“We need to dance more again!” About Loss and Connection in Strasburg (Um.)

Strasburg (Um.) in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern is a place characterized by loss. Today, only half of its former population of over 9,000 remains in the area. In the wake of reunification and administrative reforms in the early 1990s, Strasburg lost its status as a district town, along with its polyclinic and hospital, and several schools and businesses either moved elsewhere or shut down altogether. Cinemas, restaurants, cafés, stores – none of this exists today, not even a bakery. The losses are clearly reflected in the cityscape, in countless abandoned and dilapidated buildings and ruins.

What unites many of these losses and is perceived as particularly painful is the loss of community. Under the GDR regime, according to the dominant narrative, there was a strong sense of community, cohesion, solidarity and equality. In very practical everyday matters, but also in life in general: “There used to be a lot going on in Strasburg”, “Everyone was equal here; that no longer exists” and “Everyone just does their own thing now” are frequently heard phrases.

For French philosopher Jean-Luc Nancy, this narrative of loss is an integral part of any discussion on community: it is always what used to be, but no longer is.

“What is conveyed, above all, is the great loss. But this negative way of thinking both hides and intensifies the awareness of togetherness. And that opens up a new demand on the world, a challenge to which we must respond.” (Jean-Luc Nancy, in an interview with Sabrina Dittus 2007, orig. French).

Our film tells of the longing for more community, of life before and after the fall of the Berlin Wall and why young people return to their hometown through encounters with real and not (yet) real Strasburgers aged 15 to 85.

Our film explores the longing for more community, of life before and after the fall of the Berlin Wall and why young people return to their hometown through encounters with real and not (yet) real Strasburgers aged 15 to 85.

Supported by the Kulturlandbüro Uecker-Randow.

Film project undertaken during a “Dorfresidenz” (village residency) by Sabrina Dittus as part of TRAFO. Modelle fuer Kultur im Wandel (Models for culture in transition, an initiative of the German Federal Cultural Foundation).