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"Berlin Kreuzberg SO 36" - Before and After the Fall of the Berlin Wall
Join us for the grand opening of the "Berlin Kreuzberg SO 36" exhibition at the Goethe Zentrum and meet the artist Peter Frischmuth who will give a tour of his works on November 9th, 2009 - the 20th Anniversary of the Fall of the Berlin Wall. His photo exhibition captures the people and the streetscape in one of Berlin's most famous districts and the changes that occurred after the fall of the Berlin Wall.
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- Köpenicker Strasse
- (© Peter Frischmuth)
Kreuzberg, a district in the center of Berlin, suddenly found itself on the fringe after the construction of the Berlin Wall in 1961. Surrounded on three sides by the wall, important transportation lines were cut off, bridges over the Spree river were closed, and local manufacturers suddenly lacked thousands of workers who were no longer able to get to work.
Kreuzberg, and especially the area of Kreuzberg which is referred to as “SO 36” after the former ZIP code “Southeast 36,” had turned into the dead end of the city overnight. In hardly any other district of Berlin was the Berlin Wall as omnipresent as in Kreuzberg SO36. And yet, the “Kiez” (or neighborhood, in the Berlin dialect) was bustling with life. Despite the shadow of the Wall, a colorful subculture soon developed which was known far beyond the city limits of Berlin. In SO36 workers, students, Turkish immigrants, and squatters lived peacefully side by side.
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- Skalitzerstrasse
- (© Peter Frischmuth)
Photographer Peter Frischmuth has taken pictures for major German magazines such as Der Spiegel, Focus and Stern. About his first visit to Berlin in December of 1973, at age 16, he wrote: "I will never forget the view from the window of the PanAm at the landing approach at Tempelhof Airport. It was already dark as the plane pushed its way through the clouds. Underneath me a bright bang of glaring lights that cut the city in two. The wall, the death strip – my first impression of Berlin."
When he went to Berlin again in 1982 to photograph scenes of life in Kreuzberg, he was still an unknown photography student from Dortmund. In 2006, almost a quarter of a century later and seven years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, Peter Frischmuth returned to Berlin to retrace his steps to the same places and the same people. Comparing these two series of images, from 1982 and 2006, demonstrates not only what has changed over time but also what has remained constant.
The damage SO36 suffered as a result of being divided from the rest of the city by the Wall has since healed, and Kreuzberg is, once again, back in the heart of the city.
The exhibition at the Goethe Zentrum will run through December 18th, 2009.
Supported by the Bundesstiftung zur Aufarbeitung der SED-Diktatur, Berlin
Grand Opening:
November 9th, 2009 6:30 p.m.
Location:
Goethe-Zentrum Atlanta / German Cultural Center
1197 Peachtree Street, NE
Colony Square, Plaza Level
Atlanta , GA 30361
Admission: Free
