First Reaction To Germany - Learning About The Berlin Wall And It's History

[@sanhestar]

most stories concentrate on the Berlin Wall, forgetting that the death zone ran across the whole of Germany. With landmines, automated turret systems, fences with barbed wire, dragged villages, armed border guards and rigourous border controls. One could not enter/leave the GDR withouth visa, permission and submitting to having luggage and/or vehicles searched both ways. Citizens of the GDR were not allowed to leave even to visit family members. I would also suggest that you watch actual archive footage from that time.

[@manub.3847]

Yes, a GDR citizen already needed an invitation to a special family event and often only found out a day or two in advance whether he was allowed to travel. As a FRG family visitor, you also had to report to the local police regularly during your stay. And one also forgets to mention that embassy occupations preceded the collapse. Many citizens of the GDR at the time visited the German embassies while traveling to other Eastern Bloc countries (Hungary, the Czech Republic) and refused to return to the GDR.

[@dutchman7623]

@@manub.3847 And when Czechoslovakia and Hungary allowed those people to leave to the FRG there was no way the GDR could stop the exit. Especially when a train that transported them had to go through the GDR to the FRG. At first the passengers were extremely scared that the GDR would stop and arrest them, but the second one was a joyful event that made the GDR panic.

[@leto8821]

hey nice timing. yesterday was germanys reunification day by the way (3rd octobre) which also relates to the fall of the wall obviously :)

[@Anya-nv8cq]

My dad got his appendix removed right during the fall of the wall. When he woke up he heard it on the radio and asked the nurse if he was dead

[@Zandain]

A great start, to a new region of Europe! Germany is one of the countries in Europe with an extreme and interchangeable history! Unlike Scandinavia, it has been under many 'dominant powers' so that the religious, geopolitical, sociological and cultural backstories have been mix-influenced, to become the Germany we know today...exciting! hello from Denmark 🌸🌱

[@DNA350ppm]

A nice greeting from Denmark - I join from Sweden!

[@bojanik3728]

My dad was Born in Dresden during the regime in the late ‘30ies, and ‘jumped’ the border in the late ‘50ies Berlin (pre-wall). Whenever my parents sended or recieved packages or mail with our eastern family, you could be sure all was read and much of the goods were missing. The Stasi was no joke. Yes there where a physical wall, but the mental wall was just as bad. Freedom is a fragile flower. Love from Copenhagen, DK

[@DNA350ppm]

The Stasi for sure was no joke, and nobody should believe they were tellers of truth in their archives, either. There was so much selfish deception on every level. I'm thinking of Oma Moimes prayer, which is a good starting point for reflection - written by Wolf Biermann. All in all even much more intertwined and skewed.

[@chrispierce4003]

Only two chapters in my Dad's army service in the 50's and 60's upset him. One was hearing the night time machine gun fire at the wall and knowing that another poor East German has just been killed trying to escape to freedom. Very brave people to even attempt it. RIP to those who didn't make it. He drove convoys into Berlin from West Germany as part of R.A.S.C., B.A.O.R.

[@DNA350ppm]

Please, explain the abbreviations, they are unknown to me, I'm sorry to say! Don't we honor them all, the victims of war all sides, by learning from these difficult times, and being aware that wars and war-mongering are the worst endeavors. Wars are ever in the interest of ordinary families who want to live in peace and go about their important business to raise the next generation to be decent people. So they shouldn't be started without long and reasonable negotiations beforehand, with the councel and help from independent third parties.

[@chrispierce4003]

@@DNA350ppm B.A.O.R. was the "British Army of the Rhine", and R.A.S.C. was the "Royal Army Service Core", since renamed the Royal Logistics Core I think.

[@DNA350ppm]

@@chrispierce4003 Thank you, I really wasn't savvy enough to figure that out! :-)

[@DNA350ppm]

@@chrispierce4003 Thank you - I couldn't have ever have ferreted out that!

[@Sabine00KH]

Cool video. I was born in West Berlin and I had family on both sides. As a child I thought it was perfecty normal to live in a city surounded by a wall and that you have to pass 2 border check points if you want to get to West Germany by car. Thats how it is when you do not know anything else as a child, then it is just normal. Yesterday was Germanys reunification day ( 3. Oct).

