NEW FALL FESTIVAL
(Nach)Wende / (Post)ReunificationEast German Identities after 30 Years. "Is it still allowed to say that? Ossi?" Valerie Schönian opened her book "East Consciousness" with this question. After 30 years of Germany’s reunification, one would think that the distinction between East and West Germans was over.
On the contrary, East Germans are confronted with prejudices still today: "There are only Nazis in the East anyway”, “East Germans only complain”, “listen to that funny dialect". According to a study by the Humboldt University in Berlin, these prejudices are still held by 40% of West Germans. The same study found that East Germans earn below average wages and are also underrepresented in politics.
For some years, the generation of post-reunification children has been increasingly concerned with their identity as East Germans. This generation’s perspective contributes to broadening the understanding of being an East German as a multi-layered. In a dialogue between the German reunification and the post-reunification generations, theater maker and curator Romy Schmidt and author Valerie Schönian discussed East German perspectives on the historiography of the whole of Germany.
With: Romy Schmidt (moderator) & Valerie Schönian (guest), NEW FALL FESTIVAL Düsseldorf I PONG at the NRW-Forum, Ehrenhof 2, 40479 Düsseldorf, Germany, Date: October 3, 2020
NEW FALL FESTIVAL
(Nach)Wende / (Post)ReunificationEast German Identities after 30 Years. "Is it still allowed to say that? Ossi?" Valerie Schönian opened her book "East Consciousness" with this question. After 30 years of Germany’s reunification, one would think that the distinction between East and West Germans was over.
On the contrary, East Germans are confronted with prejudices still today: "There are only Nazis in the East anyway”, “East Germans only complain”, “listen to that funny dialect". According to a study by the Humboldt University in Berlin, these prejudices are still held by 40% of West Germans. The same study found that East Germans earn below average wages and are also underrepresented in politics.
For some years, the generation of post-reunification children has been increasingly concerned with their identity as East Germans. This generation’s perspective contributes to broadening the understanding of being an East German as a multi-layered. In a dialogue between the German reunification and the post-reunification generations, theater maker and curator Romy Schmidt and author Valerie Schönian discussed East German perspectives on the historiography of the whole of Germany.
With: Romy Schmidt (moderator) & Valerie Schönian (guest), NEW FALL FESTIVAL Düsseldorf I PONG at the NRW-Forum, Ehrenhof 2, 40479 Düsseldorf, Germany, Date: October 3, 2020
