My wrong assumption. Apologies. The video resonates with me because I took it and it has direct relevance to a part of my life. But I can see how, for some, it may be just a car drive through East Germany.
If you, like me, were part of the military unit operating in the GDR, or were someone who lived in an occupied DDR, then this is a brief but timeless snapshot of what life was like behind the iron curtain. Thats’s why, Peter, there have been over 100,000 views of this video. I took this video knowing that it would be a Zeitdokument. I also took it because I believed that the Iron Curtain would fall one day and that this would become the only genuine footage of what it was like to cross the Bridge of Spies, the Glienicke Bridge. My days with BRIXMIS as a Tour Officer were some of the most exciting days I spent in the British Army, both in and out of uniform. This video, whilst it rightly does not and cannot show the intelligence gathering activities we were involved with, is nevertheless a reminder of a significant period in my life.
Excellent video. As ex RCT I was interviewed and selected for BRIXMIS in 1982. But manning and records in their normal way posted me to BATUS And unfortunately I never actually made it to Berlin. A number of my colleagues did eventually serve with BRIXMIS as drivers. I believe they were driving Opel Senator's 4x4 back then.
Is the man stepping out of the car in the customs (43:33) the same as in this documentary: ua-cam.com/video/5dQfp8KUdYA/v-deo.html titled: Meet The Real Cold War Spies Of BRIXMIS • FULL DOCUMENTARY | Forces TV Same kind of profile in 10:38 Anyway: Good job!
It was a really fascinating video but how come there were no checks or vehicle searches at the borders? I get stopped and vehicle searched by UK border control EVERY time i return back to UK.....and i've been resident British for 70 years!!! Sometimes even get stopped and checked when LEAVING UK!!
A British Army unit tearing through East Germany with Labour of Love by Hue and Cry blasting out of the speakers may be the most 80s Cold War thing I've ever seen
It is kinda eerie, the contrast between the peppy music and the dreary, ominous scenery of an actual, no-hyperbole totalitarian state. The early winter scenery helps as well.
Добрый день! Спасибо большое за видео!!! Как здорово что стены больше нет!!! Я служил с 1988- 1990 год на мосту и КПП Браво. Так что мы с вами виделись!!! Мир тесен!!))) Солдата который вам дает вьезд на мост зовут Евгений. Также я был на мосту в тот памятный момент 9 ноября 1989 года когда множество людей со стороны Потсдама подошли к воротам моста. Какое то время мы не знали что делать.... Я сообщил офицеру, он связался выше и сказал мне вынуть пистолет из кобуры и сдать его в сейф. Потом открылись ворота и началось воссоединение!!! Я никогда не забуду эти слезы радости и счастья!!!
Wow, for those who don't speak Russian stick that post into the translator of your choice. Amazing to hear from someone who was stationed on the eastern side and was present on Nov 9 (I know the internet is the internet and people can say anything). Crazy to think I would have been barely a month old when all that happened too.
Translated as = Good day! Thank you very much for the video !!! It's great that the wall is gone !!! I served from 1988-1990 on the bridge and the Bravo checkpoint. So we saw each other !!! The world is small !!))) The soldier who gives you the entrance to the bridge is called Eugene. I was also on the bridge at that memorable moment on November 9, 1989, when a lot of people from the Potsdam side approached the bridge gates. For a while we did not know what to do ... I informed the officer, he contacted above and told me to take the pistol out of the holster and hand it over to the safe. Then the gates opened and the reunion began !!! I will never forget these tears of joy and happiness !!!
Саня, ты? ,, Окунёк слушает". Это Лимон. И я служил на этом мосту 89 .. 90 год и на ,,железке" . Всем добра и мира. И да, хорошо, что стены больше нет. И плохо , что страны той моей тоже нет.
