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City Circle - Berlin Wall Tour -
Dimitri Vrubel "Mein Gott hilf mir, diese tödliche Liebe zu überleben" © City Circle Sightseeing

It happened in November

Kani Alavi captures the moment the Wall came down

Kani Alavi is a Berlin artist. He was living right next to Checkpoint Charly when the Wall came down. In an interview with visitBerlin, he tells us how he experienced the night of 9 November. Based on this, two months later he painted the mural "It happened in November" at the East Side Gallery, in which he shows around 900 faces streaming through the open wall in a seemingly never-ending crowd. "I  wondered what feelings people come to freedom with," he says. "Freedom is a gift from God, everyone must have this freedom, otherwise the world is dark."

Description

The video is one of several interviews with contemporary witnesses conducted by visitBerlin to mark the 35th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. The interviewee is the Berlin artist Kani Alavi. At the time of the fall of the Wall, he lived directly at Checkpoint Charly. In an interview with visitBerlin, he tells us how he experienced the night of 9 November. Two months later, he painted the mural "It happened in November" on the East Side Gallery based on this experience. In addition to the interview situation in Alavi's studio and his mural, historical material from rbb will be shown. The visitBerlin logo can be seen in the top right-hand corner. The video's subtitles can be switched on and off in the YouTube player under settings. For a transcription, the video should be viewed directly on YouTube.