black and white photograph, a man standing among a crowd of people.
Story

#remember1989 and the fall of the Iron Curtain

Join our blog parade

by
Europeana Foundation

This year sees the 30th anniversary of an extraordinary year - 1989 - when walls crumbled and people of Central and Eastern Europe were united again.

hand-drawn map of Europe with each country coloured in with its flag.

To remember 1989 and its events, we are inviting you to share your memories and impressions in our 'blog parade'. Join us as we commemorate the political and social changes in 1989, the year of the Fall of the Iron Curtain.

People who lived through that year and the following years have diverse and vivid personal memories of that time. 

Join our blog parade

colour photograph, seven people standing in a row holding hands.

A blog parade is a call out to people interested in this topic who are bloggers and / or on social media to write about, photograph or share ideas or memories on their blogs / profiles.

Our blog parade introduces the topic of 1989: the Fall of the Iron Curtain, and we invite you to share your ideas on your own blog or profiles.

Your posts will contribute to a greater understanding of 1989 and its events, which we will summarise here below and promote through our profiles. 

Everybody can participate in #remember1989. We welcome blogs, tweets, Facebook updates, Instagram posts, personal research, online exhibitions - we look forward to seeing your posts with the hashtag #remember1989

Some questions you might like to think about for your post:

  • What do the events of 1989 mean to you?
  • How do you remember 1989 - were you a participant, an observer?
  • Do / did you live in a country which saw communism fall? What did that mean for you?
  • How did 1989 affect you? Your economic situation, education, political views, social life, holidays? 
  • What effects from 1989 do we still feel today?
  • What role did arts and culture play in 1989?
  • From your perspective, what must we remember about 1989? How do we do that today?

We'd love to see your #remember1989 posts any time from now until the end of the year. Don’t forget to tag us on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram or you can also email [email protected].

1989 memories on Europeana

black and white photograph, a large crowd with people holding a banner that says 'Solidarnosc'.

#remember1989 builds on Europeana 1989, a collaborative project between 11 partner institutions, Historypin and Europeana in 2014, for which members of the public in countries that underwent changes in 1989 shared personal memorabilia and stories from this period.

Among the items shared were underground press (independent newspapers), election leaflets, food stamps, old bank notes, documents and family photos, clothes and toys.

black and red landline telephone.
small ceramic brooch in shape of a bow with the Estonian flag colours.
5000 dinar note with purple illustrations and a dark blue portrait of a man.
a white hat covered in badges and pins.
a long yellow dress on a black clothes hanger.

The diversity of the memories captured by the project is amazing - explore these objects and be inspired for your own posts.

Feel free to use the image below if you write about the blog parade.

black and white photograph of people standing in a row holding hands.

Blog parade

Thank you for sharing your memories, ideas, stories and more with #remember1989.

Below are some blogs, tweets, comments and photographs shared so far.

photograph of a mural photographed through a hole in a concrete wall.

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