If you enjoyed this extended footage of life inside East Berlin, we think you'll enjoy this rare and uncut footage of life in North Korea, filmed in May 1995: kzread.info/dash/bejne/nmaGpsWRoKy_crA.html

@Andre-cd2ib

9 ай бұрын

I saw it live on a school trip in the summer of 1989. At that time, our class was invited to the Palace of the Republic.

@AA-hg5fk

5 ай бұрын

didn't enjoy it at all, it was just footage from someone driving around back in 1989, no commentary, no curation, nothing!

@paulgray2387

5 ай бұрын

The sad thing is it was only like that because it was run as a Stalinist one party state that ruled all aspects of people’s Iives.

@sleepmnan22sleepman50

3 ай бұрын

@@paulgray2387 Well, you're probably happy now!? Modern free medicine, Safety on the streets, The economy of the country, faces on the streets... And many other points..

@antoniocilia3269

2 ай бұрын

Una società orripilante.

This is an important historical document. Thank you very much for digitizing and uploading this for the world to see.

@steffanhoffmann

8 ай бұрын

Just look like Soviets to me. So completely unimportant. It was smashed just a few years later and Germany reunited; from that hell hole

@breezyrides6829

8 ай бұрын

those who forget history are doomed to repeat it @@steffanhoffmann

@life69467

4 ай бұрын

​@@steffanhoffmannHow Yugoslaws look to you.Many West tourist come to Dalmatia back then.

@cv990a4

Ай бұрын

No one understood that six months later this would all be kaput. That it would disappear entirely within 18 months.

@homerp.hendelbergenheinzel6649

29 күн бұрын

@@cv990a4 at this point ( july 1989) the damage has already been done. our cities were already "kaputt". you have to keep in mind that this is berlin here, where "all" the money went to make it look good. just look at the city of leipzig or chemnitz ( or basically any city in the gdr) how they looked at that point in time.

I went to Berlin in 1992 with my cousin, and while the Wall had been mostly removed, you could definitely tell the difference between east and west.

@Eidelmania

9 ай бұрын

It was the same when I visited in 2001. Loved all the building with bullet holes from WW2 on the east side.

@BB-kt5eb

8 ай бұрын

The east still has superior infrastructure even today

@usdepartmentofthetreasury489

6 ай бұрын

Obviously I mean more then 3 decades

@rolux4853

3 ай бұрын

@@Eidelmania in 2001? I always thought that Berlin was almost fully restored by the year 2000.

@TheFrewah

3 ай бұрын

I was there later and one thing I noticed was that I couldn’t find grocery stores for some reason. It was nice to see though

One of the best visual archiv from East Berlin. Quality is really impressive and scene of the ordinary life without any comments are very nice too. Thank you so much for sharing 👍

@daddybeagleaz907

3 ай бұрын

I liked the no comments aspect too, very well done

Those cars from other Iron Curtain countries. Polski Fiat, Poland 🇵🇱 Škoda, Czechoslovakia Lada, Soviet Union Gaz, Soviet Union AZLK, Soviet Union Trabant, East Germany Wartburg, East Germany Yugo, Yugoslavia Dacia, Romania 🇷🇴 Buses built by Ikarus of Hungary 🇭🇺 Trucks from IFA, Kamaz, MAZ.

@spidyman8853

9 ай бұрын

They were terrible cars. What was the best car out of the above list would you say? I often wondered what was the best eastern car in terms of reliability. I guess they all broke down.

@florianmeier3186

9 ай бұрын

Skoda Favorit was not that bad and Wartburg engineers had some advanced ideas, which were stopped by the politics.

@petrsovicka

8 ай бұрын

Definitely Lada was the best. It's still being used in the former Soviet Union countries especially in the countryside.@@spidyman8853

@zombiedodge1426

8 ай бұрын

The East German nomenklatura didn't want Soviet cars because they sucked, and Mercedes-Benz and BMW were out for obvious reasons, so they mostly used Volvos from Sweden. The gated community near Berlin where Honnecker and co. lived was nicknamed "Volvograd."

@usdepartmentofthetreasury489

6 ай бұрын

Crazy just like Cuba 😢

I lived in West Germany at the time and I don't think anyone in my friendgroup expected the wall to come down, we had lived with it our whole lives at that point and it was normal. I will always remember the euphoria. We were driving on the Autobahn heading to Vienna in September of 1989 when Hungary opened its borders and allowed East Germans on holiday to drive through to Austria. All of a sudden there was a wave of the tiny East German Trabi cars coming the other way honking with people hanging outside the car windows and we couldn't believe what was happening. Thousands were simply "going around" the wall once the Eastern bloc disintegrated and that increased the pressure on the regime to open the wall.

@timinwood3180

8 ай бұрын

Tawas a glorious day when the wall fell. Sad so many ignorant young people want communism now. Damn the professors who rotted their brains with this Marxist tripe.

