The longstanding difference between the two sides of the wall is crazy to see. There are many statistics in which you can still see the divide where the wall used to stand.
@@miliba there are more Russians in West Germany cause they arrived in the 90s after the collapse of the USSR. The Soviet soldiers in East Germany left with their families in the 90s.
@@YakrifZeewhat’s interesting is Palestn people voted for “Hummus” and 72% believe Oct 7 was good. The same people for decades tried to eradicate Israelis and the state
Didnt that dope also help start the Vietnam War, Ruin Cuba with sanctions causing massive hardship, Bay of Pigs etc etc ... not a guy who's opinions you'd want to rely on. Propaganda loudmouth for the US.
I actually remember when my parents took me and my brother to see the wall. We were on vacation in west germany, and one day we went there to Berlin, just to see the wall. Several years later we saw on CNN how the wall was torn down. My father felt it was important his kids got to see it, as he had been a journalist who on several occasions had been to the Warschaupact for stories he wrote for magazines. I guess it was trips like this that instilled in me a desire to know about history, how it gets repeated, and how we rarely seem to learn from it.
@TrustandbelieveintheLORD2 Dude/dudette. You're not helping. You're just convincing everyone that Christians are really weird people that recite verses with no context whatsoever. RUclips proselytizing does more harm than good. Go get to know your neighbors and hang out with people who make you really uncomfortable. (To non-believers: we're actually real people, with real problems, and we say curse words sometimes. Don't tell anyone!) If you want to emulate this edifying experience in real life, go to a coffee shop or a bar, walk over to people having a conversation, rudely interrupt them and say, "So whether you eat..." People will look really confused if they're not angry. Hi. I am from the planet Krypton and I do not know how to relate to humans.
Some of the eeriest consequences of the wall and division of the city were "ghost stations" on the U-Bahn (subway). Before WWII Berlin had an extensive subway system, or U-Bahn. After the wall went up the U-Bahn was divided just like the city. Some of the lines existed entirely on one side or the other. Some lines that originally spanned both sides of the city were cut in two. Trains would travel up to the newly created dead-end, then turn around and go back from where it came. There were a few lines that served West Berlin, but crossed under a small section of East Berlin. The stations which those lines had once served in East Berlin were now closed. The street entrances were blocked off and bricked up. Barbed wire was strewn along the edge of the platform to prevent any East Germans who had somehow found their way into the station from boarding a train bound for West Berlin. The stations were dimly lit, and the booths that had once sold tickets became guard stations. Trains would slowly pass through the station, but would not stop. As it passed by the dark empty station, West Berliner passengers would see a station frozen in time, untouched from the moment in 1961 when the wall was erected.
@@noob.168 Liminal space is why "you would be scared of an abandoned subway station." Public spaces with no people in them disturb us, because we know it is supposed to be full of people, _but it isn't._ It's very disconcerting.
I saw it as an 11 year old in 1984. My dad worked as a civilian for the British Army in W. Germany and we went on a trip to Berlin. There were viewing platforms on the west side where you could look over. We also saw a checkpoint being repaired and East German soldiers guarding the workers so they wouldn’t run off. I’ll never forget it .
My grandmother escaped from the east on new years eve of 1961 by passing through the border checkpoint with the pass of a woman from Belgium that looked very similar to her which was smuggled in by my granfather who was living in Westberlin when visiting her. Of course the border guards noticed the missing immigration stamp on the pass but after 12+ hours of cross-examination they let her go.
The border guards didn't realize within 12 hrs that your grandmother was not from Belgium? I mean people from Belgium usually have either a French or a Dutch accent when speaking German.
@@wanderschlosser1857I mean I feel like there were so many lies she could’ve told to cover that. “Oh I was raised here but moved to Belgium with my family years ago” “I moved with my husband after we got married for his work.” My dad was born and raised in the Netherlands. Didn’t speak a ton of English till he was 25. And now, he doesn’t really have a Dutch accent anymore when he speaks English.
A former teacher of mine who was a guard at the wall for the east when he was young told us how he started questioning it once he realized that it looked like it was keeping them in rather than keeping others out. He said he was glad that he never encountered anyone during his duty, because if he had, he wouldn't have had the chance to deny doing his job. Knowing this, the seemingly inhuman guards become more complex too. You see someone approach and know that they will change the rest of your life right there, if you weren't unfortunate enough to encounter someone several times.
I feel bad for the Border Guards. Seems like such a boring sad job with everyone watching you. My relative said that he visited East Germany in the 60's as part of an exchange program or something. He said that a dumb American lady went up to a guard in the tunnel that they were in to cross from west to east and asked "Why do you shoot people". The guard looked around basically said he doesn't want to, his job was miserable, how he couldn't mess up with everyone around, the guards were always rotating and never knowing whether that guard was part of the secret police. He said that they try not to kill them, shooting them in the legs but the machine guns are so inaccurate its practically impossible Anyways my relative also said he spent most of his savings on the flight from JFK to Germany. it went from JFK -> Newfoundland -> London -> Germany all in this crampt dingy loud shaky propeller plane.
You can always miss. I didn't hear of anybody getting persecuted for not managing to shoot someone trying to escape. Some guards that did shoot people were however tried and sentenced for murder after the fall of the wall.
I was stationed in Berlin from 88-92 and worked in the Meddac (hospital). I took a trip to East Berlin Before the wall came down. You had to get special permission and go as a group in our Class A uniforms so there would be no confusion that we were there to do anything other than shopping and eating. I didn't buy much while there because most of the things I wanted to buy was fine China and crystalware which I couldn't store anywhere since I lived in the barracks. I was off duty for the two days when AFN (news) came on the TV saying that the wall was open. I watched in shock and confusion, then realized I had a decision to make. Was I going to say and watch it on TV and wait for the orders to come from Headquarters to stay what we could and couldn't do? One of my roomates and I decided we were leaving before official orders came down to lock us o base. One of the best decision I ever made. We left! We got to be right smack in the center of this world changing event. CheckPoint Charlie and the Brandenburg Gate (within walking distance). I got to get on top of the wall and got a few pictures (I wish a digital camera was thing then). I helped East Germans up and over the wall. I ventured where no American had been in civilian clothes, East Berlin. I stayed to celebrate all night and into the morning. I knew I couldn't go back to the barracks because they were not allowed to leave. So I stayed out, but eventually I went to my girlfriend's apartment and got some sleep. It was in the early morning hours and I didn't go far as I was scared something might happen to me. In the days and weeks after the wall opened up, I went deeper into the east with my German Girlfriend on our bikes. Trust me know I was taking part in world history and I took it all in.
I'd love to see those pictures you took, you should post them somewhere if you don't mind. Awesome story, things you'll only hear from the people that were there
@@jeftaswara2192 We did not return from a vacation at lake Balaton in the Hungarian People's Republic. My father bribed people and paid a small fortune to get forged papers. We then traveled over Austria to Southern Germany.
My West-German parents travelled to China in the late 80s and for some reason, their itinerary brought them through Berlin (and from there via Moscow to Beijing). Years later, we went on a family vacation to the unified Berlin and as we drove towards Brandenburg Gate, my mom started to cry. When she saw the Gate the last time, it had the Wall around it. It was off limits. I was still very young but I think witnessing this emotion, triggered by a past I never lived in, shaped my understanding and appreciation of our current times a lot.
My grandparents had their house less than a kilometer from a small river that marked the northernmost section of the border. And there was a little pub right down at the river where my grandfather would sometimes take us to get icecream when I was 5. That section of the border was basically a swamp, so the actual fortifications were a couple hundred meters inside East German territory, and completely hidden by the trees growing on the east bank. So it really just looked like a completely unremarkable little river maybe 15 meters across. However, my aunt says when she was playing down at the river with her friends, they sometimes saw East German soldiers patrolling the other side, and sometimes you could hear mines getting set off by deer in the distance. It's really weird to realize later that the Iron Curtain ran just behind my grandparents backyard.
@@RoamingDoctorsHow did you get that? They would have been more than 100 years old when the wall was finished if that was the case. Possible, but unlikely.
That shot starting at 6:30 is absolutely insane, beautifully modeled. Incredibly sad what it is depicting though, and the lengths went to in order to keep people separated. Great explanation and breakdown, thank you!
@@SushmaVivek-xq4nv well another lesson for trump is that you can try and stop it, but peoples desire for more freedom and a better life will always win no matter what
Berlin has to be one of the most historically interesting cities in the world. This, the Cold War era alone is like something out of a dystopian movie. A huge city divided in ideology, economy, technology, currency and general way of life, yet the people on both sides want the wall torn down. It went from being the centre of the Nazi-regime to being a chess board where western capitalism and eastern communism competed, and the inhabitants played the part of pawns. There was no time to adapt.
