20 Years of (Re)Unification: The Representation of Post 1989 Berlin in the Achtung Berlin! Film Series

Abstract

Twenty years have passed since the political unification of East and West Germany. In 1989, the fall of the Wall had symbolically presaged this ostensive reuniting of two halves of not only a divided city, but a divided nation. Since this new “year zero”, filmmakers have documented the reshaping of Berlin, a metonymy for the Federal Republic. While scholarship on literary works situate this "New Berlin Republic," an equivalent does not exist for film. We aim to explore the new capital by focusing on Achtung Berlin! because of the importance of this festival to the German film landscape as a whole and the metropole in particular. Achtung Berlin!, the self titled “New Berlin Film Awards,” is a unique contributor to the creation of the New Republic. Begun in 2005 in response to a lack of German content in Berlin’s festivals, Achtung Berlin! presents contemporary films whose production have a strong connection to Berlin and the surrounding state of Brandenburg. Analyzing Achtung Berlin! and its films, we address (re)unification by utilizing the notion of “space” in its shifting forms. The interrelated themes of identity, urbanness, and mobility in (trans)national perspectives reveal the contested nature of the aftermath of the Berlin Wall‐ whose fall stands as a concrete "success" story in the amalgamation of "a" people. Our project endeavors to account both for Berlin's unification and the dis/contents that are still issues today.