East-Side Story

Elf99 Spezial, GDR, 1990, 48 mins

> the end of the GDR from an eastern perspective from 1990

Elf99 was a youth programme on GDR state television, initiated by Margot Honecker, the wife of the state’s general secretary. The programme offered a unique mix of critical and yet loyal reporting about the late GDR, and a style which mixed serious topics with a poppy cool style. Surprisingly brave reportings from example from the Stasi headquarters in Berlin, or the different perceptions about the future of GDR, the fears about western market capitalism.
ELf99 was taken over by various western TV channels from 1991 on, with rather unlucky time slots and broadcasting conditions. Finally it got stopped in 1994.

 

Eine Chronik zum Ende der DDR, gesendet bei “Elf99”: