The bizarre side of the Wall

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While the GDR is busy removing anti-tank obstacles from the death strip, the Wall drives artists to stage bizarre performances, and residents to make comments that are equally peculiar...

locations

Berlin-Kreuzberg, West-Berlin

showtime
1

latitude
52.504435

longitude
13.3917987

date

1983
Udo Lindenberg plays East Berlin

Rock singer Udo Lindenberg receives permission to give a concert in East Berlin in October 1983. He and his Panikorchester perform in the Palace of the Republic to an audience of carefully selected young East Germans. Egon Krenz, head of the Free German Youth organisation, is also in attendance. While the concert is going on inside, police are mistreating and brutally arresting fans who have gathered outside on the street. Nikolaus Becker witnessed the events and talks about what it was like.

Contemporary Witnesses, Culture, West, East

03:24
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1983
Aerobics vs. Popgymnastik

Exercising to music is the latest craze to hit Berlin. In the West they call it aerobics, in the East it’s Popgymnastik. A Kreuzberg factory building becomes home to Europe’s first aerobics studio. Angie Kauss, who soon became an instructor at the studio, remembers the early days of the trend.

Contemporary Witnesses, Everyday Life, West, East

01:44
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1983
Death at a border crossing

Within the space of just a few weeks, two people die of heart failure during border checks as they drive the road between West Germany and West Berlin. One of them is 45-year-old Rudolf Burkert from Bremen, who is on his way to watch a boxing match in West Berlin with a friend. When he is stopped and questioned at Checkpoint Bravo, Burkert suffers a heart attack and dies.

Border, West, East

01:24
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1983
Youth brigades in action

Youth brigades, part of the Free German Youth organisation, are put to work sprucing up new estates in East Berlin. The unpaid workers, nicknamed “subbotniks”, are also in high demand in the old neighbourhoods around the Eastern portion of the city centre.

Everyday Life, East

00:41
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1983
Cross-border relations ease

West Berlin is helping reconstruct the Nikolai Quarter, East Berlin’s decaying old town. Parts of the façade of the Ephraim palace, which have been in West Berlin ever since the war, are sent back across the border and later used to reconstruct the palace. It reopens in 1987. Another sign of East and West moving closer comes when Richard von Weizsäcker visits East Berlin. It is the first time a mayor of Berlin has visited the other side.

Politics, West, East

00:42
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1984
Drive-through opens

McDonald’s opens its first drive-through restaurant in Dahlem, West Berlin.

Everyday Life, West

00:40
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January 09, 1984
BVG takes over S-Bahn

In January 1984, the senate commissions the BVG transport authority with running the S-Bahn in West Berlin. Because the network has fallen heavily into disrepair over the years, the service initially only covers 21 kilometres of the city. East and West Berlin agree that Reichsbahn staff will continue to drive the trains between Lehrter station in the West and Friedrichstrasse in the East. East Berliner Dieter Müller was one of the drivers to operate that stretch.

Contemporary Witnesses, Politics, West, East

02:38
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April 1984
Friedrichstadtpalast opens

The Friedrichstadtpalast opens in East Berlin. It has the largest stage in the world and can seat 2,000 theatregoers. Jürgen Nass, who was the assistant director at the time, talks about how the West actually inspired the performances that were presented as examples of good, socialist entertainment.

Contemporary Witnesses, Culture, East

02:01
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June 1984
Refugees in the permanent mission

Fifty-five GDR citizens flee to West Germany’s permanent mission on Hannoversche Strasse in East Berlin. Hans-Otto Bräutigam is head of the mission at the time. He talks about the unbearable conditions that lasted several weeks and how, on 26 June, he was forced to go against the mission’s open-door policy and close it to the public. East and West reach an agreement at the end of July, when the GDR authorities agree not to punish the refugees and guarantee that they will soon be allowed to leave for the West. Inge Albrecht was 20 when she and her friend took refuge in the mission. She speaks about what it was like.

Escaping, Contemporary Witnesses, Opposition, West, East

03:12
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June 1984
Maglev train

West Berlin opens a test track for a new maglev train. It runs from Gleisdreieck to Kemperplatz via Bernburger Strasse. But when the Wall falls, all dreams of an M-Bahn network fade. Because the test route lies on a U-Bahn line that is due to reopen, the maglev has to stop operating in 1990.

Everyday Life, West

00:29
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1965
Studio at the Barbed Wire

West Berlin's authorities mount illuminated display boards on the GSW housing association high-rise near the Wall in an attempt to provide East Berliners with news from the West. The Studio at the Barbed Wire was launched by the Berlin Senate in 1961 in cooperation with the American sector's radio station, RIAS Berlin: their goal is to provide information and news across the Wall in response to the propaganda blaring out of the GDR's speaker vans. This sparks a conflict dubbed the "speaker war", which does not end until October 1965. Wolfgang Göbel was responsible for designing the display boards on the GSW housing association high-rise back then.

