{"id":8053,"date":"2018-11-14T09:31:40","date_gmt":"2018-11-14T14:31:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vault217.gmu.edu\/?p=8053"},"modified":"2018-11-14T09:36:02","modified_gmt":"2018-11-14T14:36:02","slug":"29-years-after-the-unimaginable","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vault217.gmu.edu\/?p=8053","title":{"rendered":"29 Years After the Unimaginable"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Scenes from behind the wall: Images of East Germany, 1989\/90, C0235, Box 2, Item 11, Special Collections Research Center, George Mason University Libraries.<\/p><\/div>\n

November 9th marked the 29th anniversary to the beginning of the fall of the Berlin stop. On November 8th a press conference from the East German communist party spokesman Guenter Schabowski suggested that the gates of the Berlin Wall would be open. Speculation swarmed throughout the press room and the international media about whether this new policy was true. By 10pm that night the world would hear the final news from West German media, “This ninth of November is a historic day. East Germany has announced that, starting immediately, its borders are open to everyone.”<\/p>\n

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Scenes from behind the wall: Images of East Germany, 1989\/90, C0235, Box 2, Item 10, Special Collections Research Center, George Mason University Libraries.<\/p><\/div>\n

By midnight the gates were flooded with those of both West and East Berlin who demanded to be let through, the Berlin Wall was officially open. Over the next months, through a combination of civilian and governmental efforts the wall would finally be torn down. The international world finally had access to the secretive world that was East Germany. Two of those people were Page Chichester and Helmut Brinkmann, both of whom were photographers living in West Germany at the time. What would result from the fall of the Berlin Wall was the collection held now at Special Collections “Scenes from behind the wall: Images of East Germany, 1989\/90” exhibit collection (C0235). The collection provides one of the first unfiltered looks at what the real world of East Germany was like. The collection exhibits the power that is held by using photography to tell a story.<\/p>\n

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Scenes from behind the wall: Images of East Germany, 1989\/90, C0235, Box 2, Item 2, Special Collections Research Center, George Mason University Libraries.<\/p><\/div>\n

The photographs show the effects that twenty-eight years of Soviet rule had on a nation. Featured are images of people who look no different from their neighbors of the West, but their backdrop seemingly hasn’t changed since before the wall was constructed. Remaining in a paused state for decades, the Brutalist Soviet architecture shows the stark contrast between the world of the East and the West. These and many other images from this collection can be found in our digital<\/a> <\/span>repository.<\/p>\n

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Follow Special Collections Research Center on Social Media\u00a0<\/em>at\u00a0our\u00a0Facebook<\/a><\/span>,\u00a0Instagram<\/span><\/a>,and\u00a0Twitter<\/a>\u00a0<\/span>accounts. To search the collections\u00a0held at Special Collections Research Center, go to our\u00a0website\u00a0and browse the finding aids by subject or title. You may also e-mail\u00a0us or call if you would like to\u00a0schedule an appointment, request materials, or if you have questions. Appointments are not necessary to request and view collections.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

November 9th marked the 29th anniversary to the beginning of the fall of the Berlin stop. On November 8th a press conference from the East German communist party spokesman Guenter Schabowski suggested that the gates of the Berlin Wall would be open. Speculation swarmed throughout the press room and the international media about whether this […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8057,"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":[272,5,121],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8053","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-gmu-fairfax-campus","category-scrc-interest","category-scrc-picks"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/vault217.gmu.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/C0235B03_01.jpg?fit=8205%2C5892&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8Ep5i-25T","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1226,"url":"https:\/\/vault217.gmu.edu\/?p=1226","url_meta":{"origin":8053,"position":0},"title":"20th Anniversary of the Fall of The Berlin Wall","author":"admin","date":"November 9, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Today marks the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, which divided Berlin as well as the three Western sectors of Germany from the surrounding area of Brandenburg.\u00c2\u00a0 Originally composed of barbed wire, the Wall was 95 miles long and eventually 13 feet high and as wide as\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "News"","block_context":{"text":"News","link":"https:\/\/vault217.gmu.edu\/?cat=3"},"img":{"alt_text":"Wall @ Mason","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/vault217.gmu.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/11\/blog4.gif?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/vault217.gmu.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/11\/blog4.gif?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/vault217.gmu.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/11\/blog4.gif?resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":4795,"url":"https:\/\/vault217.gmu.edu\/?p=4795","url_meta":{"origin":8053,"position":1},"title":"Scenes from Behind the Wall: Images of East Germany, 1989-1990","author":"Bob Vay","date":"December 11, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"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\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Photography collections"","block_context":{"text":"Photography collections","link":"https:\/\/vault217.gmu.edu\/?cat=198"},"img":{"alt_text":"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.","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/vault217.gmu.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/12\/pagehelmut.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/vault217.gmu.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/12\/pagehelmut.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/vault217.gmu.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/12\/pagehelmut.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/vault217.gmu.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/12\/pagehelmut.jpg?resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":6049,"url":"https:\/\/vault217.gmu.edu\/?p=6049","url_meta":{"origin":8053,"position":2},"title":"Human Rights: the Good, the Bad and the Ugly","author":"admin","date":"December 15, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"As part of Human Rights week, SCRC is sharing some items from a few of our collections that relate to either the protection of human rights\u00a0or a neglect for them. The first is a report on the Virginia Council on Human Rights, which was established on August 7, 1987. The\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Fairfax History"","block_context":{"text":"Fairfax History","link":"https:\/\/vault217.gmu.edu\/?cat=194"},"img":{"alt_text":"\"Virginia Council on Human Rights.\" Emilie F. 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This stereotype has its origins in the German composer Richard Wagner\u2019s operas with stories based in Norse mythology, and it is\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "exhibits"","block_context":{"text":"exhibits","link":"https:\/\/vault217.gmu.edu\/?cat=22"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/vault217.gmu.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/C0209_PA_0144-scaled.jpg?fit=854%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/vault217.gmu.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/C0209_PA_0144-scaled.jpg?fit=854%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/vault217.gmu.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/C0209_PA_0144-scaled.jpg?fit=854%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/vault217.gmu.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/C0209_PA_0144-scaled.jpg?fit=854%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":5470,"url":"https:\/\/vault217.gmu.edu\/?p=5470","url_meta":{"origin":8053,"position":4},"title":"Rare books moving today and other important dates","author":"admin","date":"November 19, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Special Collections Research Center's rare and antiquarian books have started to move\u00a0over to the new addition today. They are now nearly finished being moved and remain accessible. Our reading room will remain open from 10:00 AM to 4:30 PM on Mondays through Fridays. Wednesday evening hours (until 8:00) will continue\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "News"","block_context":{"text":"News","link":"https:\/\/vault217.gmu.edu\/?cat=3"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":10686,"url":"https:\/\/vault217.gmu.edu\/?p=10686","url_meta":{"origin":8053,"position":5},"title":"New SCRC Exhibition Opening – Slideshow: An Image, A Light, A Lens, and An Audience","author":"Bob Vay","date":"October 5, 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"On Thursday October 12, 3:30 - 5 PM, in the SCRC Seminar Room, 2400 Fenwick Library, the University Libraries will hold an opening reception for the new exhibition: Slideshow: An Image, A Light, A Lens, and An Audience. 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