Last Days of East Berlin: Tense Footage of Protests at Checkpoint Charlie and Berlin Wall (1989)

On 9 October 1989, in the dying days of the Cold War and exactly one month before the fall of the Berlin Wall, ITN's cameras in West Berlin recorded footage of West Berliners protesting at Checkpoint Charlie, the border crossing between the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG; known in German as the Bundesrepublik Deutschland, or BRD) and the German Democratic Republic (GDR; Deutsche Demokratische Republik, DDR). While recording the protests, the crew also captured some atmospheric footage of residents living in apartment blocks on the GDR side of the border, including people watching from the windows as the East German police were making arrests.
On the same day this footage was filmed, residents in the East German city of Leipzig staged a peaceful mass protest calling for freedom and democracy. Between 70,000 and 100,000 people congregated in central Leipzig to protest against the governing communist regime. At the time, there had not been any large-scale protests in East Germany in decades, and anti-regime protests were illegal. Despite this, and against all expectations, the state security forces did not intervene. The precendent set by the mass protests in Leipzig on 9 October gave rise to many more similar demonstrations across the country, and set in motion a chain of events that would end with the smashing of the Berlin Wall, the fall of the Eastern Bloc, and the reunification of Germany.
#Berlin #EastBerlin #WestBerlin #Germany #EastGermany #WestGermany #ColdWar #CheckpointCharlie #BerlinWall #Mauerfall #GDR #DDR #BRD #FRG #DeutscheDemokratischeRepublik #BundesrepublikDeutschland #Polizei #Leipzig #PolizeiStaat #SovietUnion #USSR #Soviet #SovietWave
To search the ITN Archive collection on Getty Images, follow the link below:
www.gettyimages.co.uk/footage...
🎥 Subscribe to our KZbin channel (tap the bell icon and stay up to date with all the latest ITN Archive videos!) - / @itnarchive
🎥 Follow us on Twitter - / itnarchive
🎥 Like us on Facebook - / itnarchiveitnp
🎥 Check out our TikTok - / itnarchive1955

[@hansmuller1625]

We traveled through east Germany in 1988, when i was three years old. I still remember my father's very clear instruction to remain absolutely still and silent at the border. And i still have my passport with the GDR stamp in it.

[@DaveBoothroyd-ej5in]

What was he worried you as a 3 year old might say?

[@TenOrbital]

I went through CP Charlie same year. All they wanted was deutschmarks and demanded so many be changed into DDR marks. It was hard to get rid of all the DDR marks in one day, even in the restaurants on the Unter Den Linden - each hosting a couple tables of foreigners - none of the locals could afford.

[@gilescaver8841]

I travelled from Prague to East Berlin in 1988 and was surprised at the differences. The latter’s citizens were as unhappy a people as I’d ever seen. The former’s were optimistic.

[@suzanneterrey4499]

@@DaveBoothroyd-ej5in Anything would set them off. When I sent through the checkpoint, the guard yelled at me to take off my sunglasses.

[@ursulafranke4552]

Lächerlich

[@dasbose4962]

I am from the east side and I was 11 when the wall went down. I remember very well when after few days we walked with my family towards the west, was such a feeling, so much happiness from most people.

[@valicourt]

Fantastic! I was 14 and watched it with interest on the news. I remember the months before this many East Germans going to Prague and on to west Germany. You could feel it was about to boil over.

[@bonjourtoi3894]

Bravo. Lisez mon commentaire plus haut. Je suis très heureux que ce mur soit tombé. L'Allemagne est très belle avec des gens incroyables. Nous avons été très bien reçu lors de nos exercices. C'est pour cela que nous devons à tout pris soutenir l'Ukraine et toute l'Europe de l'Est. Merci à tous nos alliés. L'Europe de l'Est est si belle et précieuse. Liberté pour vous tous. xxxxxx

[@user-qt1cp1be3u]

@@bonjourtoi3894 English Wikipedia address "Homelessness in Germany" Homelessness in Germany is a significant social issue, one that is estimated to affect around 678,000 people.[1] Since 2014, there has been a 150% increase in the homeless population within the country.[2] Reportedly, around 22,000 of the homeless population are children.[1] In addition, the country has yet to publish statistics on homelessness at a Federal Level[3] despite it being an ongoing and widespread matter. C'est pour cela que nous devons à tout pris soutenir l'Ukraine et toute l'Europe de l'Est.

[@RickTheClipper]

Warum wird dann heute von genau den gleichen Leuten erzählt wie toll die DäDäRä war? Entscheidet Euch mal oder seid Ihr immer noch sauer weil es in 33 Jahren nur einmal Begrüssungsgeld gab?

[@tyskerbarn5171]

die DDR war ein Freiheitsparadies gegen die heutige rot"grüne" Diktatur .

[@alexrodgers9247]

I went thru Checkpoint Charlie about a month before everything changed. I served the Underground church in Communist Romania, and those crossings were nerve wracking for a guy raised on the beach in San Diego. But, NOTHING came close to walking thru Checkpoint Charlie, and with your passport on an antiquated conveyor belt. The long drive from West Germany thru East Germany to free West Berlin was so hard to fathom. Saying goodbye to my friend from E. Germany was very difficult knowing what life was like for him and his family. I Felt guilt to be able to go to freedom, but he had to stay. My last words to him on the other side of the chain link fence were, “Next time you have to come see me”, he smiled and said, “If only”! One month later he and his family were FREE!