It certainly is. Besides the centuries prior to, which are certainly interesting, too, within a hundred years Berlin went from being the imperial German capital to a wild brief period of Democracy, becoming the heart of the 3rd Reich, getting badly destroyed, divided and becoming the centre of the Cold War and then reunited into the capital of modern Germany. And you easily find remains of all of it in that amazing city. It's not a beauty like Paris, neither has it the majestic aura of London or the metropolitan vibe of New York. Berlin has a bit of everything combined with a very unique history. Grew up in that amazing city literally in the shadow of the wall on the Eastern side.
@@Stierenkloot Yeah the 90's and early 2000's were great and wild in Berlin. It was the cheapest metropolitan city to visit or live in, in entire Europe. Now investors took over and living cost conditions more and more equaliser with Paris, London or Munich.
As a German, it's crazy to see what our grandparents went through, witnessing the building of the wall. Whenever I think I live in a crazy time, I think back to this.
My mom was born and raised in the DDR (East Germany). When she was 18, she fled with a friend of her by train and had insane luck, that the guards forgot to control her. When she came to Prague, she was there with many other people who fled from the DDR. Only three months after her escape the wall fell and she was able to move to West Germany (the BRD) and go to university, where she met my father.
There's a section of the Berlin Wall in my home city, Canberra. It sits out the front of the Harmonie German club. My father and I visited it a few weeks ago and had a very solemn moment staring at this monolith that once played a part in cutting a city and more symbolically a nation in two. When my Father was watching it fall on the news in 1989 with his family it was a moment unbelievable to everyone there, like up become down in a matter of hours. Great video as always 👍
@@allananderson949 If you are referring to COVID, the Australian government did not place any restrictions on the movement of citizens. Constitutionally the power to close borders rests with the states. They did so with the overwhelming support of the population. Most of Australia was essentially unaffected by COVID due to the border measures.
I will say, I signed up to nebula so I could watch the balloon escape story, and it did not disappoint! Honestly had me on the edge of my seat and happy crying. Hopefully that’s not a spoiler!
Oky I'm genuinely curious, is Nebula worth getting? A lot of the youtubers I watch have their main content over there but I just thought it was another paid subscription that they just wanted to use since YT itself has been heavily monetizing their channels.
Great video! I met my wife at the wall, 6 months after it came down. It was at what is now called The Eastside Gallery, by the painting of hand prints. She was visiting from Poland and I was visiting from the UK. 2 years later we were married and we just marked 32 years of marriage.
My grandmother and her sister were orphans in East Germany after WW2 and were adopted into different families at a young age before the wall was built. The family of my grandmother fled to the West, while her sister stayed. They didn't see each other for a long time. Today they regularly visit each other. It's just crazy to imagine being torn apart like that.
My Grandma which was from Germany had told me that in the later years of the wall, east German soldiers were always in groups of two during patrols. She said that if one soldier was to try and escape, the other soldier was to shoot the one escaping. It's insane how such a community very similar can be divided by ideals and then forced to be divided by strict measures with the wall.
It's true that patrols went in pairs and they made sure that those pairs were permanently remixed to avoid friendly conspiracies among them. Yes, it was meant that one comrade stops the other from fleeing. In reality it often meant the fleeing one shot his comrade first to have a safer run, happened multiple times.
I was stationed at the US Army Garrison at Ledward Barracks in what was then Schweinfurt, West Germany. We were 20 miles (32.2 Kilometers) from the then border. I was a combat medic who was in charge of driving an M113A2 MEDEVAC vehicle. Many times did the infantry have to go to the border and take their turn. Part of that was to help East German citizens into West Germany if needed. I was at a remote location one time, providing medical support for the troops there. What you didn't mention was the mine fields and anti-vehicle ditches that were outside of populated areas. I have witnessed the attempt of 28 East German citizens make an attempt to escape to West Germany. They were in a big truck with an open area in the back. It looked similar to the US Army's 2.5-ton truck, commonly called the duece-and-a-half. Of the 28 people crammed into this truck, only 2 made it to the west side alive. The others were shot and killed by East German guards. We could do nothing unless they shot at US Troops. All we could do is watch people die. As a medic, the two who survived were the only two that actually made it the camp, although both were badly injured. I could only save those two. But so many more died not only that day but throughout the time of East & West Germany. Much of the things that went on still haunt me to this day.
I saw a documentary at a film festival in Toronto about the Wall. The section I remember most vividly was the story of a young married East German couple who discovered that they were expecting their first child. Although they both felt that they could endure life in East Germany since they had grown up there, they were deeply opposed to making their child grow up in it so they began thinking about an escape. One night, they went out to try to find a way across the border in a heavily forested area. They hadn't even reached the Wall when shots rung out; there had been NO warning shouts from the border police. The man threw his pregnant wife down onto the ground and covered her with his body but he was too late: she and the baby were already dead. He was arrested and imprisoned for several years. HE WAS ALSO BILLED FOR THE COST OF THE BULLETS USED TO KILL HIS WIFE.
When Wim Wenders made his masterpiece Wings of Desire, he was not allowed to film with the wall in one scene, so he created a faux wall that is a hilarious take on the original.
Grew up in the outskirt of Berlin in East Germany in the 80s. You have to remember you came only really close to the wall in inner Berlin. Already in the outskirt you did not even come close to the wall from the eastern side because it was considered Military Area 1-2km in front of the wall. So you needed special Permits to go further.
Border guards were obliged to fire warning shots before shooting at escapees. This was also a problem when for some time a automatically shooting system was introduced. Another nice detail to mention is that on the western side of the wall about a meter of ground was still officially East German land. So anyone decorating the wall at the time was standing on East German soil.
I was in east Germany in 1977, you forgot the glass cemented on the top of the wall. Also the bouncing Betty mine field leading to the river. With the tank traps. I was 19 and a soldier.
The western version of the wall also streched like 2 meters under ground. Making it difficult to tunnel under. The inner footing is to prevent the wall from tipping over if ran into from the outside.
Stunning and beautiful video! Your animations just keep getting better. You're the only RUclipsr that has convinced me to subscribe to Nebula because your content is just that worth it for me to watch. Keep up the good work!
my grandparents were in west germany on a business trip when the wall fell, my grandfather brought back a few pieces of the wall and I have one of them on my desk, my father and grandfather have the other two
Damn, lucky! My dad was visiting the Netherlands from then Soviet-occupied Lithuania (his first time to the West) when it fell and had to pass through Berlin to get back - people were selling pieces but they were too expensive for him :p
Neo single-handedly makes Nebula worth it. There's other content on there thats amazing, but Neo's Nebula content consistently makes me feel like I've gotten my monthly subscription-worth of money.
I was stationed there in the Army from 1977-1980. I was 17 when I got there, and I remember the first time I went on "Wall Patrol" like it was yesterday. It was a sobering experience. We were also allowed to go to East Berlin on something called an "East Pass" that you got from your S-2. The first time I went was an eye-opening experience as well.
My parents were both born and raised in East Germany. They told me that it never occured to them to flee to West Germany. They were too afraid to never see their families again. But they actually travelled to other soviet countries a lot.
You can still see where the Berlin wall was from space today, East and West used different coloured street lights which you can easily see the difference between at night
I was born when Germany united again. As a child I was playing on the “dead strip” in the outer parts of West Berlin which is close to the forest. I wasn’t allowed to play everywhere because there could still be explosive mines.
@@StephenKershaw1the peoples chamber was run by the soviets, khruschev directly suggested the wall be built in order to keep people from fleeing west, because soviet communism was that bad. you should really take the five minutes necessary to properly educate yourself on what puppet states are before you yap like an idiot although I rarely expect tankies to have much thought capacity so it's not really a big deal lol
I just wanted to say that aside from the incredibly elaborate and interesting videos you're making, which are super complete and well explained for even people like me who has just recently started being amazed by this huge universe built around arquitecture (specially when you explain the possibilities of the "impossible" buildings of the future), your voice transmits so much positive energy and you have a charming smile which pours on the video and at least in my case, cant help but to smile in return. Thanks for your hard work!
Never had to build a wall but Democracy “had” to kill hundreds of thousands of natives, “had” to then evict all people who lived here before the whites and put them in their own communities, “had” to do all that and still believe you’re going to the great heavens above because you spent you’re whole life believing in god what a pathetic never ending cycle of pure ignorance
But we do build walls to keep the oppressed out, who are required to sustain the lifestyle of the rich countries. Its hard to see the current system as the final system of humanity.