[@DNA350ppm]

Visiting Berlin (not by air) from the West was a terrifying experience to me. Then I visited East Berlin, too, I was trembling inside all the time.

[@Hanmacx]

November 9, 1989 the release was an accident, the speaker did read something out loud what shouldn't have been told yet xD

[@Indicate51]

After a tour in Vietnam I was in the Berlin Brigade's Aviation Detachment from Sept 68 Sept 69.. We flew the border every day monitoring the building the wall... Once a week we'd fly over the wall to deliver MP's and supplies to the folks in Steinstucken. The folks in West Berlin were so thankful for our presence there and treated me wonderfully.....

[@itsmebrysonp]

Thank you for watching & commenting and most importantly for serving! Have a great day!

[@Salve01]

Most people forget that also Austria and Vienna was divided in the same manner directly after the peace agreement. The novell and film 'The Third Man' takes place i Vienna during that period.

[@marcusfranconium3392]

I still have a small piece of the berlin wall. The speed that every thing collapsed after the this even was stagering . an interesting few months between october 1989 and januari 1990.

[@Hanmacx]

For more German video, check out about the "the air bridge" a "die Luftbrücke"

[@Gendekk]

I always enjoy your vlogs. Thank you for sharing

[@theselecter]

Interesting video. In 1985 we took a trip to Berlin with the family and also went east. Dad told us we'd be followed all day by this man. I was too young to really understand but it turned out the STASI followed tourists as a standard.. In 1990 I helped to destroy that wall.

[@DNA350ppm]

Thank you, for your contribution! The result was dependent on many people doing something.

[@minchen_2265]

My Great-Grandma (7 years old back then) was recovering at her Grandparents house in Thuringia when the americans handed the state over to the russians. Her Father managed to get her out to the british Zone last minute sneaking directly through the Harz Mountains. She told us how she was scared out of her wits with every crack she heard thinking it was a foreign soldier who would now shoot them.

[@DNA350ppm]

A brave and resolute Daddy, indeed. It also shows how innocent children become the victims of war, even today.

[@MichaEl-rh1kv]

Very simplifying, but serving well as first impression. The Berlin Wall was not the Iron Curtain - that was farther in the West. The border between West and East Germany was in a similar way fortified as the Berlin Wall, however for the most part as a double or triple fence, not a wall - but instead equipped with automatic spring guns. The official number of deaths directly caused by this wall is currently 327, but still debated. Should the suicides of East German soldiers be included, who couldn't stand what they were compelled to do? Should the soldiers be included who were killed by people trying to flee? Should the people be included who were caught and died in prison or years after at illnesses they got during or because of imprisonment? The fall of the Wall was in Berlin, but this story was a bit more complicated, too. Before a regular press conference the spokesman of the government got a note about visa reliefs and freedom of travel for GDR citizens. At the end of the press meeting this did come to his mind and he read it to the press, but it was very imprecise. As the journalists asked when this would come in effect, he turned the note around to find a date, and eventually said: "As far as I know, now. Immediately." That was a sensation, and the East Berliners heard it in the Western evening news. So they went to take a look if this was true, and met many others doing the same. As hundreds of people appeared at the fortified border crossings, the guards were highly alarmed and confused. Nobody had told them anything. The officers tried to call their superiors, but either without success (it was late in the evening) or these superiors were also disoriented. Finally they got order to let people go, but only after stamping their passports with exit visa (with the intention to give them the fear of not being allowed to come back, because most of them did not want to leave their houses and families back, but only have a stroll in the West). But this didn't work for a long time, and soon the barriers were removed, and the people did not only walk over the border, but drive with cars and motorcycles - and got an euphoric reception at the other side of the wall.

[@Talkshowhorse_Echna]

The protests where already growing at this time and where held every Monday in east germany. So the regime had to do something and they had the idea to let some people go. But when they announced it, Günter Schabowski only got half of the news. So not knowing on which date the border would be opend, he answerd a reporter on tv with the most famous words "To my knowledge its now." This words brought all protesters and a lot more people to the street, wondering if this would really happen. Thats the fun fact how a mistake ended the wall in one sentence.

