Dzień: 2024-07-21

Based on sources follow the questions. Make conclusion.

a. Look at the picture. Give the names politicians showed on the picture. Talk about the main assumptions of the agreement signed between the FRG and the GDR. Is it a change of thinking about the two German states?

b. Watch the fragments of film https://www.1989.centropa.org/1989-the-film How did the Autumn of Nations affect the situation in Germany?

c. Listen or read the text of the song of Scorpions 'Wind of change’. Is there a connection between the German and the Middle-East Europe situation? Find information about the genesis of this song. Do you know any other songs with similar themes?

Source 1.

In 1972 was signed an agreement between the Federal Republic of Germany and the German Democratic Republic. (www.juridiconline.com)

Source 2 FILM

Source 3 Scorpions – Wind of change

I follow the Moskva
Down to Gorky Park
Listening to the wind of change
An August summer night
Soldiers passing by
Listening to the wind of change

The world is closing in
And did you ever think
That we could be so close, like brothers?
The future’s in the air
I can feel it everywhere
Blowing with the wind of change

Take me to the magic of the moment
On a glory night
Where the children of tomorrow dream away
In the wind of change

Walking down the street
Distant memories
Are buried in the past forever
I follow the Moskva
Down to Gorky Park
Listening to the wind of change

Take me to the magic of the moment
On a glory night
Where the children of tomorrow share their dreams
With you and me

Take me to the magic of the moment
On a glory night
Where the children of tomorrow dream away
In the wind of change

The wind of change
Blows straight into the face of time
Like a stormwind that will ring the freedom bell
For peace of mind
Let your balalaika sing
What my guitar wants to say

Take me to the magic of the moment
On a glory night
Where the children of tomorrow share their dreams
With you and me

Take me to the magic of the moment
On a glory night
Where the children of tomorrow dream away
In the wind of change

(https://www.tekstowo.pl/piosenka,scorpions,wind_of_change.html)

Based on sources follow the questions. Make conclusion.

a. Look at the map. Compare the size of the territory of the Federal Republic of Germany to the territory of the German Democratic Republic. Which cities are the capitols of these States?

b. Follow on map. What about the situation of Berlin? In which way Berlin was divided in 1961? How did people react on it?

c. Look at the pictures. How does the life in the FRG and in the GDR look like? Was it similar or completely different? Why becomes the Berlin wall a symbol? What does it symbolize?

d. “ICH BIN EIN BERLINER’ – Who, when and why told it? Discuss why this sentence was so important for Berliners. Find the origin of the Latin expression “Civis Romanus sum” and explain if Kennedy used it in a good context.

Source 1 Map of Germany before reunification

Source 2 Pictures

East German border guard Konrad Schumann leaping over barbed wire to defect to West Germany during construction of the Berlin Wall. (1961) 

Fechter’s body lying next to the Berlin Wall after being shot in 1962 while trying to escape to the West. (1962)

Two mothers with children facing each other across barbed wire placed in advance of the construction of the Berlin Wall. ( 1961)

Entrance to the Tränenpalast (Palace of Tears). (1962)

The Berlin Wall at the Brandenburge Gate. (1961)

Bowie’s Berlin Concert on 6th June 1987 was clearly audible to people in East Berlin. Rock music was treated as a destabilising threat and Bowie-loving East Berliners were not allowed to attend the concert.

„Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!” The Berlin Wall Speech of Ronald Regan on June 12, 1987.

Berliners take a hammer and chisel to a section of the Berlin Wall in front of the Brandenburg Gate after the opening of the East German border was announced on November 9, 1989.

East Berliners scaled the Berlin Wall on 9 November 1989, bringing down the Iron Curtain in Germany

Source 3  The speach of President John F. Kennedy, West Berlin, June 26, 1963.

[…] Two thousand years ago the proudest boast was „civis Romanus sum.” Today, in the world of freedom, the proudest boast is „Ich bin ein Berliner.”[…]