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German History in Documents and Images
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Writer Thomas Brussig on the Set of the Movie Sonnenallee (September 30, 1998)
This photo shows the East German author Thomas Brussig, who became famous in the 1990s for ironic novels such as Helden wie wir [Heroes Like Us] and Am kürzeren Ende der Sonnenallee [At the Shorter End of Sonnenallee], both of which depict life during the waning days of the GDR and the time of the Wende from an East German perspective. These two novels were successfully adapted to film and prompted the coining of the term Wenderoman (novel that deals with the Wende, or turnaround, in East Germany). This photo shows Brussig on the lot of the Babelsberg film studio during the shooting of the film Sonnenallee, which was directed by Leander Haußmann. The former border crossing at Sonnenallee was faithfully reconstructed for the set. Photo: Thomas Uhlemann.