The Berlin Wall, also known as Die Mauer was not all the concrete wall topped with a roll bar. In some of the more rural areas, it was mines, posts and barbed wire entanglements. On the river Spree had a wall on the East German bank and also underwater obstacles. The East Germans researched every escape and came up with solutions to keep it from happening again. People do not realize, Berlin also had farms in the Northern part of the city and cows. I had the privilege of being stationed there for 3 years, best time of my life. It really gave you an understanding of freedom, and what it is, not just merely words. So many people say it, but have NO idea what they are talking about. Co f 40th Armor, 2nd Bn 6th Inf Regt. 1979-1981. Ich hab noch einen Koffer in Berlin
It should be noted that the "death strip" went along the entire border between West and East Germany, using a fence system, not a wall like in Berlin. On the western side, you could go almost up to the fence. I remember one occasion in the 80ies when I was visiting there, it was a bit of a touristic sight, with West-German border guards watching that nobody did something stupid, and apart from that playing with their dogs. On the eastern side the guards were motionless, watching us through binoculars. We waved at them, they didn't react, they probably were thinking we were an imperialist propaganda show.
Lovely. I was reading and watching a lot about the post-war period, the Berlin Wall and reunification for the last two weeks. Perfect timing. You have an excellent channel.
What is also notable about the pipes on top of the wall: The GDR tested different designs, and a round pipe on top of the wall gives nothing to hold on. Barbed wire, although piercing your hands when you don’t wear protective gloves, gives a climber something to hold on as well as a normal top of a wall.
For anyone that is interested in knowing more about the Balloon escape, there is a great movie about it called "Ballon". But no stealing watchers from his video about it, never watched it before but will definetly in the future! Amazing vid!
It's easy to forget the human impact of such historical events as the Berlin Wall. This evocation of the brutal separation it caused is truly heartbreaking. Took away much more than roads and jobs, it took away relationships and loved ones.
The Berlin Wall, also known as Die Mauer was not all the concrete wall topped with a roll bar. In some of the more rural areas, it was mines, posts and barbed wire entanglements. On the river Spree had a wall on the East German bank and also underwater obstacles. The East Germans researched every escape and came up with solutions to keep it from happening again. People do not realize, Berlin also had farms in the Northern part of the city and cows
I think in order for people to understand the location of Berlin you ought to have shown how it was an ‘island ‘ in the East German / USSR territory but joined to the west via the ‘ corridor’ . Having been many times it was an interesting experience to travel along this appalling road with machine gun posts , barbed wire , cameras etc until you entered West Berlin . Please take my suggestion onboard if you really want to explain this intriguing story
I visited Berlin in October 1989. Just behind the Reichstag building in front of the Wall were a row of crosses with people's names on them and dates. It was a shock to see that the most recent were from February and March 1989. That is when I realised just how seriously the East German government took the Wall, and howfeadly it was. It also explained when I saw the banner newspaper headlines exactly one late"Berlin Wall Down" I did not understand what the story meant.
There was a film in the 80's about the balloon escape. It was called Night Crossing shot in 1982 it was PG 1h 47m A real surprise. Not exactly family entertainment from "Disney". Some violence, lots of tense moments, and a great story, based on fact. The theme of "Night Crossing" is, determination wins. Never losing sight of their objective, two East German families risk it all, in their daring balloon escape to freedom. The story is both harrowing and heartwarming. Time is not on their side. The East German Police are closing in and the outcome far from certain, until the very end. If you are looking for a good evenings entertainment, that contains no nudity, and limited violence, then I highly recommend "Night Crossing". It is pure entertainment
I lived in Charlottenburg in Berlin 1965 - 1968. Nice Video but you somehow managed to forget about the "Mined" Death Strip! We called it the "Killing Zone" This area was mined and did claim at least one life while I was there. You may not hear it on the international news as some things were suppressed but they happened. There were attempts by tunnelling out and by slimline home made tanks to get thru the antitank zone and the mined zone. I can also remember the "shopping " trips" to East Berlin. Our D-Marks were sought after in East Berlin. I was only a teen then, but not stupid and understood the plight of the Berliners. If we needed to get to West Germany by road we had to travel thru a "Corridor" taking us into East Germany or DDR, (Deutch Democratic Republic) in a specified route. If my memory serves me correct, 3 turns onto autobahns bringing us to "Helmsted" the border into West Germany. If we deviated or broke down we weren't to get out of our cars but wait for an East German patrol to come to our aid as they patrolled the "Corridor". The only thing my Dad was to do was show his I.D. at the window and request the British Embassy informed. Fortunately we got 2 very friendly guys who gestured to my Dad to "POP" the bonnet. After 15 minutes they got our car started. My Dad gave them a packet each of his cigarettes; something hard to get but usually only given to the Checkpoint guards. Profuse thanks abound. As mentioned in the video Berlin was split into "Sectors". We used to visit our American friends as my elder sister went to their high school. We'd been in Minnesota, USA for 3years prior with relatives due to the loss of our Mum to Cancer, my Dad becoming a single parent. We were able to frequent the American PX, (Google it). As us 3 kids all had American accents, apart from my Dad we weren't out of place! We occasionally ventured to the French sector by usually on invitation only. My introduction to "Frogs Legs and L'escargot or Snails if you prefer" bloody lovely!! My Dad was a bit of an artist. He bought an Opel Rekord 1500cc Estate, lhd. and drove it back to England. In doing so he designed an advert for the salesman to use. His name was Dieter Funk and my Dad got a decent discount from him I doubt he's alive now unless he's over 100 y.o. Opel in Berlin will no doubt have a record of him I could go on for hours as Berlin was such a nice place. The people were great and didn't deserve to have their lives ripped apart - again! I hope the future remains bright for the fantastic Berliners
This wall was completely insane. And the thinking behind this wall is working until today in Russia. "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!“ Reagan said. They built this wall anew.
I remember in black ops 1, they released a DLC map that took place at the Berlin Wall. I was always so shocked to see that it was actually real at one point. The developers even added a small detail where you couldn’t walk in the dead zone or else the tower guards would shoot you instantly
Heya. Born in the early 70s in West- Berlin here. Very detailed & sophisticated animation. One more thing: on the western side of West- Berlin towards the former GDR the wall was often just a mesh and not a solid concrete structure.
It was real grafitti on the Berlin Wall to mock Leonid Brezhnev and Erich Honecker, 2 socalists. This was a reproduction of a real photograph of them kissing.
When we lived there in the 1970’s East Berlin was still rebuilding from the war with many bombed out structures still standing and easily visible from the West. West Berlin mostly had rebuilt and looked like any other city with a few ruins here and there. When the Wall was built both sides looked identical, but by 1975 the differences between capitalism and communism were very evident.
I saw the wall as a young US Army 2nd Lt in 1978. It was an experience. Later on active duty at BAMC. FSH, Texas, I met two former DDR doctors who were now in the Bundeswher. My wife and I took them out to dinner.
What a lot of people didn't and still don't realize is that the Berlin Wall didn't just split Berlin in two. It completely encircled West Berlin, cutting it off from both East Berlin and East Germany. A lot of people still don't realize that Berlin itself was deep inside East Germany, roughly 100 miles away from the inner German border and West Germany.
Wow! This really affected me. It made some of the memories I have very real now. I was born in Germany in 1958. Apparently, my father was a border guard, and he helped my mother escape to the west side. She was only 16. Fortunately I was adopted by a U.S. military family. I never knew a blood relative in my life until my children were born. I know nothing about that side of my life, but I consider myself very fortunate.
The Berlin Airlift is probably one of the most impressive logistical feats ever accomplished by humanity. I wonder what it would look like today, with modern airplanes.
Berlin Airlift was a propaganda stunt as West Berliners could just cross into East Berlin for supplies. This was true after a few days, and In fact the Soviet Army in West Berlin opened up their food warehouses to the West Berliners.
@@speckkatze It wasn't impressive since it was just a propaganda stunt, Wester Berliners could just cross into East Berlin and get food and supplies. Plus the Soviet Army in West Berlin had warehouses of food and supplies readily available.
@@Rustycaddy17 Thats just as wrong as it gets. First of all, the Blockade started as a result of the Allied forces introducing the west German currency in west Berlin, which the soviets didnt like - so no, they would not be able to use said currency in east Berlin. Even if the Deutsche Mark would be accepted in East Berlin, one of the first changes made by the soviets was to regulate all traffic between east and west Berlin, in either direction. The Soviets also didnt not supply Berlin anymore, let alone have warehouses in West Berlin - there were warehouses there with supplies for around a month, but they were all under Allied control. The soviets also stopped supplying power and all other types of resources to west Berlin. The goal of the entire blockade was to lay siege to west Berlin, hoping that the western forces would not be able to supply it, enabling the soviets to annex it. Neither side thought it would be possible to fly in all supplies for many months, until the US, Britain and France did it. It is very much one of the most impresive logistical feats ever completed.
