Innholdsfortegnelse for Issue 19 i BBC World Histories Magazine

On 9 November 1989, the barrier between communist East and capitalist West Germany was breached. In our 15-page special, three experts revisit that pivotal moment and explore its global legacy COMPLEMENTS THE SPECIAL BBC FOUR SEASON OF FILMS COMMEMORATING THE 30TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE FALL OF THE BERLIN WALL Arguably the most seismic changes in European geopolitics – certainly in the second half of the 20th century – stemmed from events that unfolded in Berlin on 9 November 1989. In the aftermath of its defeat in the Second World War, Germany had been divided into two countries: the German Democratic Republic (GDR), or East Germany, comprising the Soviet zone of occupation, and the Federal Republic of Germany (West Germany), which evolved from the combined occupation zones of the British, French…

On the night of 9 November 1989, when the Berlin Wall fell, I was a school child in West Germany’s Rhineland, 350 miles from the action in Berlin. In fact, I was fast asleep by the time East Berliners had begun crossing into the Western part of the city. My father happened to be in Warsaw at a meeting to discuss the European pavilion at Expo ’90 in Osaka; he hoped to capture in his designs unifying themes for eastern and western Europe. He could not telephone home that evening because he was staying in the same hotel as the press corps who had accompanied Helmut Kohl, the West German chancellor, on his state visit to Poland, and all lines to Germany were being used as news of the events…

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The recent death of Zimbabwe’s strong-man president revived memories of both his triumphs and his tyranny. BBC World Affairs Correspondent Mike Thomson explores the paradoxical nature of a freedom fighter who became a despot “The two biggest public celebrations in Zimbabwe during the life of Robert Gabriel Mugabe bookended each end of his long political career. The first marked the inauguration of the heroic freedom fighter as the first black prime minister of independent Zimbabwe in April 1980 after a landslide election victory. The second followed 37 years later, after the increasingly despotic and frail leader was deposed in an army coup. It’s hard to be sure which was the most celebrated. It’s as if there were two Mugabes. The younger one, who led a seven-year bush war against white…

RELIEF Katharina, Protestant vicar, Golzow, East Germany On the night of 9 November, Katharina, her husband Gilbert and their newborn baby were at an isolated cottage in the forested countryside east of Berlin, and didn’t hear about the fall of the Wall till they turned on the radio the following morning. “We couldn’t believe it,” recalls Katharina. They travelled directly to Berlin, where thousands like them were pouring across the border, collecting the Begrüßungsgeld (‘welcome money’) that all East German visitors were promised, and spending it in department stores. Convinced that the border opening was only temporary, Katharina stocked up on vitamins, then she and Gilbert sat in a café drinking fresh coffee, which was not easily available in the GDR. She had been subjected to persecution her whole life…

“The imperial and elite families of Chang’an were accustomed to a cosmopolitan life” Gilt-silver flask Created by: Unknown artisan in China, circa eighth century Now at: Shaanxi History Museum, Xi’an, China Chosen by: Susan Whitfield This small flask, an exquisite piece of gilt silver made in medieval China, exemplifies the interactions and influences between the many cultures of the networks of trade routes known as the Silk Roads. It was part of a hoard buried in two large pottery jars near the old capital of China, Chang’an – today’s Xi’an – which included more than 1,000 gold, silver, copper, jade and agate wares along with minerals, such as cinnabar, used in alchemy. The burial site was adjacent to the states of an imperial prince, Li Shouli, and it was long…

Jung Chang The latest book by the bestselling author of Wild Swans tells the story of three sisters who influenced many of the major events in 20thcentury China. On page 78, she discusses the politics and passions that drove the women: “They were very fond of each other, but were torn apart by their divergent political beliefs”. Diya Gupta Some 75,000 Indian soldiers were held as prisoners of war during the 1939–45 conflict, “yet hardly any accounts from Indian PoWs are known,” explains the postdoctoral visiting research fellow at the University of London. The powerful yet long-untold stories of some of these prisoners are explored from page 46. Rebecca Jarman On page 6, Jarman – lecturer in Latin American cultural studies at the University of Leeds – explains why Venezuela’s…

The name Brunhild conjures up images of shield-maidens and valkyries. The legendary "gure of Brunhild has a starring role in medieval Norse legends and continental Germanic tradition, later immortalised in Wagner’s Ring cycle. According to prose and poetic texts from 13th-century Iceland, Brunhild is a valkyrie who might be won only by a man who can pass through a wall of #ame – or, in another version, enchanted shields – to reach her. The hero capable of such a feat is Sigurd the Dragon-Slayer; their love story becomes tangled in treachery, and by the end of the narrative, Brunhild has Sigurd murdered. It is likely that the origins of this legendary Brunhild lie in a historical "gure. Brunhilda of Austrasia was a Visigothic princess born around AD 543, probably in…

To be in Berlin when the Wall fell on 9 November 1989 was an extraordinary experience. Of course, the Wall didn’t actually come down on that epic night. Its demolition took place over the coming weeks, though it did start immediately, as young people – including my two sons, with me during the year that I spent at a West Berlin research institute – began clambering on the Wall and hacking out chunks of it. But that night was the symbolic end of the division of Germany – and Europe – during the Cold War. The following days passed in a delirium of euphoria. Elated crowds of East and West Berliners embraced. East Germans poured into shops and department stores, for the first time seeing the wealth of consumer products…

The Big Question: When should countries intervene in others’ affairs? “In such situations, both sides can point to internationally agreed principles approved by UN member states”Geraint Hughes The short answer is: ‘It’s complicated’. The founding Charter of the United Nations (26 June 1945) unequivocally expresses the principle of sovereign equality for its members. The argument that a state has the right to govern its own domestic affairs without external interference is regarded by critics of regime change as the foundation of a peaceful world order. Any breach of this principle through military intervention runs the risk of undermining international peace and security, and will lead to endemic warfare, as shown by the aftermath of Saddam Hussein’s overthrow by the US and British invasion of Iraq in 2003. The counterargument is…

Jung Chang talks to Matt Elton about her new book Big Sister, Little Sister, Red Sister, exploring the very different but equally pivotal roles played by three siblings in shaping the political landscape of modern China “The sisters’ father wanted to make China more like the US, and his children to have an American education” In the early decades of the 20th century, three sisters, daughters of a wealthy missionary-turned-businessman, came to wield great influence in China during an era of political and social upheaval. The eldest, Soong Ei-ling (1889–1973), was the wife of banker and politician HH Kung, and became one of the nation’s richest women. The youngest, Soong May-ling (1898–2003), married Nationalist leader Chiang Kai-shek, and became first lady of the Republic of China from 1928. The middle…