Eiskalt vereint – Die Geschichte der letzten DDR-Antarktis-Expedition

In the organizer's words:

On November 10, 1989 at the GDR Antarctic station "Georg Forster", in the evening: it is the radio operator who broadcasts the incredible news: "There are people on the wall in Berlin - the border to the West is open." Everyone is amazed, one of them concedes: "That can't be true, they're giving us a psycho test." Almost a year later: on the roof of the station, the old flag is lowered and the new one is hoisted, accompanied by the singing of national anthems. The Germans welcome the new country. In October 1989, ten GDR researchers and nine FRG researchers independently set off for Antarctica and experienced the German-German unification process tens of thousands of kilometers away from home. They made radio contact and from then on shared their joy, fear and bewilderment at the events in the small country in the northern hemisphere. October 3, 2010 marks 20 years since reunification. Using original footage, amateur videos, diary entries, documents and eyewitness accounts, the film reconstructs the weeks and months between the arrival of the East German researchers in the fall of 1989 and the West German researchers in January 1990 and their departure in the spring of 1991.

1989 was the last time that a team from the GDR spent the winter at the "Georg Foster" station. And it was the first time that women took over the operation of the West German "Georg von Neumayer Station".

What is it like to be a woman on an expedition 35 years later? Stefanie Arndt from the Alfred Wegener Institute (AWI), Helmholtz Center for Polar and Marine Research, is one woman who can tell us. The sea ice physicist has been at the AWI since her studies and has been on 15 expeditions to the Arctic and Antarctic. At the event, she talks about what it's like when the ocean turns from blue to white on the way south, what it means to work on the ice and about encounters with penguins. And she shares her experiences as a woman on expeditions and the feeling of having to achieve more in order to be recognized.

Followed by a discussion and presentation of current photographs from expeditions to polar regions. Guest: Prof. Dr. Stefanie Arndt (sea ice physicist).

An event in cooperation with the Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Center for Polar and Marine Research in Bremerhaven.

Price information:

6 Euro reduced (for members of the Kinemathek)