I had a fellow serving with me back in the early 80s in Berlin. He had a VW van with a hidden compartment that he showed me. It had been used by the previous owner to smuggle East Germans into West Berlin. I planned on buying it from him when he left and either shipping it home or donating it to the Checkpoint Charlie museum. But it was totaled in an accident.
I touched a piece of the Berlin wall. There's a large section of the wall at the National Infantry Museum in Columbus, GA. It's an amazing museum and would take more than one day to take it all in.
When I was a kid in the 90s, my uncle came back from a trip with "pieces of Berlin wall". I didn't understand what that meant, but the grownups got REALLY excited about it. All I saw were a bunch of colorful chunks of broken concrete. Now I can't help but wonder what became of those fragments. It would be cool to have a piece.
Berlin wall did not separate two counties, it surrounded a city, so my question is, how the actual border looked like, one 170km to the west of Berlin?
the soviets placed the iron curtain there, you can look op pictures of that too, its basically a very large iron fence stretching from east germany to bulgaria
A few years ago i've met Wolfgang Engels and he told me his escape story where he stole a tank to smash directly into the wall. That was in 1963. He made it into the west but was shot into one lung. He later worked as a teacher in Lower Saxony
The perils of clinging too stubbornly to ideology. If your own citizens want to escape, you know you’re wrong. But if you don’t admit it, you start trapping them in against their will because you can’t admit that your ideology is faulty
@@joplin8433 So what's the purpose of the big wall Trump built? you know the same president who's being judged in courts? what a shitshow USA has become XD
@@MaticTheProto Nobody is trapping me from leaving the US. I won’t be shot or maimed by spike traps for trying to leave. Hell, you won’t even be shot for illegally crossing into our border nowadays. 1000’s of foreign grapists and criminals do it everyday.
my dad grew up in Czech Republic and one of his friends wanted to get to Austria so he climbed on an electric pole with a gear he made so he could use the cables to climb over the border during the night he was successful and 5 years later they met in Vienna Austria
I went there, with my GF''s mother and father who they came from the eastern part or germany, and stories about them how they got caught 2 times escaping and they managed to escape the third time, 3 weeks before the berlin wall came down... btw some people might misundertand this wall concept, on why people wouldn't just go around the wall in the forests. the wall is built around west berlin cutting it from the surrounding.
Well, Soviets had only two options: 1) improving the quality of their citizens’ lives- which is practically impossible 2) improving the quality of the wall (to increase the suffering of the people). Indeed, communists and socialists are the worst.
I’m from younger generation. I learned about the Berlin wall in history and always look at it with sadness. People had suffered so much in those dark times.
I think the Berlin wall is the best example of a socialist(or even communist) community vs a democratic(capitalistic) community, where if given the opportunity, the people from the socialist community would escape to a democratic one. The only reason why we don't see that often, is because a lot of times they're not given that opportunity, but as we see, people aren't a hivemind, and almost everyone would like to live as they see fit, so they'd choose the one that has more democratic freedom. It's why a lot of North Koreans try to escape to South Korea if given the chance, but there's virtually no one would like to go to North Korea and live there(visits do exist esp by people who were historically North Koreans like the ones in Japan). It's why socialist/communist countries actually tries to instill more of a nationalistic identity to its people more than democratic countries do, because the best way to actually keep their people is to make sure they love their country, even if they have to do it by "force". In democratic countries, people can hate their own country, but more often than not, would still rather choose to stay there and would only really leave for a better country comparatively speaking. A capitalist system isn't perfect, but unless a perfect Marxist communism/anarchist socialism, social democracy, etc can be achieved, it's still better than the imperfect socialism/communism other countries have. Because communism/socialism will very rarely work in our current age since people aren't equal, and no one likes to be, they usually try to outdo the other, and if it does work, it's usually at the cost of the individual, for the greater community. An interesting thing about this, is that Sweden is defined as a loosely social democracy, but it still has a capitalist government but has been able to bring benefits of socialism. This shows that they'd still prefer aspects of a democracy for their country.
They had plenty of left wing defenders in the west right into the 80s. Just like all leftism the defences were built on perceived victimhood against a power system. Rather than its own form of oppression. Oppression on the "right side of history" as they like to say.
The longstanding difference between the two sides of the wall is crazy to see. There are many statistics in which you can still see the divide where the wall used to stand.
For example the number of Turks and Arabs vs Vietnamese and Russians
@@miliba there are more Russians in West Germany cause they arrived in the 90s after the collapse of the USSR. The Soviet soldiers in East Germany left with their families in the 90s.
There is a similar wall in occupied Palestine and many of people who are horrified with Berlin war support that wall.
Truly disgusting people.
For example the type of lightbulb used in berlin used lets you see a clear line of where it was at night.
@@YakrifZeewhat’s interesting is Palestn people voted for “Hummus” and 72% believe Oct 7 was good. The same people for decades tried to eradicate Israelis and the state
As John F Kennedy put it: “Democracy is not perfect, but we have never had to put a wall up to keep our people in.”
Didnt that dope also help start the Vietnam War, Ruin Cuba with sanctions causing massive hardship, Bay of Pigs etc etc ... not a guy who's opinions you'd want to rely on. Propaganda loudmouth for the US.
Tbf here in the continental US there isn’t a non democracy to run to.
who were they keeping in except the west berliners, the wall surrounded west berlin
not yet
Yes, that’s why all of the dead people that tried to cross it were West Berliners trying to enter East Berlin. /s
I actually remember when my parents took me and my brother to see the wall. We were on vacation in west germany, and one day we went there to Berlin, just to see the wall. Several years later we saw on CNN how the wall was torn down. My father felt it was important his kids got to see it, as he had been a journalist who on several occasions had been to the Warschaupact for stories he wrote for magazines. I guess it was trips like this that instilled in me a desire to know about history, how it gets repeated, and how we rarely seem to learn from it.
Warsaw Pact*
Thanks to ze Germans, Europe and the world had been destabilized more than ever because if they can't have Lebensraum, no one can :)
I pissed on the wall.
@TrustandbelieveintheLORD2 Dude/dudette. You're not helping. You're just convincing everyone that Christians are really weird people that recite verses with no context whatsoever. RUclips proselytizing does more harm than good. Go get to know your neighbors and hang out with people who make you really uncomfortable. (To non-believers: we're actually real people, with real problems, and we say curse words sometimes. Don't tell anyone!) If you want to emulate this edifying experience in real life, go to a coffee shop or a bar, walk over to people having a conversation, rudely interrupt them and say, "So whether you eat..." People will look really confused if they're not angry. Hi. I am from the planet Krypton and I do not know how to relate to humans.
@@kevin-parratt-artist💀
TrustandbelieveintheLORD1 was taken? Lol.
Some of the eeriest consequences of the wall and division of the city were "ghost stations" on the U-Bahn (subway). Before WWII Berlin had an extensive subway system, or U-Bahn. After the wall went up the U-Bahn was divided just like the city. Some of the lines existed entirely on one side or the other. Some lines that originally spanned both sides of the city were cut in two. Trains would travel up to the newly created dead-end, then turn around and go back from where it came.
There were a few lines that served West Berlin, but crossed under a small section of East Berlin. The stations which those lines had once served in East Berlin were now closed. The street entrances were blocked off and bricked up. Barbed wire was strewn along the edge of the platform to prevent any East Germans who had somehow found their way into the station from boarding a train bound for West Berlin.
The stations were dimly lit, and the booths that had once sold tickets became guard stations. Trains would slowly pass through the station, but would not stop. As it passed by the dark empty station, West Berliner passengers would see a station frozen in time, untouched from the moment in 1961 when the wall was erected.
Absolutely fascinating, I cant imagine how spooky it would be to see a station like that
@@Flaccidtetris It's not spooky. Just dark. Why would you be scared of a subway station?
@@noob.168 Liminal space is why "you would be scared of an abandoned subway station."
Public spaces with no people in them disturb us, because we know it is supposed to be full of people, _but it isn't._
It's very disconcerting.
I saw it as an 11 year old in 1984. My dad worked as a civilian for the British Army in W. Germany and we went on a trip to Berlin. There were viewing platforms on the west side where you could look over. We also saw a checkpoint being repaired and East German soldiers guarding the workers so they wouldn’t run off. I’ll never forget it .