[@kancelariaprawnaziobroston6613]

Free west berlin in the american sector. Germany are still not free from USA.

[@andyf104]

👏🍻

[@timeouthumanity2067]

@@kancelariaprawnaziobroston6613 Very true!

[@joeywelander1833]

​@@kancelariaprawnaziobroston6613 Hello Mr Vatnik

[@JML6988]

​@@kancelariaprawnaziobroston6613you oppose vaccines also?

[@josephpickard3108]

This footage is great. We are fast losing the history of the GDR/FRG times so it's good to see stuff from the time

[@danielfl.9347]

Is it not BRD and DDR?

[@josephpickard3108]

@@danielfl.9347 UK News outlets would say FRG/GDR

[@danielfl.9347]

@@josephpickard3108 Oh, I had no idea. I live in Denmark, so I'm used to the other terms. Thanks!

[@davidgjam7600]

​@@josephpickard3108as a native English speaker, "GDR" sounds so weird. I'd rather use the German acronym

[@valyshknee4203]

yeah i infact checked on the old inner german border this month, some remnants still exist like the patrol roads and anti-tank ditches which were turned into small rivers, you can still somewhat see it though you really have to know what to look for, the border is now called the green line or something like that, its a nature reserve since the DMZ was almost untouched since its construction landwise, you can see it by basically seeing a line of young trees inbetween much older trees, but its sad most was removed, would've liked if the government left behind most of the fencing and some of the towers, but turn the towers into hunting towers, sightseeing towers, or even water/grain towers, maybe even sell them to private companies to make some experience out of it like sleeping in a east german control tower with the area around you looking like how it did in 1989 but the iron curtain itself can still be seen at the hungarian border with serbia, they have been kept in order to form the new border, its still used

[@dennissvitak5475]

I traveled by train from Frankfurt, West Germany to Berlin, for a music festival, in 1973. All US military dependent high schools sent music students there. We went by train, through East Germany, and it was VERY scary. We were told we would be shot if we opened the windows of the train.

[@ursulafranke4552]

Wie dumm ihr seid, day zu glauben . Ihr seid Gehirn gewaschen.

[@kc4cvh]

1:57 The camera is most likely a Praktica. I had one of these in the early 1980s, they were imported from the DDR and sold through Sears, Roebuck & Co.'s photographic specialties catalog.

[@Time4Technology]

Interesting footage, thank you for uploading!

[@gerhard6105]

Nice video. I am Dutch. My mothers cousin and his wife visited us in 1988. They were from the DDR. One of these days they were tLki g to my parent about the home journey. As a 15 year old i asked: can i go with them (mag ik mee)? They started talking and it was a yes. It was my summer holiday time. Ofcourse we had to arrange a pasport for me, wich i still have, the visa and an i ternational train ticket. Al in a short time. I was in the DDR already in 1977 and 1983. The 3 of us went into the GDR by train. A full day journey. When i was there, one day we went to East Berlin with my a bit older cousin and two girls in a Trabant, all the way from near Dresden to Berlin, via the Autobahn. We visited the city all day. We went to the wall (east side ofcourse), tv tower, and several other sights. In July 1990 was there again, still GDR but open, and visited both sides with my uncle from the GDR. Both were very good holidays. My father worked for ITT here in the Netherlands and when we went to the GDR in 1983, he was questioned by higher people from ITT.

[@McIntyreBible]

These are the sort of documentaries that I like: no commentary!

[@petewarby7158]

Is that because of the AI stuff on KZbin currently?

[@adlerarmory8382]

I was stationed in the US Sektor then. My unit was busy in the field training, in Doughboy City and in the Grunewald while these last days went down. I was trying to sleep, curled up under my woobie, in a slight rain in the Grunewald when the radio watch said "The Berlin Wall was opened up" I was like "Yeah, right", went back to sleep until we were supposed to awake at 0300 for a pre-dawn night attack. We finished our training then as we assembled by the Avus, we heard all the cars beeping the horns, the streets were full of Trabis beeping and waving at us. It took over an hour for the bus ride back to McNair Barracks instead of the normal 12 minutes.

[@elpresso1983]

Absolutely bonkers how empty and quiet that all looked then considering how built up and busy it is today!

[@tyskerbarn5171]

yes- coloured and unsave.....

[@OrangeTabbyCat]

@@tyskerbarn5171Blah. Doesn’t this ever get old. Racism really is so boring…

[@tyskerbarn5171]

@@OrangeTabbyCat Doesn’t this ever get old. Racism - WOKE really is so boring…😁😆🍌🍌🍌

[@Euer_Hochwuergen]

@@OrangeTabbyCat its not getting old for people who live in the past...

[@AJGeeTV]

Great archive video. I was there, too. It seems like yesterday....

