Cold War | Berlin Wall | This Week | 1971

Filmed 18 years before its fall in 1989, the team from 'This Week' visit the encircled city of West Berlin, and how life behind the wall is affecting the local population. First transmitted in 12/08/1971
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[@Bellasie1]

At the time, it seemed impossible to imagine how the two sides of the country could be reunited, let alone how sudden it would be. Yet, from one instant to the other, everything was over. In hindsight, that crazy situation seems like a nightmare, it's so absurdly surreal.

[@raymondmiller5098]

I was in East Berlin in late Oct. 1989, about 16 days before the Wall fell on 11/9/1989. Lots of tension, and DDR police and military. Very few people on the streets, and nothing to buy - not even a candy bar! The only open shop I found in East Berlin was a bookstore which, of course, contained mostly Marxist-Leninist rubbish. It was fascinating and a bit spooky. I'll never forget it!

[@user-jn9op7qp4o]

германия является американской колонией, уже 80 лет... придурки, тупые...

[@BB-kt5eb]

I have a chunk of the Berlin Wall on my book shelf here in South Carolina. My cousin was living in Berlin in 1989, so she sent us all a piece of the wall alongside a copy of Der Spiegel with the cover story from it coming down for Christmas that year.

[@rayman17578]

I ate a piece of it

[@jean6872]

I have a piece on my desk here in Spain.

[@bluestar465]

As an American, in 1970 and 1971, I lived with a family in Charlottenburg and attended school for a year when I was 17 Yrs old. I travelled in and around East Berlin to attend cultural events, museums etc. Of course my German language improved greatly as well as my beer drinking and conversational skills!

[@darkWorkOne]

Great footage! I lived in Germany in the late 1980s as a child and hope to revisit in the next couple years. I got to experience the Fall of the Berlin Wall in person...an experience I'll never forget! My family lived near Giessen and we just happened to be visiting Berlin when the Wall fell, a very lucky coincidence. My Father had a camcorder at the time and recorded our experience!

[@daddybeagleaz907]

You should post the video of your experiences!

[@bricaf]

Having been in Berlin not too long ago, I try to visualize in my mind's eye where that looking podium was located. This is indeed an amazing visual document.

[@adamfrazer5150]

Sincere thanks for making this available - the value in being able to watch and appreciate this, especially for younger generations, cannot be understated. To have this opportunity to breathe in the atmosphere of the Wall that was only 10 years old, is pretty priceless.

[@porschepanameraofficial5500]

This Fucking usa propaganda

[@pattysouza2954]

I went to East Berlin in 75. It was quite an experience.

[@claudiograssi1037]

What interesting footage! A snap of heart of Europe that doesn't exist anymore.

[@robertomon5697]

This is wild watching this in 2019. Such a different world. Different times.

[@kitnascimento0]

If time travel was possible i would go back and say "think this is bad? wait until you get 2000000 migrants from the 3rd world"

[@neilhurn2685]

@@kitnascimento0 much better then. World fucked now

[@JuneJarka]

See: kzbin.info/www/bejne/f4jNq4dooZp2aZY Living in a surveillance state. Dr Hubertus Knabe lived through the period. His insights are eye opening. To know more about Dr Knabe, see: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hubertus_Knabe. The Stasi officer depicted in the movie, OTHER LIVES is a more humane version of what Stasi officers were actually like. That’s why I recommend watching his TED talk given in Berlin in 2014. Also, Australian author Anna Funder wrote a best selling book called STASILAND. See: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stasiland. See: www.litcharts.com/lit/stasiland/summary.

[@neilhurn2685]

@@JuneJarka its just as bad now with internet knowing your movements and your next move before you even make it. Cctv, gps etc. Freedom of what?

[@JuneJarka]

Neil Hurn I accept what you have stated about mass surveillance in today’s digital world. The big tech companies didn’t exist then. The freedom that I am referring to is freedom of speech, freedom of assembly, to worship to organise. Those things which are absent in a dictatorship, regardless of whether it’s fascist or communist. See: www.forbes.com/sites/jimpowell/2013/02/05/how-dictators-come-to-power-in-a-democracy/#263cb8627ff7, www.sciencedirect.com/topics/social-sciences/dictatorship.

