The Iron Curtain was seen as the divider between East and West in Cold War Europe. The term is closely connected to the Cold War and expressions such as ‘behind the Iron Curtain’ or ‘after the fall of the Iron Curtain’ are common within historical discussions in the second half of the twentieth century. Even if the term was used regularly as a metaphor there was also a material side with a series of highly militarised borders running throughout Europe. The metaphor and the material borders developed together and individually, sometimes intertwined and sometimes separate. In my research I have carried out two fieldwork studies at sites that can be considered part of the former Iron Curtain. The first study area is located between Italy and Slovenia (formerly Yugoslavia) in which the division between the two towns of Nova Gorica on the Slovenian side and Gorizia on the Italian side was investigated. The second study area is located on the border between Austria and Czech Republic (formerly Czechoslovakia) within two national parks. A smaller study was also carried out in Berlin as the Berlin Wall is considered of major importance in the context of the Iron Curtain. This research has resulted in large quantities of sources and information and a constant need to re-evaluate the methods used within an archaeology of a more recent past. This thesis falls within what is usually referred to as contemporary archaeology, a fairly young sub-discipline of archaeology. Few large research projects have so far been published, and methods have been described as still somewhat experimental. Through my fieldwork it has been possible to acknowledge and highlight the problems and opportunities within contemporary archaeology. It has become clear how the materials stretch both through time and place demonstrating the complex process of how the material that archaeologists investigate can be created. The material of the Iron Curtain, is also well worth studying in its own right.

Since the fall of the Wall, a new era of East German literature has emerged. This genre of literature exists even though East Germany’s borders dissolved over a decade and half ago and is challenging the way we think about the former German Democratic Republic. East German author Thomas Brussig is pivotal in this new genre of literature. His novels Helden wie wir (1995), Am kürzeren Ende der Sonnenallee (1999) and Leander Haußmann’s cinematic adaptation, Sonnenallee (1999), confront the negative associations and stereotypes connected with East Germany to deconstruct how formal history has portrayed its past and its citizens. Brussig’s texts take a completely different approach to remembering the GDR, which simultaneously challenges history’s dominant perspective as well as the Ostalgie phenomenon. Through his texts’ recollection, Brussig subverts the East German state in hindsight and begins the construction of a new mythology with which to associate former East Germany.

This thesis "An Isolated Island: West Berlin under Willy Brandt (1961- 1966). The city behind the Berlin Wall" concentrates on West Berlin between 1961 and 1966 and on the political initiatives of Willy Brandt as a Governing Mayor of the city. The city, which became immediately after World War II a central point of Cold War tensions between the East and the West, remained after the first Berlin Crisis the last gap in the Iron Curtain, where the two worlds - the East and the West - met face to face. After the construction of the Berlin wall the city experienced a shock, which it overcame very fast, and benefited from the subsequent changes thanks to extraordinary work of the Mayor Willy Brandt. His new political style and new communicative approach to politics transformed the situation in the city and led to rapid modernization and development. He was able to secure moral, political and above all financial support for the city for a long time period, which enabled to turn the city into a "showcase of democracy in the middle of the communist sea". Such a success in West Berlin elevated Willy Brandt into the highest political posts in Federal Republic of Germany.

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The content of this thesis are relations between the Federal Republic of Germany and the GDR at the end of the Cold War, specifically in the seven-year period between the beginning of the government of Helmut Kohl and the fall of the Berlin Wall. These relations are described in a wider dimension within a square made of Bonn - Berlin - Prague - Moscow; the basic intention of the work is to create a comprehensive analysis of all important links and transformations not only between the East and West Germany, but also among all actors in defined tetragon. Thesis-conclusions are to a large extent based on the long-term research in Czech and German archives; key documents were found in the archive of the Czech Ministry of Foreign Affairs and in the archive of the former State Security of the GDR. The term inter-German relations is reduced to the area of Deutschlandpolitik - negotiations at the highest level - and given the large scope of reciprocal contacts, they are limited also thematically, while two dimensions are primarily monitored - so called priority axis. The first is the field of economy. Its key importance is framed by two billion-loans granted with a guarantee of the Federal Government of the GDR at the beginning of analysed period, and a total paradigm shift in relations among Bonn - Berlin...

