Personal statement

“I found the deutsch-englische HAPPENING IRON CURTAIN/ vigil held in the Galiläakirche in Berlin-Friedrichshain on 9 November 2014, the anniversary of the fall of the wall 25 years ago, very interesting, highly informative and a great success. The gathering-together of different people of different age groups from around Europe, their perspectives on the events in Berlin before and after the fall of the wall and on the individual countries of eastern Europe during the years 1988-1990 was a shared act of remembrance. The contributions from Great Britain, Berlin and the Ukraine reflected a shared consensus. The contribution by Elke Böttcher and Sabine Heron about their time together in Berlin-Friedrichshain made a big impression on me. Adrian Palka from Coventry University/ UK and Mark Reeder, an English label founder and producer living in Berlin, provided very vivid reflections on their life in Berlin on both sides of the wall prior to the fall of the wall. Between 1980-86 I worked as a janitor at the Special School for Music in East Berlin at Brunnenstraße 148. Located nearby was the AMIGA recording studio in which Mark Reeder produced “the last album of the GDR” shortly before the opening of the wall. (Lutz Baumann)