My grandmother escaped from the east on new years eve of 1961 by passing through the border checkpoint with the pass of a woman from Belgium that looked very similar to her which was smuggled in by my granfather who was living in Westberlin when visiting her. Of course the border guards noticed the missing immigration stamp on the pass but after 12+ hours of cross-examination they let her go.
No replies, lemme fix that
That's actually crazy!
The border guards didn't realize within 12 hrs that your grandmother was not from Belgium? I mean people from Belgium usually have either a French or a Dutch accent when speaking German.
@@wanderschlosser1857I mean I feel like there were so many lies she could’ve told to cover that. “Oh I was raised here but moved to Belgium with my family years ago” “I moved with my husband after we got married for his work.” My dad was born and raised in the Netherlands. Didn’t speak a ton of English till he was 25. And now, he doesn’t really have a Dutch accent anymore when he speaks English.
I call BS on ME! I don't exist.
A former teacher of mine who was a guard at the wall for the east when he was young told us how he started questioning it once he realized that it looked like it was keeping them in rather than keeping others out. He said he was glad that he never encountered anyone during his duty, because if he had, he wouldn't have had the chance to deny doing his job. Knowing this, the seemingly inhuman guards become more complex too. You see someone approach and know that they will change the rest of your life right there, if you weren't unfortunate enough to encounter someone several times.
Everyone does what they need to survive. It's unfortunate when that need conflicts with someone else's.
I feel bad for the Border Guards. Seems like such a boring sad job with everyone watching you. My relative said that he visited East Germany in the 60's as part of an exchange program or something. He said that a dumb American lady went up to a guard in the tunnel that they were in to cross from west to east and asked "Why do you shoot people". The guard looked around basically said he doesn't want to, his job was miserable, how he couldn't mess up with everyone around, the guards were always rotating and never knowing whether that guard was part of the secret police. He said that they try not to kill them, shooting them in the legs but the machine guns are so inaccurate its practically impossible
Anyways my relative also said he spent most of his savings on the flight from JFK to Germany. it went from JFK -> Newfoundland -> London -> Germany all in this crampt dingy loud shaky propeller plane.
You can always miss. I didn't hear of anybody getting persecuted for not managing to shoot someone trying to escape. Some guards that did shoot people were however tried and sentenced for murder after the fall of the wall.
he was a pig!
@TrustandbelieveintheLORD2 thank you bro
I was stationed in Berlin from 88-92 and worked in the Meddac (hospital). I took a trip to East Berlin Before the wall came down. You had to get special permission and go as a group in our Class A uniforms so there would be no confusion that we were there to do anything other than shopping and eating. I didn't buy much while there because most of the things I wanted to buy was fine China and crystalware which I couldn't store anywhere since I lived in the barracks. I was off duty for the two days when AFN (news) came on the TV saying that the wall was open. I watched in shock and confusion, then realized I had a decision to make. Was I going to say and watch it on TV and wait for the orders to come from Headquarters to stay what we could and couldn't do? One of my roomates and I decided we were leaving before official orders came down to lock us o base. One of the best decision I ever made. We left! We got to be right smack in the center of this world changing event. CheckPoint Charlie and the Brandenburg Gate (within walking distance). I got to get on top of the wall and got a few pictures (I wish a digital camera was thing then). I helped East Germans up and over the wall. I ventured where no American had been in civilian clothes, East Berlin. I stayed to celebrate all night and into the morning. I knew I couldn't go back to the barracks because they were not allowed to leave. So I stayed out, but eventually I went to my girlfriend's apartment and got some sleep. It was in the early morning hours and I didn't go far as I was scared something might happen to me. In the days and weeks after the wall opened up, I went deeper into the east with my German Girlfriend on our bikes. Trust me know I was taking part in world history and I took it all in.
Thanks for sharing, it's great hearing stories from people that got to experience it.
My guy.This is a hell of an experience.I’m jealous
I'd love to see those pictures you took, you should post them somewhere if you don't mind. Awesome story, things you'll only hear from the people that were there
Thank you for your service!
This isn't about you. No one is gonna read the fake AI story you posted.
Find a real friend.
Go outside.
Stay outside.
Escaped with my family to the "golden west" in 1970. Thanks, father. Best present you could make to a child growing up.
How old are you
@@zothantluanga19ibig10
Old enough. ;-) One of the last baby boomers.
How...? We are curious..
@@jeftaswara2192
We did not return from a vacation at lake Balaton in the Hungarian People's Republic. My father bribed people and paid a small fortune to get forged papers. We then traveled over Austria to Southern Germany.
@Dr.W.Krueger thanks for sharing this story. Your father is a brave man.
My West-German parents travelled to China in the late 80s and for some reason, their itinerary brought them through Berlin (and from there via Moscow to Beijing). Years later, we went on a family vacation to the unified Berlin and as we drove towards Brandenburg Gate, my mom started to cry. When she saw the Gate the last time, it had the Wall around it. It was off limits. I was still very young but I think witnessing this emotion, triggered by a past I never lived in, shaped my understanding and appreciation of our current times a lot.
My grandparents had their house less than a kilometer from a small river that marked the northernmost section of the border. And there was a little pub right down at the river where my grandfather would sometimes take us to get icecream when I was 5.
That section of the border was basically a swamp, so the actual fortifications were a couple hundred meters inside East German territory, and completely hidden by the trees growing on the east bank. So it really just looked like a completely unremarkable little river maybe 15 meters across. However, my aunt says when she was playing down at the river with her friends, they sometimes saw East German soldiers patrolling the other side, and sometimes you could hear mines getting set off by deer in the distance.
It's really weird to realize later that the Iron Curtain ran just behind my grandparents backyard.
Ur grandparents must hv born 150 yrs ago atleast... Wow❤
@@RoamingDoctors ...The Wall existet until November 9th 1989
@@RoamingDoctors how did you work that out
@@RoamingDoctors East and west Germany only reunited about 35 years ago.
@@RoamingDoctorsHow did you get that? They would have been more than 100 years old when the wall was finished if that was the case. Possible, but unlikely.
That shot starting at 6:30 is absolutely insane, beautifully modeled. Incredibly sad what it is depicting though, and the lengths went to in order to keep people separated. Great explanation and breakdown, thank you!
Good idea for Trump's Mexico wall
@@SushmaVivek-xq4nvMAGA
The lengths that humans will go to to try to control other humans... It really is terrible.
1975 is the border I saw on the bus tour!!!
@@SushmaVivek-xq4nv well another lesson for trump is that you can try and stop it, but peoples desire for more freedom and a better life will always win no matter what
Berlin has to be one of the most historically interesting cities in the world. This, the Cold War era alone is like something out of a dystopian movie. A huge city divided in ideology, economy, technology, currency and general way of life, yet the people on both sides want the wall torn down. It went from being the centre of the Nazi-regime to being a chess board where western capitalism and eastern communism competed, and the inhabitants played the part of pawns. There was no time to adapt.
Genocidals
It certainly is. Besides the centuries prior to, which are certainly interesting, too, within a hundred years Berlin went from being the imperial German capital to a wild brief period of Democracy, becoming the heart of the 3rd Reich, getting badly destroyed, divided and becoming the centre of the Cold War and then reunited into the capital of modern Germany. And you easily find remains of all of it in that amazing city. It's not a beauty like Paris, neither has it the majestic aura of London or the metropolitan vibe of New York. Berlin has a bit of everything combined with a very unique history. Grew up in that amazing city literally in the shadow of the wall on the Eastern side.
Also great techno parties as a direct result of
@@Stierenkloot Yeah the 90's and early 2000's were great and wild in Berlin. It was the cheapest metropolitan city to visit or live in, in entire Europe. Now investors took over and living cost conditions more and more equaliser with Paris, London or Munich.
Id say constantinople or antioch was a better city in terms of history.
As a German, it's crazy to see what our grandparents went through, witnessing the building of the wall. Whenever I think I live in a crazy time, I think back to this.
I hope these beastly walls and borders come down.
My mom was born and raised in the DDR (East Germany). When she was 18, she fled with a friend of her by train and had insane luck, that the guards forgot to control her. When she came to Prague, she was there with many other people who fled from the DDR. Only three months after her escape the wall fell and she was able to move to West Germany (the BRD) and go to university, where she met my father.
And as well too of course I am sure.
They "forgot"
There's a section of the Berlin Wall in my home city, Canberra. It sits out the front of the Harmonie German club. My father and I visited it a few weeks ago and had a very solemn moment staring at this monolith that once played a part in cutting a city and more symbolically a nation in two. When my Father was watching it fall on the news in 1989 with his family it was a moment unbelievable to everyone there, like up become down in a matter of hours. Great video as always 👍
Who would've that 30 years later the Australian government would do the same thing to its own citizens?
