Looking to France

Professor Oliver Daumke, Head of the Research Group on Structural Biology of Membrane-Associated Processes

I hardly noticed the fall of the Berlin Wall on November 9, 1989 – except for perhaps the odd news broadcast that I didn’t pay much attention to.

The Wall was far away in the East, and I was not very interested in Berlin, the GDR, or Eastern Europe.

Oliver Daumke Head of the Research Group on Structural Biology of Membrane-Associated Processes

I was a student in Freiburg at the time, the Wall was far away in the East, and I was not very interested in Berlin, the GDR, or Eastern Europe. France and Southern Europe were far more appealing to me back then. It’s funny that I’ve now been married to a Latvian woman for almost 15 years, and have been living in the former East Berlin district of Prenzlauer Berg and working in Buch for twelve years. So in retrospect, the fall of the Berlin Wall had a far greater impact on my life than I could have ever imagined back in 1989.

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