“This just could be my last chance to leave the country. And that is why this time it’s do or die for me. This is either the first or the last entry in my diary.”

On September 30, 1989, just before 7 pm, almost 4000 people were packed into the yard of the German embassy in Prague. They were all waiting for Hans Dietrich Genscher. Finally, he appeared on the balcony: “Fellow countrymen. We have come to tell you that today your departure…” The rest of his speech was drowned out by loud cheers. On the same evening, the first train traveling from Prague to the Federal Republic of Germany was scheduled to depart. But the trains would take a dangerous detour through the German Democratic Republic.

The television docudrama “Zug in die Freiheit—Des Bürgers lange Reise“ (Broadview TV, Directors: Sebastian Dehnhardt and Matthias Schmidt), in English “Liberty Train: The Journey of Christian Bürger,” describes the journey of German Democratic Republic refugee Christian Bürger and the dramatic train ride that brought him to West Germany.

From September 1 to October 3, 2014, the multimedia project will be accompanied by a social media campaign on the Deutschland Blog run by achtQuark. By connecting text, photos, video, sound, animation, and innovative screen design, we’ve created a new art of storytelling. On the Deutschland Blog, facebook, Twitter, Google+, YouTube, and Pinterest, the story of Christian Bürger comes alive, and readers and viewers can accompany him on his journey.