I was at the other end of the corridor at Checkpoint Alpha in 1988/1989, when the army assisted the British Frontier Service with patrolling the border 🙂
Yes, Udo, it was not "legal" to film the crossings. But we were not only equipped with all sorts of photographic devices, but we were also trained in covert photography to record Soviet and East German military activity. So filming this for a keepsake memory was not difficult to do despite the close proximity of Soviet border guards. I was detained by the Soviets 8 times in 2 years and even ended up in a Soviet military prison for a short time for what they alleged were spying activities. Sadly, I know of no other video footage that exists of border crossings. Hope this answers your questions.
This is EXCELLENT. I was stationed in West Berlin in 1969 to 1871 (287th MP Company) and went to the bridge many times. I always wanted to cross it. I finally got to in 2013 when I went back to Berlin. Thank you for putting this on You Tube!!
@@climatixseuche Probably would have been for begging them to smuggle them into WB in that case. But i have a feeling that if the civilians even glanced a bit too long at the G-wagen , stasi would have taken them in for a chat...
@@Videokeizah they had a quota on how much western music they could play... something like 60% communist block music, 40% western music or so... if they really followed that rule is another question
21:21 - Hue & Cry - Labour of love 22:42 - Jellybean - The Real Thing 27:07 - Johnny Hates Jazz - I don't want to be a hero 30:35 - Style Council - Wanted 40:00 - T'Pau - China in your hand
Fascinating. I was assigned to the US Mission West Berlin at the time. I left in Jan. 1989, but came back to visit my German girlfriend numerous times. On one such visit, in summer 1990, the crossing at Glienicke Bridge had been opened, but only to residents of West Berlin. I accompanied my girlfriend, as we wanted an outing in Potsdam. At the time, I was no longer with the US government. We walked out to the GDR border post, where they were happy to process my girlfriend, but not me. I strongly implied (without actually saying) that we lived together, and, somehow, we talked my way in (and out later that day). So, I have one of the very few US passports with a GDR entry (and exit) stamp bearing the Glienicke Bridge legend. BTW, exiting, which we feared might be an issue, was not, once they saw the entry stamp.
At the 42nd minute of your video, a Soviet border guard, his name is Evgeny, launches you onto the bridge. We served together on the bridge as well as at the railroad checkpoint and the big Bravo checkpoint.
You can tell which side your on based on the cars. In the West you see Mercedes-Benz, Porsches, VWs, etc. Once you get to the East, the streets are lined with Trabants, some Wartburgs, and a few Eastern Bloc imports such as Ladas.
And you think that would be all car-types that were traveling in the DDR (GDR)? All sorts of West cars drove around here. So nothing was limited with us. I'm not saying that in the west the cars were limited to bmw, vw or mercedes, because also in the west drove Trabis, Wartburgs, MZ motorcycles. The people in the West could in fact buy many goods from the DDR (GDR,) for example via OTTO or Quelle, without which they knew that these products came from the DDR (GDR).
@@Subraumspalte There was no any MZ bikes or Trabant on the streets in the west. And in GDR you could see sometimes VW Golf, what was gift from the family from the west Germany. Also stuff vie Otto or Quelle was partly produced in GDR but people in GDR did not even know that this stuff is produced in GDR, despite to buy it. This was only for export for western money such west german mark...
@@pommesmayo7336 Me neighter, I did just see Lada few times, with west plates and there was in Hamburg one trader who imported it to the west and as new car was really cheap but also bad quality...
Transit from West Germany to West Berlin. More than once a 3 hour wait. Praise God they never got the thought of taking our vehicle apart or arrest/interrogate us!!! Co-worker dated a girl from East Berlin. She was spied on, phone tapped etc. and he was arrested and held for 4 days. He had bought a golden watch for her birthday. They accused him of wanting to sell that watch on Alexander Square. Thankfully there were attorneys in place to negotiate with foolish authorities.