[@gerben3105]

I went with school to Berlin when I was 16 in 2006. Only 16 years after the reunification. To me it was hard to imagine these two sides had been separated for so long. They were taking down the Palast der Republik back then. Thinking about it: 9/11 feels still like, well maybe not yesterday, but still so vivid in my memory, and that has been more than 22 years. So when I was in berlin east and west had only been reunified for 16 years. The city center around friedrichstrasse, mitte, brandenburgertor, hauptbahnhof, and many other places looked nóthing like as pictured in this video. They started rebuilding the city in no time. Remarkable.

[@tyskerbarn5171]

today the whole capitol is a red- green shithole.

[@GIORDANOBRUNO1969]

Thanks for uploading! These videos are monuments of history! Greetings from Italy! 👋👋

[@peterenevoldsen7199]

It was surreal to witness. As a Dane growing up in the 70’s and 80’s, the division of east and west seemed eternal. Thanks to the East German guards for keeping their cool.

[@witoldknitter4995]

I was in West Berlin. Today is hard to believe,that the city was divided.

[@tyskerbarn5171]

today its united Kalifat.

[@henryhiggins6567]

@@tyskerbarn5171 Bullshit!

[@jesselivermore2291]

how did the subway worked? did it crossed back and fourth? east and west? could people sneak in through the sewer system?

[@tyskerbarn5171]

Today the whole city is a shithole.

[@henryhiggins6567]

@@tyskerbarn5171 Schwachsinn!

[@Pintkonan]

if you watch closely in some shots you can still see the holes of bullets or shrapnel that flew around in some buildings. over 44 years after the war ended.

[@johnmacaroni105]

Go to the Ritz Hotel in London, and you'll see bullet holes on its outside walls from ww2 fighter planes. America just doesn't have that experience.

[@alanstrong55]

Those East German officials felt the tension to let their people go. The Stassi knew that its regime was crumbling.

[@anthonywalsh7613]

I was there 1988-90 When they initially opened Bornholmer, we went down there the following night. They were still coming through

[@Putko007]

Amazing ! Thank you !

[@overallgreatidea6433]

Went into East Berlin in fall of 1986. There was a department store near the radio tower that had more western powers servicemen than any other customers. I don't see it on the satellite map now. There was still, after 40 years, the occasional shell of a building, presumably from WWII, fenced off with rubble banked up inside. Lots of statues down the main avenues in typical Soviet style. Drab, drab. Very sobering. I still remember the look on an East German soldier's face when I held out my hand to give him my leftover DDR marks that I didn't need. He started to lift his hand but looked down the street and back at me and simply shook his head. I turned and walked away and looked back where he had looked and saw two officers a block away looking at us. My only attempt at East-West diplomacy had failed, lol

[@AllisterCaine]

Great story. The one story you hear from every tourist to the GDR is, they couldn't get rid of the ostmark because there basically was nothing to spend it on... You propably thought absolutely nothing of it and wanted to be kind but to the other side, it would have looked like you were some spy bribing a guard or something. Really shows how paranoid you needed to be in that abomination of a country. They would have instantly sacked the guy for being gifted some money you honestly had not the slightest use for anymore.

[@colinvespa4709]

The East German marks are now collectable items.

[@flusi2214]

The department store could have been CENTRUM on Alexanderplatz, now GALERIA

[@overallgreatidea6433]

thanks, it was indeed, I used query "centrum" to find some old images. The honeycomb exterior is what I remembered from the 1980s but since it was torn off, I could not recognize it on street views. best2u @@flusi2214

[@michaelb2388]

I went into East Berlin for the day in August 1989 with my brother who lived in West Berlin. Obviously we had no idea things were about to change

[@tyskerbarn5171]

not changed better....

[@jesselivermore2291]

this was filmed the day the wall came down, unreal.

[@flusi2214]

No, one month before.

[@mathisnotforthefaintofheart]

Excellent footage. Never knew that the Eastern part of Checkpoint C was that that big

[@CirugiadeMano]

In 1988 i spent several days in DDR..as an latin american tourist ..the differences between the two countries were appalling..we can not move freely ..everything was controlled until the minutest detail..East Berlin got a lot of polluted air..it was an interesting experience for all of us..one year later the wall felldown..but these is another history...

[@Luca-vv1ml]

When America,The west and communism gain power, the world is over.

[@tyskerbarn5171]

ALL is controlled today, worse than under communists.

[@tyskerbarn5171]

today- everything IS controlled until the minutest detail.

[@Euer_Hochwuergen]

@@tyskerbarn5171 you can alaways leave if you are upset, nobody controls that ;)

[@tyskerbarn5171]

@@Euer_Hochwuergen but today- ALL is under controll!😁

[@billyhynes8429]

I’ve just returned from a visit to Berlin and how things have changed from the video. Beautiful city

[@PeterMayer]

My family is from east Berlin but eventually made it out to west Berlin. I went into Sunny East Berlin in 1974. When I was 15 and with my wife in 1988.

[@valyshknee4203]

thats a lie, only a couple hundred/thousand escaped during the times of the border wall.

