A collection of cine-photographic film stills from "The Social Border: Border Crossing" - a collaborative project on Glossom, initiated by Nicolò Grassi.
Starring: Alice Daily, Falko Hartmann.
Assistants: Ingo Heye, Nils Herres.
Make-up and Effects: Janine Drost, Sigune Roloff. Set Assistant: Lea Lassak.
Production notes:
Between May 1952 and November 1989 almost 900 people were killed in their attempt to cross the border that separated the two German states. The so-called “Staatsgrenze West” was heavily guarded and reinforced with a protective strip, boasting 1.3 million anti-personnel mines and other potentially lethal weapons.
The German Democratic Republic (GDR), as East Germany used to call itself, put a great effort in preventing their people from leaving the state territory - thus, the number of refugees who actually succeeded in crossing the fence was quite small. A study from the late 1970s, carried out by the East German army, found that almost 5,000 people had attempted to escape across the border between 1974 and 1979. More than 200 of them died or were caught at the fence. Most others were captured in the “Sperrzone”, a three kilometer wide area east of the fence.
Today, the Berlin Wall Memorial commemorates the victims of the regime.
This collection is dedicated to all those who lost their lives on the Inner German Border.