@geoffroyfalot3583

6 ай бұрын

Thanks for the story

@usdepartmentofthetreasury489

6 ай бұрын

Surrea

@daddybeagleaz907

4 ай бұрын

I remember when it all began, just as you said. My sister at the time had a boyfriend whose folks had escaped Hungary so when that country opened its borders prior to the Wall coming down it sparked much dinner hour conversation and memories!

@TheFrewah

3 ай бұрын

I come from Sweden and I remember thinking it was absolutely crazy, not normal at all. I felt the wall and the Soviet system had to come down at some point. When it did, things went fast

Must be difficult to find your own Trabant when it is parked by the curb😁

@flitsertheo

9 ай бұрын

50% of the cars we see are Trabant 601, of the remaining cars again 50% are Wartburg 353. The remainder are a mixture of vintage Wartburg 311/312, Lada (or Fiat Polski), Skoda and a few western cars. Buses are made by Ikarus from Hungary, Vans are mostly Barkas except the Skoda's at 5:00. Trucks are IFA W50 and a Robur at 6:54 Trams are made by Tatra from Czechoslovakia. 4:08 the little green truck left is a Multicar, today the last surviving East-German vehicle manufacturer.

@jambo140

8 ай бұрын

Isn’t Tatra Chech?

@flitsertheo

8 ай бұрын

@@jambo140 Yes, I corrected that now. Back then it was still Czechoslovakia.

@bastobasto4866

3 ай бұрын

@@flitsertheo the remainder? you said 50% and remaining 50% - were there 110% cars in the GDR?

@flitsertheo

3 ай бұрын

@@bastobasto4866 if there are 100 cars : - 50% are Trabants = 50 cars - the remaining 50% = 50 cars - of those remaining 50 cars 50 % are Wartburgs = 25 cars 75 cars are now accounted for . The remaining 25 cars are a mix of other brands and models. Clear now ?

This is an amazing piece of history. Thank you for uploading it.

My wife and I were in E and W Berlin that summer and saw not a sign of unrest. I was stationed at Ramstein AFB in W Germany and loved to travel to Berlin with all the history and big city attractions.

@kingarthur5110

8 ай бұрын

I was based at RAF Gutersloh at the time

@user-wl4bx9fs6u

7 ай бұрын

Ты американец? Тогда что ты делал на другой стороне земного шара? Если я ошибаюсь - извини.

@usdepartmentofthetreasury489

6 ай бұрын

Probably because you didn’t live there

@kirillnikolaev346

6 ай бұрын

@@user-wl4bx9fs6u на базе военной служил

Thank you so much for downloading this.I am an American who grew up with a fascination of the eastern block countries. I visited Romania for the first 2003. 20 years later, I have been to Romania over 40 times as I now chair a foundation that works with the largest private orphanage in Romania. It was footage like this that I saw as a kid that inspired me to learn more about this part of the world. YOu are doing a valuable service by putting this on KZread..Thanks again!

@GeorgeSupremu

8 ай бұрын

Thank you for helping Romania

@user-wl4bx9fs6u

7 ай бұрын

@@GeorgeSupremu а что вы должны будете заплатить за их помощь?

@Ziom-bp3jq

6 ай бұрын

​@@user-wl4bx9fs6u🤨?

@VladVlad-ul1io

4 ай бұрын

THANK YOU SIR!

@krayxeez

4 ай бұрын

big respect from the Czech Republic, former part of the Eastern block.

A world without ads on every spot? Without billboards and stupid flashy signs saying “BUY THIS!”.

@leonardos2925

2 ай бұрын

Yep, but you're on KZread saying this, LOL. They wanted to move out, the *commies* had to literally build a wall to keep them from escaping the State's perpetual exploitation at the expense of their economic progress (West Germany/Berlin were way more prosperous, no question). It was a paradise... for bureaucrats and whoever was in charge, the rest (whose economic and social freedoms were restricted) can't say the same thing. Socialism is always so good... to whoever is outside of it, LOL. Don't fail to "act your words" out and move to Venezuela, North Korea, or Cuba (as you can see, only "fantastic" options)... the economy function just the wat you support.

@merlest9263

2 ай бұрын

Yeah, it seems so great! Especially when you can't even get a modern pair of Jeans and need to go to Poland, because it's more liberal there 🤡

@xgamerbih

2 ай бұрын

@@merlest9263 Jeans were something only the west had. But the west didn’t have enough housing and food for it’s people (and still doesn’t).

@josemariapena4226

2 ай бұрын

But he see a flashy signs that said " Buy Jeans" lol!

@yabgu3

Ай бұрын

@@merlest9263 what did the west have other than jeans? :D

Many thanks for the upload. Fascinating. And a great range of mullets on show!

Great video. I was there at the same time in East Berlin but took few photos, yet alone a video! This brings back vivid memories. Thanks.

It’s so interesting for me to see the WW11 bunker at 6:33, on Reinhardtstraße. I’ve stayed near there a number of times and have always found it to be a fascinating structure. To see it here, back in the DDR times with the other surrounding buildings is great, thanks.