[@flori5548]

I’m actually amazed by how well all people interviewed speak English...I mean, this was 1971! Incredible film - thank you very much! Cheers from a (West-)German born in 1989

[@Malfoy1594]

People spoke English in 1971 Fabian, Jesus.

[@Aindriuh]

English has been the national business language of Europe - indeed the world - for decades.

[@wuetend9]

He studied in Oxford.

[@alexbleks]

@@Malfoy1594 Not Germans, they dont even today

[@Malfoy1594]

@@alexbleks Tbh English people don't even speak proper English today, so you're probably right.

[@kludgie]

The watchtower the troops are observing at 16:30 is now where Staaken train station is. A little later they drive past the DDR border crossing on Heerstraße and up the hill towards Fort Hahneberg. I live just down the road in Falkensee these days, would have been hard to imagine that happening back then!

[@porschepanameraofficial5500]

This Fucking usa propaganda

[@brucedanton3669]

I have not seen this before, so thank you so much indeed for it too!

[@cabaasraygel1848]

I was born 72 this is a great historical I thank you

[@georgfriedrichhandel4390]

National Geographic magazine published an excellent article about Berlin in its January 1970 issue and at the very end, a Czech refugee to West Berlin made the statement, "Berlin, you know, may be the place where the Cold War ends." Her words proved remarkably prophetic. The Cold War officially ended when the Wall came down.

[@one4allall4one91]

That was the year I was born. I had the privilege of visiting Berlin twice while I was station in Germany 1998-2001. It was by then a thriving city. Who would of known so much turmoil happen there.

[@spidyman8853]

1971, wow, I was a baby and in DDR

[@bricaf]

@10:00 Friedricht Luft was in the 1973 series, The World at War. He has a very distinguishable voice.

[@Xezlec]

Imagine if you told them that over that wall there was a teenaged girl named Angela who would be the leader of a united Germany for 16 years in the 21st century!

[@barondemonrepos]

I visited in West and East Berlin 1984 - and then again in Berlin 2007.

[@thomasweir2834]

A fascinating insight. Really enjoying these uploads

[@raphaelrau1728]

Fredrick Luft (10:00) was later interviewed for the excellent UK series on WW2 ‘The World At War’ on his experiences in the Wehrmacht and also the Russian invasion of Berlin in April 1945.

[@tomduggan51]

Thanks Tv, Thanks for very interesting documentary on Berlin at a very delicate time in the divided city's history.

[@elroyfudge8729]

awesome ,,,thanks for posting.

[@herosstratos]

20:10 20 years later: the wall was removed, Germany reunited and the USSR had collapsed.

[@yampk1]

Can you imagine ITV making a serious documentary like this today?

[@Zlervo]

I wish they would.

[@brucedanton3669]

Indeed not I would guess alas!

[@FLAKKU03]

great document. thanks for uploading

[@Ferr1963]

16:47 British observer: The one at left is a Saa'gent 16:50 German observer: Der mann in turm ist ein unteroffizier

[@toke7560]

I do remember watching the Russian soldiers parading here. Also a lone soldier just standing on gaurd. I also remember a tank being there.

[@mitchkeller5055]

Thank you so much thamestv I love all this old content

[@Itapirkanmaa2]

Choosing between a divided Europe and a destroyed Europe I'd take the first.

[@lashakhonelidze1350]

18 long years ahead before the joy of unification...

[@AlexanderBogdanow]

Ty to all people who showed solidarity with us Germans in those difficult times. I also like to express my appreciation to all service members of the armed forces. You put yourself in great danger to save us from the red plague. Sincerely, A decendant of a german mother & a british 'sapper'. 😊

[@johnreynolds5407]

Interesting to hear what people at a past given moment thought of their past, present and future circumstances.

[@Czechbound]

And only 17 years later, they were joined again

[@fratercontenduntocculta8161]

I was born here in America, but this was filmed when my mother was born there in Germany and was 10 at the time, she didn't remember much about it, but she did know something was wrong about where she came from.

