A Success Story? Germany 30 Years After Reunification
In cooperation with the Goethe-Institut Boston 
Wednesday, October 21, 2020
12-1:30 pm Eastern Time (US) / 6-7:30 pm German time
Zoom Webinar
You can watch a recording of the complete event by clicking the button above.
About the Event
Was the fall of the Berlin Wall a stroke of good luck in Germany's history? How much progress has really been made in uniting the East and the West? While reunification has brought personal advantages to many, some groups continue to feel left behind. In terms of political representation and economic status the East still lags behind the West.
Populist and antidemocratic movements are getting stronger. We are talking to two journalists who were there when the Berlin Wall fell on November 9th, 1989 and continue to write about Germany today: Sabine Rennefanz, author and politics writer at Berliner Zeitung and John Goetz, born in Chicago, who moved to Berlin in 1989 and is a correspondent for NDR German public television today.
About the Speakers
Sabine Rennefanz, 46, is Team Leader of the domestic affairs desk at Berliner Zeitung. She grew up in Eisenhüttenstadt, East Germany, and studied Political Science in Berlin and Hamburg. She’s been a reporter and foreign correspondent in London for the Berliner Zeitung since 2001 and has received multiple awards for her writing.
She is the author of several books, among them “Eisenkinder. Die stille Wut der Wendegeneration“ (Iron Children, the Silent Anger of the "Wende" Generation. Luchterhand, München 2013) and „Die Mutter meiner Mutter“ (My Mother's Mother. Luchterhand, München 2015).
John Goetz is an American investigative journalist who has been based in Berlin since 1989. His work as a freelance journalist appeared in the Los Angeles Times, the Sunday Times, the Guardian, the Süddeutsche Zeitung, and in television for the CBS “Evening News” and “60 Minutes”. From 2007 to 2011, he worked at DER SPIEGEL, where he was awarded the Henri-Nannen Prize for his story about a German war crime in Afghanistan. Since 2011 he has worked for NDR German Public Television as Editor of Investigations. He is also a member of the investigative team of the Süddeutsche Zeitung.
His books include "Allein Gegen Kohl, Kiep & Co." (Alone Against Helmut Kohl. written together with Conny Neumann and Oliver Schröm); "Die Zelle" (The Cell. together with Christian Fuchs), a book about a secret cell of Neo-Nazis who traveled through Germany killing Turks without being discovered for ten years (Rowohlt Verlag, 2012); and "Geheimer Krieg" (Secret War. together with Christian Fuchs), a book about German cooperation with the United States in the war on terror (Rowohlt Verlag, 2013).
Photos: (1) Berlin 1990, day of German reunification, in front of the Reichstag, credit: Bundesarchiv, Bild 183-1990-1003-400 / Grimm, Peer / CC-BY-SA 3.0, (2) Sabine Rennefanz, credit: Sven Gatter, (3) John Goetz, credit: Helga Paris