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On the following pages you can find useful information on Germany and our relations to Australia, but also practical information and tips in regard to visa, consular matters, economy, culture and education.
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National Film & Sound Archive Canberra: Projecting on the Wall
CINEMA TELLS THE PERSONAL STORIES AND COLLECTIVE EXPERIENCES OF DIVIDED BERLIN AND A DIVIDED NATION
Projecting on the Wall looks at divided Berlin and Germany’s unique cinema legacy: the films of two Germanys and of the Cold War divided world that since the 1950s have addressed the political, public and personal dimension of living side-by-side, but also apart, in East and West. There will be familiar Hollywood spy thrillers such as the Michael Caine black-comic Funeral in Berlin (1966), as well as classic West German films such as Wim Wenders’ 1987 Wings of Desire and Jurgen Klauß’s 1981 The Border. But it is also be a rare chance to also see the Eastern perspective, whether in now-bizarre propaganda films such 1962’s as Look at this City, dramas which dealt with the daily realities of East Berliner (1957’s Berlin Schönhauser Corner), or painter and filmmaker Jürgen Böttcher’s stunning and complex The Wall 1990 – an East German’s very personal response to the end of the old order. Presented in association with the Embassy of the Federal Republic of Germany, and with support of the Goethe-Institut, Australia.
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"The Curtain and the Wall: the rise and fall of communism in Europe"
A public lecture to be followed by a panel and general audience discussion about the histroric, cultural and personal significance of the rise and fall of the Berlin Wall.
Where: National Film & Sound Archive Canberra
When: Sunday 2pm, 22 November
Tickets: Free
further information
Proudly presented with support of the Embassy of the Federal Republic of Germany and the Goethe-Institut.
As a bulwark of concrete and barrier fences the Wall cut through Berlin for a length of over 43 kilometres – dividing the city and the whole of Germany. Now, 20 years after the fall of the wall on 9 November 1989, the symbol of almost three decades of German division will fall again on the same date, but this time it will be purely symbolic.
“Festival of Freedom”
The German Academy of Natural Scientists “Leopoldina” in Halle an der Saale – named as Germany’s National Academy of Sciences a year ago – is celebrating its first anniversary in 2009.
Germany’s National Academy
Thinker, Poet, Dramatist – Champion of Freedom People regarded him as a “great poetic genius”, a man devoted to “the true, the good and the beautiful”. He saw himself as a “global citizen serving no prince”. On the occasion of Friedrich Schiller’s 250th birthday, a portrait of a man who died at not even 46 years of age.
Friedrich Schiller
“The Robbers”, “William Tell”, “Mary Stuart”: his powerful plays still live on and have made him one of the internationally best known German thinkers and poets. Alongside Goethe, the most important representative of Classicism and Storm and Stress is also one of the most often performed dramatists in Germany. “Sire, grant us freedom of thought,” he demanded in “Don Carlos”, two years before the French Revolution. And to this day Schiller’s central themes of freedom and oppression continue to fascinate and fire directors and audiences alike.
Friedrich Schiller
Michael Ende, one of Germany’s most popular post-war writers of children’s books, would have turned 80 this year. The son of the Surrealist painter Edgar Ende was born in Garmisch-Patenkirchen on 12 November 1929 and died on 28 August 1995. His books, which include “Die unendliche Geschichte” (The Neverending Story), “Momo” and “Jim Knopf und Lukas der Lokomotivführer” (Jim Button and Luke the Engine Driver), have been translated into 45 languages and have sold over 20 million copies worldwide.
Michael Ende
When the representatives from over 190 countries meet in December 2009 in Copenhagen at the 15th United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP 15), they will be focusing on the future of our planet. In the Danish capital the delegates will negotiate a new, binding international agreement on climate protection designed to succeed the present Kyoto Protocol in 2013. Many of the data used by the experts come from Bonn.
climate crisis
Romanian-born Herta Mueller of Germany has won this year's Nobel prize for literature, the Swedish Academy announced in Stockholm on Thursday 8 October. The Academy's citation said that "with the concentration of poetry and the frankness of prose, (she) depicts the landscape of the dispossessed." Mueller's parents belonged to the German-speaking minority in Romania. Her mother was deported in 1945, a fate she shared with many others from the same minority group, and spent five years in what is today Ukraine, the Academy said.
