Breaking Barriers: 20 years after the fall of the Berlin Wall

The German Embassy is celebrating 20 years of the fall of the Berlin Wall in cooperation with the Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi. To commemorate the 20^th anniversary of this momentous occasion, there will be a week-long programme of events, beginning 3^rd November, at the Centre for European Studies in JNU, the School of International Studies (SIS).
The programme will culminate on Monday, 9^th November with a speech by the former German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer, followed by an open discussion with faculty and students at the Auditorium of School of Arts and Aesthetics in JNU.

Twenty years ago, on November 9, 1989, jubilant crowds gathered on both sides of the Berlin Wall to celebrate the opening of the border crossings between east and west Berlin. A ‘peaceful revolution’ in East Germany had finally cracked this grim symbol of Cold War. 

On Tuesday, 3^rd November, an exhibition—“From the peaceful revolution to German Unity”—will be inaugurated by the Chargé d'Affaires a.i. of the German Embassy, Christian-Matthias Schlaga, and the Dean of the School of International Studies, JNU, Prof. Y. K. Tyagi. The exhibition will be on display at the entrance hall of SIS from 3^rd – 12^th November.

The inauguration of the exhibition will be followed by a discussion on the theme “Fall of the Wall – Breaking Barriers”, between east-European diplomats and academics. The particpating diplomats are Norbert Révai-Bere (Deputy Chief of Mission of the Hungarian Embassy), Jan Kreuter (Deputy Chief of Mission of the Embassy of the Czech Republic), Piotr Opalinski (Deputy Chief of Mission of the Polish Embassy) and Prof. Jha from the Centre for European Studies, JNU.

The diplomats, from countries that were key players in reshaping Europe, will talk about their personal memories and experiences 20 years back, as well as the political impact of the events of that time. The discussion will be moderated by Dr. Philipp Ackermann, Head of the Political department at the German Embassy and Prof. Bava of the Centre for European Studies in JNU.

For the next seven days, there will be a series of events at the SIS, including film screenings and another political discussions on the theme between the faculty of JNU and Indian and German journalists. The participants of this discussions are Prof. Jain & Prof. Salma Bava from JNU as well as Can Merey from dpa and Enrico Fabian - a German photographer, who grew up in the former GDR. The discussion will be moderated by the spokesperson of German Embassy, Mr. Jens Urban.