{"id":4795,"date":"2013-12-11T12:07:18","date_gmt":"2013-12-11T17:07:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/vault217.gmu.edu\/?p=4795"},"modified":"2013-12-12T11:39:29","modified_gmt":"2013-12-12T16:39:29","slug":"scenes-from-behind-the-wall-images-of-east-germany-1989-1990","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vault217.gmu.edu\/?p=4795","title":{"rendered":"Scenes from Behind the Wall: Images of East Germany, 1989-1990"},"content":{"rendered":"

In late December 1989 two young men, Page Chichester and Helmut Brinkmann, were drinking and watching a soccer match on television in the city of Bonn in what was then called West Germany.\u00a0 Brinkmann suddenly suggested that they tour East Germany, beginning the next day.\u00a0 The two stayed up all night planning their hastily-conceived trip.\u00a0 At Noon on December 29th the two took off in a Volkswagen van carrying cameras, film, and very few provisions.<\/p>\n

\"Photographers<\/a>

Photographers Page Chichester (left) and Helmut Brinkmann (right) at the Berlin Wall during their eight-day trip to East Germany. Restricted to personal, non-commercial use only. For permission to publish, contact Special Collections & Archives, George Mason University Libraries, speccoll@gmu.edu.<\/p><\/div>\n

Just about a month earlier the Berlin Wall, the main symbol of the division of the two Germanys had begun to fall.\u00a0 Ironically, this event came just a few short months after the German Democratic Republic celebrated its fortieth anniversary as a communist state.\u00a0 The festivities included a guest appearance by none other than the leader of the communist world himself, Mikhail Gorbechev.\u00a0 By late December, however, curious people began to move cautiously between the two countries, being extremely careful not to arouse the suspicion of the Stasi, the State Security Police of the crumbling, but still-functioning GDR.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a>

A Stasi guard poses for a photo in Dresden. Restricted to personal, non-commercial use only. For permission to publish, contact Special Collections & Archives, George Mason University Libraries, speccoll@gmu.edu.<\/p><\/div>\n

Chichester and Brinkmann spent eight days touring East Germany.\u00a0 The two visited Erfurt, Jena, Dresden, Leipzig, Bitterfeld, Connewitz, Berlin, and other surrounding locales before returning west to Bonn on January 5, 1990.\u00a0 Speaking to people and photographing the architecture, industry, transportation, and people of the east, they got a first-hand look at the conditions in that part of the Iron Curtain in the period between the fall of the Wall and reunification in October 1990.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a>

A young boy plays in the rubble of a demolished housing project in Connewitz. Restricted to personal, non-commercial use only. For permission to publish, contact Special Collections & Archives, George Mason University Libraries, speccoll@gmu.edu.<\/p><\/div>\n

The\u00a0“Scenes from Behind the Wall: Images of East Germany, 1989\/90” exhibit collection contains 53 framed photographs and supporting documentation for the exhibit “Scenes from Behind the Wall: Images of East Germany, 1989\/90” that traveled throughout Virginia as part of the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts Statewide Exhibition Program from 1995 through 2009.\u00a0 The finding aid for this collection can be accessed here<\/a>. \u00a0 A digitized collection of the images can be found at this link<\/a>.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In late December 1989 two young men, Page Chichester and Helmut Brinkmann, were drinking and watching a soccer match on television in the city of Bonn in what was then called West Germany.\u00a0 Brinkmann suddenly suggested that they tour East Germany, beginning the next day.\u00a0 The two stayed up all night planning their hastily-conceived trip.\u00a0 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[198,4],"tags":[9,123,122,56,57],"class_list":["post-4795","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-photography-collections","category-recent-acquisitions","tag-berlin-wall","tag-east-germany","tag-germany","tag-photographs","tag-photography"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8Ep5i-1fl","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":8053,"url":"https:\/\/vault217.gmu.edu\/?p=8053","url_meta":{"origin":4795,"position":0},"title":"29 Years After the Unimaginable","author":"admin","date":"November 14, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"November 9th marked the 29th anniversary to the beginning of the fall of the Berlin stop. 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