@@allananderson949 If you are referring to COVID, the Australian government did not place any restrictions on the movement of citizens. Constitutionally the power to close borders rests with the states. They did so with the overwhelming support of the population. Most of Australia was essentially unaffected by COVID due to the border measures.
@@soulsphere9242 International borders are controlled by the federal government,
@@allananderson949You obviously don't know what you're talking about.
@@wanderschlosser1857 The borders were closed. Were you living under a rock?
I will say, I signed up to nebula so I could watch the balloon escape story, and it did not disappoint! Honestly had me on the edge of my seat and happy crying. Hopefully that’s not a spoiler!
some people escaped with paragliders
Oky I'm genuinely curious, is Nebula worth getting? A lot of the youtubers I watch have their main content over there but I just thought it was another paid subscription that they just wanted to use since YT itself has been heavily monetizing their channels.
Great video! I met my wife at the wall, 6 months after it came down. It was at what is now called The Eastside Gallery, by the painting of hand prints. She was visiting from Poland and I was visiting from the UK. 2 years later we were married and we just marked 32 years of marriage.
My grandmother and her sister were orphans in East Germany after WW2 and were adopted into different families at a young age before the wall was built. The family of my grandmother fled to the West, while her sister stayed. They didn't see each other for a long time.
Today they regularly visit each other.
It's just crazy to imagine being torn apart like that.
A major part of my wife's family were trapped behind the Wall. We could send letters but had no in-person contact for decades.
In some ways, they were lucky, North and South Koreans in the same situation will probably never see each other again
My Grandma which was from Germany had told me that in the later years of the wall, east German soldiers were always in groups of two during patrols. She said that if one soldier was to try and escape, the other soldier was to shoot the one escaping. It's insane how such a community very similar can be divided by ideals and then forced to be divided by strict measures with the wall.
It's true that patrols went in pairs and they made sure that those pairs were permanently remixed to avoid friendly conspiracies among them. Yes, it was meant that one comrade stops the other from fleeing. In reality it often meant the fleeing one shot his comrade first to have a safer run, happened multiple times.
I was stationed at the US Army Garrison at Ledward Barracks in what was then Schweinfurt, West Germany. We were 20 miles (32.2 Kilometers) from the then border. I was a combat medic who was in charge of driving an M113A2 MEDEVAC vehicle. Many times did the infantry have to go to the border and take their turn. Part of that was to help East German citizens into West Germany if needed. I was at a remote location one time, providing medical support for the troops there. What you didn't mention was the mine fields and anti-vehicle ditches that were outside of populated areas. I have witnessed the attempt of 28 East German citizens make an attempt to escape to West Germany. They were in a big truck with an open area in the back. It looked similar to the US Army's 2.5-ton truck, commonly called the duece-and-a-half. Of the 28 people crammed into this truck, only 2 made it to the west side alive. The others were shot and killed by East German guards. We could do nothing unless they shot at US Troops. All we could do is watch people die. As a medic, the two who survived were the only two that actually made it the camp, although both were badly injured. I could only save those two. But so many more died not only that day but throughout the time of East & West Germany. Much of the things that went on still haunt me to this day.
I saw a documentary at a film festival in Toronto about the Wall. The section I remember most vividly was the story of a young married East German couple who discovered that they were expecting their first child. Although they both felt that they could endure life in East Germany since they had grown up there, they were deeply opposed to making their child grow up in it so they began thinking about an escape. One night, they went out to try to find a way across the border in a heavily forested area. They hadn't even reached the Wall when shots rung out; there had been NO warning shouts from the border police. The man threw his pregnant wife down onto the ground and covered her with his body but he was too late: she and the baby were already dead. He was arrested and imprisoned for several years. HE WAS ALSO BILLED FOR THE COST OF THE BULLETS USED TO KILL HIS WIFE.
28 people is a big big escape attempt. Which year was that?
When Wim Wenders made his masterpiece Wings of Desire, he was not allowed to film with the wall in one scene, so he created a faux wall that is a hilarious take on the original.
Bruno Ganz, Peter Falk..... they filmed a bit of that near where I lived....
Grew up in the outskirt of Berlin in East Germany in the 80s. You have to remember you came only really close to the wall in inner Berlin. Already in the outskirt you did not even come close to the wall from the eastern side because it was considered Military Area 1-2km in front of the wall. So you needed special Permits to go further.
Border guards were obliged to fire warning shots before shooting at escapees. This was also a problem when for some time a automatically shooting system was introduced.
Another nice detail to mention is that on the western side of the wall about a meter of ground was still officially East German land. So anyone decorating the wall at the time was standing on East German soil.
"Freedom has many difficulties and democracy is not perfect, but we have never had to put a wall up to keep our people in."
- JFK
Yeap, you just make impossible to buy your way out lol
We only make walls to keep others out
Yep, and keep striving for a more perfect union.
@@shapied otherwise the infrastructure is overwhelmed and it all ends up as bad as the place they all came from
@@dmurray2978 equality is scare for those who are privileged, I know.
Finnaly after 2 months my fav RUclipsr posts
He has multiple channels, one is called Hoog
@@AKAK-rh7lrwhat are the other ones
@@AKAK-rh7lrwhat are the others man
@@m.rspinachioj2621 *soy face*
@@m.rspinachioj2621 Hoog
I was in east Germany in 1977, you forgot the glass cemented on the top of the wall. Also the bouncing Betty mine field leading to the river. With the tank traps. I was 19 and a soldier.
The western version of the wall also streched like 2 meters under ground. Making it difficult to tunnel under. The inner footing is to prevent the wall from tipping over if ran into from the outside.
They'd rather kill someone than let an innocent person escape to a better life
Trespassing isn't really innocent.
Sounds bad? Look what you do with Arab Palestinians.
Stunning and beautiful video! Your animations just keep getting better. You're the only RUclipsr that has convinced me to subscribe to Nebula because your content is just that worth it for me to watch. Keep up the good work!
my grandparents were in west germany on a business trip when the wall fell, my grandfather brought back a few pieces of the wall and I have one of them on my desk, my father and grandfather have the other two
Damn, lucky! My dad was visiting the Netherlands from then Soviet-occupied Lithuania (his first time to the West) when it fell and had to pass through Berlin to get back - people were selling pieces but they were too expensive for him :p
Neo single-handedly makes Nebula worth it. There's other content on there thats amazing, but Neo's Nebula content consistently makes me feel like I've gotten my monthly subscription-worth of money.
I was stationed there in the Army from 1977-1980. I was 17 when I got there, and I remember the first time I went on "Wall Patrol" like it was yesterday. It was a sobering experience. We were also allowed to go to East Berlin on something called an "East Pass" that you got from your S-2. The first time I went was an eye-opening experience as well.
My parents were both born and raised in East Germany. They told me that it never occured to them to flee to West Germany. They were too afraid to never see their families again.
But they actually travelled to other soviet countries a lot.
Interesting! I thought everyone wanted to escape to West Germany.
Ive waited so long for a new video, thank you so much neo. You are such an inspiring human. Thank you for entertaining us. (:
😂
He has multiple channels
Can you name some of them @@AKAK-rh7lr
You can still see where the Berlin wall was from space today, East and West used different coloured street lights which you can easily see the difference between at night
I was born when Germany united again. As a child I was playing on the “dead strip” in the outer parts of West Berlin which is close to the forest. I wasn’t allowed to play everywhere because there could still be explosive mines.
its wild how people can advocate for soviets when they had to do all this just to keep people from leaving lol
it wasnt the soviets... the DDR (East Germany) was not part of the soviet union... it was it own country
@@StephenKershaw1the decision came from khruschev
@@mysteryman447 nope!
@@mysteryman447 it was the Ost DeutscheVolkskammer ... .nothing to do with Soviet Union
@@StephenKershaw1the peoples chamber was run by the soviets, khruschev directly suggested the wall be built in order to keep people from fleeing west, because soviet communism was that bad. you should really take the five minutes necessary to properly educate yourself on what puppet states are before you yap like an idiot although I rarely expect tankies to have much thought capacity so it's not really a big deal lol
I just wanted to say that aside from the incredibly elaborate and interesting videos you're making, which are super complete and well explained for even people like me who has just recently started being amazed by this huge universe built around arquitecture (specially when you explain the possibilities of the "impossible" buildings of the future), your voice transmits so much positive energy and you have a charming smile which pours on the video and at least in my case, cant help but to smile in return. Thanks for your hard work!
That JFK quote always hits hard
"I know Democracy isn't perfect but we never have to build a wall to keep our people in"
The wall only came about because the West refused to give up West-Berlin. It was a compromise the Soviets reluctantly agreed to
Bad Quote, doesn't make sense. Also the US was never and still is not, A Democracy.
