6:30 pm

II. Roundtable:
GROWING TOGETHER – STAYING APART: THE CONSEQUENCES OF THE UNIFICATION
6:30 – 7:45 pm

• Ruth v. Bernuth (UNC Chapel Hill, Germanic Languages and Literatures)
• Karen Hagemann (UNC Chapel Hill, History)
• Robert M. Jenkins (UNC, Center for Slavic, Eurasian, and East European Studies)
• Helga A. Welsh (Wake Forest University, Political Science)

Moderation: Gary Marks (UNC Chapel Hill, Political Science)

Reception: 7:45 pm

Workshop Flyer

For more information contact: Konrad Jarausch

A registration is necessary: Please register with Philipp Stelzel until October 25, 2009.