East Berlin tram & bus rides 1989

A tram trip followed by a bus journey through Communist East Berlin, East Germany shortly before the Iron Curtain was ripped from top to bottom, with views of contemporary cars, lorries, buses & trams along the way.

[@Nikki_Holland]

Went to DDR and East Berlin 3 times in the mid 80s. I’ll never forget the experience, it was like another world. So old fashioned, in vehicles and clothes etc. The air was very polluted with 2 stroke fumes as I remember as most of the cars and vans had 2 stroke engines. We also went to Leipzig and Dresden. I found it so fascinating.

[@JanPBtest]

My experience was similar, I also videotaped in East Berlin in the summer of 1989, and was only asked once about filming the wall near the Brandenburg Gate. I was a bit annoyed and responded angrily: "What, is this forbidden?!" Somewhat to my surprise the two guards walked away. Nobody ever checked my camera at the Friedrichstrasse S/U-Bahn checkpoint either (it was in a very obvious camera bag).

[@BerlinBerlin]

These good Tatra Trams were still used in nowadays Potsdam, because the new acquired modern trams have a design flaw.

[@1joshjosh1]

This is cool!! I like the tram drivers epic hair.

[@zizkmart]

If somebody asks if that has been captured by mobile phone, I will die :)))

[@CyberstormDJTeam]

A wonderful contemporary document, especially if you're living in that part of Berlin since a long time, like me. Best is the crossing of the “Anschlussbahn Lichtenberg” industrial railroad right at the beginning, and the green IFA G5 truck which appears again later on Berliner Allee in Weißensee :) Thank you very much for sharing!

[@321Feuer]

I spended the most of my live in Berlin Weißensee. Since 1985 i live here. It is so crazy to see the old traffic and vicinity. Very Good.

[@Marcikutyaful]

The flowers in the cab! :-)

[@greenknitter]

Would love to be able to go back there and see it for myself.

[@19rod65]

Großartig!Die erste Szene gleich mit der Anschlußbahn in Röder (IUB) Anschluß EKL.Klasse.

[@CyberstormDJTeam]

Sicher, dass das EKL ist? Er biegt doch gleich anschließend von der Siegfriedstr. nach links in die Herzbergstr. ein. Die Elektrokohle war aber auf der Nordseite der Herzbergstr. Ich denke, das ist Gleisgruppe A, siehe hier: www.bahninfo-forum.de/read.php?9,525460,page=2

[@19rod65]

@@CyberstormDJTeam Stimmt hast recht. EKL lag hinter der Herzbergstrasse. Der gezeigte Anschluss muss dann MAB gewesen sein.

[@CyberstormDJTeam]

​@@19rod65 Du meinst das Kombinat Metallaufbereitung? Das kann hinkommen, siehe die Ladung auf dem ersten Wagen. Aber da waren auch noch etliche andere Anschlüsse an der Gleisgruppe.

[@19rod65]

@@CyberstormDJTeam ja genau. Das meine ich.

[@atilllathehun1212]

East Berlin 1989. Doesn't look so bad really.......

[@goclunker]

That Ikarus bendy bus transmission whine is my childhood.

[@michaelhell8738]

Ein Bus mit Schaltgetriebe, sowas habe ich ja schon ewig nicht mehr gesehen :-) Tolles Video, danke fürs hochladen!

[@diamondgeezer3593]

The good old days. I enjoyed every minute of it as a child. As kids we felt this was the safest city on earth. It was a crime free city. Not any more these days. I haven't been back since the 1980s. I'd love to pay a visit to see how it has been transformed post the fall of the WALL. Never mind, nothing stays the same for ever. But, as long as I live I always have fond memories of Berlin and that's not just me but the generation who grew up in Berlin in them days. They too have fond memories.

[@Yolticat]

Hear hear! I agree. People forget how safe and secure and crime free many places with similar regiemes could be (I know not all were). They think only of "freedom" - to commit violent crime; to say offensive things; to riot; to go where they please; etc. With "democracy" comes misbehaviour!

[@olmaBLN]

Yes, it was so crimefree... Let me ask... why there were prisons and massive Police Forces in East Berlin, when everything was crimefree??

[@olmaBLN]

Again the "crime free" rubbish... so beating oppositiont or opress right of free speach is not a crime? And we all know, the "Polizeiruf 110" crime series were only GDR-Science-Fiction...

