Film Screening: "Liberty Train, Next Stop Freedom"
"Liberty Train, Next Stop Freedom" portrays the dramatic events surrounding the mass occupation of the West German embassy in Prague by East German refugees seeking permission to leave for the West. Negotiations between East and West Germany in late September 1989 led to their release and their travel by special trains from Prague to West Germany via the GDR on a chilly night at the end of September. The screening will be followed by a panel discussion with two Germans who grew up and experienced the revolutionary changes of 1989-90 in East Germany.
Overview
The Woodrow Wilson Center’s History and Public Policy Program, in cooperation with The Embassy of the Federal Republic of Germany & The Institute of European, Russian and Eurasian Studies of George Washington University’s Elliott School of International Affairs, present
Film Screening: “Liberty Train, Next Stop Freedom”
Friday, 10 October, 2014, 3:00pm-6:00pm
Woodrow Wilson Center, 6th Floor Flom Auditorium
To mark the 25th anniversary of the collapse of communism in Central and Eastern Europe and the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, filmmakers Sebastian Dehnhardt and Matthias Schmidt have created a moving new documentary film. The film portrays the dramatic events surrounding the mass occupation of the West German embassy in Prague by East German refugees seeking permission to leave for the West. Negotiations between East and West Germany in late September 1989 led to their release and their travel by special trains from Prague to West Germany via the GDR on a chilly night at the end of September. As the first train traveled through East Germany, the refugees feared they would be taken off, and other East Germans along the way clambered to board the train. The screening will be followed by a panel discussion with two Germans who grew up and experienced the revolutionary changes of 1989-90 in East Germany.
Speakers
Hosted By
History and Public Policy Program
The History and Public Policy Program makes public the primary source record of 20th and 21st century international history from repositories around the world, facilitates scholarship based on those records, and uses these materials to provide context for classroom, public, and policy debates on global affairs. Read more
Cold War International History Project
The Cold War International History Project supports the full and prompt release of historical materials by governments on all sides of the Cold War. Through an award winning Digital Archive, the Project allows scholars, journalists, students, and the interested public to reassess the Cold War and its many contemporary legacies. It is part of the Wilson Center's History and Public Policy Program. Read more
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