@@marionhollis4817 They just wanted him to give up GF in the east. She could marry him and so could be able to leave legally GDR, what was not really wanted by authorities at this time
I´m pretty sure the actual time spend at the checkpoint was more than 30 seconds. The time spend should be more in the range of 5 mins ... Allied forces had to adhere to a certain protocol when passing through checkpoints. As @Centiros Partos mentioned he stopped filming upon arriving at the checkpoints to keep/maintain a low profile. ( to avoid raising suspicion among the Soviets - leading to unwanted troubles)
Man videos like these are pure treasure. It was a whole different era back then. Almost 30 years since the fall of the Wall. Now the walls are inside of us and in our heads.
antikoerper256 I was deployed there at the same time but in Bitberg as an pilot. I when to West Berlin to visit for an week & saw the wall around the city. Nice to reminisce on this from this video of those times. I recently visited Germany & Berlin in 2017 & it is much better now as Germany is unified.
Now the walls are in our arteries, our corneas, our pajamas, they even tried to build a wall to seperate me from the internet! Its like Pink Ffloyd said "all in all, have another cigar." No wait, thats not it, its "Mother may i trust the Wall?" And the answer is clearly not, walls seperate. And (w)all is (n)one! See what I did there?? Punnery of the highest order! Israel-Gaza, US-Mexico, walls are no good
The last song "China In Your Hand" by T'Pau, while they were crossing back over Glienicke Bridge was taken from their album Bridge of Spies. The irony!
Great footage, especially to someone (me) serving in Berlin when this video was filmed!. This brings back a lot of memories, but it has to be said that the contemporary music was infinitely better than today's tuneless dirges :)
I just think it's bloody cool being able to watch in 2019 a 1988 op tour with British BRIXMIS staff driving through the DDR surrounded by Sov and NVA equipment whilst they are blasting Jellybean's "The Real Thing" off of BFBS Berlin radio. Doesn't get much better than this on UA-cam, mates. BTW, the only thing that still exists out of that sentence is the song. Everything else is gone.
Great video! Especially the difference between east and west is very good visible. Cars, trucks, roads, houses. Must been very special to drive around in the east. Do you have more of this? Greats from Netherlands
C’est littéralement un saut dans le temps ! J’ai ressenti la tension et le stress durant le trajet dans Berlin Est. C’est une seule ville avec deux mondes différents c’est incroyable
These are really excellent and rare recordings. I was always wondering how a border crossing between West Berlin and Potsdam was working at Glienicke Bridge. For those viewers who don't know that: Glienicke Bridge has never been a general border crossing checkpoint, it could exclusively been used my members of the Allied Forces. But I have two questions. First: What have you done in Potsdam? Have you been there just to enforce your right to go there, or was there a reason? And second: The Soviet soldier obviously didn't check the interior of your car. So you could had been able to get an East German citizen to West Berlin, if you had the intention, without taking any risks. Right? I'd appreciate if you could give me an answer. Thanks.
Theoretically yes but the rule respected by both sides was no smuggling of DDR citizens, it would be a major diplomatic incident if an instance like this became known. Sounds kind of bad that was simply one of the baselines upon which to rest the entire coexistence problem. Great footage, I wondered how this crossing worked, as being non-military and not a West Berlin permanent resident, I only used the Friedrichstrasse S-Bahn station or Checkpoint Charlie.
I was 8 when these footage was taken buti think i can answer you. He was there to check if nothing unusual was taking place. When you are a leader of nuclear power and have minutes to estimate whether real world war is begining it is useful to have smb on the ground to check whether your info is correct. To avoid false alarms sov and us/allied leaders agreed to let very little units of military observers (de facto legal spies) move across the country. U think of many useless , stupid and dangerous military enterprises these missions really helped to avoid nuklear war.
@Udo Joerges I'm sure I was able to get close enough on foot to the Glienicke Brücke on the West Berlin side in the mid 1970s. I visited my late sister in West Berlin on several occasions and we often went for walks. Close enough, that is, to observe the DDR border guards on the bridge. I wasn't with the military, though.
@@SuperLittleTyke On the bridge, there were only sovjet soldiers: gdr, like frg was part of old germany whos personal were not allowed to control the -former- allied forces.
Apparently someone has run the entire video through a deshaker filter. I'm sure it was well intentioned, but it has screwed things up a bit. There are interlacing artefacts (wrong settings?) and the scrolling titles are flying all over the place. If you have access to the un-deshaked footage, could you upload it again in its original state? Thank you so much.