[@thecomputerandme4141]

So crime free that a child murder telephoned children to take a scissor to cut a cable and put it with the fingers into water after it was electrified. This was never in the news, but this idiot phoned me so that I got this information from the VP as a child. This dude killed several children. The whole Stasi crimes like killing are also untold in your story. Damn liar.

[@tl1146]

Berlin was crime free and you are still brain free LOL

[@TouffmanJasonTGV]

tatra trams everywhere.. i love it!

[@ewanodoherty2545]

When I last visited Berlin in 2017 the Tatra trams had almost disappeared completely. The same happened in Prague and Krakow in the '00s

[@JohnSmith-eo5sp]

If you didn't mind being spied upon all over the place by The Stasi

[@greenknitter]

@@JohnSmith-eo5sp That wasn't to the foreground in people's everyday lives, more like a background awareness. And look at how CCTV is everywhere now, information collected on us from social media, Govt agencies, how we're plagued by advertising everywhere and a million different scams and fraudsters infiltrating our lives trying to get our personal information and money. The Stasi was undoubtedly awful, but life under capitalism has it's horrors too.

[@JohnSmith-eo5sp]

@@greenknitter False Comparison! The Stasi used torture, and had one of every eight German citizens act as informers. But the worst part of the Stasi was their wide wide spread use of 'gaslighting', I swear L Ron Hubbard and The Stasi must have been born from the same bad egg

[@greenknitter]

@@JohnSmith-eo5sp I know, my other half is from the GDR and was imprisoned and interrogated for several days by them and the military for simply going on a peace march through his home town. He still has happy childhood memories from there though and can recognise life there wasn't black and white as people think. There are some things he misses about it too. Some quality of life aspects that were better than the West in fact. The US has a long history of the use of torture too btw both by civil authorities and military: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Torture_and_the_United_States Informers wasn't all about snitching on your neighbours there, there were very many reasons people worked for the Stasi- for personal or family advancement, protection, because they supported the system, career advancement... one thing I've learned above all else in talking to my partner and being in the former east-we were lied to in the west about some aspects of life in the GDR-anti-communist propaganda, and it was a lot more complex with many grey areas rather than everything being uniformly awful and oppressive as I was taught by western media and education. I've learned to question and had to reexamine everything I was ever told about the GDR and learn a whole lot more than I ever expected.

[@PropagandaPanda85]

Nostalgie. Da fühlt man sich wieder wie ein kleiner Junge xD

[@cropereira]

I wish I could have visited East Berlin at that time.

[@ChristianFischer-tk4nu]

I was there in 1989.

[@jenslowe7910]

Da hatten wir noch alle Arbeit...

[@usuwerdd]

Traurig aber war & billige Mieten😊😊😊

[@Lionfish5656]

So many Trabants & Wartburgs in this video. Not only that, there are a few Ladas in this video.

[@lordsleepyhead]

I think it's a universal thing that bus and tram drivers wave at eachother when they pass :) even when they're sporting a mullet and aviator sunglasses...

[@begent73]

Totally agree Bellegar! People go on about it being grey and drab, well London was and in may parts is very grey and drab! I think it was the grass is greener mentality and once they had tasted the unemployment, rocketing crime, people being homeless, paying for healthcare and education they came down to earth with a massive bump! People forget how destroyed DDR was from and great achievement to rebuild it in so short a time!

[@goclunker]

It was gray and drab because of the clouds of two stroke smoke. Not the iron curtain

[@spreeathener1972]

7:40 Kulturhaus Peter Edel Berliner Allee in Weissensee 10:18 Berliner Allee Ecke Langhansstrasse - Antonplatz am Kino Toni.

[@HammerK47]

That brings back memories. I could see my school in that footage.

[@sebvoll2557]

Spezialschule für Fremdsprachen "Johann Gottfried Herder"?

[@spatzvomalexanderplatz3200]

Gute, alte Tatra! Mit der sind wir im Winter nicht liegen geblieben...

[@cosmicmaniac1886]

A valuable historical document of a sadly lost world. Everyone dressed casually. No dominant suit and tie brigade. And all the small cars were great to see.And no big flash rich executive supercars speeding around showing off and annoying everyone like in the west. So hardly any wealth differentials between people because there were no social classes. No one was shamelessly living off the masses and going around putting them down and boasting about it . That is true freedom - the freedom of not being exploited.

[@marcokoehler8832]

Oohhh..what a naive, sorry bro..

