1976

Contemporary Witnesses, Politics, West, East

Double agent's cover blown

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Heinrich Burger’s cover as a double agent is blown. A spokesman for the West Berlin SPD, he was spying for both the Stasi and the West Berlin intelligence services. He is sentenced to seven years in jail, but is released two years later as part of an exchange of spies, and moves to East Berlin. The passing of time has given Heinrich a different perspective on his actions.

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Glienicke/Nordbahn

showtime
65

latitude
52.633597

longitude
13.327142
Berlin, Brandenburger Tor

showtime
1

latitude
52.5162209

longitude
13.3778286
Berlin-Ost, Alexanderplatz

showtime
25

latitude
52.521861

longitude
13.413114

date

May 18, 1976
9th SED conference: cementing the divide

As well as increasing social spending, the 9th SED party conference (18-22 May 1976) also agrees a new manifesto. Designed to cement the GDR’s ideological separation from the West, the document does away with any mention of German unity.

Politics, East

00:37
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April 23, 1976
Palace of the Republic opens

The Palace of the Republic opens in East Berlin with a celebration for its builders, technicians, engineers, architects, and anyone else who was involved in its construction. Two days later it opens to the public. The building is home to the People’s Chamber (the parliament of the GDR) and is also a conference and events centre. Built on the site of the old city palace, the imposing structure is the new jewel in East Berlin’s crown. Caretaker Bernd Wolfgang spent weeks preparing everything for the grand opening. In this film he talks about his first days on duty in the palace.

Contemporary Witnesses, Everyday Life, East

02:49
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January 17, 1976
Concorde lands in Tegel

Concorde, Air France’s supersonic airplane, travels from Paris to Berlin for the first time in 1976. Some 15,000 West Berliners brave the cold at Tegel airport to witness history in the making.

Everyday Life, West

00:43
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1976
The Wall turns white

Work on the Wall never seems to end. Money keeps getting ploughed into what was already a very expensive structure. The fourth-generation Wall, as its latest incarnation is known, is designed to last longer and make it harder for people to escape. But the rows of gleaming white slabs turn out to have an unwanted side effect: they are the perfect blank canvas. Artists from all over the world come to unleash their creativity on the West Berlin side of the Wall.

Border, West, East

00:24
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August 01, 1975
Helsinki Final Act

After two years of negotiations, 35 states gather in Helsinki to sign the Final Act of the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe. The GDR is among them. The act focuses on peaceful cooperation and, most importantly, obliges the signatories to respect human and civil rights. By signing the act, the countries commit to regard frontiers as inviolable, to settle disputes peacefully, to not intervene in the internal conflicts of other countries, and to respect human rights and fundamental freedoms. The Helsinki gathering is the first time that General Secretary Erich Honecker and Federal Chancellor Helmut Schmidt have met.

Politics, West, East

01:00
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1976
Gardening in an exclave

It doesn’t matter what side of the Wall they live on, Berliners everywhere love their summerhouses and gardens. The Fichtewiese allotments are unique because they occupy an exclave, which means they’re in West Berlin but surrounded on all sides by East Berlin territory. To reach their gardens, the owners have to walk through the death strip and can only make the trip at certain times of the day. Marianne Schemmel had one of the allotments. She still has vivid memories of the routine, and talks about how it just became a part of normal life.

Border, Contemporary Witnesses, Everyday Life, West

02:00
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1976
Wolf Biermann and Lothar Loewe expelled

The GDR does not take kindly to criticism. East Berlin singer-songwriter Wolf Biermann has been banned from appearing in the GDR for the past 11 years. Then, in November 1976, completely out of the blue, he receives permission to perform in the West. But after he gives a concert in Cologne, the GDR authorities announce that he will not be allowed to return home. Lothar Loewe, a reporter for West German broadcaster ARD, is among those to sense that the mood in East Berlin is shifting. When he gives a less-than-rosy report of the situation on a December edition of ARD’s Tagesschaunews show, the GDR authorities waste no time in expelling him. The comments that led to their decision went something like this: “Everyone knows full well that border troops are under strict orders to shoot people as if they were mere rabbits.”

Border, Politics, Opposition, Culture, West, East

03:43
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1977
East Berlin struck by coffee crisis

In an effort to save Western currency, the GDR creates a new brand of coffee. Kaffee-MIX is ground coffee combined with roasted peas, rye, barley and sugar beet. It quickly earns itself a nickname: Instant Erich. Peter Pragal, then a correspondent for the Süddeutsche Zeitung newspaper, was living in East Berlin with his family at the time of the coffee crisis.

Contemporary Witnesses, Everyday Life, East

01:42
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April 1977
Hotel Metropol

The Hotel Metropol opens in East Berlin. Guests pay in Western currency and enjoy Western comforts in the heart of the GDR. Helga Lindner works at the hotel, in the team responsible for looking after the (Western) guests.