[@gontzallekzeit2050]

Un muy interesante documento de dos ciudades en las que tuve la especial fortuna de habitar durante un año y que me ofreció la vivencia de atravesar aquel muro en muchas ocasiones. Die waren speziele, schöne und unvergessliche Zeiten.

[@thumperpaul]

The Ostie border guards look hopelessly lost and confused. You can almost feel sorry for them

[@larsdrake7634]

And now in 2023 there are a lot of people who admire DDR. What was the Berlin wall needed for if it was such a paradise?

[@michaelb2388]

Really? A lot of people who admire the DDR?

[@uwepomeranus3137]

To keep the masses of hungry and shelterless West-Germans out of the Worker's and Farmer's Paradise .....and the AfD 😅

[@neilfoster814]

Yes, Ostalgie is a real thing (East nostalgia)

[@user-px2jr7vt2y]

GDR and the Berlin wall are forever a powerful part of history....The USSR suffered an estimated loss of 27 million people defeating the Nazi regime...They had every right to govern GDR however they chose including building a wall around West Berlin.

[@user-px2jr7vt2y]

@@michaelb2388 Yes

[@danielfl.9347]

Thank you. Great photos of the city!

[@MrZeitgenosse]

Ich war vier oder fünf mal in Ost-Berlin. Jedes mal hatte ich kein gutes Gefühl und war froh, wieder in West-Berlin zu sein. Auch der Transit durch die DDR nach Westdeutschland war nicht angenehm. Man fühlte sich ständig beobachtet und hatte Angst etwas falsch zu machen.

[@Das_Deutsche_Moerdervolk]

Berechtigt, es gab Westdeutsche, die sind in die DDR gereist und wurden verhaftet, weil die Stasi nur die Vermutung erwägt hatte, dass derjenige den Besuch für Spionage nutzen wolte, obwohl man nur die Verwandten sehen wolte. Häufige Fälle waren solche Leute, die aktive-Bundeswehr-Soldaten waren und bei dem es die Stasi auch wusste.

[@Das_Deutsche_Moerdervolk]

Ach du Scheiße, wieder mal so ein kackspackenabgejöckelter Irrer, der terrorausflippen in seiner Spackrübe muss und der seine Geisteskrankheit dadurch zeigt, weil er nicht einmal merkt, dass man sich über damals und längst vergangenes und nicht über jetzt und heute was erzählt. Das Deutsche Beknacktenvolk läuft wieder auf.

[@MrZeitgenosse]

@@sleepmnan22sleepman50 Soso, ich Fantasiere und überschätze meine Bedeutung. Kennen wir uns persönlich? Ich denke nicht! Wie oft waren Sie denn so in Ost-Berlin und mussten sich am Grenzübergang schikanieren lassen?

[@tyskerbarn5171]

Nach deem Untergang der DDR ist es noch interessanter dem Untergang ganz "Deutschlands" zuzusehen.

[@xXOneEight5evenXx]

Ist doch heute nicht anders.😂 DDR❤

[@ct6852]

Must've been such a culture shock for East Berlin. I would bet it was difficult to adjust. For a while at least.

[@johnmacaroni105]

I think many were kept occupied, fascinated by computer games, hundreds of TV channels to watch, betting shops and shopping malls to visit and holidays to Spain to go on. I think they felt self conscious with their clothes and hairstyles to be honest but did show off how to make good moonshine which the people of the west thought okayish but dangerous but didn't say in case they appeared weak.

[@ct6852]

@@johnmacaroni105 Oh yeah they probably had a lot of side gigs during those years. Didn't think of that. moonshine would be a good one. Reminds me of the side of my family from TN.

[@jogi2003]

Great pictures of Berlin and the Berlin Wall in the 80s ❤, vielen Dank 🙏💪👌

[@louiskoenig9719]

J'étais militaire 1 an à Berlin en 1976 ( Quartier Napoléon) chaque mois nous allions à l'Est une journée, nous etions '' largués '' à Alexanderplatz, et nous egaillions dans Berlin ( sûrement sous surveillance) , grands souvenirs.

[@RollOnToVictory]

As the WW2 generation begins to exit stage left, its still wild to think there's people in the 30s who were alive in a world with an "Allied Checkpoint"

[@saigonexile531]

At 2:15 it was an absolute trip to see written on the wall, NCSU Wolfpack (North Carolina State University) and UNC Tarheels (University of North Carolina) where I grew up lol

[@CrookedNose2131]

Is a university sports team (I assume) all they could think of to write? Small thinking.

[@DIETRICHCICCONE]

"Herr Honecker" My grandad was an Irish diplomat and met him a couple of times. Short, with a bizarre voice apparently.

[@NicholasKuqali]

What crossing is that at 18:43?

[@neilholland3585]

There is a film that's been out for some time now It's called The Lives of Others , it's about the Stasi captain just before the fall of the Berlin Wall .

[@johnmacaroni105]

Yep, they filmed and listened in to half the east German population having a sh*t every morning.

[@valicourt]

I would love to know whether there were actually film rolls in those cameras..