@hefttackerdererste2837

9 ай бұрын

Wann waren die anderen Weltkriege, wenn es schon der 11. war? Hauptsache wir haben überlebt. 😊 Peace

@Kuricang31

9 ай бұрын

Scary for how many wars this world has experienced to the point that there's 11 world wars already 😂

@LectionesInterbellum

9 ай бұрын

You mean the Führerbunker? 🧐

@AtheistOrphan

9 ай бұрын

@@LectionesInterbellum- No that was in the border zone and had long since been demolished by then. This is a smaller one on Reinhardstasse. See here: en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bunker_(Berlin)

@viktorrandolfmunteanu4092

9 ай бұрын

I don't like the bunkers, they are horrible.

I went to a restaurant in that round globe tower in East Berlin and I could see East and West Berlin. The tower would spin 360 in slow motion. It was called the Sphere towering 1,207 feet.

I remember those days being grey rather than in colours 🤔. Amazing footage. Thank you for sharing!

ايام مذهلة كان والدي يعمل دورة تدريبية في شركة الرافعات العملاقه لجمهورية المانيا الشرقية ، قمنا بزيارته في صيف 1989 كان عمري انذاك 13 سنة كنت لا اعرف كلمة واحدة بالامانية لكن كنت الهو وامرح مع الشباب والشابات الالمانيات كنا نلعب كرة القدم كل يوم ،كانت ايام جميلة جدا مازلت احتفض بكل الصور ، شكرا جمهورية المانيا الشرقية على كل شيء ، الان انا اعيش في فرنسا المجتمع الرأسمالي المستهلك حيات بلا ذوق.

Like it was filmed yesterday, fantastic, wish I'd seen it for real. I've been since, Berlin is a cool city.

When I was a US naval officer in the 1980s, I went into the Soviet Zone of Berlin. The contrast was stark and very depressing. I walked in with a UK RN officer to “see the sights,” felt a sigh of relief going back to West Berlin through Checkpoint Charlie.

@user-qt1cp1be3u

4 ай бұрын

"The contrast was stark and very depressing." Why was there such a contrast between West Germany and East Germany?

@marcellocolona4980

4 ай бұрын

@@user-qt1cp1be3u There was an uneasy feeling of gloom and depression. Very few decent cars driving around, very few smiling people, dearth of necessities and consumer goods, a lot of armed DDR and Soviet military personnel, carrying a camera made you an instant mark, glaring eyes of the Vopos and Stasi. Of course, we attracted scrutiny as we were in uniform, but back then US, UK and French military could enter the Soviet Zone at will. We only recognised the authority of the Soviets and were told not to interact with any DDR state personnel as they had no authority over Allied military personnel. Let’s face it, you don’t build a wall to keep your citizens in if they’re contented and happy.

@user-qt1cp1be3u

4 ай бұрын

@@marcellocolona4980 "Let’s face it, you don’t build a wall to keep your citizens in if they’re contented and happy." German Wikipedia address "Deutsche Demokratische Republik" The GDR was a country of emigration.[12] In 1950, approximately 18.388 million people lived in the GDR and East Berlin. At the last stage of the state’s existence in 1990, there were 16.028 million people[13]. (18,388,000 - 16,028,000 = 2,360,000 population decline over 40 years. 2,360,000 / 40 years. = 59,000 average population loss per year. ) German Wikipedia address "Ostdeutschland" In 2010, the total population of East Germany by 1950 area was only 14.214 million, a further decline of 906,000 in 10 years. [1] (16,028,000 - 14,214,000 = 1,814,000 population decline over 20 years. 1,814,000 / 20 years. = 90,700 average population loss per year. ) ( Let’s face it, the absence of a wall did not change the trend. )

Thank you for the wonderful video

I traveled from West Berlin via checkpoint to East Berlin as a Chinese student in April 1986. Being forced to fill out so many forms as a kid from a socialist country when entering western countries, I was so delighted that I just had to wave my China passport, warmly welcomed by East Germany's border officials (girls) and walked into East Berlin. I saw American kids sitting in a separate room filling out forms, I felt so revenged. Haha .... However this feeling was very short lived, as I walked down the commercial-less street, I was approached by young men asking me to exchange west german marks..... sad. What a memorable trip! LONG LIVE GERMANY.

@DeathobJail

4 ай бұрын

前辈现在还在国内吗，还是移民了？现在国内发展还不错，有空回来玩玩😊😊

I was in West Berlin 1981-1983. I went to East Berlin, the west and east was like day and night an interesting experience.

THIS IS FAR MORE HONOURABLE THAN WHAT GERMANY HAS DEGRADED INTO!

@damonmelendez856

8 ай бұрын

You don’t like all the vibrancy and diversity now? 😂

Great video of East Berlin right before the wall came down. I'll be visiting Berlin this November and am interested in seeing the eastern parts of the city.

@spidyman8853

9 ай бұрын

A lot has changed. This video is of an era that has long gone.

