United in the Cold. The Story of the Last GDR Antarctic Expedition

10 November 1989 at the GDR Antarctic station “Georg Forster”, in the evening: it is the radio operator who spreads the incredible news: “There are people on the Wall in Berlin – the border to the West is open.” Everyone is astonished; one man objects: “That can’t be, they’re running a psychological test on us.” Barely a year later: on the roof of the station the old flag is lowered and the new one raised, to the singing of national anthems. A trumpet sounds. The Russians weep. The Indians film. The Germans greet the new country. It is 3 October 1990.

In October 1989, ten GDR researchers and nine West German researchers set out independently of one another for the Antarctic and experience the German-German unification process tens of thousands of kilometres from home. They establish radio contact and from then on share the joy, the fear and the bewilderment at the events in the small country in the northern hemisphere. On 3 October 2010, reunification is 20 years ago. Using original footage, amateur videos, diary entries, documents and eyewitness accounts, the film reconstructs the weeks and months between the arrival of the East German researchers in autumn 1989 and the West German researchers in January 1990 and their departure in spring 1991.