In the fall of 2009, Professor Rinner taught GER 306, On Walls. Through a close reading of journalistic and literary texts and feature films, this class reflected on the twentieth anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, an event that is widely understood as marking the official end of the Cold War. The class was connected with a symposium, “20 Years Fall of the Berlin Wall – Germany, a Sustainable Democracy?” that took place in November 2009 in order to commemorate this anniversary at UNCG. In addition, renowned German author Peter Schneider visited UNCG and students had the opportunity to meet the author of “The Wall Jumper” a story widely understood as accurately anticipating the problem that persisted after the opening of the actual wall, namely the wall in people’s head that continued to shape East- and West-Germans’ attitudes of each other in the decade following the fall of the Berlin Wall. These two events encouraged the students to be active participants in the academic and public discourse beyond the classroom setting. Students responded well to this challenge and wrote several thought-provoking research papers, including one that was subsequently published in a peer-reviewed undergraduate research journal. Click here to view!