Thank you for sharing! I was 8 at that time, growing up in BRD. Living in Potsdam for almost 20 years now. Very interesting to see what´s different and what´s still the same. You even caught the house I lived in for some years in Leipziger Straße 🥲 Have you ever returned to Potsdam? Glienicker Brücke is just a nice little bridge today with pedestrians, cyclists and cars passing unobstructedly...
Great footage. The first part of the video was the exact same route I took every day to work in Potsdam a couple of years later after the Wall had come down. Not much has changed on the western side of the route since this footage was taken, apart from the Deutschland Halle having been pulled down. In Potsdam though a hell of a lot has changed, not at all so grey and drab anymore. Nice back ground music from good old BFBS by the way. I always had my radio tuned to that in Berlin. Sad it's not broadcasting in Berlin anymore. So much snow on the ground is not typical for Berlin. That was the winter in which we had a snow storm for a solid 8 hours which forced all traffic to come to a stop. Even the underground was affected,´ with entrances and exits blocked by huge snow drifts. The snow in the video was the last of it before it finally melted away.
Haha I just noticed that when you arrived on the Glienicker Bridge "Bridge of Spies"... the song China in your Hand is playing... from the album "Bridge of Spies" !!! xD Greetings to our beloved friends in the UK, from Berlin Germany! o/
I drove for USMLM in 1972 and 1973. Crossing the Glienicke Bruecke was a bit different then with about 6 concrete barriers staggered as well as "dragons teeth" barriers designed to stop tanks. I remember having to drive a 40 passenger bus through them for a mission party - NOT at all an easy task.
Sehr interessant für mich als Potsdamerin, die zum Zeitpunkt der Aufnahme 28 Jahre alt war und am 10. November 1989 zum ersten Mal die Glienicker Brücke nach West-Berlin überqueren durfte!
I still travelled by train from West Germany to West Berlin in September 1989. It was quite something. There were basically three routes across the Berlin Corridor. The southern route was the longest, the northern route the shortest, and the central route, which I took, was no doubt the one to see the most of East Germany.
You know you're driving in the DDR when every seven in ten cars is a Trabant and two of the remaining three are military vehicles. The roads are remarkably more potholed in East Berlin than the West too.
Very interesting footage. Strange to think that only a few years after this was filmed, I would be able to drive from Colchester to Dresden non stop, Crossing the old border around Helmstadt I believe. I remember The Old DDR autobahns being mostly concrete stabs construction. giving every journey a certain rhythm. Speaking of rhythm, radio stations played real music back then, albeit the channels would come and go every 5 minutes. 🇬🇧.
Thanks for posting it is of great interest to me as my day would have driven a similar route (the mission house use to be in Geschwister-Scholl-Straße) back in the 50's. Unfortunately my dad died before he was allowed to tell anybody about his exploits.
When I was stationed in Berlin in 1987-1988 as part of the French forces, I took many pictures of the Wall and border crossing points. I took some at Glienicker Brücke April 10th 1988. On one of them, there is a white BRIXMIS VW LT-35 van with number plate 10 on its way back to West-Berlin... maybe you were on it that very day! Since the details of the crossing are not on the film (for understandable reasons!), could you please explain how the control by the Soviet troops took place?
You might like to know that in the Espionage Museum in Berlin, there is a complete model of that bridge showing a famous occasion when an important spy swap was carried out. The American Ambassador was there together with the 'notorious' East German lawyer who was the go-between and general fixer for the DDR. In fact you can go past that bridge when you take the train to Potsdam and not notice it.
