Anti-Fascist Protection Rampart, or Merely the Wall?: The History of and Life Behind the Berlin Wall, 1961-1989
Dr. Torsten Homberger
Visiting Assistant Professor – History
University of Nebraska at Kearney
Wednesday, November 6, 2019
4pm – Main Floor, C.T. Ryan Library
FREE and open to the public
November 9, 2019 marks the 30th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. During the Cold War, the Wall divided the city of Berlin into two parts, just like the Iron Curtain divided the German nation. This commemorative lecture will put the 28-year history of the Berlin Wall and the German-German border into historical perspective. Dr. Homberger will give an inside view of what it was like to grow up in East Germany and what it was like to witness the fall of the Wall from an East German perspective. The lecture will also address the current issues regarding “the Wall” that today exists in the minds of many Germans.
Hobos, tramps and bums – men and women who hopped trains and lived on the road from the 1870s to 1930s – are notoriously difficult to pin down, as railroad police officers and the historians that followed can attest. Records are scant and fragmentary. Letters or diaries are few and far between. How then do historians study this marginalized community? Dr. Nathan Tye will discuss his research and methods and share rare and one-of-a-kind material from his private collection of hobo letters, diaries, and newspapers.