@anthonydowling3356

8 ай бұрын

East and west now look the same .I was there 2 months ago .I lived in West Berlin for a year back in 1977 -78 but went regularly over the wall on day trips then to the East .It was an experience but i was very glad that i was living in the West part .

this was the peak of human civilization.

@michaelroth2783

9 ай бұрын

Yes

The Trabbies, the concrete, the terrible food, the Stasi, the empty shops. Such memories.

@janmo519

8 ай бұрын

Dont forget the smell from a Mix of two-stroke engine, lignit coal and linoleum

@geoffroyfalot3583

6 ай бұрын

​@@suspiciouswatermelon7639😂

@cosmicdebris2223

4 ай бұрын

@@suspiciouswatermelon7639 do you mean "defectors"?

@jeremynv89523

8 күн бұрын

As a fan of Brutalism, I think East Berlin was beautiful. I'd have lived there in a heartbeat.

Brilliant video!! Thanks for sharing. Went to Berlin in 1985 as a 14-year old kid (school trip). This video kinda makes up for the photos I wish I'd taken. I only took a few by the wall. One question: Do you know where the buildings being erected at 20:35 are / were situated?

@rolandvoss3600

5 ай бұрын

Probably Hellersdorf.

Would be good if there was a modern visual of the same locations to see the changes. What is striking of the 1989 footage is the absence of 'commercial' signage, ads!

Ich habe das erlebt, es war komisch, wenn man die Grenze zwischen den politischen Systemen passiert hat, war es als ob man ins Badezimmer geht, die Türe aufmacht und dann,... in einer ganz anderen Welt landet.

@marcofreyssonnet9673

9 ай бұрын

Faszinierend

Wow, great stuff, thanks!

So great to get a tour of the East German streetscape barely a month after the Wall fell. Would be great to re-drive the same streets to record the differences over 34+ years make.

@AtheistOrphan

9 ай бұрын

This was filmed on 12 July 1989, several months BEFORE the wall fell. (November).

@mrpeel3239

9 ай бұрын

@@AtheistOrphan Many thanks for clarifying. Especially loved the uncertain looks on the faces of the Honor Guard!

@AtheistOrphan

9 ай бұрын

@@mrpeel3239 - Perhaps he was having premonitions of what was coming!

The following month, GDR citizens took to the streets and the Monday demonstrations began. My friends and I held our own demonstration against the state in Frankfurt Oder. Until a truck full of cops came and beat us apart. Some were arrested. That night, state power had won. But 2 months later, the people of the GDR triumphed. On November 9th the Wall fell. The next day I stood on the wall in front of the Brandenburg Gate.

@red0007maroc

3 ай бұрын

انت غير محق انتصرت امريكا وأصبحت الدولة الشرقية مهملة وشعبها عبيد عند الألمان ودمرت الشركات والمؤسسات الحكومية الكل فقد عمله ومنزله وحياته واصبح عبدا عند المانيا الغربية

@TheAxeaman

3 ай бұрын

How is it there now?

Egal wer sich hier wieder aufregen könnte, die Stadt, dass Land war damals sicher und ordentlich. Abgesehen das ich damals noch gerne in Berlin war. Heute meide ich diese Stadt.

@steffena1261

9 ай бұрын

Ist in allen Diktaturen so. Der Preis dafür ist sehr hoch. Im Gefängnis ist es auch „sicher und ordentlich“. Der Lebensstandard war dafür miserabel.

@lutzehlert8908

7 күн бұрын

Stimmt genau.

I was a soldier stationed in west Berlin with the 502 airborne in 1982 . I love to watch these old films. Thanks

This clip creates a somewhat distorted picture of GDR reality. In the early postwar period up through the Détente Era things were much more rigiid. By 1989 Gorbachev was long since in power in the USSR, and things had started changing in the entire eastern bloc. The haircuts and "fashions" of the people shown here to a large extent mirror that which one saw in West Germany (where I've lived continuously since 1977). Still, it's interesting to see the automobiles (the automotive industry in the eastern bloc countries was by that time far behind western Europe and Japan) and prefab construction techniques (which today may seem a little primitive, but which were not entirely devoid of sound and efficient civil engineering and fitout principles... those prefab apartment blocks, while primitive, are often qualitatively superior to what one sees in U.S. public housing).

totally amazing to be able to see this- a slice in time

The quality of this film is superb. I was in West Berlin 1988-90 & visited East Berlin more than once. I witnessed the collapse of the regime too

Bellissimo video. Grazie

I was in the DDR after the wall came down - everything looked dilapidated compared with West Germany. They sure liked their mullets, but I guess we did in the West too 😉

Respect for this video from Serbia. I remember as a child all these cars. It was like in a past life, thanking Gorbachev, whom my Serbs do not like for many reasons.

@Wayne_Schlagel

8 ай бұрын

Koje si godište?

@kapiton9985

3 ай бұрын

А кто эту иуду любит вообще?

