The Future of Two Festivals

Abstract

BERLIN 1992 Flying into Berlin is now so very ordinary. No need to worry about wandering out of the narrow corridor over East Germany leading into the divided city; no fear now of being shot down by a watchful MIG; now the Frankfurt-Berlin train can stop where it likes and motorists can leave the autobahn on the way in. The fear and atmosphere of menace have gone. Checkpoint Charlie has gone; Bernard Samson has come out for the last time. No one will get riddled with bullets trying to cross the Wall because the Wall has disappeared. Was it ever there? Hard to believe as the West Berlin double-deckers pass the Brandenburg Gate and drive straight through to Alexanderplatz. A history of forty years has disappeared, to become a tick in time a hundred years hence. Surprisingly many former West Berliners are not too happy about this sudden...