[@flitsertheo]

1:46 Looks like an East-German Praktica "L" type camera, possibly a MTL 5B. Outdated by 1989 (first model in that range dating from 1970) but that's what they sold to their own population. The way more modern "B" types were sold abroad to bring in "hard" currency.

[@masterkamen371]

The Prakticas weren't bad cameras at all. Probably the best cameras the Eastern Bloc produced. They had most, if not all of the features you'd expect from an SLR at that time and were good for their price. They were exported to Yugoslavia and many are still in use by amateur photographers over here. They're decently reliable (try comparing them to Soviet trash, you just can't) and are cheap used.

[@keithatkinson7649]

@@masterkamen371 an SLR, not a DSLR 😊

[@fwnm]

His "nazi trowsers..."

[@BavarianM]

B type Prakticas these days are less desired, since L type uses M42 Lens

[@flitsertheo]

@@BavarianM There are more M42 lenses because other manufacturers used those too but the range of B lenses was large enough for any photographic use.

[@markpearson8721]

I visited Berlin twice while the wall was still standing in the 1980s. I then visited about a month after the wall opened. I remember going as a pedestrian through Checkpoint Charlie into East Berlin. The queue was quite long on the western side, but nothing like the length of the queue to go the other way on the eastern side. When I got to the Alexanderplatz I visited the Centrum department store, and eventually found my way to the toy department. It was virtually deserted even though this was barely two weeks before Christmas. When I returned to Checkpoint Charlie later in the day I could see why. The East Berliners were making their way back absolutely laden with carrier bags.

[@petermitchelmore2592]

In the days of the Monday demonstrations in Leipzig.

[@dpan8346]

At 12:24, Where's this building?

[@m42037]

Just think this was all due to one man, 45 years of suffering after, after he took his life ..

[@johnmacaroni105]

Well, Winston Churchill didn't have anything good to say about Bolsheviks as well in the 1920s, but then he got his huge debts cleared in 1938.

[@christophermartin9143]

That last "Allied checkpoint" large hut-type building from Checkpoint Charlie is now in the Allied Museum in Clayallee on the south-western side of Berlin; had the priveledge of seeing it in October 2023

[@RobWalker1]

Anyone know the name of the building, or the street, at 12:25?

[@user-pc9hg8mn2l]

большой привет всем, кто считает себя немцем из ГДР. пусть возможно сегодня вас очень мало, но спасибо что вы были и еще большее спасибо, что вы есть. и простите если сможете.

[@ursulafranke4552]

Большой привет. Да, мы все еще существуем . У нас была российская оккупация .Теперь у нас есть западногерманская и американская оккупация . Спросите нас, насколько мы счастливы и удовлетворены этим.

[@martinigrochoowski8149]

You can go to Russia

[@ouner-699]

Schade, dass sich die Deutschen heute nicht mehr daran erinnern, welche Rolle die Russen bei der Vereinigung Deutschlands gespielt haben ...

[@singlecell2498]

By putting up a wall and threatening a blockade of supplies?

[@ouner-699]

@@singlecell2498 "By putting up a wall" - The wall dividing Germany was built during the Soviet Union, and it was destroyed at the initiative of sovereign Russia...

[@pieterbro173]

9:25 Under the lawn in front of the block of flats (visible at the top) are the underground bunker of Adolf

[@stewartie2]

To think l rode a chieftain tank down the heerstraasse in 1979 , thanks for the memories

[@worldsgreatestdude1784]

Was there an airport in old West Berlin or was the only way to it via train or car?

[@TSinRM]

There was an airport in West Berlin named Tegel. I flew into Tegel on Pan Am Airlines in 1978.

[@samsmith7585]

Tempelhof and Tegel had daily flights from the West.

[@tyskerbarn5171]

today its a islamistic camp.

[@samsmith7585]

Oh please, don't remind me... @@tyskerbarn5171

[@stevetorres76]

Would anyone know? How did farming work in East Germany? Was it a collective farm situation like they used in the former USSR?

[@karinsuden7700]

Yes, after dividing out the land to smallholders after ww2 it was taken away again and collectivized in the fifties into LPG (agricultural production communities) - very rough description

[@modrisadijans383]

Jā bija kolhozi.Es dienēju padomju armijā 1986-88 gads.Mēs braucām uz kolhoziem strādāt palīdzējām vācu tautai.

[@stevetorres76]

@@karinsuden7700 thank you for clearing it up as best as u can. I haven't found anything about it on KZbin. Just videos about east Berlin and Dresden... seems history has forgotten that even East Germans drink milk and eat meat, eggs and even bread. Lol

[@davidmesserly877]

Very interesting video. Thank you for uploading it. I used to try to explain the Cold War to my kids.

[@1983Corolla]

Hard to believe Germany was split still up until 1989, unified Germany as we know it is so brand new still

[@DavidGarvinTechnophile]

Until reunification, Berlin was not part of the FRG. It was still part of the occupied territories of the Western Allies.

[@intercommerce]

I did not know that. I knew that Bonn was the new capital of W. Germany. So, no West German flags flew in west Berlin until reunification? West Berliners in the British sector awoke every morning with the Union Jack flying overhead for over 40 years?