The sad thing is that it looks nicer and safer than Berlin of today.

@DaveSCameron

8 ай бұрын

Indeed!

@dankwartdenkhardt708

8 ай бұрын

Safer yes, nicer no, there are a lot of historical buildings restored and even completely rebuilded.

@suspiciouswatermelon7639

8 ай бұрын

In their own countries where they belong.

@mrcat926

8 ай бұрын

Don't give in to nostalgia. You would not like it if you were put back in that time

@MotownGuitarJoe

8 ай бұрын

Watch the film "The Lives of Others" and see how you feel then...

GDR ( DDR,East-germany) was a good State but it wasn't so perfect. But the people don't poor, the have work, homes ( flats) nobody sleeps under brigdes /out , enough food, not hungry people. A lot of people today in Germany there are going to the "Tafel" for food. The people don't be afraid for the next day. The school system was perfect . The people life in harmony together not so brutal.

@stephanobarbosa5805

9 ай бұрын

True!! The former GDR did not have the traditional problems of countries like Ethiopia, Liberia, Brazil etc.

@stephanobarbosa5805

9 ай бұрын

A similar situation occurs in Cuba today. Yes, the country has its imperfections. But it doesn't have the poor chronicle like Haiti. Several people sleeping in the streets etc.

@birgitrother2472

9 ай бұрын

Genau so war es,keine Angst vor dem nächsten Tag, es ging uns soweit gut, man konnte nachts als Frau rausgehen, kein Vergleich zu heute, sie sollten sich nicht zu weit aus dem Fenster lehnen, es war viel sicherer als heute

@keinschnee

4 ай бұрын

@@birgitrother2472 Absolut, ich konnte mein Fahrrad irgendwo stehen lassen, das war nach einer Woche immer noch da und es fehlte nichts. Als Frau hätte man in der DDR nachts auch nackt durch den Park laufen können, es wäre nichts passiert! Männer wären schon gar nicht über sie hergefallen, ja man hätte von Männern sogar Hilfe bekommen und ne Jacke damit man nicht friert und sich bedecken kann ...

Wow Thank you for Sharing

Fantastic blast from the past😊

Thank you for posting this very interesting and unique documentary. Was it part of a special DDR or ITN program? Because the man with the children on the playground later appears in the making of a Plattenbau appartement. So i assume it must have been approved by the DDR officials? I wonder what became of the future of this man and it’s family after the fall of the Wall. Can you tell anything about that? Greatings from the Netherlands, in may 1988 i was in Berlin with my schoolclass and privileged to visit Berlin every year since 1995. Always wonderfull to meet real Berliners, East and West, and talk about the days back then.

@donofon1014

9 ай бұрын

You have to play "Who is Stasi" in every scene. The number of informants was staggering, and I had not thought about Mr Slide Guide. Of course. I have visited Havana, and every street has its up front and self proclaimed neighbourhood revolutionary committees. But ... Slide Dad maybe he serves on the "housing council". Can I recommend the German TV trilogy .. "Deutschland 1983" und so weiter

I visited the DDR in the early 1980s, the contrast with the west was astounding. Thanks for sharing this film.

ein absolut wichtiges und tolles Zeitdokument.

wunderschöne Aufnahmen

Nice Video . Thanks

Important and informative video

Was there in 1985 and in Budapest in 1989 when East Germans could go to the West via the border between Hungary and Austria. Very memorable times...

@ssg9offical

8 ай бұрын

Definitely more interesting than the modern world.

The first scene with the change of the GDR-soldiers were not filmed at the German Wall. This "event" happened in front of the New Guard (dt. Neue Wache) on the street Under the Linden, ca. 1 km to the German Border at the Brandenburg Gate.

Meine Kindheit....DANKE!❤❤❤

@helgeschneider9069

9 ай бұрын

was war an der kindheit schön? ich kann nur mit dem kopf schütteln! für mich als kind war das eine katastrophe!

@geoffroyfalot3583

6 ай бұрын

@@helgeschneider9069 What city did you live in ?

@helgeschneider9069

6 ай бұрын

@@geoffroyfalot3583 Central saxony

@kapiton9985

3 ай бұрын

Warum?​@@helgeschneider9069

@user-xn8kr6bd1e

3 ай бұрын

@@helgeschneider9069 Ist es eine Katastrophe, in einer Stadt zu leben, in der es keine Migranten oder Drogenabhängigen gibt? Es ist eine Katastrophe, wenn ein Kind nicht alleine im Garten herumlaufen kann und ihm eine schwule Orientierung aufgezwungen wird!

Wie schön, hier nur echte, ethnisch deutsche Kinder auf dem Spielplatz zu sehen. Erinnerung an meine eigene Jugend.

When life had a value system and we all knew what we were getting and what was expected of us to keep society harmonious and on the move.