[@55Massy]

What a precious video surrounded by a lot of Trabees!

[@phillawson9453]

Looks like a great trip to see

[@TheAtaja]

Finally, a good video of ordinary day in the DDR. Take it for what is worth.

[@tonyclifton265]

the driver's mullet is pure Ossie! nobody rocks a vorkuhila like an Ossie

[@arjanpetersen]

Can you imagine it is 1989...it looks like the sixties

[@samanli-tw3id]

The Tatras’ boxy design is very 80s

[@marcokoehler8832]

@@samanli-tw3id This "boxy design" of trams was already developed in the early 1970s in ČKD Prague. It was a very modern design back then. The first ones (for east.Germany) were produced in 1973. They started running in Berlin in 1978.

[@Mark-yy2py]

1987-1988 Tempelhof Central Airport (TCA) best assignment in my AF career!

[@kalaha8]

East-Berlin for life, that´s my hometown. I be proud to be !!

[@gunterschneider9336]

Zu geil der Osten

[@nils4169]

Günter Schneider Scheiss westen

[@pienodise]

Great video! It seem to be there. Thanks for sharing.

[@mmb2111]

The excellent Tatra KT4D streetcars - step on the throttle, the ammeter deflects over 400 and you are pushed into your small plastic seat

[@marcokoehler8832]

Yes, fast and furious. 😁⚡ Truly perfect trams were produced in Prague.

[@kolbenfresser8489]

The scariest part of this vid is that mixture of that hardcore mullet, porn sunshades and stone washed jeans clothes that tram driver is wearing, LOL

[@freddymarcel-marcum6831]

kolbenfresser he's a bo$$

[@RegrebEwuNews]

Das ist genau mein tägliches Einzugsgebiet! :D

[@mic08041977]

@pidrpede This is indeed the door closing bell (or, to be exact, a door closing buzzer). The Ikarus buses had that signal (buzzer + light) at each door. The doors were all driver operated, as was the closing signal - so if the driver didn't push the "signal" button, there was no closing signal and the doors merely closed. Different at the trams: the Tatra KT4D had a signal that was operated by a time relay, the driver gave the "close" command, signal sounded+lighted, and doors closed.

[@PatriciamaeramirezgmailcomPatr]

I wish i can visit there someday :)

[@askme5805]

Driver has long hair, Mulet. It is a rebellion! :-)

[@AndreiTupolev]

interesting further thought: ironically, I bet there was less surveillance on an everyday basis then than there was now; no CCTV in trams & buses, for instance, no "For your safety and security, Closed circuit television and Remote Video Monitoring is in use at this station".

[@jogobonito1234]

Absolut prima. Und ja, Ostalgie ist da. Tschuess

[@mowerman437]

Nice Mullett

[@SilvermanStan]

East Berlin looked better than I remembered. However, just as many Trabants!

[@thomasostarek2829]

bei 12.30 der eine typ mit der brille habe ich gesehen...bei einer Doku...er riss einem demostranten ein plakat herunter...okotober 1989..ich denke ein IM...ein sehr gutes video...absolut genial....der Mann hat dafür fast seine freiheit riskiert

[@hzlh2254]

besser als heute

[@MovieProfi]

das waren noch "Klänge" anfahren , bremsen achja war schon schön

[@jean-marcaudirac2329]

super le bus Ikarus 280 à boîte mécanique en ville...!!!

[@movistarcj]

It's funny(kind of) that these trams are still functional in many cities in Romania. Almost every orange tram has German written instructions, messages and so on. It's sad that we are still behind almost every country in Europe. Nice vid by the way.

[@Yolticat]

Danke!

[@stachebln]

Mittlerweile ein Zeitdokument! Kenne die Gegend zufällig sehr genau, damals und heute. Es hat sich sehr sehr viel verändert dort. Danke fürs hochladen.

[@ChristianFischer-tk4nu]

Das ist mir auch aufgefallen, ich war im August 1989 in Betlin, und dann erst wieder 2019.Wahnsinn wie sich die Stsdt verändert hat.

[@Yolticat]

Many cars were newer than they looked as that was how they were built in those Eastern communist countries, everything was utilitarian and generally with no frills. The West was very different, similar to other Western countries. Crossing the Berlin Wall was a real and symbolic move across two totally opposing ideals which were in operation at the time in Europe. I would guess that the nearest thing to that now might be found at the Korean internal border.