I never transitted via Glenicke Brücke, but we did via Checkpoint Bravo and Alpha, there in Bravo and Alpha we used to use a document called a BTD - British Travel Document which had our IDs and names stamped by British Forces Command from Infantry Brigade. The journey wasnt allowed to take under 2 hours otherwise they knew we were speeding. Then we approached the Soldier, dad got out of the Car, locked it and saluted the officer. Afterwards the soldier would look at the document and look at the people in the car vs our IDs then dad would salute the soldier go in the office where a Russian Officer was and he would salute the Officer and the officer would stamp the document, salute dad, dad would go out show the soldier who would salute my dad and then we were through the checkpoint in about 10 minutes
Thank you very much, this video is very interesting for me. Yesterday I made a video exact at the same spots, as you did 31 years, ago. The former BRIMIX house was owed by the famos German fashion guru Wolfgang Joop. Now, since last year it's owned by the SAP boss Hasso Plattner. The famous and rich live there in the so called Berliner Vorstadt.
In the second half of this video, when the camera operator zooms in on the dashboard, in the radio display is visable the frequency 94.3. American radio RIAS 2 broadcasted on this frequency.
Correct, the radio station is indeed "BFBS". At 09:29 you can hear the stations jingle "BFBS". At 25:27 it looks at the display like 94.3 MHz, which was one of several frequencies, which BFBS used once in Berlin with 3 or 6 kWatts at the nearby transmitting tower "Olympia Stadium" according to de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sender_Olympiastadion . Since BFBS is "British Forces Broadcasting Service" and this military mission in the video is british, this makes sense to me.
Still a bit salty BFBS is gone in my part of Germany (far west, think Düsseldorf area). Loved listening to that station as a kid and it helped me _a lot_ with learning English. It was also one of the 3 strongest stations in my area, so just about any junk radio could receive it. These days there's some annoying culture and arts station on that frequency (96.5MHz) :(
@@heiko3371 During the 2nd part of the video (where the music is also considerably louder), they're listening to a tape though, not the radio. Someone elsewhere in the comments mentioned "Now That's What I Call Music 10" and all the songs seem to match the track list. Plus just after 43:26 you can hear the driver eject (and presumably flip) the cassette and at 44:24 he pushes it back in to start playing. The radio is a "Becker Europa Cassette Electronic 730" btw
Thank you so much for sharing this video. I was 5 when the wall came down and it was one of only a few times my Dad cried in front of me. I can only imagine how much beer flowed that night.
I always find it interesting watching these vids of driving through different countries fascinating, but to see that sort of thing in the DDR was really neat. Thanks.
This was great to see, especially seeing the Mission House where as a child we spent many weekends there, it was a very special time, little did we know why my dad was there, as kids it was one big adventure, loved boating on the lake, the BBQ's and the cinema room, good times.
We live in the neighbourhood now and I take my daughter swimming and rowing on the lake in the summer. As the park now has an official „nudist beach“, I guess it is much busier than back in your days! ;-) Recently talked to an old lady who grew up in the area. She told me she and her friend broke through the ice walking across the frozen lake when they were kids. Staff from the British and French missions came to get them out. Must have been quite an experience back then with a lot of nervous questions being asked...
A great documentary with the best soundtrack!!!! I drove often on that bridge in the last 5 Years and it's quite unbelievable how the world has changed and somehow it's always still the same
Thank you very much! Fascinating and rare footage because that checkpoint was only used by the allies. So, the controls were managed by the Soviet forces only?.
In 1987 I took the public bus to Glienicke Brucke from S-Bahn Wannsee, but I was not able to see what was behind... Impressive time document anyway, thank you for uploading, but what was actually the purpose to patrol like this?
The license plates. I believe a six digit plate denoted a front line unit, while a four digit denoted a logistical second line formation, according to Tony Geraghtys book
34:52-34:57 56-44 ТЛ, ТЛ - Tula Oblast, 34:26 06-70 AA, AA - Grouping of Soviet troops in Germany. Six digits were on a diplomatic soviet numer plates with red background and on a soviet numer plates with yellow or orange background for foreigners or for cars for export.
@Werner Monoton Civil number plates had three letters. In the Russian Wikipedia article on Soviet license plates there is a hidden table with the distinguishing marks on military license plates. There was no differentiator ТЛ there, so I assumed it meant the same as on the civil plates. Only later did I read that the military equipment in the USSR was registered not by the region of location, but by belonging to the units and formations of the Armed Forces of the USSR, and the letter combinations on the license plates of the Armed Forces did not coincide with the civilian ones.
