BC Commemorates the Fall of the Wall

Students and faculty gather for the dedication

As the twentieth anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall approaches, commemoration has already begun at Boston College with the establishment of a life size replica of the wall and a month of activities planned. Boston College is one of twenty-five universities selected by the German Embassy in Washington, D.C. to commemorate the twentieth anniversary of the wall’s fall.

Boston College was the only Boston-area university to be selected to participate in the commemoration titled “Freedom Without Walls.”

BC’s selection most likely can be attributed to its outstanding rank in Fulbright Scholarships: it is ranked tenth in the nation. In particular, its German department has annually sent, since 2004, at least fi ve Fulbrighters to Germany (in 2007, thirteen students were selected).

The German Embassy specified that each university chosen was to include activities such as film screenings and to build and display a replica of the Berlin Wall on campus from late October until November 9, the offi cial date of the collapse of the wall.

Preparation for the commemoration, which began in January 2009, required a great amount of inter-department collaboration and included: the Institute of Liberal Arts, Offi ce of the Dean (Arts and Sciences), German Studies Department, Jesuit Institute, History Department, Music Department, Fine Arts Department (Studio Art, Film Studies Program, Calderwood Chair) and the University Librarians Office.

Mark Cooper, a professor in the Fine Arts Department, was given the task of creating BC’s Berlin Wall. Cooper and students Joon Park, Luke Kelly and Cathy Sun spent the entire summer, which amounted to about 1,500 hours, designing the wall. The finished product includes cutouts of Iranian protestors from the June elections and designs related to the power struggle between the Soviet Union and the United States.

Cooper stated that the designs chosen for the wall were meant to make students question “what do walls mean.” He also incorporated symbols from other pieces he had worked on before the wall came down. He placed two large, narrow windows in the wall to represent the freedom to move back and forth and also included a seesaw to recognize the teeter-totter balance between the United States and the Soviet Union in Germany.

The mural, stationed in the Dust Bowl, is built to scale of the original one – twelve feet high and forty feet across. Just as the original wall became covered with graffiti to demonstrate opposition, students are being given the same chance. Spray paint cans are scattered around the wall. Students are encouraged to draw images or write words that resonate with them. The wall will remain in the Dust Bowl until after November 9. It is not known if the wall will go on tour after its time at Boston College.

The mural was dedicated on Wednesday, October 21. Presentations were given by Michael Resler from German Studies, Dean Quigley from the College of Arts and Sciences, John Michalczyk from the Film Studies Department, Mark Cooper from the Fine Arts Department and a representative of the German Embassy. At the end of the ceremony, the German Embassy gifted Boston College a small piece from the original Berlin Wall.

A host of events are scheduled for the end of October and early November (please see below for a full list of events). Highlights include a lecture from Edwina Sandys, the granddaughter of British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and the sculptor who created the infamous “Breakthrough” sculpture from eight panels of the Berlin Wall, which is displayed in Fulton, Missouri where Churchill made his famous “Iron Curtain” speech.

Other events include a series of films to be screened on BC’s campus. In particular, Professor John Michalczyk and Ronald A. Marsh from the Film Studies Department will show their new documentary, “Writing on the Wall: Remembering the Berlin Wall.” Th e documentary, written by Susan Michalczyk, premiered earlier this month at the Museum of Fine Arts. Professor Michalczyk stated in the film that he wanted to “trace the history of the Cold War and highlight the movement that caused the wall to fall.”

Professor Michalczyk, assisted by Professor Resler of the German department and several other faculty members, traveled to Germany over the summer to interview Klaus Schutz, the former mayor of West Berlin, Alexandra Hildebrandt, the Director of the Museum at Checkpoint Charlie, and Thomas Flanagan, who was involved in the Berlin Airlift, to name just a few. Edwina Sandys and Sergei Khrushchev, the son of Nikita Khrushchev, were also interviewed for the film.

The team filmed over twenty hours of interviews and footage for the documentary, which was cut down to one hour. Michalczyk stated that he hoped students and the general public would take away from the documentary “the idea that a government should be respective and tolerate the different voices and not see them as destructive but constructive.”

Michael Resler, from the German Studies department, echoed Michalczyk’s sentiments, stating, “We want to show [the undergraduate community of BC] a rare and great event in history.”

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