Grand Rapids, Michigan (November 3, 2009) – Aquinas College and its departments of modern languages, history and political science will mark the 20thAnniversary of the Fall of the Berlin Wall with the presentation of a film, Nikolaikirche(1995). The following film discussion will be led by Associate Professor of German, Katharina Häusler-Gross, Ph.D., a native of East Germany who lived in East Berlin in the weeks leading up to the fall and who was present the night the wall opened on November 9, 1989. The film will be shown on Monday, November 9 at 7 p.m. in Kretschmer Recital Hall in the Art and Music Center on the campus of Aquinas College, 1607 Robinson Road SE. The presentation is free and open to the public.

Dr. Katharina Häusler-Gross, Ph.D., Associate Professor of German at Aquinas College, will introduce the film and also lead the following discussion. Häusler-Gross, who was born and raised in East Germany, was living in East Berlin during the turmoil that led to the collapse of the wall and the eventual reunification of the country. She has presented several papers on this topic that focus on the changing concepts of identity in post-Wende literary and cinematic contributions in the new Germany.

>>AQ German Program