@SharonBook

2 ай бұрын

Really???😠😠😠😠

to be honest, its exactly how my grandfather said it, you might have cheap and depressing buildings in east berlin, but they tried to make the most of it and because of that, people are way nicer because they want to get away from that thought of the city being depressing, and they go outside wayyyyy more often to socialize, even in that time where there were little things to do in the house but watch tv

@DaveSCameron

8 ай бұрын

Great comment and despite being told we were glued to the TV 📺 I would say now we are concreted into WiFi. 😂

@g2000g

8 ай бұрын

I read and watched quite a bit about DDR. Even S..x workers who came to “new federal states” said they liked Easter German guys . They were gentler while Western German customers acted entitled and could do whatever they could do. They know how money power s.x mating works in a capitalist society. I heard in DDR people learned to look at the whole persons.

@arvaneret_329

8 ай бұрын

​@@g2000g “Sex workers”, there's a word for that: prostitutes.

@Proletariat-intifada

4 ай бұрын

homelessness is more depressing that ugly apartments

@daddybeagleaz907

4 ай бұрын

One thing that I thought was interesting when the border opened up, quite a few East Berliners went over but then returned home to the East side. The reason? Many simply wanted to go over to the West to see it but not stay. Just as a ranking E. German politician had predicted many years before during an interview with National Geographic I believe.

Opening scene - cool helmets that they pinched from the rebel alliance in the original Star Wars movie. So much for throwing off the Nazi past, with all that goose-stepping.

The kid with the thumb in his mouth waiting for the slide at 13:15 is Stasi

The city looks better than most cities in India in 2023. I don't see why this is depressing. Somebody in africa would kill to have this kind of a city in 2023 as their capital

@functhefucc5798

3 ай бұрын

Matter of perspective. Compare it with a west german city of the time, and it will seem depressive.

And soon enough... it was all gone.

Great picture quality from early 3CCD BetacamSP camcorder. :o)

you even recorded how a WBS 70 panel apartment is built

I find East Germany one of the more fascinating communist states. Being the only Western communist state, and the blend of Western culture with Eastern values at the time is very interesting!

Awesome. A time travel... I would have taken 3 hours of this

My daughter married a German National whose family lived in East Germany. I would love to talk to them about their experiences but they don’t seem comfortable talking about it.

The change in demeanor of the gentleman in the suit and tie when he realizes he is being filmed is much more pronounced than you'd expect. Perhaps the consequence of a surveillance society - or maybe he is a 'somebody' in the GDR.

Two years in Berlin with the British Army 77 -79. Best two years of my service and got to see this guard mount. The east was likeva back water compared to the west and where I lived the wall in parts didn't exist except for the fence. Thats where I saw my first bendy bus through the fence.

Wonder what that guy smoking the cigar was feeling when he realized that camera was still there. He seemed quite a character. Wonder what he did for work

There was no "other choice" of what being East German could be. Secure, conservative. All this when revolutionary socialist were remaking the age. Sandinistas, Angola and Mozambique, Cuba, Nothing could be more frightening to the East German bureaucratic state .. than revolutionaries.

@ilyatsukanov8707

8 ай бұрын

I think Markus Wolf had something about that in his memoirs. Regretting that the Cuban revolutionaries seemed more vibrant than their German counterparts socially and culturally. But I would take the East German conservativism before Garbageov's reactionary pseudo-revolutionary politics any day.

26:15 what flooring is this?

6:53 So this odd construction really did exist : Robur lorry with a half cabin half tarpaulin back. I have a rare 1/87 scale plastic miniature of this vehicle though constructed on an IFA W50 lorry.

Honestly amazing watching the car travel down Karl-Liebknecht-Str. and seeing so much that is similar to today. Seems they switched some of the fish shops straight from DDR era state owned ones to Nordsee! Also the mural on the building to the right at 11:13 is still there if I recall.

Quand Berlin était encore allemand.

Anyone knows name of border crossing/street at 5:02?

Someone please tell me what the space needle tower was. And anyone who can tell me about oderberger strasse? Was it in East Berlin? A major street? What does oderberger mean?

@ArieVisker

9 ай бұрын

That is the "Fernsethurm" aka tv-tower. Its on Alexanderplatz . Its a TV broadcasting tower and a restaurant with bar and viewing station. It still is on the same location and was build by the DDR.

@cjmillsnun

9 ай бұрын

@@g2000g It's still in use as a TV transmission tower.

@Charon.1

9 ай бұрын

Oderberger Straße was in East Berlin. I don't know what you define as "main street". You can look it up on Google Map. "Oderberg" is a city in Brandenburg and it's just named after that.

@Charon.1

9 ай бұрын

@@g2000g I'm no Ossi and I was born in 1998, so I'm afraid I can't help you further 😅

@divebomb99

9 ай бұрын

I suspect it was built by the Communists to help broadcast propaganda in the DDR. Our friends in Deutschland can perhaps confirm.

I wonder how many of those people thought it was the Stasi rolling around in a car with a vidcam.

Das sind qualitativ wirklich hochwertige Aufnahmen.