[@DavidGarvinTechnophile]

@@intercommerce West Berlin was an odd duck. It was de facto part of the federal republic, but de jure was not. The postal system was integrated with the West, but young German men could avoid conscription by moving to West Berlin.

[@ARIES6181]

@@intercommerce West Berlin didn´t even have German Police if my mind isn´t wrong

[@hepphepps8356]

@@intercommerceindeed, and even weirder, maybe: The local flights from germany were by Pan Am, Air France or British Airways. Lufthansa not allowed.

[@Tobi-ln9xr]

It was part of West Germany. Otherwise you wouldn’t see west German authorities there like the "Bundesgrenzschutz“ or the west German police.

[@tonyf9076]

Served 86 to 91 at RAF Gatow and as a driver i crossed checkpoint Charlie many many times, as we didn't recognise East Germany we only showed our ID to the Russians, fun times...

[@sobelou]

Very interesting!

[@erik_griswold]

Your text is incorrect; West Berlin was not legally part of the Federal Republic of Germany. Defacto it behaved as a part (using D-Marks, etc.) but not Dejure. The Allies were in charge.

[@user-px2jr7vt2y]

Agreed. Thank you for adding the clarification of West Berlin since it was stated Berlin in the comment. The west (US, UK France had no say over the USSR territory of East Berlin and GDR.

[@JML6988]

You can tell who remembers only prosperity & freedom & privilege by their ignorant comments regarding this period in history before they were even born. Only those who lived oppression can appreciate freedom. Hats off to those who made it through communism & will never return to it.

[@intercommerce]

I do not disagree, therfore I cannot understand why the Russians put up with Putin's oppression?

[@mitrogulf4073]

@@intercommerce Everyone has their own concept of freedom, and even more so of how to live, including cultures and peoples. In addition, the USSR created a crisis of national identity in Russia. Since after the USSR Russia is not even close to the Russian Empire, either culturally or even geographically within the country itself, having created all sorts of so called republics that many supporters of old Russia despise with all their nature, supporters of the USSR and Putin are neutral and the liberals of Russia want to further separate them. That is, to some extent, Putin’s power works like (it’s better to hate me than kill each other). And in a sense it works. If there was true democracy in Russia, then most likely this would lead to disastrous consequences and bloodshed on national and ideological issues, because the USSR simply gave birth to even more of them than they ever were, and Putin’s Russia did not decide, but even gave birth to and preserved even more.

[@dungeon_masster.]

​@@intercommerce Во первых о каком притеснении идет речь? Во вторых в России сейчас капитализм, можно зарабатывать деньги и жить не хуже чем в любой другой стране мира В третьих большинство поддерживают Путина так как западные страны своими санкциями и притеснениями русских подтвердили тезис Путина о том что они являются врагами, а против врага нужно объединяться В четвертых нестабильность в такой стране как Россия очень опасна и не только для самой России

[@trubamaniac]

@@dungeon_masster. В Роzzии сейчас рашизм!

[@lindenbeck]

Missing the old time. It was wonderful to live in Westberlin before 09/11/89.

[@David-mr3gw]

how so? im genuinely interested

[@lindenbeck]

You earned more in Westberlin. You didn't have to work with people who loved tbe GDR regime. And last but least the wonderful Tegel airport was still open. It was closed since the wall came down and the fucking SPD was for closing after the wall came down.

[@davinnicode]

You were literally living right on the border of a possible worldwide conflict. So much happened during that time in West-Berlin. It attracted people who wanted to start a new life or an adventure. Just one of kind. Rents were also relatively low due to the special status of the city.

[@flopunkt3665]

​@@David-mr3gwlots of influences from both East and West. West Berlin wasn't a part of West Germany, it was self-governed.

[@neilwalsh4058]

Guess it was better back then because of all the Western allies billions pumped into it? Was in Berlin in Feb this year, the old East was clean , tidy and interesting. Went to the old West for half a day and couldn't wait to get out , looked shabby and a poor reflection of a false artificially inflated image from an almost forgotten time.

[@arvindsahai552]

This is like time travel.

[@carlcarlson983]

We were stationed in Germany at this time. This was a year before we moved back to the UK. My dad would have worked with the Gazelle helicopters you see in the aerial footage.

[@BavarianM]

1:11 Soldier using a Pentacon Praktica MTL, Great east german cameras

[@donalddumas6987]

I am confused. Berlin was in East Germany correct? Did the wall surround the allied area completely? How did the people in the allied section get food and other supplies? Thanks!

[@Netizpossible]

1. Yes. Berlin was in East Germany (DDR, Deustch Democratic Republic), and it was split east and west. East Berlin was controlled by the DDR, and West Berlin was controlled by the allies (US, UK, and France). The wall surrounded most of West Berlin. 2. People and supplies could move in and out of West Berlin by either flying there, or by taking a designated road/rail from West Germany to West Berlin. West Germans and allied military had to use this route if they werent flying.

[@vincentadams9569]

At WILHELM Straße on 14:43 you can see the site of where the Führer Bunker once stood and the REICHKANZLER building!!

[@fremejoker]

The footage is so tense, the protests snapped and desolved themselves so you see just the Wall.

