1378 (km), 2010

If the ideologists of globalization had had their way, then the end of the Cold War around 1989 would have also been the end of historical narratives. The triumphal march of democracy and the free enterprise economy would have cleared up all political and economic conflicts and, therefore, also the necessity to put these down in words, pictures, and stories. A never-ending series of wars, terrorism, and catastrophes has so far not confirmed this assumption. At the same time, the introduction of digital media and the Internet have had consequences for historiography and storytelling in general, the scale of which is still difficult to foresee. Over recent years, video games have become a mass medium that offers very specific techniques of storytelling. The possibility of subjective participation in the gaming action, which, however, is orientated on a predetermined aesthetic and contextual framework, renders it possible to make questions about subjectivity and the freedom to decide an immediately experiencable part of the story.

It is against this background that Jens M. Stober’s “serious game” 1378 km is situated. As gamers we are confronted with the choice of taking over the role of a refugee or that of a border guard at the former border between the two Germanies. As the latter we have the choice of following the East German regime’s order to shoot, to refuse, or to try to escape across the border ourselves – whoever shoots, is taken to court in the game after a narrative time leap into the year 2000. That the populist media tried to brand 1378 km as a violent shoot-’em-up game merely shows that they did not even take the possibility of free choice into account; this matches exactly the kind of logic that uncritical obedience within any political system follows. (JB)