Fellow Lecture by Professor Dr Hope M. Harrison (Fellow of the Alfried Krupp Wissenschaftskolleg Greifswald / The George Washington University)

Although many researchers have studied the Berlin Wall and the inner-German border during the Cold War, only a few - including a research group here in Greifswald - have investigated life on the Baltic coast of the GDR and the experiences of the border residents. My book project is dedicated to the question of how people shaped this border region and at the same time were shaped by it. The focus is on the interaction between the place and the people who lived there. I am investigating the experiences of people who lived, worked, went on holiday, fled or died on the "blue border" of East Germany, as well as the way in which this border has been remembered since 1989. I also plan to conduct interviews with contemporary witnesses who lived in the border area during the Cold War.

Hope M. Harrison is Professor of History and International Relations at George Washington University. She is the author of three books on the Berlin Wall, including Ulbricht's Wall: How the SED Broke Moscow's Resistance to Building the Wall. In 2025, she was honoured with the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany for her public commitment to post-war German history. Harrison has appeared in numerous German documentary films about the Cold War and has published in academic journals as well as in the media in Germany and the USA. In the academic year 2025/26, she is a Senior Fellow at the Alfried Krupp Wissenschaftskolleg Greifswald.

Moderator: Jenny Linek