Note the aircraft standby illuminated compass mounted where the rear view mirror should be. The Brixmis G wagens had the rear view mirror removed to give a clear field of view for the officer observer sat in a centrally mounted rear seat. Additionally you will notice near the 34 minute mark when they are stopped in traffic behind the military ambulance truck that the rear seat observer also had a set of wing mirrors mounted on the B pillar behind the two front seat occupants.
Interesting detail. Didn´t recognize them while watching the vid. Makes sense to replace the rear mirror with something useful during spying activities. The monitoring officer sitting in the middle would block the rear view anyway. ... but those additional side mirrors on the B-pillar may have obstructed the drivers rear view to some degree as well ...
In case anyone's curious, from 21:21, it is 'NOW That's What I Call Music! 10' compilation album (released 1987) playing. Though I'm still curious if it is on tape or CD (more inclined to think it's the former).
Only a few traffic signs in the east. For me as a young western boy with relatives in the east, I felt free and uncontrolled in GDR bc of that. Like to be as young as I was then
Меня трясет от эйфории, когда я смотрю это видео. 45 минут - и хочется еще больше. Если бы изобрели машину времени, я прыгнул бы в 80-е на границу ГДР и ФРГ. Феноменальный исторический период!
Thanks for uploading. It´s an important piece of history. These activities were principly known by the public but went way below recognition level in everydays life. People (general public on both sides) usually did not really see it as something "special". Although from todays point of view it was not "normal" - in some way it was ... For me - being from West Germany - it always felt like something peculiar/strange when I visited Berlin but of course it was due to the special status of the City.
Great contemporary document. I was 13 at the time and growing up behind (or before - depending on your perspective ;)) the Iron Curtain. The YT algorithm brought this video to my attention after virtually taking a ride in the cockpit of a cab from New York Queens to Manhattan in 2022. I have to admit, the condition of the roads isn't all that different.
The Soviet counterpart in the DDR to the Brit , American, & French Liaisons had transit routes as well going to and from the respective Brit, US, and French sections of West G. Wonder if video footage from the Soviet transit routes exist.
Mal ein spannendes Video! Neben dem weises Haus in der Seestraße war eine Schule, in der ich ging!. In der Berliner Straße nicht weit von der Gliniker Brücke wohnte ich. :)
Ein Kinderwohnheim befand sich unmittelbar auf der Potsdamer Seite der Brücke. Es ist die Villa Schöningen. Das befand sich auch im Sperrgebiet, wo Leute im Alter von über 14 Jahre nur mit Genehmigung betreten durften. Die rotweiße Straßenbarriere auf dem Video zeichnete die Sperrgebietsgrenze im Hinterland. Kinder konnten ohne Probleme bis an den Grenzzaun/Schranke an der Brücke kommen. Ich selber war als Kind auch mal da.Mit besten Grüßen Christoph Müller Villa Schönigen: www.villa-schoeningen.org/
This video reminds me comunism time in Poland.Everywhere gray and gloomily.Polish roads were even more horrible than in GDR.Plenty holes.There in Poland before 89 were a lot of carts,especially in countryyard.But in Poland people used to drive cars not only from USSR pact as Ladas etc.If I well remember about 10-15 % cars were producted in West Europe.My neighbor had Renault 5.Others West European cars like Wolxvagens ussually Golf I Peugeots Citroens Fiats I could noticed often.Ocassionally I had seen even Mercedes BMW Toyota or Volvo
No, crossing the Bridge of Spies (Glienicke Brücke) was allowed only for the Allied Military Liaison Missions from UK, USA and France, and occasionally by diplomats. There were several escape attempts by East Germans at the bridge attempting to flee the GDR.