Contemporary Witnesses, Everyday Life, East

01:56
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1977
The German Autumn

In 1977, during what became known as the German Autumn, the RAF terrorist group plunges West Germany into turmoil. The West Berlin police get involved in helping to hunt down the people who kidnapped Hanns Martin Schleyer, president of an employers’ association. Andreas Baader and Gudrun Ensslin, two RAF terrorists being held in custody, commit suicide when they hear that the hostages on a hijacked Lufthansa plane have been freed in Mogadishu, Somalia. Birgit Roehl from West Berlin was one of the 86 hostages freed that day. On 19 October, the body of Hanns Martin Schleyer is found. He was murdered by the RAF.

Contemporary Witnesses, Politics, West

01:11
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location

August 13, 1961
Secret sand

In March 1963, 11-year-old Detlef Aagard, his parents and ten other people flee from Glienicke/Nordbahn in the GDR to West Berlin. They escape through a tunnel that starts in the living room of his parents’ house, which at the time stood right next to the border. As they dug the tunnel, Detlef’s family had to work out how to conceal several tonnes of sand around the house. The border in Berlin ran for a total of 155 kilometres; the section stretching around the outer edge of West Berlin (separating the city from Brandenburg in East Germany) measured 112 kilometres. This film looks at how people living in Brandenburg experienced the Wall going up and what it was like to live in its shadow.

Border, Escaping, Contemporary Witnesses, East

03:37
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August 13, 1961
A business stranded in the border zone

On the morning of 13 August 1961, 14-year-old Rainer Maier planned to go into his father's company where he was doing an apprenticeship. His father had set up the concrete plant in Glienicke in 1946. However, Rainer's path was blocked by combat groups at Oranienburger Chaussee. After much discussion, they were finally allowed to enter the plant near the "duck's bill", a narrow strip of East Berlin territory jutting into West Berlin. From then on, Rainer, his father and all of the employees needed permits to enter the company premises. Later on the building was torn down as it was too near the border zone and Rainer's father was allocated new land. He invested his own money and rebuilt the business. In 2011, to mark the 50th anniversary of the Wall going up, the rbb interviewed Berliners to find out what the division of the city meant to them. The Wall had a profound impact on the way each person went about their daily lives - no matter what side they found themselves on. Overnight people were cut off from their friends and relatives, from their offices, factories and schools, and from places where they enjoyed spending their leisure time. The division of the city tore families apart, ruptured biographies and claimed many lives.

Border, Contemporary Witnesses, East

04:08
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August 13, 1961
The duck's bill

The building of the Wall in 1961 created a number of exclaves -small plots of land belonging to West Berlin but surrounded by GDR territory. In East Berlin there were also areas which jutted out of GDR territory into West Berlin, such as the cul-de-sac Am Sandkrug in Glienicke/Nordbahn, dubbed the "duck's bill". The situation was particularly inconvenient for the street's residents, who had to carry a permit with them at all times and show it to GDR border guards before entering the enclave. The Wall ran right behind the Schulz's house. The couple still have a reminder of days gone by: their neighbours from the West used original pieces of the Wall to secure the boundaries of their property. The border in Berlin ran for a total of 155 kilometres; the section stretching around the outer edge of West Berlin (separating the city from Brandenburg in East Germany) measured 112 kilometres. This film looks at how people living in Brandenburg experienced the Wall going up and what it was like to live in its shadow.

Border, Contemporary Witnesses, East

03:17
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1978
The Wall keeps growing

Work on expanding and improving the Wall continues in 1978. Vast stretches of fencing mean escapees can be spotted long before they reach the border zone, and spring guns are installed to make it impossible to reach the other side.

Border, Escaping, West, East

00:33
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July 1964
Residential building projects in East and West

A satellite town has emerged in the Märkisches Viertel in North-West Berlin designed to house more than 50,000 people. Keys to the 5000th flat are handed over in the Eastern district of Lichtenberg.

Everyday Life, West, East

01:04
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March 01, 1962
Escaping at the dead of night

The sector border between Rosenthal and Wittenau: Annemarie Salzmann and her boyfriend slip on overalls to camouflage themselves as they crawl across the open ground near the border. Leather gloves will help protect their hands as they climb over the barbed wire. In March 1962 they escape under cover of darkness and fog, risking their lives in the death strip. In 2011, to mark the 50th anniversary of the Wall going up, the rbb interviewed Berliners to find out what the division of the city meant to them. The Wall had a profound impact on the way each person went about their daily lives - no matter what side they found themselves on. Overnight people were cut off from their friends and relatives, from their offices, factories and schools, and from places where they enjoyed spending their leisure time. The division of the city tore families apart, ruptured biographies and claimed many lives.

Border, Escaping, Contemporary Witnesses, East

04:43
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Video subtitles:
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Double agent's cover blown

locations

information

locations

9th SED conference: cementing the divide

Palace of the Republic opens

Concorde lands in Tegel

The Wall turns white

Helsinki Final Act

Gardening in an exclave

Wolf Biermann and Lothar Loewe expelled

East Berlin struck by coffee crisis

Hotel Metropol

The German Autumn

Commuting between East and West

Kennedy and Khrushchev in Berlin

First border pass agreement

Studio at the Barbed Wire

Division of the evangelical synod

Secret sand

A business stranded in the border zone

The duck's bill

The Wall keeps growing

Residential building projects in East and West

Escaping at the dead of night