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The German WallJugendweihe: Revitalizing a Socialist Coming-of-Age Ceremony in Unified Berlin

The German Wall: Jugendweihe: Revitalizing a Socialist Coming-of-Age Ceremony in Unified Berlin [Berlin in the spring of 2009: at a youth initiation event, called Jugendweihe, a poem entitled “Walpurgisnacht” is read in front of the girls and boys and their families.1 The poem’s last four lines refer to Germany’s East-West divide: “… when the sun happens to shine at night / when Germany East and West happen to unite / when from clear skies a flash fills our pig-heads with light / well, this is then Walpurgis night.”2 The author’s recitation of these verses followed the official Jugendweihe speech and the appearance of about 50 young people on the CineStar stage in Hellersdorf, a movie theater in one of Berlin’s large and densely populated outlying eastern districts. These young people had climbed the stairs onto the narrow stage in front of the closed velvet curtain, covering the screen. They received applause, congratulations, a book, a bouquet of flowers, and a certificate. A comedian in a red tailcoat moderated the program of this coming-of-age celebration, which consisted of two songs by the show master himself, two performances by a singer in a powder-blue evening dress, and two dance teams—a troupe of break dancers and a couple of ballroom dancers—as well as the recitations of two poems, “Ich” and “Walpurgisnacht.” Read by the author at the very beginning and at the end of the program, these poems set the rather burlesque tone for most of the celebration, which was only interrupted by a condescending educational speech, a rather sentimental song, and the sheer amazement at the dancers’ acrobatics.] http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png

The German WallJugendweihe: Revitalizing a Socialist Coming-of-Age Ceremony in Unified Berlin

Part of the Studies in European Culture and History Book Series
Editors: Silberman, Marc
Wolbert, Barbara
The German Wall — Oct 19, 2015
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19 pages

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References (9)

Publisher
Palgrave Macmillan US
Copyright
© Palgrave Macmillan, a division of Nature America Inc. 2011
ISBN
978-1-349-29431-2
Pages
123 –142
DOI
10.1057/9780230118577_7
Publisher site
See Chapter on Publisher Site

Abstract

[Berlin in the spring of 2009: at a youth initiation event, called Jugendweihe, a poem entitled “Walpurgisnacht” is read in front of the girls and boys and their families.1 The poem’s last four lines refer to Germany’s East-West divide: “… when the sun happens to shine at night / when Germany East and West happen to unite / when from clear skies a flash fills our pig-heads with light / well, this is then Walpurgis night.”2 The author’s recitation of these verses followed the official Jugendweihe speech and the appearance of about 50 young people on the CineStar stage in Hellersdorf, a movie theater in one of Berlin’s large and densely populated outlying eastern districts. These young people had climbed the stairs onto the narrow stage in front of the closed velvet curtain, covering the screen. They received applause, congratulations, a book, a bouquet of flowers, and a certificate. A comedian in a red tailcoat moderated the program of this coming-of-age celebration, which consisted of two songs by the show master himself, two performances by a singer in a powder-blue evening dress, and two dance teams—a troupe of break dancers and a couple of ballroom dancers—as well as the recitations of two poems, “Ich” and “Walpurgisnacht.” Read by the author at the very beginning and at the end of the program, these poems set the rather burlesque tone for most of the celebration, which was only interrupted by a condescending educational speech, a rather sentimental song, and the sheer amazement at the dancers’ acrobatics.]

Published: Oct 19, 2015

Keywords: Socialist Combine; Movie Theater; German Unification; Ritual Form; Videocassette Recording

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