Never had to build a wall but Democracy “had” to kill hundreds of thousands of natives, “had” to then evict all people who lived here before the whites and put them in their own communities, “had” to do all that and still believe you’re going to the great heavens above because you spent you’re whole life believing in god what a pathetic never ending cycle of pure ignorance
But we do build walls to keep the oppressed out, who are required to sustain the lifestyle of the rich countries. Its hard to see the current system as the final system of humanity.
@@MegatonaxeMexicans aren't oppressed lmao
Very well done! I was stationed there in the early 80’s. I have memories and pictures but this puts it into perspective. Thx
how do these videos keep getting better and looking better at the same time. he is too good to be true. ILY NEO keep it up
The Berlin Wall, also known as Die Mauer was not all the concrete wall topped with a roll bar. In some of the more rural areas, it was mines, posts and barbed wire entanglements. On the river Spree had a wall on the East German bank and also underwater obstacles. The East Germans researched every escape and came up with solutions to keep it from happening again. People do not realize, Berlin also had farms in the Northern part of the city and cows. I had the privilege of being stationed there for 3 years, best time of my life. It really gave you an understanding of freedom, and what it is, not just merely words. So many people say it, but have NO idea what they are talking about. Co f 40th Armor, 2nd Bn 6th Inf Regt. 1979-1981. Ich hab noch einen Koffer in Berlin
It should be noted that the "death strip" went along the entire border between West and East Germany, using a fence system, not a wall like in Berlin. On the western side, you could go almost up to the fence. I remember one occasion in the 80ies when I was visiting there, it was a bit of a touristic sight, with West-German border guards watching that nobody did something stupid, and apart from that playing with their dogs. On the eastern side the guards were motionless, watching us through binoculars. We waved at them, they didn't react, they probably were thinking we were an imperialist propaganda show.
It would be nice to include a timeline of how they decided to build a wall. What was the final straw.
Lovely. I was reading and watching a lot about the post-war period, the Berlin Wall and reunification for the last two weeks. Perfect timing. You have an excellent channel.
I love every second of this sorta stuff istg
What is also notable about the pipes on top of the wall: The GDR tested different designs, and a round pipe on top of the wall gives nothing to hold on. Barbed wire, although piercing your hands when you don’t wear protective gloves, gives a climber something to hold on as well as a normal top of a wall.
For anyone that is interested in knowing more about the Balloon escape, there is a great movie about it called "Ballon". But no stealing watchers from his video about it, never watched it before but will definetly in the future! Amazing vid!
The Berlin Wall and Inner German Border of the Iron Curtain were the most militarized borders during the Cold War.
And now it's the border between the two Korea's.
Thanks Neo, amazing visuals and animation as per!
It's easy to forget the human impact of such historical events as the Berlin Wall. This evocation of the brutal separation it caused is truly heartbreaking. Took away much more than roads and jobs, it took away relationships and loved ones.
nice npc bot style comment 😳
Lol you're obviously using ChatGPT for this comment, am I right?
@@ambasing_omaygot ok tankie
The Berlin Wall, also known as Die Mauer was not all the concrete wall topped with a roll bar. In some of the more rural areas, it was mines, posts and barbed wire entanglements. On the river Spree had a wall on the East German bank and also underwater obstacles. The East Germans researched every escape and came up with solutions to keep it from happening again. People do not realize, Berlin also had farms in the Northern part of the city and cows
I think in order for people to understand the location of Berlin you ought to have shown how it was an ‘island ‘ in the East German / USSR territory but joined to the west via the ‘ corridor’ .
Having been many times it was an interesting experience to travel along this appalling road with machine gun posts , barbed wire , cameras etc until you entered West Berlin .
Please take my suggestion onboard if you really want to explain this intriguing story
I visited Berlin in October 1989. Just behind the Reichstag building in front of the Wall were a row of crosses with people's names on them and dates.
It was a shock to see that the most recent were from February and March 1989.
That is when I realised just how seriously the East German government took the Wall, and howfeadly it was.
It also explained when I saw the banner newspaper headlines exactly one late"Berlin Wall Down" I did not understand what the story meant.
There was a film in the 80's about the balloon escape. It was called Night Crossing shot in 1982 it was PG 1h 47m
A real surprise. Not exactly family entertainment from "Disney". Some violence, lots of tense moments, and a great story, based on fact. The theme of "Night Crossing" is, determination wins. Never losing sight of their objective, two East German families risk it all, in their daring balloon escape to freedom. The story is both harrowing and heartwarming. Time is not on their side. The East German Police are closing in and the outcome far from certain, until the very end. If you are looking for a good evenings entertainment, that contains no nudity, and limited violence, then I highly recommend "Night Crossing". It is pure entertainment
disney made pg films since 1979 and then had their other label to produce r rated stuff called Touchestone
My mom actually has a decent sized piece of the wall. Quite a historical souvenir if I do say so myself.
I lived in Charlottenburg in Berlin 1965 - 1968.
Nice Video but you somehow managed to forget about the "Mined" Death Strip! We called it the "Killing Zone" This area was mined and did claim at least one life while I was there. You may not hear it on the international news as some things were suppressed but they happened. There were attempts by tunnelling out
and by slimline home made tanks to get thru the antitank zone and the mined zone.
I can also remember the "shopping " trips" to East Berlin. Our D-Marks were sought after in East Berlin. I was only a teen then, but not stupid and understood the plight of the Berliners.
If we needed to get to West Germany by road we had to travel thru a "Corridor" taking us into East Germany or DDR, (Deutch Democratic Republic) in a specified route. If my memory serves me correct, 3 turns onto autobahns bringing us to "Helmsted" the border into West Germany. If we deviated or broke down we weren't to get out of our cars but wait for an East German patrol to come to our aid as they patrolled the "Corridor". The only thing my Dad was to do was show his I.D. at the window and request the British Embassy informed. Fortunately we got 2 very friendly guys who gestured to my Dad to "POP" the bonnet. After 15 minutes they got our car started. My Dad gave them a packet each of his cigarettes; something hard to get but usually only given to the Checkpoint guards. Profuse thanks abound.
As mentioned in the video Berlin was split into "Sectors". We used to visit our American friends as my elder sister went to their high school. We'd been in Minnesota, USA for 3years prior with relatives due to the loss of our Mum to Cancer, my Dad becoming a single parent. We were able to frequent the American PX, (Google it). As us 3 kids all had American accents, apart from my Dad we weren't out of place! We occasionally ventured to the French sector by usually on invitation only. My introduction to "Frogs Legs and L'escargot or Snails if you prefer" bloody lovely!!
My Dad was a bit of an artist. He bought an Opel Rekord 1500cc Estate, lhd. and drove it back to England. In doing so he designed an advert for the salesman to use. His name was Dieter Funk and my Dad got a decent discount from him I doubt he's alive now unless he's over 100 y.o. Opel in Berlin will no doubt have a record of him
I could go on for hours as Berlin was such a nice place. The people were great and didn't deserve to have their lives ripped apart - again! I hope the future remains bright for the fantastic Berliners
6:30 That consistent shot with the combination of ambient music and audio effects are so well done. Very dramatic.
This wall was completely insane. And the thinking behind this wall is working until today in Russia.
"Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!“ Reagan said. They built this wall anew.
Russia has never changed.
Reagan had nothing to do with it..... just political theatre for the gullible west....
jesus christ... get some brains
@@MihaiKrieger yeah, Russia was always too nice to european agressors
@@inf11bot
@@YukariAkiyama anime bot
loved the video and missed your uploads so much
10:53 dude... spoiler alert. I thought he was done for with the hole in the balloon.
I remember in black ops 1, they released a DLC map that took place at the Berlin Wall. I was always so shocked to see that it was actually real at one point. The developers even added a small detail where you couldn’t walk in the dead zone or else the tower guards would shoot you instantly
Heya. Born in the early 70s in West- Berlin here. Very detailed & sophisticated animation. One more thing: on the western side of West- Berlin towards the former GDR the wall was often just a mesh and not a solid concrete structure.
So everyone is going to ignore THAT 9:06
It was real grafitti on the Berlin Wall to mock Leonid Brezhnev and Erich Honecker, 2 socalists. This was a reproduction of a real photograph of them kissing.
Nahh
that was an actual piece of grafitti on the brooklyn wall, look it up
I love these videos! They are just so entertaining!
When we lived there in the 1970’s East Berlin was still rebuilding from the war with many bombed out structures still standing and easily visible from the West. West Berlin mostly had rebuilt and looked like any other city with a few ruins here and there. When the Wall was built both sides looked identical, but by 1975 the differences between capitalism and communism were very evident.
