November in Berlin

The End of the Everyday

Bibliographic Data

ID4493768
AuthorsJoe Moran (0000-0001-9799-0116, corresponding author)
Year2004
Volume57
Issue1
Pages216-234
Publication date2004-03-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueHistory Workshop Journal (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1363-3554 • E-ISSN: 1477-4569
PublisherOxford University Press (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1093/hwj/57.1.216
OpenAlexW1966229089
LanguageEN
Citations received10
References cited13

disturbance of the everyday, the transformation of unthinking routine into new forms of awareness. For a few, extraordinary days in November 1989 Berliners shook off the mundanity and predictability of their daily lives. They danced around in their nightshirts, let off fireworks and kissed strangers, with whom they exchanged the single word: 'Wahnsinn!' (Crazy!) Rules and conventions were turned on their head. In a country with a mandatory closing time of 6.30 p.m., shops stayed open as long as they liked. In a country where minor traffic infringements are serious offences, people jaywalked, climbed up trees and roadsigns, and those with a GDR passport travelled on public transport for free. In order to make sense of this extraordinary interruption of routine, though, we need to understand the nature of the everyday itself as a space for the quiet accumulation of repetitive acts, and of more subtle, unnoticed transformations. In other words, we need to think about this moment in relation to its 'before' and 'after'.

Aesthetics · Art · Berlin wall · Epistemology · Everyday life · Fall of man · Meaning (existential) · Modernity · Political science · Politics · Sociology · Communism, Protests, Social Movements · European history and politics · German History and Society · History · Law · Philosophy

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