[@mkvenner2]

18 years later the wall came down

[@fairalbion]

Notice how the production of this assumes adult levels of comprehension & attention span.

[@sjmachrihanish]

A sobering observation. British television has dumbed down to a level which would not have been comprehensible when this documentary was made. The reporter in this program speaks transatlantic English and not some trendy regional dialect. The saddest thing about UK media today is the blatant bias towards the Left. It is also the most dangerous in my opinion.

[@saudispinoza]

Yes. High quality production

[@jerff5411]

i didn't pay attention, i just looked at the footage

[@merseydave1]

As a "Democratic Socialist" I believe in state structures/intervention and private enterprise with constrictions, furthermore free democratic elections. In the Federal Republic of Germany that went on, in the DDR it did not ! The German people had to wait a further 18 years until Sunday the 9th of November 1989. I am 50 now, I never thought I would ever see that day as a 24 year old in 89 ... Its only now that unification has really established itself within the German Nation and the mind-set of its people.

[@slimshady7014]

David Coker u r a special kind of stupid

[@IRAUDR]

David Coker blame jjewz.How original LOL

[@IRAUDR]

slim shady no special. Very commion

[@IRAUDR]

David Cummings socialism is shite

[@TheDieselbutterfly]

David Coker yes the jews were not attacked all through history.....moron

[@samwindmill8264]

2:44 "what have they got to shield?" The answer would be, gentleman who is most certainly dead now, is that they were both shielding their own criminal leadership from scrutiny, and more importantly keeping their own people locked inside.

[@MotoCrazy66]

1:01 - Cold War John McEnroe.

[@Orthane]

17:07 he actually did become Chancellor of Germany in 1998. But that was after Germany was already reunited and the Soviet Union fell.

[@herosstratos]

17:07 This is the Gerhard Schröder of the CDU. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerhard_Schr%C3%B6der_%28CDU%29?wprov=sfla1

[@martinbitter4162]

Different Gerhard Schröder

[@chetpomeroy1399]

Those were some pretty tense times, although things had quieted down quite a bit after the first 10 years. Soviet and East German armies surrounded West Berlin and, in the event of war, could have easily seized it at any moment with tanks, through strategic weak spots in the wall.

[@jitterball]

17:17 That's not Gerhard Schröder that I know!

[@kaistrelzig6628]

It's definitely a different guy!

[@EmmanuelHemmings]

I thought the same and even looked him up.

[@AndrewTubbiolo]

@13:54 she understood exactly why reunification could not happen until it happened the way it would happen, with the complete capitulation of one Germany to the other. We all thought it was impossible back then.

[@GraemeWight-wx3xz]

At 1:19 roughly, the narrator says this is 10 years after the war. Does this look like that ? Im not convinced at all 😂.

[@videosuperhighway7655]

Hopefully one day this wall will go down.

[@ladderzombie]

I'm surprised how many ordinary Germans could talk freely in English back then lol

[@mahamdelfeky916]

what is the name of the music at 00:40 ?

[@kalle2591]

Sibelius - Karelia suite - Intermezzo

[@mahamdelfeky916]

@@kalle2591 Thanks a lot :)

[@Cozza84]

3:52 and the bit thereafter is a bit odd - wouldn't the people in the East face some serious issues with the Stasi for communicating over the wall with Westerners?

[@A_10_PaAng_111]

Yes. Unless they themselves are Stasi.

[@JuiceTerry87]

@@JosephNoussair that isn't exclusive to socialism

[@zigosaleh555]

NOW IS 2022 OVER 60 YEARS ON SINCE THE WALL WAS UP JUST IMAGINE THE WALL STILL THERE HASNT FALLEN?

[@purpleblastoise]

I wish West part of Berlin was liberated by the National People's Army and abolish the most inhumane system that is capitalism!