[@jacobriis7859]

You should read about the Berlin blockade and the airlift in 1948 -> 1949: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berlin_Blockade

[@thoso1973]

There's an excellent German film called 'The Lives Of Others' that give you an insight into what life was like in the GDR in the late 1980s. It follows a dedicated Stasi officer who slowly starts questioning the ideology he follows and the playwriter/actress pair of lovers, that he is surveilling on behalf og the state.

[@hildajensen6263]

My mother went on some sort of work related trip into East Germany and part of the Soviet in the time between the fall of the wall and the Red Block. She came home not only with pieces of the Berlin Wall, but also different part of the uniforms of Soviet soldiers. - Everybody knew that the end was coming and the soldiers tried to supplement their terrible pay by selling future collectibles to tourists from the West. I don't know what happend to the stuff, though. I think the boyfriend she got shortly after might have thrown it all out in one of his tantrums.

[@carstenschiemann5808]

Hallo I am from Germany and ther is a viedo that explains a lot about Germany it is called " Geography now Germany " . But you have to be careful it is a lot in a very short time !

[@raineramelung7380]

My wife came to Western Germany in 1996,from ex east Germany.... We met in this time.. And got a daughter... East Germans called,, Ossi(ost=east) me called Wessi,, Our daughter, s now a Wossi😁

[@AmongRocks]

Very nice with the personal backstory. You should do a reaction to the chernobyl TV series

[@teotik8071]

Moin from Hamburg.

[@Am-Fear-Liath]

If you plan to make more videos about Germany I think you will love Germany. It's a beautiful country with an interesting history (apart from the known bad times)

[@dnocturn84]

Unfortunately, this video is very short of the events that finally led to the fall of the wall. But the general simplified facts are good and well done, I guess. A fascinating topic by itself. A lot of luck was involved. Just a tiny misunderstanding could have created a nightmare. We can just be really thankful, that events turned out the way they turned out.

[@DNA350ppm]

100% agreement from me! These processes are not easy to summarize!

[@rashomon351]

I'm really sry, but you shouldn't use an overhead light, when you have a blond mustache... the shadow under your nose makes it look like a Charlie Chaplin mustache. And to germans, there's this other association ....

[@DNA350ppm]

From my Nordic standpoint the division of Germany, and the whole division of Europe east of the Soviet Union was so tragic. Though the Soviet Union played such an important role in halting the Nazies, with their ethnic murdering and concentrations camps and all, theirs (Soviet's) wasn't a humanist system, either. These times touch me deeply for many reasons. I witnessed, from outside, part of the processes, as the peace movement and reconciliation movement helped bring about change. These were important "under the radar", to make the change mature, that brought the Berlin wall to a fall. But before that we had music, science, sports, building bridges... We had the Spring in Prague (1968) and Labour Union victories in Poland (1980), and the "Socialism with a humanist face" in the former Yugoslavia which ended with Tito's death 1980, the gradual, peaceful, but impressive "Singing Revolution" in the three Baltic countries starting in 1987, the role of Gorbachev ,who admired the Nordic countries (with their strong social democratic parties), was elected leader of the communist party in 1985 (promoting perestrojka and glasnost), he was then was elected president in the Soviet Union in 1990, a landslide victory, *the fall of the Berlin Wall occurred late 1989*, the reunion of the both parts of Germany in October 1990, the dissolution of the Soviet Union at Xmas-time in 1991. One should compare what happened in the parallel history in the USA - these processes were not unrelated. And the world history surely had some distinct reflection in Bryson's family history in a very relevant way. With the detail of forced reading of the Encyclopedia, and all. Bryson's father had obviously become aware of the historical forces while in Europe, but that was/is not easy to transmit to teenagers.

[@DNA350ppm]

I dare not correct my spelling and grammar mistakes - sorry for them, though. I do hope you understand my English, anyways, it's my third language and not perfect, I know. The themes around this video are important and I'm happy if we can shine a light on them both factually and personally! For the greater mutual understanding on this globe, which is the only home for all of us.