I saw the wall as a young US Army 2nd Lt in 1978. It was an experience. Later on active duty at BAMC. FSH, Texas, I met two former DDR doctors who were now in the Bundeswher. My wife and I took them out to dinner.
What a lot of people didn't and still don't realize is that the Berlin Wall didn't just split Berlin in two. It completely encircled West Berlin, cutting it off from both East Berlin and East Germany. A lot of people still don't realize that Berlin itself was deep inside East Germany, roughly 100 miles away from the inner German border and West Germany.
Exactly. Some of the posts here show a woeful lack of knowledge.
What a great video. I was always curious as to how it worked.
I walked across at Check Point Charlie in 1967. I also broke off a piece of the wall that same year
amazing graphics
Wow! This really affected me. It made some of the memories I have very real now. I was born in Germany in 1958. Apparently, my father was a border guard, and he helped my mother escape to the west side. She was only 16. Fortunately I was adopted by a U.S. military family. I never knew a blood relative in my life until my children were born. I know nothing about that side of my life, but I consider myself very fortunate.
Love this aspect ratio on mobile!
I don’t remember paying for RUclips Premium 👏
The classic adage "The Berlin wall was meant to keep the East Germans in, not keep the West Germans out".
Also, the Berlin Airlift was such a flex.
The fact that all those barbed wire fences and tank traps are on the side of East Berlin makes it pretty obvious what the intention was
The Berlin Airlift is probably one of the most impressive logistical feats ever accomplished by humanity. I wonder what it would look like today, with modern airplanes.
Berlin Airlift was a propaganda stunt as West Berliners could just cross into East Berlin for supplies. This was true after a few days, and In fact the Soviet Army in West Berlin opened up their food warehouses to the West Berliners.
@@speckkatze It wasn't impressive since it was just a propaganda stunt, Wester Berliners could just cross into East Berlin and get food and supplies. Plus the Soviet Army in West Berlin had warehouses of food and supplies readily available.
@@Rustycaddy17 Thats just as wrong as it gets. First of all, the Blockade started as a result of the Allied forces introducing the west German currency in west Berlin, which the soviets didnt like - so no, they would not be able to use said currency in east Berlin.
Even if the Deutsche Mark would be accepted in East Berlin, one of the first changes made by the soviets was to regulate all traffic between east and west Berlin, in either direction.
The Soviets also didnt not supply Berlin anymore, let alone have warehouses in West Berlin - there were warehouses there with supplies for around a month, but they were all under Allied control. The soviets also stopped supplying power and all other types of resources to west Berlin.
The goal of the entire blockade was to lay siege to west Berlin, hoping that the western forces would not be able to supply it, enabling the soviets to annex it. Neither side thought it would be possible to fly in all supplies for many months, until the US, Britain and France did it. It is very much one of the most impresive logistical feats ever completed.
I actually have a piece of the Berlin Wall on my desk
That's amazing you never know you could sell it one day and make a lot of money
I had a fellow serving with me back in the early 80s in Berlin. He had a VW van with a hidden compartment that he showed me. It had been used by the previous owner to smuggle East Germans into West Berlin. I planned on buying it from him when he left and either shipping it home or donating it to the Checkpoint Charlie museum. But it was totaled in an accident.
I touched a piece of the Berlin wall. There's a large section of the wall at the National Infantry Museum in Columbus, GA. It's an amazing museum and would take more than one day to take it all in.
When I was a kid in the 90s, my uncle came back from a trip with "pieces of Berlin wall".
I didn't understand what that meant, but the grownups got REALLY excited about it.
All I saw were a bunch of colorful chunks of broken concrete.
Now I can't help but wonder what became of those fragments. It would be cool to have a piece.
Berlin wall did not separate two counties, it surrounded a city, so my question is, how the actual border looked like, one 170km to the west of Berlin?
the soviets placed the iron curtain there, you can look op pictures of that too, its basically a very large iron fence stretching from east germany to bulgaria
With the expense of the wall they could've built something to improve lives...
Not a Border wall but a Prison wall. East was the Prison.
Wrong.
@@juehjuhow is that wrong ?
It is go to Palestine all this evil implemented in Palestine seggregation wall
In German, "the Wall" was known as "die Mauer" or "die Berliner Mauer", and it started coming down in 1989.
A few years ago i've met Wolfgang Engels and he told me his escape story where he stole a tank to smash directly into the wall. That was in 1963. He made it into the west but was shot into one lung. He later worked as a teacher in Lower Saxony
The perils of clinging too stubbornly to ideology. If your own citizens want to escape, you know you’re wrong. But if you don’t admit it, you start trapping them in against their will because you can’t admit that your ideology is faulty
Yeah. The USA have a similar issue
@@MaticTheProto
Care to share your delusions?
@@joplin8433 So what's the purpose of the big wall Trump built? you know the same president who's being judged in courts? what a shitshow USA has become XD
@@MaticTheProto Nobody is trapping me from leaving the US. I won’t be shot or maimed by spike traps for trying to leave. Hell, you won’t even be shot for illegally crossing into our border nowadays. 1000’s of foreign grapists and criminals do it everyday.
@@joplin8433no, they'd rather just post political sentence fragments behind their internet anonymity for a little bit of dopamine.
The Soviets built a wall to demonstrate how they had already failed as a society
video ends at 9:52. Dont waste your time with the rest
my dad grew up in Czech Republic and one of his friends wanted to get to Austria so he climbed on an electric pole with a gear he made so he could use the cables to climb over the border during the night
he was successful and 5 years later they met in Vienna Austria
I went there, with my GF''s mother and father who they came from the eastern part or germany, and stories about them how they got caught 2 times escaping and they managed to escape the third time, 3 weeks before the berlin wall came down... btw some people might misundertand this wall concept, on why people wouldn't just go around the wall in the forests. the wall is built around west berlin cutting it from the surrounding.
I can’t wait for the Air Force 1 episode
That shoe is my favorite
Meh. An old plane
Well, Soviets had only two options: 1) improving the quality of their citizens’ lives- which is practically impossible
2) improving the quality of the wall (to increase the suffering of the people).
Indeed, communists and socialists are the worst.
i thought it was just a wall😭💀
same
How tf do you go through the education system and not know that it's mlre than a wall
@@nathanjywtf
@@leobe2104the professor's here
Me too
I’m from younger generation. I learned about the Berlin wall in history and always look at it with sadness. People had suffered so much in those dark times.
I think the Berlin wall is the best example of a socialist(or even communist) community vs a democratic(capitalistic) community, where if given the opportunity, the people from the socialist community would escape to a democratic one. The only reason why we don't see that often, is because a lot of times they're not given that opportunity, but as we see, people aren't a hivemind, and almost everyone would like to live as they see fit, so they'd choose the one that has more democratic freedom. It's why a lot of North Koreans try to escape to South Korea if given the chance, but there's virtually no one would like to go to North Korea and live there(visits do exist esp by people who were historically North Koreans like the ones in Japan). It's why socialist/communist countries actually tries to instill more of a nationalistic identity to its people more than democratic countries do, because the best way to actually keep their people is to make sure they love their country, even if they have to do it by "force". In democratic countries, people can hate their own country, but more often than not, would still rather choose to stay there and would only really leave for a better country comparatively speaking.
A capitalist system isn't perfect, but unless a perfect Marxist communism/anarchist socialism, social democracy, etc can be achieved, it's still better than the imperfect socialism/communism other countries have. Because communism/socialism will very rarely work in our current age since people aren't equal, and no one likes to be, they usually try to outdo the other, and if it does work, it's usually at the cost of the individual, for the greater community. An interesting thing about this, is that Sweden is defined as a loosely social democracy, but it still has a capitalist government but has been able to bring benefits of socialism. This shows that they'd still prefer aspects of a democracy for their country.
The DDR was a dictatorship, pure and simple. They called themselves "socialist" the same way North Korea calls itself a popular democracy.
Fun fact: This is the world that Putin laments when he dreams of 'reuniting' the Soviet Union...
My OCD hates you for constantly putting East on the left!
I looked for that comment, same
Thank you, it bothered me too🤣
Fun fact: You don't actually have it until you call it CDO.
Mine also!
Well, the west is just on the left for the sake of it. There's no actual correlation between North South East and West vs Up Down Right Left
How did anybody think the USSR was a safe state after this display of insecurity?
They had plenty of left wing defenders in the west right into the 80s.
Just like all leftism the defences were built on perceived victimhood against a power system. Rather than its own form of oppression. Oppression on the "right side of history" as they like to say.
I wish this video was on RUclips when we had this subject in our class
Content is of extreme quality brother. keep at it!