CENTRAL-Interviews on the Fall of the Iron Curtain

AUDIO | Interview with Jakub Rákosník

Forum Radio | A production of Charles University

On the 17th of November 2022 Czechs are marking the 33rd anniversary of the Velvet Revolution sparked when communist police brutally cracked down on students on 17 November 1989. Protests that erupted as a result swept the former regime from power and paved the way for a return to freedom and democracy. The once jailed dissident and playwright, Václav Havel, became Czechoslovakia’s first post-1989 president. How Czechs look back on those heady days now is the subject of today’s Forum Radio interview with well-known social historian, Neuron prize winner and associate professor, Jakub Rákosník.

Find out more episodes of "Forum Radio" and the interview in written form here

AUDIO | Interview with Jannis Panagiotidis

Production by the University of Vienna

Jannis Panagiotidis is a professor at the university of Vienna and scientific director of the research centre for the history of Transformation. One of his current projects is titled “Liberal global orders and freedom of movements and he guides a research project on post-soviet immigrant communities in Germany.

The CENTRAL-Network conducted an interview with Professor Panagiotidis on the fall of the Berlin Wall as well as other events, happening around 1989 and how they have relevance to our present day.

Listen to the podcast here

Find out more about RECET here

Interview with Dominik Stegmayer 2021

The Fall of the Wall

On 9 November 1989, the Berlin Wall fell. To commemorate the anniversary of this historic date, we talked with Dominik Stegmayer, researcher and PhD candidate from the Research Center for the History of Transformations (RECET), who has recently conducted a study among factory workers from a Publicly Owned Enterprise in former East Berlin.