The British Commanders'-in-Chief Mission (BRIXMIS) to the Soviet Forces in Germany (GSFG) was formed on 16 September 1946 under the Robertson-Malinin Agreement between the chiefs of staff of the British and Soviet forces in occupied (east) Germany. The agreement called for the reciprocal exchange of liaison missions in order to foster good working relations between the military occupation authorities in the two zones. Similar agreements were made the following year by the Soviets with the French (FMLM) and the Americans (USMLM). For unexplained reasons the agreements differed significantly as BRIXMIS was allowed to have almost as many liaison staff in the Soviet Zone as the other two missions combined. The agreements remained in force until 2 October 1990 when all three missions were deactivated on the eve of Germany's reunification.
Thank you for sharing! I was a teenager in American high school in West Berlin from 81-85 while my father was stationed there. Major Arthur Nicholson of your U.S. Mission counterparts lived just a few houses from me until he was killed. I especially liked seeing areas I recognized on the West Berlin part of the drive. What a piece of history that too many of my fellow citizens have no idea existed.
This was very interesting to watch. I assume you taped this because of intelligence purposes? That would explain the zooming in on every military vehicle and if possible their tags.
It's 2021 and I'm watching a 45 minute video of a car drive through East Germany.
Well, Jean-Paul Muller, if you don’t like it, turn it off!
@@stephenharrison1240 Who says I didn't like it?
My wrong assumption. Apologies. The video resonates with me because I took it and it has direct relevance to a part of my life. But I can see how, for some, it may be just a car drive through East Germany.
@@stephenharrison1240 No problem. Was just commenting about how you can find some real unexpected videos on UA-cam
love the chat about the 3 bed in Newbury. Bet you made a killing on that!
If you, like me, were part of the military unit operating in the GDR, or were someone who lived in an occupied DDR, then this is a brief but timeless snapshot of what life was like behind the iron curtain. Thats’s why, Peter, there have been over 100,000 views of this video.
I took this video knowing that it would be a Zeitdokument. I also took it because I believed that the Iron Curtain would fall one day and that this would become the only genuine footage of what it was like to cross the Bridge of Spies, the Glienicke Bridge.
My days with BRIXMIS as a Tour Officer were some of the most exciting days I spent in the British Army, both in and out of uniform. This video, whilst it rightly does not and cannot show the intelligence gathering activities we were involved with, is nevertheless a reminder of a significant period in my life.
Excellent video. As ex RCT I was interviewed and selected for BRIXMIS in 1982. But manning and records in their normal way posted me to BATUS And unfortunately I never actually made it to Berlin. A number of my colleagues did eventually serve with BRIXMIS as drivers. I believe they were driving Opel Senator's 4x4 back then.
Is the man stepping out of the car in the customs (43:33) the same as in this documentary: ua-cam.com/video/5dQfp8KUdYA/v-deo.html
titled:
Meet The Real Cold War Spies Of BRIXMIS • FULL DOCUMENTARY | Forces TV
Same kind of profile in 10:38
Anyway: Good job!
It was a really fascinating video but how come there were no checks or vehicle searches at the borders? I get stopped and vehicle searched by UK border control EVERY time i return back to UK.....and i've been resident British for 70 years!!! Sometimes even get stopped and checked when LEAVING UK!!
@@Bulletguy07 "3 state rights" over captured German soil
@@jojojojo4332 Ah ok thanks for that.
A British Army unit tearing through East Germany with Labour of Love by Hue and Cry blasting out of the speakers may be the most 80s Cold War thing I've ever seen
well it is about a guy going on strike, which I don't think was allowed under that socialism, ironically.
@@SnabbKassa Britian was on strike mostly
Driving a convertible G wagen
It is kinda eerie, the contrast between the peppy music and the dreary, ominous scenery of an actual, no-hyperbole totalitarian state. The early winter scenery helps as well.
You forget Jellybean Benitez with “the real thing”… 🤔
Back in 1988 music in the radio definetly was much better than today :-)
Cameo, Hue & Cry, Johnny hates jazz.. Nothing like that today.
even music made in the DDR was better than today's
Genesis - Phil Collins
Open your ears there are still good music, no longer on radios, but on the web.The most important is that motherfuckers communist regim is dead.
