Revisiting Goodbye Lenin! almost 3 decades after Germany’s reunification

This 3 October marks the 29th anniversary of the Tag der Deutschen Einheit (Reunification Day). As the city takes the day off to celebrate, what better time to take a look back at Wolfgang Becker’s contemporary classic Goodbye Lenin! (2003). Starring Daniel Brühl as Alex, the film tells the story of his communist mother Christiane who falls into coma for eight months. In the meantime, the Wall is demolished and Alex and the rest of the family go to farcical lengths to prevent the truth from getting out. With this November marking the 30th anniversary since the Wall’s demise, we take a look back over how the city has changed in the years since. 

Berliners still prefer sneakers to stilettos

The German capital has a long history of anti-elitism, which makes scruffiness part of the Berlin identity. With this is mind, many of the outfits worn in Goodbye Lenin! would not appear out of place on the modern-day streets of Berlin. An anti-conformist attitude still dictates dressing in the city—Berliners have their own take on style and trends that are not necessarily dictated by big brands, namely through its clubwear aesthetic by brands such as GmbH, 032c and Random Identities. 

The parties were always better in the past

The scene that shows Alex and his girlfriend smoking a joint at a party in a half-destroyed apartment building indicates the emergence of Berlin’s techno scene, which emerged in the early 1990s. This is the time when the foundation of the city’s club culture that celebrates freedom through the strong queer, art and underground scenes began. In the abandoned apartments of East Berlin, young people organised illegal raves that still capture the imagination of club kids. Whilst Berlin remains one of the most popular cities in the world for partying, encroaching fears of the impact of gentrification on the party scene are very real. Rising property prices are killing some of the city’s nightlife, as could noise complaints temper parties, abandoned apartment buildings become rare and Berghain adds the 5 euro reentry bracelet on top of its ever-increasing door price. Whether or not the anything-goes ethos of Berlin’s club culture survives the next 29 years remains to be seen.  

GDR furniture is trendy, not mandatory

Goodbye Lenin! uses objects to show the extent of change felt during the transition from East to West, one of which is the lurid pink fluffy lamp set down beside the astonished Christiane as she ventures out of the confines of her bedroom. After years of tonal sameness favouring uniformity and beige colour pallets, Berlin’s contemporary interiors tend toward eclectic and expressive.  Today, interior design trends capitalise on the Ostalgie sentiment (nostalgia for aspects of life in Communist East Germany), with shops like Urban Industrial reviving items from old factories that hark back to GDR furniture and fixtures.   

Strangers in the skyline

The film’s opening sequence features imposing East German architecture, many of which still stand today as enduring reminders of the GDR. Karl-Marx-Allee, grand former Socialist boulevard, remains one of the city’s most iconic thoroughfares in the city, although despite its grandeur has lost its social significance over the years. The Kino International, a mid-century movie theatre near Alexanderplatz, has been preserved as a monument of the Communist aesthetic.

While many of the GDR’s massive structures stand tall to this day, the city surrounding them is evolving. Perhaps, furthest away from the socialist architecture featured in Goodbye Lenin! is former no-man’s land, Potsdamer Platz. What was previously the widest point in Berlin’s death strip is now the urban quarter of the city, hosting commercial investors such as Daimler-Benz and Sony. The new Sony Centre, an eye-catching monolith of glass and steel reportedly inspired by Mount Fuji in Japan, could not be further away from the blocky structures of East Berlin.