WEBVTT

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We are here in the area 1952: Stalin-Note.

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This area was about a turning point

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or supposed turning point

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in German history in the early 1950s.

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It was about a foreign policy direction;

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Konrad Adenauer would like to anchor

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the Federal Republic more firmly in the West,

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both economically and militarily.

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The issue at that time

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was the European Defense Community,

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where Germany should have joined.

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In 1953 Stalin offers - with his Stalin-Notes -

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a reunited, neutral Germany.

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The Western Allies initially react somewhat

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skeptically to this offer.

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Konrad Adenauer, the chancellor at the time,

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rejects it outright.

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He feared that a neutralized all-Germany

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would become a Germany under communist auspices.

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This is also possible to see here.

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In the background, you can see a film “The Red Flag” from 1968,

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where students from West Berlin

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carry a red flag through West Berlin,

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namely from Steglitz to Schöneberg, which they

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then unfurl on the balcony of Schöneberg City Hall.

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And this example actually shows quite well

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this great fear of what would happen

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if Germany became communist.

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The other picture in the possibility-space you can see

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on the right is the facade, the teacher's house.

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There you can see a large frieze by Walter Womacka,

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where he tries to depict the ideal socialist society.