An international conference organized by the Departments of German and History at the
University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia

November 5-7, 2004

The Long Shadows of the Berlin Wall:
Fifteen Years after Its Fall

Experts from Germany and the United States will re-assess the demise of the German Democratic Republic before 1989 and compare the ways in which German, Poles, and Czechs came to terms with the legacies of their brands of communism and state security in the 1990s.

The concluding panel will focus on film and
media in former East Germany

The Conference has been  made possible through generous support from the German Academic Exchange Service, the Max Kade Foundation,
The School of Arts & Sciences of the University of Pennsylvania , the Departments of History and German of the University and,
finally, the exceptional generosity of Ellis and Peggy Wachs.

5:30-7:30  Opening reception of
the exhibition:

“GILB: Yellowed Images from a
Vanished Country”

Photographs by Lutz Masanetz

Arthur Ross Gallery

         University of Pennsylvania
         220 South 34th Street
         Philadelphia, PA 19104

6:00 p.m. Welcome
Arthur Ross Gallery
University of Pennsylvania

Peter Conn
Interim Provost

Amy Gutmann
President of the University

Wolfgang Ischinger
Ambassador of the Federal
Republic of Germany

Dilys Winegrad
Director, Arthur Ross Gallery

Samuel Preston
Dean, School of Arts & Sciences

A remarkable exhibition of photographs from the daily life of ordinary people in the German Democratic Republic will open the conference. “ GILB: Yellowed Images from a Vanished Country” offers a rare insight into that society through photographs by Lutz Masanetz, a distinguished East German photographer and film-maker who saw that society from within. The photographs will be on display from November 5, 2004, to January 30th, 2005 at the Arthur Ross Gallery, University of Pennsylvania, 220 South 34th Street, Philadelphia, PA 19104

. Gallery hours: Tuesday through Friday, 10 to 5, Saturday and Sunday, 12 to 5.

Meyerson Hall B 1
(Walnut & 34 th Streets)

9:30 a.m. Session I:
After Fifteen Years

Keynote Address:
Hans-Ulrich Wehler
(University of Bielefeld)

"Continuity and Discontinuity in German History,1945 to 1990"

Discussion:

Chair:
Frank Trommler
(University of Pennsylvania)

Commentators:

Thomas Childers
(University of Pennsylvania)

Konrad Jarausch
(University of North Carolina/ Zentrum für Zeithistorische Forschung, Potsdam)

Catherine Epstein
(Amherst College)

Thomas Kuczynski
(Berlin)

12-1:30 p.m. Luncheon


1:30-3:30 p.m. Session II: What Went Wrong with the German Democratic Republic?

Chair:
Jonathan Steinberg
(University of Pennsylvania)

André Steiner
(Potsdam):
             “Economics of a Decline”

Detlev Pollack
(Frankfurt/ New York):
            “Economic, Political, Social and
            Cultural Preconditions of the
            Upheaval in the GDR”

Jeanette Madarasz
(Berlin):
             “Young People and Women in the              German Democratic Republic:
             Idealism Gone Wrong? The Search              for ‘Socialist Personalities'.”

Commentator:
Jonathan Zatlin
(Boston University)

3:30-4:00 p.m. Coffee Break


4:00-6:00 p.m. Session III:
East Germany, Poland, and the Czech Republic in Transition: A Comparative View

Chair:
Henry Teune
(University of Pennsylvania)

Andreas Heinemann-Grüder
(Bonn International Center for Conversion):
             “The Purposes and Effects of (Dis-)              Burdening the Socialist Past: The              Case of the GDR”

Andrzej Rychard
(Centre for Social Studies at the Institute for Philosophy and Sociology, Polish Academy of Science):
            “Poland: On Communist and
            non-Communist Legacies of
             the Past”

Pavel Zacek
(Institute of Contemporary History, Academy of Sciences, Prague):
             “Battle over the Past: Czechoslovak               State Security Police after                            November 1989”

6:30-8:30 p.m. Dinner

Dinner Address:

Marianne Birthler
(The Federal Commissioner for the Stasi Files):
             “Dealing with the Experience of               Dictatorship – 15 Years after
             the Fall of the Berlin Wall”

   8:30 p.m. Film
   Solo Sunny
   (Konrad Wolf, Wolfgang Kohlhaase)

             Meyerson Hall B 1

10:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m. Session IV:
Film and Media in East Germany

Round Table:

        Wolfgang Kohlhaase (Berlin)

        David Bathrick (Cornell University)

        Marion Kant (University of Pennsylvania)

        Simon Richter (University of Pennsylvania)

Department of Germanic Languages and Literature
Phone: (215) 898-8606
Fax: (215) 573-7794
E-mail: trommler@ccat.sas.upenn.edu

Department of History
Phone: 215-898-8452
Fax: 215-573-2089
E-Mail: berlinwall@history.upenn.edu