Border, Contemporary Witnesses, Politics, West, East

01:54
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1968
Attack on Rudi Dutschke

Nineteen sixty-eight is the year of student protests, above all against the war in Vietnam, the clampdown in Prague and the emergency laws. West Berlin's Ku'damm has gone from shopping boulevard to protest hub, much to the outrage of many born-and-bred Berliners. One of the leaders of the extraparliamentary opposition, or APO, is Rudi Dutschke. He survives an assassination attempt on 11 April 1968, but is seriously injured. The protesters accuse the Springer press of being complicit in the attack. Michael Ludwig Müller looks back at that turbulent year.

Contemporary Witnesses, Politics, Opposition, West

04:07
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1983
Women for Peace

Many people on both sides of the city are campaigning for peace and disarmament. Women’s groups from East and West join forces and name themselves Women for Peace. Eva Quistorp, founder of Women for Peace in the West, talks about making contact with women on the other side of the Wall. It wasn’t an easy task because the Stasi pursued and spied on the women in the East. Jutta Seidel, a dentist from East Berlin, experienced that first hand. A lot of women from the peace movement in the East later become part of the autumn events that lead up to the fall of the Wall.

Border, Contemporary Witnesses, Politics, West, East

02:43
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1974
A tank runs amok

In March 1974 a US soldier runs amok in his tank and almost sparks a global conflict. The soldier breaks through the border crossing at Checkpoint Charlie, drives to the Dreilinden Checkpoint and continues on into the GDR. His motive remains unknown.

Border, Escaping, West, East

00:27
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August 17, 1962
Peter Fechter dies trying to escape

Eighteen-year-old Peter Fechter is shot while trying to escape near Checkpoint Charlie. US soldiers, West Berlin police and GDR border guards fail to come to the rescue of the dying man. He bleeds to death in the death strip. Crowds of people gather on both sides, but can do nothing but stand by and watch as he dies. That evening, thousands of West Berliners take to the streets to protest against the Wall. The mayor of Berlin, Willy Brandt, urges calm. By November 1989, at least 136 people will have died at the Wall. Margit Hosseini talks about what she experienced at Checkpoint Charlie on 17 August.

Border, Escaping, Contemporary Witnesses, West, East

02:13
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October 1961
Stand-off at Checkpoint Charlie

"The world holds its breath: at the end of October, American and Soviet tanks stand face-to-face at the US Checkpoint Charlie on Berlin Friedrichstrasse. The GDR authorities are trying to restrict the allies' freedom of movement. For several months, the young US president John F. Kennedy has been negotiating with USSR First Secretary Khrushchev, the strongman of the Soviet Union. Khrushchev wants to make Berlin a free city and release it from the joint responsibility of the Second World War's victorious powers, but Kennedy takes a stand. The Berlin Wall goes up and a few months later the situation escalates even further when the GDR tries to impose border controls on foreign diplomats and the military at Checkpoint Charlie. US Special Emissary Lucius D. Clay responds by sending in tanks. Khrushchev then orders Soviet tanks to drive to the border, leading to a stand-off between the two superpowers that lasts 16 hours. "

Border, Politics, West, East

01:02
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1978
Kreuzberg nights are long

SO 36 is the name of the part of Kreuzberg that stands right in the shadow of the Wall. Kreuzberg isn’t exactly the best of West Berlin’s districts, but a lot of flats are available in its old, often crumbling buildings – and the rents are cheap. That’s what brings comedy singer-songwriter Beppo Pohlmann from Osnabrück to Kreuzberg. He and his band, Gebrüder Blattschuss, release a song called Kreuzberger Nächte (Kreuzberg nights), which celebrates life in the district and becomes a nationwide hit.

Contemporary Witnesses, Culture, West

02:00
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1975
Turkey comes to Kreuzberg

Numerous foreign workers from Southern Europe and Turkey come to West Berlin, attracted by the prospect of jobs and the extra pay that comes with living in the city. Many of them move into cheap flats in pre-war buildings in Kreuzberg. Eva Sarioglu talks about how the buildings were often in very poor condition. Over time, Kreuzberg becomes known as Little Istanbul and develops its own unique identity: “The air was different there,” says Eva.

Contemporary Witnesses, Everyday Life, West

01:31
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June 18, 1962
GDR border guard Reinhold Huhn is shot

Ten months after the Wall goes up, the death strip winds through the city, cutting Berlin in half. West Berlin is sealed off. Windows have been bricked up, people separated by barbed wire, roads blocked by tank traps. Families have been torn apart. Escape helper Rudolf Müller has dug his way under the Wall from the West. However, GDR border guards discover the escape tunnel and one of them is shot and killed, sparking a propaganda war. The dead man, Reinhold Huhn, becomes a martyr and streets and schools are named after him.

Border, Escaping, Contemporary Witnesses, West, East

01:23
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1986
An unusual art gallery

Artists in West Berlin are using the Wall as a canvas for their paintings. Thierry Noir, a young Frenchman, moves to the city from Lyon in the 80s and settles in Kreuzberg. He starts painting the Wall in bright colours. Perhaps his most famous works are those featuring giant, colourful heads. Their creative endeavours often brought the artists into risky situations, since even the West side of the Wall stood on East Berlin territory. Thierry talks about his experiences of the time.

Border, Culture, West

02:03
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