After 7 October 1989, nothing will ever be the same again.
The GDR celebrates its 40th birthday and is to be celebrated triumphantly at the request of Erich Honecker and his Politburo. Guests from all over the world arrive. Gorbachev - the great reformer of the USSR - is also among them. In East Berlin, the choreography of power unfolds: tens of thousands of FDJ members stage an impressive torchlight procession. A military parade is supposed to prove the country's clout, but in fact the GDR is on the verge of collapse. The citizens want a new beginning and freedom. The first large mass demonstration against the regime takes place in Plauen on 7 October.
Things escalate in East Berlin. The Palace of the Republic - the central venue for the state banquet - becomes a ghostly backdrop. While the socialist elite celebrates, the people on the streets demand reforms. No sooner has Gorbachev, the bearer of hope, departed than the state strikes brutally. Thousands of peacefully demonstrating citizens are arrested. But the revolution can no longer be stopped.
In the film, comrades and employees of the State Security, police officers, journalists, civil rights activists and citizens tell their view of this historically significant date and their personal stories.
BROADVIEW TV completes the cycle of films "Miracle of Leipzig" (2009) and "Train to Freedom" (2014) with "Palace of Ghosts". The 90-minute docu-drama is a co-production with MDR in cooperation with arte and with the participation of MDM and Film- und Medienstiftung NRW.
DANCING INTO THE DARK German Democratic Republic 1989
After 7 October 1989, nothing will ever be the same again.
The GDR celebrates its 40th birthday and is to be celebrated triumphantly at the request of Erich Honecker and his Politburo. Guests from all over the world arrive. Gorbachev - the great reformer of the USSR - is also among them. In East Berlin, the choreography of power unfolds: tens of thousands of FDJ members stage an impressive torchlight procession. A military parade is supposed to prove the country's clout, but in fact the GDR is on the verge of collapse. The citizens want a new beginning and freedom. The first large mass demonstration against the regime takes place in Plauen on 7 October.
Things escalate in East Berlin. The Palace of the Republic - the central venue for the state banquet - becomes a ghostly backdrop. While the socialist elite celebrates, the people on the streets demand reforms. No sooner has Gorbachev, the bearer of hope, departed than the state strikes brutally. Thousands of peacefully demonstrating citizens are arrested. But the revolution can no longer be stopped.
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