To many Americans, iconic images like the fall of the Berlin Wall symbolize change in regime.
But according to Padraic Kenney, who spoke to about 30 faculty members and students in Dauer Hall Thursday, other historical moments defined the fall of communism greater than the fall of the Berlin wall.
Kenney, a professor of history at Indiana University, discussed how on Nov. 9, 1989, East Germans climbed onto and crossed the Berlin Wall after an announcement by the government, and the event was broadcast on western television stations.
The drama created the hype, Kenney said.
“It’s that feeling of making history,” he said. “It’s a photogenic event, one that we all know.”
But a revolution that was years in the making brought down communism, he said, and Americans tend to ignore the demonstrations that happened before November 1989.
“So many narratives of the fall of the wall treat it as a miraculous event,” he said.
“Imagine that you are watching the Sugar Bowl, and you see your friend Bob tearing down the goal post.”
It’s like sleeping through the game and then waking up and realizing what happened, he explained.
“If there’s one thing that Americans learned from 1989, it’s that visuals matter,” Kenney said.
Kenney is the last speaker in the UF Center for European Studies series, From the Iron Curtain to the EU: 20 years after 1989.
Megan Kosinski, a UF art history sophomore, attended the speech as part of extra credit for her Women from the “Other” Europe class and said that the discussion was informative, especially in light of the campus demonstrations during November, which recognized the fall of the Berlin Wall.
“It’s more of just seeing a different viewpoint,” Kosinski said.