[@thomasostarek2829]

yolticat.....Deine Filme sind very great,,,,,,,super!!!!

[@kitiowa]

Sehr Sehr interestiert. Vielen Danken!

[@thonburino1]

Yes, even nowadays there is a doorbell before closing the doors.

[@robertRnicoleF]

Die Fahrt beginnt in der Siegfriedstrasse in Berlin Lichtenberg, unweit des Strassenbahnbetriebshof.

[@isom64]

Tolles Zeitdokument

[@Awakeningspirit20]

I bet there were a lot of car accidents in East Berlin! They can drive on the freaking tram tracks holy crap!

[@Yolticat]

@pidrpede No I don't remember a door closing bell on them. Possibly it was an air release from a valve underneath.

[@bronikus999]

This tram from ČKD Prague. Thiis is Czechoslovakia products

[@Yolticat]

Could be the guards had been warned to soften up a bit as it was no doubt known in high circles that changes were coming, though perhaps not how fast they would soon happen!

[@6000mikesch]

es wäre mal interessant, die gleiche Strecke heutzutag zu sehen!

[@villy27]

Die Bahn folgt ganz am Anfang der heutigen M8 ab Siegfriedstr. die Herzbergstr. entlang und dann ab Weißenseer Weg der M13 bis zum Antonplatz. Beide Linien finden sich auch auf KZbin.

[@DerBerliner53]

Jim Knopf Echt als ob es dort ist. Sah ja ganz anders aus als heute. Ich wohne zwar Friedrichsfelde aber das sieht ja ganz anders aus

[@Mark-yy2py]

You would think the Vopos or Stasi would have forced the tram operator to cut his “rock on” mullet! 🤔

[@paddy9i99]

Amazing bit of history. Trabant's, Wartburg's, and other eastern bloc soviet cars

[@AndreiTupolev]

Bus was an Ikarus, I suppose? Manual gearbox, I see; unusual for a city bus.

[@TrainNico]

Thank's! I love you! *gg* The greates Video I've ever seen. I hope you've got such other good videos ;-)

[@DOOMGENERATION]

geil, hat der fahrer blumen vorne drinne... hach...ich vermisse die orangen plastestühle in der tram... zum glück klingen die noch genauso und deren warnsignalgeklingel auch, wenn mal wieder wer unerlaubt auf die fahrbahn springt.

[@Yolticat]

From London, UK

[@werter1962]

Der Kameramann war bestimmt damals Angehöriger der britischen Armee(The cameraman was determined at the time the British army). right Yollicat

[@dstanl]

Safe is a relative statement. Not safe if you or your family were picked up. Not safe to say what you think.

[@Yolticat]

@NYz3R0dAY This was only one day filming in East. At frontier return to West side film was hidden in clothing, with camera empty!

[@Yolticat]

They were kept under good order back then.... as soon as these regiemes crumble there's always infighting, rethe Arab Spring etc!! I know it's a totally different idealism but underneath it's the same old human nature....

[@totalitaer.]

I doubt that you´d had problems.I guess Stasi knew you were walking around in east Berlin with a large camera anyway.When my brother entered east Berlin with his west German school class in april 1989 he was immediately contacted in a somewhat conspicuous way at the east Berlin side of the border crossing by a guy asking him for west money.He was not unfriendly,but I guess the Stasi was well informed about the persecution history of our family and wanted to get an impression on my brother

[@Kiesbahner]

Hat was von "JOHANNA" ;-).

[@JanPBtest]

No, tectonic changes were most emphatically nowhere in sight. This is easy to forget now but at the time nobody knew. The wall looked every bit like it was going to sit there for another X years. Just 4 months earlier a person had been shot and killed for trying to escape. My West Berlin friends were telling me "nothing will change". I suspect the reason for treating a tourist somewhat "nicer" that year was the upcoming 40th anniversary of the GDR and the propaganda surrounding it.

[@KOLA.CSH35VRA]

Da bin ich aufgewachsen 😂❤

[@pidrpede]

12:38 is that the door closing bell? did you have that at each stop?

[@jlaci84]

Yes it is. Certainly they had it :) It is the white round button on the board of the driver, just left of the door opener/closer buttons. (The driver is ready to touch it just after he opened the doors at 14:23.

[@Yolticat]

@heartbeat1965 29 June 1989

[@PokoleizKuleckim]

I was not aware of the monoculture of KT4D in Berlin... I was expecting to see other types, too. What is the variant of the Ikarus - is it 280.02? It does not look very very old based on the appearance of door opening buttons (the earliest I have seen were round, not rectangular. Great document, thank you so much for sharing.