Herta Mueller wins 2009 Nobel prize for literature
In August, archaeologists from the German Archaeological Institute made a sensational find: in Waldgirmes, a small town north of Frankfurt am Main, they discovered a more than 2,000-year-old horse’s head from a gold-plated bronze equestrian statue that is believed to have depicted the Emperor Augustus himself.
Horse Seeks Rider
The “Neues Museum” (New Museum) on Berlin’s Museum Island opened its doors again on 17 October 2009. This major work of 19th century art, museum and engineering history was designed by Friedrich August Stüler. Badly damaged during the Second World War, it was elaborately restored and rehabilitated under the auspices of prestigious British architect David Chipperfield.
"Neues Museum"
On 3 October, theDay of German Unity, a very special event cast its spell on Berlin: two five- and ten-metre-tall giant puppets walked through the city, meeting at the Brandenburg Gate on 3 October. The weekend “drama” was watched by a total of some 1.5 million spectators.
The Giants in Berlin
10 events leading to the fall of the Berlin Wall
19 August
The "Pan-European Picnic" on the Austrian-Hungarian border: 600 GDR citizens flee to the West. By this time the Federal Republic of Germany's representation in East Berlin and its Embassies in Budapest and Prague are already overflowing and are forced to close.
24 August
In view of the swelling flood of refugees, Hungary allows all GDR citizens who have taken refuge in the West German Embassy in Budapest to leave Hungary via the Austrian border, and to go from there to West Germany. On 10 September this measure is extended to apply to all GDR citizens in Hungary.
4 September
The Monday Demonstrations held after the prayers for peace start in Leipzig. The participants call for a new peaceful, democratic order in the GDR.
12 September
The Polish Government promises all GDR citizens who have sought refuge in the West German Embassy in Warsaw that they will not be sent back to the GDR.
30 September
"We have come to you to tell you that today your departure …" The wild jubilation that meet this announcement, made by West German Foreign Minister Hans-Dietrich Genscher from the balcony of the West German Prague Embassy, drowns out the words that follow. But the message is clear: All GDR refugees encamped in the crowded Embassy in Prague would be allowed to travel to West Germany. The East German authorities contacted the West German Government in advance, and the very same night special trains are organized that carry thousands of people through the territory of the GDR to reach the West.
7 October
The GDR regime celebrates the 40th anniversary of the founding of the German Democratic Republic. Public protests are organized in East Berlin, which are broken up with force by the People's Police.
9 October
The evening of the key Monday Demonstration in Leipzig. At least 70,000 citizens march past the local Stasi headquarters; the security services decide not to intervene given the sheer numbers of peaceful demonstrators.
18 October
The Monday Demonstrations and prayers for peace are copied around the GDR. Erich Honecker is forced to resign by the Politburo.
4 November
More than 500,000 people demonstrate in East Berlin for freedom of the press, freedom of opinion and freedom of assembly, as well as for democratic reforms.
9 November
At an international press conference, Politburo member Günter Schabowski announces that a new travel regulation is to come into effect "immediately, without delay". The press conference is broadcast live on TV. As a result, thousands of Berliners from the East and West of the city make their way to the Wall. In the course of the evening, the border guards capitulate to the crowds and open the border crossings. The fall of the Berlin Wall symbolizes the end of the division of Germany and of Europe.
The Newsletter of the German Embassy
Our fortnightly newsletter brings you information on current events related to Germany as well as the latest news from Germany.
Solving the Climate Crisis
In December 2009 the 15th United Nations Climate Change Conference will decide on a new international climate protection agreement. The goal is to put a stop to dangerous global warming. Deutschlandmagazine presents a special feature on the subjects of environment, climate and energy.
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