A portrait of Berlin, August 13, 1990. [ed. by Viola Sandberg and Ulrich Herold. Transl. by Dorothea von Moltke and Sarah Roff]

Gutes Ex. - Englisch. // Photos by: Kurt Buchwald Detlef Steinberg Andr�ang Ingrid Hartmetz Christian Borchert Tina Bara Frank Thiel Levy --- Roger Melis J�rgen Hohmuth Bernd Markowsky Helga Paris Gerald Hahn Frank Pinggera Levy --- Christian Thiel Peter Oelmann Renate Zeun Uwe Haack Claudia Esch-Kenkel Hans W Mende Harald Hauswald Gerhard Kie�ing Karsten Schirmer Robert Paris Evelyn Richter Karin Wieckhorst Sybille Bergemann and Roger Melis Harf Zimmermann --- Texts by: Walter Momper Lea Rosh --- Wolfgang Ullmann Heinz Galinski Heiner M�ller Wolf Biermann Jens Reich. // The ardently desired but nonetheless unexpected opening of the Berlin Wall,^ like many earlier historical events, served to indicate vividly the distinct limitations of human powers of recollection. A short time after the wall-peckers had set to work with hammers and chisels, followed soon afterwards by commissioned demolition companies and their bulldozers, even long-standing city dwellers already found their memories blurred in recalling the "earlier situation". These changes make up the photographic subject matter which this book seeks to record - a transition period during which the Wall had already forfeited its divisive character but not yet vanished from sight. The selected photographs epitomise the enthusiasm of the new start whilst simultaneously underscoring the pitfalls which crop up repeatedly along this problematic path. In actual fact not everything proves as simple and uncomplicated as people had imagined during those days and nights immediately following November 9, 1989. And, yet, merely a glimpse of the remaining Wall segments scattered throughout the city vindicate upholding a free political and economic system. Moreover, although the Wall blocks have meanwhile renounced their original function of containing people, they have not lost their function as photographic motifs and future warning monuments. The retained Wall segments remind us an hopefully also future generations that walls and barbed wire must never again become political instruments. - Dr. Hanna-Renate Laurien (Vorwort) ISBN 9783861540021