Kerstin

30 years later: Kella and its neighbors commemorate the opening of the border

January 17, 2020Kerstin 2 Comments

This article from the Werra Rundschau’s January 1, 2020 issue, about the festivities marking the 30thanniversary of the border opening between Kella and Braunrod, describes the improvisation that was necessary to set up a border crossing in the absence of any guidance from “above”. The fall of the Berlin Wall on November 9, 1989, had thrown the… Read more 30 years later: Kella and its neighbors commemorate the opening of the border

Of borders, identities, and friendship

December 15, 2019Kerstin 2 Comments

Today’s post explores how “our everyday lives are criss-crossed by border zones” (anthropologist Renato Rosaldo) and how not only physical but also social borders shape our identities. Find out what the late anthropologist Daphne Berdahl had to say about this and how she came to settle in Kella for her field work shortly after Reunification… Read more Of borders, identities, and friendship

Visiting

December 2, 2019Kerstin 3 Comments

The next few posts will be about my visits with people in Kella, population plus minus 500. When Germany was divided after WWII, Kella ended up in the 500-meter Schutzstreifen (“protective zone”) right next to the border strip, which meant that its residents had to put up with considerable restrictions on everyday life, imposed by… Read more Visiting

News from the German Unity Sculpture Park

November 15, 2019Kerstin No Comments

One of my favorite places on my border expedition was the German Unity Sculpture Park in the Rhön Mountains. The park sits directly in the former border strip between East and West Germany and was created by the artist and engineer Jimmy Fell. I found the installations – among them “Expulsion”, the “Miracle of Leipzig”,… Read more News from the German Unity Sculpture Park

Remembering the fall of the Berlin Wall (auf deutsch)

November 9, 2019Kerstin 2 Comments

(…which, of course, did not just fall… it was brought down by a Peaceful Revolution!). My hometown newspaper, Weser Kurier, asked far-away readers to share their memories of that day. My piece is the third one down.

Border Journey: Public talk at the Fletcher Free Library

October 31, 2019Kerstin 1 Comment

How do you reconnect with your home country after living an ocean away for more than half your life? If the country is Germany and you like to travel by bicycle, you embark on a border journey. At least that’s what I did… You are invited to a presentation about my expedition at the Fletcher Free Library next… Read more Border Journey: Public talk at the Fletcher Free Library

Day of German Unity

October 3, 2019Kerstin 1 Comment

Today is the 29th anniversary of German Reunification. What actually took place on that day in 1990 is slightly more complicated. For one, East Germany formally “acceded” to the territory and constitution of West Germany, rather than two states uniting on equal terms. Whether the latter could actually have happened we will probably never know.… Read more Day of German Unity

A border violation

September 19, 2019Kerstin 4 Comments

Today’s excerpt from Chapter 8 also takes place in Rüterberg, the little village on the German-German border that was doubly fenced-in. If you missed last week’s posting on why, you can catch up here. In today’s excerpt, find out about the border violation committed by the former mayor and his wife, and what it was like to… Read more A border violation

The Villagers’ Rebellion

September 10, 2019Kerstin 3 Comments

Germany is fast approaching the 30thanniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, which took the country and the world by surprise on November 9, 1989 (for more on how this actually came about, stay tuned for the book!) Unbeknownst to the rest of the world, for a tiny East German village 130 miles northwest… Read more The Villagers’ Rebellion

Lost Worlds

May 8, 2019Kerstin 1 Comment

Syrian architect Mohamad Hafez was at the Fleming Museum recently to speak about how as a college student in Iowa back in 2004, he began to build miniature scenes of his native city, Damascus, to work through his homesickness. I’ve been thinking about his work a lot, so I finally wrote a commentary about it.