The Book of Lenins

In 1994, Rick and his film crew spent three days in the blistering heat digging up the head of the 19 meter tall Lenin statue, which stood in East Berlin from 1970-1991. Following the collapse of the GDR (East Germany), the Berlin city government had the statue torn down and buried in the forest. But Rick and his friends knew where to find it. The story is told in the short film The Book of Lenins. In 2015, the Zitadelle Museum in Berlin had the head officially excavated and brought to the museum as one of the highlights of its exhibition

The latest Our Man in Berlin newsletter is out now. Read about Rick's recent adventures with Lenin's head, his upcoming "performance" at the Brecht Haus in Berlin, the German TV broadcast of The Strait Guys, and a chance to travel to the top of the world Spitsbergen/Svalbard (Norway) with Rick this summer.

The good folks at ARTE were kind enough to resurrect the old story of when my friends and I dug up the head of the Berlin Lenin statue way back in 1994 for my short film The Book of Lenins. French journalist Marion Desmaret followed me back to the scene of our "crime" and created this very amusing six-minute piece which poses the question: "Where should we put the controversial monuments?" Watch in German or French.