My Own Story is Border History: Voices of the Inner German Border, a new podcast created by participants of the In Between? 2026 summer school, is now available. It traces memories of ordinary life at the border that divided Germany for 41 years, and asks how those memories continue to shape the present.
The summer school took place in Lübeck, a city located directly at the former inner German border, from 8 to 18 September. Participants from six countries took part in oral history and podcasting workshops, visited the Grenzhus Schlagsdorf museum and the Border Documentation Center in Schlutup, and explored the border area by bike. They then recorded interviews with local witnesses and turned them into this episode.
The podcast brings together voices from both sides of the former border. Christian Steffen, who grew up in Schlutup and now volunteers at the local border museum, remembers a childhood in which the border was “the end of the world”. Werner Daubner recalls his escape from East Germany in 1975 through a drainage pipe beneath the border. Uwe Rogoczinski tells of a risky journey to see his fiancée in the GDR, while Viola Tobies describes the soldiers who were part of everyday village life. Nature conservationist Jessica Sommer, who moved to eastern Germany as an adult, reflects on whether the divide between East and West has really disappeared.
Today, much of the former border zone has become the Green Belt, a rewildened natural area. Yet almost 40 years after the border’s collapse, its memory is still present in the lives of local residents. By bringing together stories of crossing and separation, childhood memories of the borderland, and reflections on German reunification, the episode explores how borders shape some of the most fundamental aspects of our lives: the freedom to move and the right to love.
Listen to the podcast below and find out more about the In Between? 2026 project on the project page.