Mysteries in the Archives

In June 1963, John F. Kennedy was the first president of the United States to set foot in Berlin since the end of the Second World War. The fifth and final day of his trip was to be one of the most important days of the American President's political career. At the end of this visit to West Germany, he gave a speech on Rudolph Wilde Square, the former seat of the West Berlin Parliament and the city's governing mayor, in front of 400,000 people and perfectly placed cameras, with this little phrase that would become famous: "ich bin ein Berliner"… After Kennedy's assassination on November 22 of the same year, the square was renamed John F. Kennedy Square. The cameras, perfectly set up on scaffolding, caught his short sentence for posterity, which became legend: "I am a Berliner". Why this sentence? Who had come up with the line? Why in German? And why this presidential trip to Berlin during the Cold War, almost two years after the Berlin Wall was built?

In April 1956, Grace Kelly, one of Hollywood's biggest movie stars, married the prince Rainier III of the small state of Monaco. The wedding drove the world press crazy. A host of photographers and cameramen were expected at Monaco Cathedral to immortalize the 'wedding of the century', the biggest media event since the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II of England. For months now, the romantic love story between young American actress Grace Kelly and Prince Rainier III of Monaco, the second smallest country in the world after the Vatican, has been in the press, radio, television and film on both sides of the Atlantic. But what was really behind the incredible media hype? How did French television manage to grab the broadcast rights for the event in front of American noses? And why did the MGM film studio pay for a movie star's wedding dress when she had announced that she would stop making films?

It is July 24, 1967, just after 7:30 p.m. Charles de Gaulle speaks into the microphone on the balcony of the city hall of the French-speaking Canadian metropolis Montreal: "Long live Quebec! Long live… free Quebec!" The statement by the French President at the time shocked the Anglo-Saxon world. De Gaulle immediately breaks off his trip to Canada and returns to Paris as quickly as possible – by plane and not by ship, as on the outward journey. Why did de Gaulle travel to Canada by sea in the first place? And why had he first stopped in the overseas territory of Saint-Pierre-et-Miquelon? But above all: what was the slogan of the separatists from the Quebec region doing in a speech by the French President? And another curiosity: the microphones on the balcony of Montreal City Hall had already been taken down and were only set up again shortly before de Gaulle's arrival. Calculated provocation on his part? If so, for what purpose? And what are the consequences?

On June 2, 1953, more than 30 million television viewers in Europe and over one hundred million viewers around the world witnessed the coronation of young Queen Elizabeth II of England. The six-step ceremony for the then 27-year-old with 7,500 guests took place in Westminster Abbey, where even the rehearsals that were already taking place were filmed. Elizabeth II was crowned to queen on June 2, 1953. That day will also go down in the history of broadcasting: it has been calculated that it was at that time in Britain that the number of television viewers first exceeded the number of radio listeners. One hundred million people around the world watched the live broadcast. However, Winston Churchill, among others, had opposed television broadcast. Many feared royal grandeur would incite anti-British sentiment and accelerate the destruction of the world's most powerful empire. And were the high expenses for the organization and the technical equipment with over 20 cameras reasonable?

From 1934 to 1936, the trial of Bruno Richard Hauptmann, a German illegal immigrant accused of the murder of the young son of the famous aviator Charles Lindbergh, unleashed passions. On April 3, 1936, 52 people, including several journalists, attended the execution of the German-born Bruno Hauptmann. He had been sentenced to death in the electric chair for the kidnapping and murder of Charles Augustus, the infant son of pilot Charles Lindbergh. The abduction of Lindbergh's child was named a crime of the century, and the press effectively convicted the accused before trial. Hauptmann himself swore his innocence to the end. Following this lawsuit, news cameras were evicted from American courtrooms for years. How did the press make this case the "Trial of the Century" and what impact has it had on the course of justice?

In Phnom Penh, as elsewhere, there are no more cinemas and yet the Khmer Rouge are making many propaganda films designed to extol the merits of their regime. After Phnom Penh fell into the hands of the Khmer Rouge in April 1975, Cambodia found itself in complete isolation for three years. The Khmer Rouge are making a clean sweep of their past: the terror regime is closing all banks, all trades are banned, and there are no more cinemas. Film screenings are not held in the capital or anywhere else in the country, but the Khmer Rouge made numerous propaganda films to glorify their regime. But which audience are these productions aimed at, and who shot them? What can these images tell us about the Khmer Rouge regime today?

Investigation into the evolution of audiovisual techniques for filming the Tour de France, with a focus on the 1959 edition of the race, when on July 14, for the first time, French television used a helicopter to film and broadcast live images of a mountain stage of the Tour de France. Louison Bobet, Jacques Anquetil, Jose Riviere and Charlie Gaul filmed like never before! In July 1959, the Tour de France was already half a century old. According to the organization, the cycle race attracts over ten million spectators to the sidelines of France and its neighboring countries every summer. Since 1903, the reporters and cameramen of the newsreels and those of French television have reported the Tour in a masterly manner.

Beijing, May 1989. In the huge Tiananmen Square occupied by students, reporters from around the world film the protests and their terrible repression. These pictures are among the most famous testimonies of the history of the 20th century: On the morning of June 5, 1989, a man in a white shirt confronted a tank column of the Chinese army in Beijing. He is filmed by western reporters, but to this day it is unclear who this man was. At that time, the atmosphere in the Chinese capital was similar to that of a civil war. For the first time in the history of the communist republic, army units advance into the city center. They are said to evict thousands of students occupying the vast Tiananmen Square. Reporters from all over the world film the rallies for political and democratic reforms every day. On the night of June 3-4, Chinese army troops stormed the center of Beijing and drove the students from the square. Numerous Beijing citizens opposed the soldiers.

On October 1971, the world witnessed a pompous staging. The lavish celebrations took place in a vast, star-shaped tent city in front of the ruins of Persepolis, the capital of ancient Persia. Against this grandiose backdrop, the Shah and Empress Farah Diba received around 60 crowned heads and heads of state or their representatives from five continents for three days. The immensely expensive festival stood in stark contrast to the poverty of the population. What was the Shah aiming at with all this pomp? What was the political impact of the celebrations? And why did so many foreign heads of state and government accept the invitation to this orgy of jubilation in the desert? What is the stake of these festivals for the Shah? And why did these prestigious guests agree to come and spend several days in the middle of the desert?

April 1975, Western reporters film the last hours of the Vietnam War: rushed departures, helicopters pushed into the sea, Communist tanks entering Saigon… The hasty evacuation from the roof of the American embassy, ​​helicopters in distress, pilots who, in desperation, jump into the void - these images shape the cinematic memory of the final act of the 30-year Vietnam War. They come from Western reporters covering the predictable fall of the South Vietnamese capital in late April 1975. Several thousand vulnerable Americans and Vietnamese are being evacuated by air. These images made the news worldwide and are part of our memory of the fall of Saigon today. But why this hasty escape when everything had been planned and organized for weeks?