[@user-uk8sb6df3h]

Freedom!

[@ildutcho]

I did not see big crowds near the wall in this video ?

[@neilfoster814]

Because it was 1 month BEFORE the wall came down.

[@tatos654321]

Sind sie wirklich weg?

[@user-ji6re8vf8h]

THANKS, FOR SHOWING THE HISTORY, THAT HOPEFULLY THE WORLD WILL NEVER FORGET *

[@cyberpunk.386]

Great contemporary witness footage! That policeman at 1:44 is still a kid.

[@rajivmurkejee7498]

It's worth remembering that the DDR never had any trouble finding people who were happy to shoot and kill any of their fellow citizens who were trying to go to the West.

[@flopunkt3665]

Communism is a strong ideology. A lot of East Germans are still full of propaganda from their days at school.

[@michaelaugat1290]

Da müsstest ihr zwei auch recht haben......fehlt nur.

[@TheYizuman]

Probably why employers refuses to hire anyone that lives or originally lived in East Germany. (Not all of them practice that way, but good number of them do, even after all these years) Discrimination against the East German citizens was (and in some cases, still do today) practiced quite often by West Germans. It's hard to forget the lives lost by those that wanted freedom from the East. Not to forget the cruelty coming from the East German prison system. Communism is inherently evil and still practiced today in other countries like China, North Korea, Cuba and so on. Can't say I blame anyone that still harbors resentment toward the East, even after 30 years later.

[@petermoller4447]

You have no clue, mate. Today in Germany crime is through the roof and Germans are treated as second class citizens by the government and fair game by imgrnts. I'd tale the DDR back anytime over western liberalism.

[@GaiusOctavius4]

@@TheYizuman People who were old enough back then are now retired or will be soon. Everyone else is innocent and your comment (the content, not the writer ;-)) is quite absurd considering this.

[@Strangeman1989]

That was the day when GDR died. After 9th Oct. nothing was the same.

[@tribinaaux4043]

Not at all, at that time it was very well and alive.

[@Strangeman1989]

@@tribinaaux4043 As you wish.. Honecker was kaput one week after this. Krenz was a joke. Fear of GDR didn't existed after 9 Oct. Stasi and Volkspolizei lost ther power against Volk.

[@Myndir]

9th November.

[@user-he4xb9fd5x]

I served in west Berlin with the US Army ,however I was not there when the wall went down.I left Germany in 1987 for Ft Benning GA.

[@okerror1451]

not one second was "tense"

[@543sw]

When we had hope for the humanity....

[@raymund1281]

Nicht alles war schlecht.

[@fft2020]

oh Nikita you will never know

[@oevers]

0:05 Why is there a the „yeah“ meme?

[@Palanibert]

This would be a lot more interesting with some narration and some context.

[@marceloquiroga8877]

estos se quedaron sin trabajo despuesde 1989

[@Paskudnak]

The more things change the more they remain the same

[@vincentadams9569]

How I remember this all so well hard to believe my first visit to W. BERLIN was in 1988 now 35 years ago! I remember my first visit into East Berlin at Checkpoint Charlie on KOCH Straße and leaving from the East back into the West the PassControl Officer of E. Berlin saying in his bad broken English “ COME BACK TO SEE US WE ARE NOT SUCH BAD PEOPLE” Yea right we only seemed to be followed and had too leave before midnight!!

[@thomaserismann9747]

Mahlzeit......

[@user-ji6re8vf8h]

PEACE AND HARMONY, FOR THE WORLD *❤️🌍❤️

[@no-damn-alias]

6:10 wäre interessant, wer da in dem Volvo saß

[@Nora-ei4ph]

Interesting!

[@sergiy01]

Мodern Africans are very pleased to see a united and free Germany, which opened new horizons and opportunities and gave their hopes and dreams to achieve more in their lives.

[@clarenzlarka]

Interesting to see the border but somehow I missed the tension. Did I blink?

[@Francisco81a]

even the itn logo looks rusted

[@tuvidao2011]

And now, after 35 years, protest in Berlin by farmers...

[@hitriks.l.2745]

Tja, die gute Leute, wollte nicht im roten Paradies wohnen.

[@clanmclaren1244]

I went to Checkpoint Charlie in 1989 as a 15 year old Army cadet. We was in uniform and i remember the east German guards taking photos of us. We went to a nearby hill to get a look over the other side and it was drab , grey and very depressing looking

[@donalddumas6987]

More questions, how come the East German didn't call on the army and quash the rebellion also to allow the wall to be opened? Thank you!

[@JamesSmith-ui2hv]

Perhaps it reached its expiration date ? the powerful ones decided it was time to finish this phase, who knows ? , tactics change , move to a different quarters , the objective was achieved and move to a different scenery , no long after that , the UN changed as well , promoting policies that interfere with internal political affairs of many countries which were only of their national concern , and placing globalism as a new horizon (communism is globalist) and it came with ideas like , World Police , social engineering , interfering with the family , no frontiers gender equality and so on , policies that were promoted very much previously to WWII , there is nothing new in the horizon , Soviet Union fall without a war , very strange

[@garylee9738]

Radio Berlin International.

