As a schoolboy in the Berlin neighborhood of Neukölln, filmmaker Wolfgang Ettlich experienced the building of the Berlin Wall from up close.Straight after the fall of the Wall, in January 1990, he took off to explore the unknown GDR and was on the road for five weeks with his cameraman Hans-Albrecht Lusznat. They documented this trip into Germany’s history with a video diary. Spontaneous curiosity and coincidences guided their route back then. They met people who talked about their lives, their dreams, desires and hopes. They experienced people elated by their regained freedom, but also fearful of the future in a new Germany.

25 years later, the filmmaker and his cameraman take off again on a journey into the new federal states. They follow the same route and hope to meet up again with some of the people from back then and find out what became of them. The journey begins in Hof, then on to Plauen and Zschopau, towards Dresden and Forst, into the three-state border region around Zittau. From there, they venture on to Frankfurt/Oder to Loitz in Mecklenburg-West Pomerania, back to Berlin, and return to Hof. Since both journeys follow the same route, the film also serves as a realistic view of contemporary German history and German reunification which many young viewers may know just by hearsay.