[@zigosaleh555]

@@purpleblastoise Too right mate if the wall hasn’t fallen The Saddam would not have invaded Kuwait and the Gupf War would not have happened in 1991 the Yugoslav Civil War and the demise of Yugoslavia would not have happened the Soviet Union would still exist, the iAmerican invasion of Somalia would not taken place in 1993, America would not bombed Belgrade in 1999. The Terrorism attack 9/11 wouldn’t have followed by the invasion of Afghanistan and Iraq and multiple terrorism attacks on global scale made by the so called Al Qaeda propaganda which is set by America all that would not had happened. The Arab spring followed by the bombing of Syria, Libya and Yemen would not had happened. The creation of ISIS another American propaganda to initiate further conflicts would not had existed and most recently the The Russian invasion of Ukraine would not had taken place either. So you can see the world had suffered out this evil empire American over the past 3 decades since the fall of this wall.

[@purpleblastoise]

@@zigosaleh555 Marxist-Leninism need to be updated that Liberals and social democrats they are not leftists but closeted fascists, they would choose fascism over socialism because fascism doesn't threatens private property and bending over to the ruling class to save capitalism! We as Marxism-Leninists need to liquidate these scumbags, they are the true enemies of the proletariat then the fascists ever could!

[@henningandersen9027]

13,31 "Who was offering WHAT"? What's he asking?

[@1minutoenresistencia]

Me estremece pensar que estos ancianos en 00:09:13 atravesaron dos guerras mundiales.

[@adognamedcody2051]

No Nazis were harmed during the making of this documentary

[@hapyhay1]

Gotta risk your life to have a good time the snipers trying to kill you while you're at the bar

[@theonemesis5217]

All these are pointless now, and already the past, and a long gone nostalgia. Despite the debates.... the agonies...the confrontations, and the ongoing antagonism, the wall however, finally collapsed, and the two Germanies have been reunited, and that's that!

[@acautomacaoecontrole3634]

At the time of this scenes, It was still going to take 18 years till the wall collapses. They ´ve had to keep their hope for too much time.

[@ab8588]

1:01 Art Garfunkel

[@mikeylejan8849]

An island of capitalism from sea of communism

[@CaptainBuzzBee]

I wonder why they chose the music of Sebileus, a Finnish composer, for this piece?

[@martinhughes2549]

That was the theme music for the "This Week" current affairs series made by Thames TV, the London weekday Independent TV (ITV) franchisee from 1968 to 1992, for the ITV network.

[@kelvinpell4571]

Bizarre how so many of the young people were a bit deluded about the DDR. They talk as if it was just a seperate state instead of a vicious open prison as all communist countries are. When the wall fell...we saw what the east germans really thought. So sad there are so many similarities with the Ukraine situation and totalitarian Russia today

[@Ocinneade345]

This is a bit of an ignorant view. People of the DDR wanted a more western socialism. Instead, they got an unrecovered mess.

[@nilsen589]

Interesting. I notice that the Germans spoke more British English back then. Today we try to sound more American, I think. For whatever reason.

[@peter1794]

17:30

[@leonid3617]

4:14 - where is it in maps-google? Does anybody know?

[@DynamoRyan]

Live in Berlin. That is at the point where Bernauer Straße (West) turns into Eberswalder Straße (East) and where it intersects with Schwedter and Odeberger Straße (East) It is at the point where the wall turned north and hugged the side of the Friedrich-Ludwig-Jahn Sportpark, on what is now called the “Mauerpark.”

[@leonid3617]

@@DynamoRyan Thanks. I will seek for it

[@leonid3617]

​@@DynamoRyan with your helping I have found this place on the google-map. Those women (from DDR) stand here: 52.540625, 13.405093

[@JosephNoussair]

@@DynamoRyan Which, by the way, was kind of a quiet but desolate "hinterland" on the west side at the time. It actually had an eerie air about it. It only came to life when the weekend flea market was set up nearby.

[@alastairwest5200]

RAF Gatow

[@WeWhoBelongtoYou]

Putin stationed in East Berlin in the 1970’s.

[@user-ww3dd6cr6f]

Вы забыли сказать о том, что сейчас англо-саксы могут ввести свои войска, на территорию Германии, не спрашивая её!

[@user-ww3dd6cr6f]

@反共抗俄 нихт шпрехен зе дойч!

[@ab8588]

Beautiful women

[@andrewmcdonald8868]

17:17 Herman göring is that you!