[@AaronfromEngland1989]

Nice country my grandad was from kustrin he never went back to Germany after the war no one knows who he is.

[@flopunkt3665]

Küstrin is located in modern day Poland.

[@AaronfromEngland1989]

​​​@@flopunkt3665 yeah did come to learn that thanks,looking forward to going Germany.

[@user-xe8oh7vw4j]

Помню над нашим домом шли на посадку в западный Берлин чёрные военные американские самолёты

[@user-pc9hg8mn2l]

черные? мне кажется, они темно-серые. по крайней мере когда они были у нас, они были темно-серые. некоторое время у нас была их военная база, но мы, народ, в конечном итоге, после многих лет борьбы смогли выгнать их наконец.

[@almartin4]

I don’t recall posting a comment here on this issue. My apologies if this is redundant. This presentation is very well done, as always, but seems slanted to follow the high-level events without really addressing the meaning, and primary issues of that conflict. There were citizens of every stripe, on both sides, engaged in these confrontations. I was fortunate (and honored) to serve under President Reagan as a Senior NCO in the US Army, stationed in the occupied city of West Berlin from 1981 to 1984. The Cold War was at its peak then, mostly as a clear confrontation between NATO (commercial west) and the Warsaw Pact (communist east). President Reagan made his first official visit to West Berlin in June of 1982 and spoke initially to those of us in the Allied military forces stationed there. This was long before his famous ‘Wall’ speech. Membership in NATO was formed from western allies voluntarily; France was excluded because they chose not to join at that time. Membership in Warsaw Pact was formed, and enforced by Soviet forces, in countries they invaded during World War II. Any country that tried to leave the Warsaw Pact because of freedom movements (East Germany (DDR) / Hungary / Czechoslovakia) faced violent suppression by the Soviet forces. The members of the Warsaw Pact were not the comrades as the PR often claim. It appeared similar events would happen in Poland during the 1980’s. We were able to see the evils of communism everyday in the DDR. Oftentimes in areas just across the street or closer. Escape attempts and bloody retribution were pretty common occurrences with blatant and often loud results. Everyone on that side suffered in some form or other from food shortages to constant brutality. I was attached to the Military Intelligence (MI) Detachment as an interrogator tasked with interviewing defectors (Border Guard / Military) and refugees (civilians) from all of the various Pact countries. They were fleeing similar oppression with many vivid stories of their own. We had an almost constant flow during my time there. We were especially concerned about events in Poland as the Solidarity Union disturbances were watched closely by the Soviet seniors. During one of my 1983 interviews with a Polish officer who had defected; I asked him what would happen if the Pact forces invaded Poland to suppress the activities… … would the Polish military fight or not. His answer was both humorous and cynical. He said: “Your question presents a very serious issue for Polish soldiers to answer; do we do our duty to the people and country by shooting Russians? Or do we enjoy ourselves by shooting Germans? No more invasions.” We were pretty certain something was coming soon by that time; just not sure if we would become radioactive dust or the Soviet Union would collapse. I am surprised it took until 1989 for the Wall to actually come down and it looks like modern day rioters are trying to put it back up. President Reagan was not the flippant person some think because of the “Wall” comment. He was very serious in dedication to the issues of the day. Even on his first visit to West Berlin he stressed the following: ...”Several times in the 1950's and `60's the world went to the brink of war over Berlin. Those confrontations did not come because of military forces or operations alone. They arose because the Soviet Union refused to allow the free flow of peoples and ideas between East and West. And they came because the Soviet authorities and their minions repressed millions of citizens in Eastern Germany who did not wish to live under a Communist dictatorship. So, I want to concentrate the second part of America's new Berlin initiative on ways to reduce the human barriers -- barriers as bleak and brutal as the Berlin Wall itself -- which divide Europe today. If I had only one message to urge on the leaders of the Soviet bloc, it would be this: Think of your own coming generations. Look with me 10 years into the future when we will celebrate the 20th anniversary of the Berlin agreement. What then will be the fruits of our efforts? Do the Soviet leaders want to be remembered for a prison wall, ringed with barbed wire and armed guards whose weapons are aimed at innocent civilians -- their own civilians? Do they want to conduct themselves in a way that will earn only the contempt of free peoples and the distrust of their own citizens? Or do they want to be remembered for having taken up our offer to use Berlin as a starting point for true efforts to reduce the human and political divisions which are the ultimate cause of every war? We in the West have made our choice. America and our allies welcome peaceful competition in ideas, in economics, and in all facets of human activity. We seek no advantage. We covet no territory. And we wish to force no ideology or way of life on others. ...” The President spoke at 11:35 a.m. to the German People in front of the Charlottenburg Palace (June 11 1982). Regards

[@user-ti6tz9jp3o]

Do you think NATO members were angels ?

[@hiramhackenbacker9096]

​​@@user-ti6tz9jp3oof course NATO were and are not angels but how do YOU explain that most of the former Warsaw pact countries have chosen to be part of it and today even part of the old USSR wishes it was.

[@uwepomeranus3137]

Thank You for your service. And this post. God bless