[@DNA350ppm]

From a concert shortly after the fall of the Berlin wall - which is mentioned in the much earlier written song. Don't know if youtube shows the link: kzbin.info/www/bejne/qqqtm5WPgsuAm5I - such puzzling times, but ours are, too, in another way. One has to have a conscience with heart and reason.

[@effektgeraeteinfo]

Se germans will conquer sis comment section in 3, 2, 1...

[@leto8821]

you mean the typical... "diese kommentarsektion ist nun eigentum der bundesrepublik deutschland!" ? xD

[@DNA350ppm]

Of course, we from the Nordic countries have dominated the comments sections of videos on our countries, and now we expect people from Germany and their neighbours, and all others interested, to jump in and share their stories, knowledge, and views. I think it is so interesting. And besides: there is much tourism between Germany and Norden, beck and forth, so we are very much familiar with geography and history, etc. For Europe, it is true that Germany has been and is very central and important. And you know, Elvis was also in Germany - :-) - as was Bryson's father! German expats and immigrants have been a huge group and vey important in the colonization of America, not just the British and French. And the Anglo-Saxon language connection...

[@kennethrasmussen9964]

I rember Back in 1998THE WALL feal the 09 nov. 1998, I and my class was Berlin, we. Tog a trane form cobenhagen to West Berlin, we wher gardet bey soldiates whit light masinguns.until we came to WestBerlin.

[@SubwaySweden]

David Hasselhoff has ruined any memory of that historic moment for me, as soon as I hear berlin wall I think of him and then I want to jump off a cliff

[@mr.sts.p]

Yes is is what i learned in school in Sweden aboute Berlin Wall and about Sovjetunionen and communism a d do not support it.

[@kennethrasmussen9964]

I ment 1989!😉

[@madTitanja]

Hot tipp to this: If you make moviereaction Videos top, then you must check out the movie "goodbye Lenin"! 😉

[@krakendragonslayer1909]

Why was even Germany allowed to "re-unite"?! That was the biggest mistake of XX century. Cheers from Poland. I think we need a state with borders shaped like Prussia in 1795, but it needs to be Polish speaking, not German.

[@dnocturn84]

Because the German people demanded it (and continue to do so). We are human, not robots. You can't stop a whole nation of people, families and friends, that are forced to be seperated from each other by outside powers, to go and fight to end this and to be finally together, united again. "Not allowing" it would mean, that it would have happened through civil war anyways. But with much more pain and bloodshed of course. Absolutely no Non-German has any say in this. It's up to the will of the people that live there, to chose how they want to live.

[@krakendragonslayer1909]

@@dnocturn84 Germany is a threat, they killed tens of millions of people last time they were united. Allowing them to unite was the biggest mistake of our diplomacy.

[@dnocturn84]

@@krakendragonslayer1909 This was neither related to us Germans being united in one country nor are such events that lead to those horrors exclusive to Germans. Historical events, racism, xenophobia and a number of mistakes created the beginning for this. This can technically happen with every other country in existence. And there are plenty of countries out there, who are currently on a similar path that could easily turn wrong, exept Germany. So you have a hell of a work to do, splitting them all up.

[@krakendragonslayer1909]

​@@dnocturn84 Revange for last 2000 years will come so hard so you will stop using word "slave" in refference to captive workers, but start using word "slave" in refference to your fear. Tens of millions died, occupied soil suffered for 800-2000 years. We will succed and Germano-Slavic border will come back to where it was at year 620AD.

[@dnocturn84]

@@krakendragonslayer1909 No German uses the word "slave" in reference for captive workers! Are you nuts? It is the English language, that does that. "Slave" is in German also "Slave" and means the ethnic group of people in the east, but has no connection to workers or captive workers. The word "slave", that refers to captive workers in German is "Sklave" and has nothing do you with slavic people. Go get some help, you desperately need it.

[@Kkkkkkkkkkkkkkkk554e]

Jo he be rocking adolfs beard

[@Station-Network]

You need to watch a video with real footage, not this cartoony stuff.