[@STEVE8OS]

Not funny :(

[@AndrewTubbiolo]

T minus 17 years and counting ...

[@rayman17578]

Imagine your gf living in West Berlin but you in East Berlin

[@martinbitter4162]

That happened a lot. Imagine the trauma of 1961.

[@rayman17578]

@@martinbitter4162 I'd rather live in East Germany

[@boandlkramer2539]

Germany is still devided and not yet fully re..unified...Ich mein halt nur..

[@JuneJarka]

boandlkramer It’s not surprising. It will take a few generations before former East Germans can rid themselves of the Communist ideology. See: theconversation.com/30-years-after-the-berlin-wall-came-down-east-and-west-germany-are-still-divided-126589, www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2019/10/18/how-the-attitudes-of-west-and-east-germans-compare-30-years-after-fall-of-berlin-wall/, www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2019/11/06/east-germany-has-narrowed-economic-gap-with-west-germany-since-fall-of-communism-but-still-lags/ . Here’s why, I think. See: www.theguardian.com/world/2015/oct/02/german-reunification-25-years-on-how-different-are-east-and-west-really.

[@redwingrob1036]

@@JuneJarka LOL. & by that your Quisling leader Merkel will have turned your country into West Gerabia; run by Africans, Arabs, & Turks.

[@mikeylejan8849]

Germany has been punished a lot from the days of world war 1 to world war 2 and to the cold war plus with the current terrorism and immigration crisis.

[@Orthane]

Back when the Western World wasn't scared to take on its enemies.

[@ab8588]

Couldn't west berliners travel to the east?

[@Pissedoffinpearls]

No - at least, not without a good reason and thickets of paperwork.

[@GraemeWight-wx3xz]

Thumbs down for hitting me with degenerate advertisements.

[@jakelaw6632]

Ver are your papers?? lol...lol...

[@redwingrob1036]

VER are your Covid 19 papers?

[@rebellionautos2206]

Put it back up BAOR 1988-1990

[@ab8588]

12:01 beautiful woman

[@pgr3290]

That's a beautiful socialist wall, designed to keep the utopia within from being polluted by all the desperate capitalists trying to enter. Lel

[@KapitanPisoar1]

Now I know what the Sex Pistols were really singing about in "Holidays in the sun. Oh boy, British tourists, ever so thick... " I'm looking over the wall and they're looking at me!"

[@rayman17578]

THE BERLIN WALL

[@graeme2011]

The ironic thing is east is more free than 2021 UK today

[@andrewturek2457]

What a limitlessly stupid remark. How many people have been murdered because they wish to emigrate from the UK?

[@JamesTilsley1]

Most moronic comment winner 🏆

[@bobbymkd457]

Kapitalism will tear it self apart! We need real democracy!

[@STEVE8OS]

Real democracy is mob rule. NO THANKS COMMIE !!!!!!!!!!

[@jean6872]

*_They should have chosen German, not Finnish, Music._*

[@benoosha4947]

The “joys” of socialism. 🤮

[@herrgolf]

God the American tourists really ask stupid questions.

[@A_10_PaAng_111]

herrgolf 2:40 🙄🤦🏼‍♂️ OMG!!

[@hdanielnoble3671]

And Germans can be really quite offensive.

[@neilwalsh4058]

Stupid people, simple as that

[@6000mikesch]

ddr ist vorbei! Sorry now we have to talk about Brexit! Now your country is doing this, what had happened in Germany 1961! Boris Johnson you will be a mark, I guess not well known in history! EU!

[@JuneJarka]

Agreed. See: www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/feb/06/foreign-office-language-brexit-boris-johnson.See also: www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/oct/31/boris-johnson-31-october-brexit.

[@redwingrob1036]

? WHAT Brexit & Boris gibberish. The Eton clown only cares about himself, not BREXIT, not the UKGB. I miss the Berlin Wall, & the Cold War. It kept all the scab labour from Yurup, & illegal asylum seekers out. BRING IT BACK.

[@Ocinneade345]

Amazing all the western propaganda filtering through

[@ReSSwend]

Well... at least now Germanistan is doing well.