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This Week In History, Library Style! Dec. 22: Gate

people walking on brown concrete building
Photo by Stanley Ndua on Pexels.com

Libraries are places where we connect people to information that may be useful or interesting to them. Looking at some history, and connecting it to the materials we may have in our libraries, can be a good way to convince patrons to use and enjoy all the things we provide!

This week we are looking at December 22. Of course a lot of things have happened on this date – news and the big stories are the unusual things that are going on around us. One interesting thing that has happened today in 1989: The Brandenburg Gate opened for the first time in about 30 years, opening the access between East and West Germany.

“Throughout its existence, the Brandenburg Gate was often a site for major historical events and is today considered not only as a symbol of the tumultuous history of Europe and Germany, but also of European unity and peace.”

Bring this historical fact to your library! You can do this with a variety of program and display ideas. We will help you to get started with a few ideas: bring out your books on the Cold War, write an essay about some of the different causes of the Cold War, look at maps of the changes to Europe’s boundaries over the last 100 years, take a camera and take pictures of different gates you can see around the school or your neighborhood, read books about Germany, look up histories of people who watched the Brandenburg Gate open up, watch videos of the Gate opening and people pouring through it, learn a few German words and phrases.

Here are a few books you might add to your collection or share with your patrons – or just enjoy yourself!