'Breakthrough': Edwina Sandys, granddaughter of Winston Churchill, with her sculpture at Westminster College in Fulton, MO.
'Freedom Without Walls' - Speakers and Events Mark 20th Anniversary of Fall of Berlin Wall exclusively at BC
Campus events recall historical turning point
By
Boston College is the only Boston-area university selected by the German Embassy in Washington, DC, to participate in “Freedom without Walls,” a national collegiate commemoration of the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall.The historic event, which took place Nov. 9, 1989, marked the end of the Cold War and the beginning of a fully united Europe, and precipitated major, far-reaching social, political and economic changes felt around the world.
Now, two decades later, Boston College marks this milestone with a series of free, public events on campus during the next several weeks, including an exclusive lecture by Winston Churchill’s granddaughter Edwina Sandys and the screening of a documentary produced by BC filmmakers to mark the anniversary.
At a kick-off event yesterday, a replica of the Berlin Wall — created by Fine Arts faculty member Mark Cooper and BC students — was dedicated on the Campus Green and is on display during the commemoration. It is approximately 12 feet high and 40 feet long with panels just under a foot thick, built to scale. The panels metaphorically represent the collapse of the Berlin Wall and a passageway to freedom.
Next week, Sandys will recall her grandfather’s famous 1946 “Iron Curtain” speech — regarded as a prophetic comment on the coming Cold War — when she speaks on Thursday, Oct. 29, 4:30 p.m., in Devlin 101.
She will discuss “Breakthrough,” a sculpture she created from eight panels of the Berlin Wall at the site of the “Iron Curtain” speech at Westminster College in Fulton, Mo. Sandys also appears in a new documentary produced for the anniversary by Fine Arts Professor and department chairman John J. Michalczyk and O’Neill Library Circulation Assistant Ronald A. Marsh. The film, “Writing on the Wall: Remembering the Berlin Wall,” which debuted Oct. 11 at Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts, will be screened at BC Nov. 4.
Music Assistant Professor Ralf Yusuf Gawlick was responsible for the musical composition. The musical performance was by the Hawthorne String Quartet, BC's quartet-in-residence. [To read a separate article on the film: http://www.bc.edu/publications/chronicle/TopstoriesNewFeatures/news/wallfilm102209.html]
Other upcoming “Freedom Without Walls” events include a screening of the classic Cold War film, “The Spy Who Came In the From the Cold,” an adaptation of the John le Carre book starring Richard Burton (Oct. 28, 7 p.m., Devlin 026), and a talk by Robert Darnton, Carl H. Pforzheimer University Professor and University Library director at Harvard University, who chronicled the fall of the Berlin Wall and collapse of East Germany in Berlin Diary 1989-90 (Dec. 10, 7:30 p.m., location TBA).
Thirty colleges and universities nationwide were chosen to participate in “Freedom Without Walls”; BC was one of three Massachusetts universities selected. BC's anniversary events -- hosted under the auspices of the University’s Institute of Liberal Arts and Office of the Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences -- include sponsorship and participation by the German Studies, Fine Arts, History and Music Departments, and the University's Jesuit Institute, as well as the German Embassy in Washington, D.C. and the Consulate of Germany in Boston. German Embassy organizers say one aim of the commemoration is to reach out to the generation born around the time the wall came down, a goal lauded by German Studies Professor and department chairman Michael Resler.
“It is very important to bring a better appreciation to college-age students of this unique chapter in human history. It’s so remarkable that 20 years ago in Berlin this rare event took place. It was a revolution without bloodshed. The initial euphoria was unmistakable.”
BC organizers hope “the commemoration will allow us to reflect on the importance of maintaining a democratic society that allows for differences, yet like a united Germany, will hopefully progress with only the good of its citizens in mind,” said Resler.
“The Berlin Wall has both a physical and metaphorical meaning,” he adds. “Physically, it divided East and West Berlin, but it also divided the East and West as two superpowers — the United States and Russia — struggled for the hearts and minds of a people. Symbolically, it stood for oppression by the Soviet Union. The citizens of East Germany were deprived of their basic freedoms, while the Western powers came to the aid of those living more freely in a democratic West Germany.”
For more information on these and other “Freedom Without Walls” events, see www.bc.edu/offices/pubaf/news/Berlin_Wall_2009_1013.html.