Georgetown University’s Newspaper of Record since 1920

The Hoya

Georgetown University’s Newspaper of Record since 1920

The Hoya

Georgetown University’s Newspaper of Record since 1920

The Hoya

Scholar Commemorates Fall of Berlin Wall

Marc Silberman, a German professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, spoke about his study of East Germany in the 1960s on Thursday in an event entitled “Too Near, Too Far: Watching the GRD Disappear!” as part of the BMW Center for German and European Studies series marking the 25th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall.

Silberman began studying German in the fourth grade and later went on to study at Freie Universität in West Berlin in 1967. He discussed his life in Germany, including notable events such as the as the Prague Spring, the Mai ’68 protests, and anti-Vietnam protests.

“As an American student in West Berlin I had border crossing privileges to the other half of the city that West Berliners and West Germans could exercise only by jumping through a lot of hoops,” Silberman said.

Silberman returned to the Freie Universität for graduate school in the early 1970s and began studying East German literature in West Berlin. He said one of the challenges of studying literature from the German Democratic Republic was that most scholars at the time saw it as Soviet propaganda. At the time, interest in East German literature began to rise. Silberman attributed the newfound focus on East German literature to the beginning of the New Left in West German society.

While Silberman was teaching German at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, protests and marches broke out in East Germany. Silberman returned to Berlin in December 1989 to witness the history unfold. In March 1990, he returned to Berlin once again, this time to watch the election that led to its reunification.

“I first heard of the opening of the wall on the evening news, on that Thursday, Nov.9,” Silberman said. “I couldn’t believe it. How could this happen without me being there?”

According to Silberman, Germany has changed significantly since the fall of the Berlin Wall due to a new, younger population.

“25 years after the fall of the wall we are beginning to witness a generational shift,” Silberman said. “Today’s youth and young adults have few of their own memories of the GDR.”

This change prompts the need to alter scholarship in regards to Germany, according to Silberman.

“GDR studies must overcome what I call its regionally, or geopolitically, defined focus, and examine broader connections to German and European modernism, technology, socialisms and contemporary politics,” Silberman said. “It no longer suffices to focus our attentions exclusively on the GDR state and East German identity with its Cold War rubric.”

Attendee Alix Lawson (GRD ’16), a student in the Masters of Arts in German and European studies Program, said that Silberman’s first-hand accounts of life in Germany made the event interesting.

“I thought that this was a nice opportunity for us to hear a personal anecdote of what actually happened around 1989 and the effects that it had on the future in contrast to books and other removed narratives on the topic,” Lawson said.

Max Levites (GRD ’16), also in the MAGES program, said that he appreciated the in-depth cultural history that Silberman provided.

“It was also a really interesting cultural study as opposed to historical or political,” Levites said. “I wasn’t really exposed to GDR literature or culture [before this].”

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