Die Dubrow-Krise (1969)

This television drama follows a thought experiment: What happens if the inner-German border is suddenly moved in 1969 and the residents of an East German village find themselves, quite literally overnight, in the West, in the Federal Republic of Germany? The story takes place along the inner-German border. In the fictional Mecklenburg village of Dubrow, NVA work crews dismantle fences and firing installations in the middle of the night, removing barbed wire and minefields, which are then immediately reinstalled or rebuilt just beyond the village. What has happened? Is this a unilateral decision by the GDR, a mistake, or even a state provocation? Nobody knows for sure, and the bewildered new West German citizens of Dubrow feel completely caught off guard and cannot make sense of the action. But these measures have also created new problems alongside their new freedoms: the people of Dubrow can no longer maintain contact with their neighbors in the hinterland; the heavily fortified border fence has now shifted from the village’s western boundary to Dubrow’s eastern edge. Confusion reigns everywhere, prompting the people of Dubrow to react in very different ways. Events in the little village trigger an international crisis and frantic activity among the powers. It ends with a televised discussion between experts from the East and elsewhere. In the end, it turns out that, according to historical maps from 1689, Dubrow belongs to the Duchy of Lauenburg and is therefore part of the present-day Federal Republic—though that does not stop the border adjustment from being reversed at the end of the story. “In this political fiction, author Wolfgang Menge was chiefly interested in three aspects: How do the inhabitants of Dubrow behave, all of whom—whether as LPG farmers, party secretaries, members of the people’s police, or pastors—had by then become at least functionally integrated into the social system of the GDR; what does it look like when, from one day to the next, everyday life in West Germany suddenly descends on a village in Mecklenburg; and how does Bonn respond—what measures does the federal government take?”