On the way back from their class trip, the students already have the feeling that their lives will never be the same again.

Tough decisions had to be made as the future became more and more uncertain. Even the annual class trip required students living in the East to travel separately.

Outside of the classroom, the students who travelled to the West for school were confronted with important life decisions and their consequences.

Smuggling items to relatives who had left Berlin was a difficult mission. At the same time, it often seemed difficult to completely comprehend how high the stakes would be.

As rumors began that the border was to be closed, the students began to wonder how their studies and lives would progress.

The students at the Kepler School can spend their evenings out in West Berlin as well, but are constantly dealing with the boundaries.

Even though adolescents who were denied the right to attend high school in East Berlin could find ways to continue their education in the West, neither the commute nor the social dynamics were easy.

Die Klasse – Berlin '61 is a docudrama about a class of students who commuted from East Berlin to the West on a daily basis to attend school, and the consequences of the construction of the Berlin Wall. The story is told through interviews as well as reenacted scenes.

Günter Grass's novel The Tin Drum was published in 1959 and remains one of the most important examples of German post-war literature. On the occasion of Grass's death at 87 years of age, we are offering you this short trailer for Volker Schlöndorff's film adaptation.