Try watching this while progressing along Google Street View's panoramas of the same streets. The middle part is pretty easy to follow along with, with the tower and other landmarks. A lot has been torn down, but a lot remains, and has been spruced up. The lack of advertising and unrelenting drabness of the GDR is surreal.

@Grimenoughtomaketherobotcry

9 ай бұрын

The lack of homeless people is pretty surreal, too.

@LeonardSmith-qv8do

9 ай бұрын

yes, and there are many old former east Berliners who still say they felt better off with free health care and education plus cheap housing etc etc, oh yes there were many faults in that system .lucky for us Capitalist citizens our system is just perfect,,right ! @@Grimenoughtomaketherobotcry

@Mielke123

9 ай бұрын

Typical American can't even fathom a life without literal constant stimulation, instant gratification, and advertising.

@robertshonk518

9 ай бұрын

@@Mielke123 Okay, fair enough, it's not what I'm used to in an urban setting. But really, would it have killed them to add a bit of color here and there?

@willemmeulemans277

9 ай бұрын

@@robertshonk518 I wholeheartly agree. East-Berlin looked like a post-card to point their cameras at. To show the world that it was a succesful society. But it feels empty and drab.

Great video! Lots of Trabants, Wartburgs, Polskis! Some Ladas, Nivas, Skodas, and Passats! Very few Volvos, Warszawas, Volgas! Loved the Wartburg station wagons with their squarish bodies, ample cabin space, and rubber mudguards dangling! Most Western Europeans used to demonize Eastern European cars because of their mechanical unreliability and polluting combustion systems, but with all the permanent economical embargo from the West, it's a miracle that Eastern Europeans managed to produce cars! Stylewise though, some of their cars looked really nice like the Wartburg station wagons, the Ladas, and the Nivas! I grew up in Nicaragua during the ultra right wing Somoza regime and yet there were already East European cars in Nicaragua back in the 70's like the Skoda (Czechoslovakia), the Zastava (Yugoslavia), and the Aro (Romania). And then, after the Somoza regime fell, and the ultra left wing communist regime took over in the 80's, there were plenty of Ladas and Nivas which I totally fell in love with! Ironically though, 43 years later, just like the rest of the world, Asian cars have taken over and that's all you see everywhere, even in the Americas and Europe! So, Westerners used to complain so much about the unreliability of Easterners, and yet they allowed Asians to decimate their own car industry! That's why we all drive digital cars that are better at not polluting, but when they break, they can't be repaired at home because they're totally run by a computer system! To add insult to injury, they all look the same! That's why we all long for older cars because they might have pollute more, or fail at crashing, but had individual styles and components that made them look unique! Therefore, it would be nice to bring car individuality back but with XXI century requirements!

This is fascinating, thanks for this. At this time, was it already possible to go to west berlin with passport or was it literally sealed of until the very end, i always wondered. The footage looks so fresh, must a very good camera, if it wasnt for the fashion and hairstyles id never say im watching a footage from a such a long time ago. I wonder what happened to those kids and how theyre doing. Those apartments and all that they were building, I wonder if they are still in use. East Berlin looks really impressive here. They really built it good during all those decades. But again, I think this whole division never should have happened in first place. it disrupted lives of many people, they should have left germany intact somehow, its still going go take a decade or so even more to all that to fizzle out. I wonder what todays people think, is the difference still there or is it going away finally

@kovesp1

8 ай бұрын

I don't know about the East Germans. I do know that pensioners were allowed to visit West for up to 4 weeks per year starting in 1964 giving rise to the joke that only in the GDR do people look forward to old age. I went to West Berlin several times between about 1986-89 from Hungary. The first time I was required to have a room in a hotel in East Berlin and commute to West Berlin every day via the U-Bahn. Subsequently I would fly to Shönefeld airport with Interflug (the East German airline). There was an hourly shuttle bus from this airport to the centre of West Berlin. There was a border crossing where our passports were stamped with an entry stamp marked with Polizei Präsident West Berlin (remember, legally West Berlin was not a part of the Federal Republic). These later times I stayed with my West Berliner friends and travelled back the same way. Every passport control (both East and West) was very routine, just a glance at my passport.

@Herrhuy

5 ай бұрын

Где совок там происходит жопа

@Supernova1.980

3 ай бұрын

@@kovesp1 how could u have made friendhsip with people in west?

@kovesp1

3 ай бұрын

@@Supernova1.980 I worked with them first in Nijmegen in the Netherlands, then in West Berlin when they moved there. They also came to Budapest several times.

@Supernova1.980

3 ай бұрын

@@kovesp1 cool ! What do u think today, do u think Hungary became a better place to live after 1989? What do people around u say?

Wow, Berlin looks different back then. Unter den Linden is totally different.

Many more of these high quality Betacam SP originals should be published so that we can all enjoy these increasingly historic images. But even better deinterlace and upscale. Quality can be even better.

