Grenzdurchbruch 89

Directed by Mathias Blochwitz

The propaganda film was intended to strengthen the solidarity of the people in the workers' and farmers' state with 'their' border guards and to portray the guarding of the 1,350-kilometre border with West Germany as a necessary measure. Members of the border troops recount their experiences; the film stylizes dead border soldiers as heroes and martyrs, albeit without shedding light on the exact background to these deaths. On November 9, 1989, countless East Germans crowded into the western part of the city, baffled border guards let them pass. Director Matthias-Joachim Blochwitz filmed around the Brandenburg Gate in November and December 1989. Rather than the people streaming towards the West, he interviewed border guards and asked about their thoughts and feelings on the fall of the Wall. Blochwitz used the footage to make Grenzdurchbruch '89, which only celebrated its cinema premiere in 2009: a unique historical document of a key period of upheaval in German history.