2020? That’s right, Corona! That means 30 years of German unity without fireworks, visitors and a stage. brot & salz therefore transformed the 30th anniversary holiday into a hybrid digital experience for the whole of Germany. The presentations of the federal states, the Federal President and the federal constitutional bodies were virtually translated via an interactive and multimedia EinheitsEXPO (Unity EXPO) Experience.
Experience Germany digitally.
The digital concept for the Day of German Unity enabled users to experience the 30th anniversary of the German national holiday from many different perspectives and in all facets, even in times of social distancing and contact restriction. By implementing a testimonial, the Day of German Unity had a digital identification figure and managed to emotionally transport content to the community in real time. The “mobile first” planned website as the digital heart with interactive features combined with coherently orchestrated digital content in the social networks as well as on the LED pillars on site, made the Day of German Unity 2020 in Potsdam a digital experience.
EinheitsEXPO (Unity EXPO) –
open-air exhibition.
Under the motto “30 years – 30 days – 30 x Germany”, the citizens’ festival with 750,000 planned visitors transformed into the spatially and temporally decentralized
EinheitsEXPO. For 30 days, federal states, constitutional bodies, the Commission “30 Years of Peaceful Revolution and German Unity” and other partners presented themselves with installations, exhibits or transformable “City Cubes” in downtown Potsdam. Thus, the new event format EinheitsEXPO was created in the UNESCO World Heritage City of Potsdam as a spacious open-air exhibition area. All content was digitally mirrored on the website and the official social media channels. Thus, the AHA rules and physical distancing were responsibly enforced. For the official ceremony on October 3, Anna Loos and Günther Jauch led through the program. ARD and ZDF broadcast the birthday celebration of German Unity live from the “Metropolis Halle” while the online live stream allowed interested people from all over Germany to participate in the festivities.

Experience
EinheitsEXPO digitally.
The German Unity Day website was the hub for citizens* digital experience. Dynamic features such as the TDE quiz, the interactive 360° tour of Potsdam or the timeline through 30 years of German history made the most important German holiday digitally tangible and gave historical events a new experience, sometimes playful, sometimes educational and informative.




Virtual tour.
Citizens* from all over Germany virtually participated in the Day of German Unity via 360° POV video content and timelapse videos. Via the interactive event map, the different stations were digitally walked through and thus the whole diversity of Germany could be experienced digitally and live on site.

The red thread… I mean, frame.
The entire media production around the Day of German Unity was accompanied by brot & salz daily in real time. The video and photo content was streamed live on site or prepared overnight and published on the website and social media channels. The red frame from the logo visual wandered through the city. This created an inclusive and connecting citizen dialogue with great reach under the motto hashtag #wirmiteinander. Especially in times when people had to miss each other again due to corona and longed for a sense of community and closeness, it was all the more important to use the power of reunification as probably the most formative event in German post-war history to set a sign of continuity and hope that signaled:
“We are not alone. Together we can do anything and overcome even the most difficult trials. We with each other”