Italians have built a few buildings out of premade building materials in our city which are still around after 45 years or so. I see these East German builders are using the similar stuff. It is cheap and durable.

@GUITARTIME2024

8 ай бұрын

And looks like crap.

@alisharifian535

8 ай бұрын

@raleighman3000 exactly

The moral of the story. Never lose a war.

Hardly any advertising (I like that tbh).

Excellent.

Any information as to what type of camera and film that was used?

@AtheistOrphan

9 ай бұрын

I’m guessing some pro 16mm setup like an Aaton or similar.

@TheYizuman

9 ай бұрын

@@AtheistOrphan Not many films uploaded on YT as such great film quality of that time in 1989 and earlier. Very pleased to see such a good copy uploaded here on YT.

@MatthewHarris-po4pl

9 ай бұрын

Hi - this was shot on Beta SP tape (I work in this archive)

@AtheistOrphan

9 ай бұрын

@@MatthewHarris-po4pl - Thanks Matthew. I thought it was a bit late in the day for 16mm and was guessing some form of portable U-Matic or similar.

@MatthewHarris-po4pl

9 ай бұрын

@@AtheistOrphan Yeah we stopped using film around 1980-82, were still using U-matic in 1989 but switching over to Beta, luckily this is the latter as it ages much better!

Даже гидроизоляцию клали в комнатах. В наших таких же типовых домах в 89-м строители просто клали деревянный пол поверх бетонных плит

Gab es dann keinen Camera Stabilizer?

Excellent video! I happened to be in East Berlin on that same exact day!

Gotta say, I like the green and blue Trabis!

31:54 "What's your job?" "Oh, I fill buildings with slurry"

Great aerial views at the end. Guess from whats now the Park hotel on Alexander Platz ? Shame the Peoples Palace Of The Republic (left of cathedral) was pulled down and replaced by that fake 19th century lookalike building that cost 100's of millions of euros. Dismantled a piece of Eastern Bloc history there sadly 😢

@chebbak

8 ай бұрын

That building was full of asbestos and wouldn't be able to be used today. Demolition cost fortune.

On the plus side, the education was free, no one was unemployed and everybody taken care of, and cheap rents. The minus side was no democracy and shortage of products in the stores.

@echohunter4199

9 ай бұрын

Lol. Let’s see then, what if a person decides to take a few months to travel and relax after graduating from his free education in a career field he didn’t choose? As you said, no unemployment, if you were unemployed by your choice, off to jail you go for further evaluation. Cheap rents? So you don’t mind waiting on a list for 10 years for an apartment to to become available to rent while you stay in your communal home or substandard conditions with other families. So if we surrender all individual liberty and personal freedoms and rights, you can have all that the socialists have/had and still be happy? Healthcare is a joke, only some people deemed critical get quality care the rest get a bottle of Motrin and told to settle their affairs before dying and if you complain about it, we’ll imprison your parents or take away their apartment. When we look at North Koreans today, they have zero idea what life is like in other countries, they think the tyranny they live with is just normal so why bother since there’s no chance of escaping anyway. Hope and dreams are critical for any society, without it, people just give up and do the minimum and care less for their fellow citizens, or in their case, their fellow subjects.

@Grimenoughtomaketherobotcry

9 ай бұрын

Instead of cheap rents, we now have not so cheap tents. I'm talking about Toronto, not East Berlin.

@brunokirchensittenbach9294

9 ай бұрын

…As well no prostitution,drugs,filth, massive unwanted inmigration & beggars, some consumer goods were in short supplies but people get by, about Democracy at least they never murdered an journalist, perhaps put him in prison for few days , but in those great Western Democracies like the U.S. after 60 years people are debating who assassinated President Kennedy, MLK, RFK, Malcolm X , Julian Assange Etc..🤷🏼‍♂️

@BG-wm2tw

9 ай бұрын

And ofcourse stassi watched everyone and people disappeared all the time. It was a prison.

@Grimenoughtomaketherobotcry

9 ай бұрын

@@BG-wm2tw We're all being watched these days.

Would be cool to watch a video of 2023, side by side, driving the exact same streets.

Probably Germany had better living conditions than any other country behind the iron curtain.

The cars on the streets look like they’re all the same and we’re just parked there to give a certain impression ( parked too close together)

@jars7774

3 ай бұрын

That’s where people parked, or are you saying they did that for the camera?? LOL

Watching those kids play, probably around my age today with parents probably the same age as mine now. I hope they are all well and enjoying life. Their parents would have known nothing but the GDR. For the kids itd be a very faint memory. Two generations seperated by two epochs of Germanys history (and if you throw their grandparents in, just wow)

Audio is not real. I had a Trabant and it was not possible to hear something different from engine sound while I was driving it.

First thing I noticed is parking issues.People look normal and happy very well taking care of. I was aspecting North Korea stile looks and famine.

@Agencetourix

8 ай бұрын

Life in the DDR was horrible under the surface. Make no mistake. All the case files of the MfS are open for you to peruse if you aren't in denial.