Berlin, de 1961 à 1989, est une ville divisée, partagée par un mur de béton séparant l'Est, capitale de la République démocratique allemande, de l'Ouest, îlot isolé de la République fédérale d'Allemagne. Front de la Guerre froide, les caméras s'en sont emparées. Filmer Berlin, ce n’était pas seulement montrer un territoire urbain précis et délimité, c'était porter à l’écran un espace régi par un contexte historique, social et politique extrêmement prégnant traduisant de fortes spécificités. Deux systèmes de représentation de l’espace urbain ont coexisté dès 1945 nourris d’éléments propres à chaque partie de la ville et de formes esthétiques spécifiques. À partir du 13 août 1961, date de la construction du Mur, la réalité de la division de la ville s'acte dans le béton. Le cinéma s'en est fait le témoin. Ces images, celles de Soi, celles de l’Autre peuvent être envisagées comme des produits de deux sociétés avec leurs symbolismes propres, leurs codes socioculturels et leurs histoires parallèles. Elles sont à ce titre révélatrices de la manière dont a été montré Berlin. Ces deux imageries participent à la construction d’une identité urbaine plurielle, tendant parfois à revêtir un caractère protéiforme dont il importe de questionner les aspects. C’est aux expressions filmées de cette altérité, de cet espace urbain singulier, que cette thèse d'études cinématographiques s'attache. Au carrefour de plusieurs observatoires disciplinaires et avec une démarche géo-centrée, elle propose un essai de topographie cinématographique. / From 1961 to 1989, Berlin is a divided city, split by a concrete wall separating the eastern part, capital city of the German Democratic Republic, from the western one, isolated island of the German Federal Republic. Frontline of the Cold War, the cameras captured it.Filming Berlin was not only depicting a precise and bound urban territory, it was bringing to the screen a space ruled by a very significant historical, social and political context conveying strong specificities. Two systems of representation of the urban space coexisted as soon as 1945, fueled by each side of town’s own elements and specific aesthetic forms. From August 13th 1961, the day the Wall was built, the reality of the division of the city is made concrete-solid. Cinema was made the witness of this reality. These pictures, of the Self, of the Other, can be considered as products of both societies, with their own symbolisms, their sociocultural codes and parallel histories. As such, they are indicative of the way Berlin has been shown.Both imageries take part in the construction of a plural urban identity, that sometimes tends towards a shape-shifting hallmark, whose aspects it seems important to question. This PhD in cinematic studies endeavours to describe, analyse and interpret the filmed expressions of this alterity, this singular urban space. At the crossroad of several disciplinary fields and in a geo-centered approach, it offers an essay on cinematic topography.

This thesis examines how the press of the erstwhile German Democratic Republic represented Iran in the years from 1949 – the year of the GDR’s formation – until 1989, the last complete year before its demise on 3 October 1990. The study focuses on key events in Iranian history such as the overthrow of the Mossadegh government in 1953, the White Revolution, the Islamic Revolution of 1979, and the Iran-Iraq war. It will be shown that although news and articles were based on selected facts, they still presented a picture of Iran that was at best distorted, the distortions and misrepresentations amounting to what could be described as 'factual fiction'. Furthermore, clear evidence will be provided that economical and political relations with Iran were a primary concern of the GDR’s leadership, and thus also of the GDR’s press and have therefore dominated the reporting on Iran. Whatever ideological concerns there may have been, they were hardly ever allowed to get in the way of amicable relations with the Shah or later with the Islamic Republic. Only in periods where the two countries enjoyed less amicable or poor relations, was the press free to critically report events in Iran and to openly support the cause of the SED’s communist Iranian sister party, the Tudeh. Despite East Germany’s diametric ideological environment and despite the fundamentally different role that the GDR’s political system had assigned to the press and to journalism, East Germany’s press was as reliant on the input of the global news agencies as any Western media. The at times almost complete reliance on Western news agencies as sources for news on Iran challenged more than just the hermeneutic hegemony the SED and the GDR’s press wanted to establish. After all, which news and information were made available by the news agencies to the media in both East and West was primarily determined by the business interests of said agencies. The study makes a contribution to three fields: Modern Iranian history, (East-) German history and media studies. The most valid findings were certainly made in the latter.

Ce travail de recherche a pour objectif d’analyser les différentes initiatives de partenariat liant les pays méditerranéens avec l’UE, ainsi que l’élucidation des différents degrés d’engagement et d'implication de ces pays et sous-groupements régionaux dans ces initiatives. Il vise également à dévoiler les différents atouts et faiblesses qui caractérisent les relations Euro-méditerranéennes. La finalité de ce travail de recherche consiste à éclaircir les enjeux de ces relations et la justification de l’utilité de rapprochement entre les pays Sud-méditerranéens avec l’UE dans un espace géographique restreint et dans un cadre historique limité. Ainsi, cette analyse s’est focalisée sur les différents atouts politiques, économiques et sociaux ayant marqué les relations euro-méditerranéennes, durant la période allant de la Chute du Mur de Berlin (1989) jusqu'à l'échec du Printemps Arabe (2013). A l’issue de cette thèse, plusieurs alternatives et pistes de réflexion ont été suggérées, dans la perspective d’éviter les raisons d’échecs déjà constatées et afin de contribuer à l’édification de fondements solides susceptibles de concourir à la réussite des futurs partenariats et initiatives de coopérations euro-méditerranéennes. / This thesis is attempting to analyze the various partnership initiatives between the Mediterranean countries and the EU, as well as the different degrees of commitment and involvement of these countries and sub-regional groupings in these initiatives.It also aims at revealing the different strengths and weaknesses that characterize the Euro-Mediterranean relations.The purpose of this research work is to analyze the issues of the Euromed relationships and the size of building links between the Mediterranean countries and the EU in geographically restricted space and during a limited historical period. This analysis has focused on the different political assets, economic and social issues which characterized the Euro-Mediterranean relationships, especially in the period from the fall of the Berlin Wall (1989) until the failure of the Arab Spring (2013). Following this work, several alternatives and ideas have been suggested, with a view to avoiding the failure of stakes already recognized.The objective is to contribute to analysis of creating new strong frameworks which may contribute to the success of the future partnerships and initiatives in relation to the euro- Mediterranean cooperation.