Berlin in the 1950s: divided, but not yet walled. Young artists, at the start of their careers and seeking a new lifestyle, frequented the East Berlin cafés and bars that were meeting places for intellectuals, as well as Cold War secret service agents and black marketeers.

Former East Berlin bohemians gather at Ganymed, the legendary restaurant near Bertolt Brecht’s Berliner Ensemble. In the early 1990s, soon after the fall of the Wall, they recall the atmosphere of their city in the 1950s… which changed so abruptly when the Wall went up in 1961. They relate defining encounters with key players of the East Berlin art scene, especially theater reformer Bertolt Brecht. Director Peter Voigt—Brecht’s youngest assistant and himself part of the 1950s art scene—uses interviews, archival materials and atmospheric images of the period in this multi-layered film essay.