Wendeklang – Soundtrack Of Change
The year 2014 marks the 25th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. A documentary looks at the rise of techno as the soundtrack to the reunification of Germany.
June 10, 2014
Following the fall of the Wall in 1989, the young people of East and West Germany converge. In illegal clubs located along the former “death strip”, they dance to a raw electronic music. The new sound reinforces the sense of freedom that arises with the fall of the Wall and Germany’s reunification. The documentary follows the evolution of the first pan-German youth movement.
Nowhere else in Germany the feeling of boundless possibilities is more condensed than in Berlin. When the wall comes down in the Eastern part of the city the administration collapses. All over sudden empty ware houses, bunkers and factories become accessible. Quickly these are transformed into clubs, sometimes for one night only, mostly illegally.
Party people, artists and DJs tell how the East and West came together. Their voices, interwoven with original and historical material of Berlin and the clubs of this time, not only paint a vivid picture of the times, but also reveal the close relationship shared by Pop and political history.
The documentary is based on the oral histories found in the book “The Sound of Family” (Suhrkamp), by Felix Denk and Sven von Thülen.
The film is produced by ARTE, rbb und Along Mekong Productions