[@mmb2111]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/g6eqgWlti9WihNE is the other type of streetcars

[@thonburino1]

Ich denke, die Filmaufnahmen wurden von ausländischen Touristen gemacht, nicht von westdeutschen. Es war nicht verboten, in der DDR privat zu filmen und zu fotografieren. Ausländer hatten keine Probleme, und bei Westdeutschen oder Westberlinern wurde nur kontrolliert, wenn der Verdacht auf Fluchthilfe bestand oder wenn man dabei beobachtet wurde, daß man Grenzanlagen fotografierte oder filmte.

[@tusepomaluj8084]

Es gibt viele Trabanten in den Straßen, Wartburg Fiat 125p, 126p, Fso Polonez ;-)

[@alexandre210613]

The time when there was no mess in public transport, no graffiti, everyone is polite, no noise. Otherwise !

[@Yolticat]

@Notiveronline If you hang around another twenty years you might get to see some of my stuff from 2011, lol!

[@Waffenmeister1983]

Der Anfang ist anscheinend in der Siegfriedstr. oder?

[@Flutungsopfer]

gut erkannt, musste aber erstmal ni Weile kucken, und das obwohl gestern genau da lang geknetet mit dem Fahrrad :)

[@goclunker]

Love love love this video. Similar to my childhood in ex communist poland

[@ChristianFischer-tk4nu]

Die Beidlmattn vo dem Tramwayfohra und des Gemüsekistl neben eam, san a Wahnsinn.

[@JAMAICADOCK]

Not like tram-drivers ever dressed like that in the West - well at least when they weren't on duty.

[@alpehyl]

This was a good place without decadence and injustice. But Reagan had to destroy it.

[@Mark-yy2py]

alpehyl it wasn’t Reagan. It was 40 years of oppression and economic mismanagement.

[@marcokoehler8832]

Stupid and naive...

[@marcokoehler8832]

@@Mark-yy2py I grew up in the neighboring country, Czechoslovakia. It was exactly the same.

[@joahimquasdorf7662]

Der zug farth bach ostfront?

[@alexbravo7602]

I felt like I was there, it felt like a scary place to be.

[@Brissieskater1]

Life appears to be normal from the outside, but if the Stasi wanted you, they could take you off the tram at any given time.

[@6000mikesch]

to olmaBLN: ist das ehrlich von der Frage her? oder....minder....? naja, Gott steh uns bei.

[@sidka84]

Looks the same as Bratislava in late 80s

[@sasacelavi]

Seem to MacGyver board in bus at 12:32

[@Mq05515]

3:45 gdzie to dokładnie?

[@Dovenpeis]

An all White city, what a beautiful sight! By looking at the streets of Europe today one would not think this is just 25 years ago.

[@RyanHellyer]

+Dovenpeis There's a black person at 11:17 in this video.

[@spidyman8853]

+Dovenpeis There was no immigrants except Diplomats on diplomatic mission.

[@Dovenpeis]

Spidy Man, actually there was some Non-White immigration, although extremely small, on a labour exchange programme of some sorts. However, they were isolated to their workplace and had no general access to the city in which they lived, so the natives never actually encountered them. The few natives who did encounter the immigrants only did so in an official capacity. So, the communists actively segregated the extremely few Non-White immigrants they had, and they never intended them to be permanent residents either.

[@arjanpetersen]

Dude... what does it matter. There were a ton Vietnamese people in east

[@AndreiTupolev]

Eww, would anyone choose that colour for their Trabi (7:14 & 8:11)? Must admit, it doesn't look as grey and rundown as everyone always said. Nice truck @ 9:35.

[@user-lb2ok1he1p]

Почему нет перевода.....

[@MrJohnnz]

Trabant Invasion :D

[@noprofitmaximierung]

Yes, but Socialism is the inevitable future of Capitalist production.

[@JAMAICADOCK]

Why wasn't there any terrorism in Eastern Block countries? Were the Stasi and KGB that good - or is it some other reason, I mean you never heard of subways or trams getting blown up.

[@freddymarcel-marcum6831]

trev moffatt we didn't tolerate Muslims.

[@mrvictorian4004]

immigration was blocked of from eastern block countries and terrorism did happen in chechneya and yes the KGB was so good that they had infiltrated every us department