Courtesy of BFBS. The only channel, literally; on TV and radio you could understand and was watchable. The Yank channels were unbearable.
Добрый день!
Спасибо большое за видео!!!
Как здорово что стены больше нет!!!
Я служил с 1988- 1990 год на мосту и КПП Браво.
Так что мы с вами виделись!!!
Мир тесен!!)))
Солдата который вам дает вьезд на мост зовут Евгений.
Также я был на мосту в тот памятный момент 9 ноября 1989 года когда множество людей со стороны Потсдама подошли к воротам моста.
Какое то время мы не знали что делать....
Я сообщил офицеру, он связался выше и сказал мне вынуть пистолет из кобуры и сдать его в сейф.
Потом открылись ворота и началось воссоединение!!!
Я никогда не забуду эти слезы радости и счастья!!!
Wow, for those who don't speak Russian stick that post into the translator of your choice. Amazing to hear from someone who was stationed on the eastern side and was present on Nov 9 (I know the internet is the internet and people can say anything). Crazy to think I would have been barely a month old when all that happened too.
Translated as =
Good day!
Thank you very much for the video !!!
It's great that the wall is gone !!!
I served from 1988-1990 on the bridge and the Bravo checkpoint.
So we saw each other !!!
The world is small !!)))
The soldier who gives you the entrance to the bridge is called Eugene.
I was also on the bridge at that memorable moment on November 9, 1989, when a lot of people from the Potsdam side approached the bridge gates.
For a while we did not know what to do ...
I informed the officer, he contacted above and told me to take the pistol out of the holster and hand it over to the safe.
Then the gates opened and the reunion began !!!
I will never forget these tears of joy and happiness !!!
Саня, ты? ,, Окунёк слушает". Это Лимон. И я служил на этом мосту 89 .. 90 год и на ,,железке" . Всем добра и мира. И да, хорошо, что стены больше нет. И плохо , что страны той моей тоже нет.
@@headshot7804 Привет Окунек!!!!
I was at the other end of the corridor at Checkpoint Alpha in 1988/1989, when the army assisted the British Frontier Service with patrolling the border 🙂
Yes, Udo, it was not "legal" to film the crossings. But we were not only equipped with all sorts of photographic devices, but we were also trained in covert photography to record Soviet and East German military activity. So filming this for a keepsake memory was not difficult to do despite the close proximity of Soviet border guards.
I was detained by the Soviets 8 times in 2 years and even ended up in a Soviet military prison for a short time for what they alleged were spying activities.
Sadly, I know of no other video footage that exists of border crossings.
Hope this answers your questions.
This is EXCELLENT. I was stationed in West Berlin in 1969 to 1871 (287th MP Company) and went to the bridge many times. I always wanted to cross it. I finally got to in 2013 when I went back to Berlin. Thank you for putting this on You Tube!!
Very interesting
Brilliant video. 1 year later it was all over...
were you ever attacked by civilians? I wonder why no one freaked out seeing an enemy soldier on their homeland
@@climatixseuche Probably would have been for begging them to smuggle them into WB in that case. But i have a feeling that if the civilians even glanced a bit too long at the G-wagen , stasi would have taken them in for a chat...
Meanwhile in Dresden, a young intelligence officer by the name of Vladimir Putin was commencing on the duties for that day.
No shit?
@@deplorabled1695 Yes, that is true
Putin still wants Ruskies would take over half of Germany
I don't get it
yes, that's true. Putin came to Dresden in 1985 and left Germany in 1990. He also had an East-German Stasi ID card (MfS).
Driving through East Germany while listening to American pop songs.
Nice.
Some of those songs are British artists, but I take your point.
That's what most east germans did as well. We listened to western radio!
song is popular, you are stupid. In japan Beyonce song played......
@@superteacher1000 I spent a week with my class in the GDR and in the disco where we were, the DJ played western music.
@@Videokeizah they had a quota on how much western music they could play... something like 60% communist block music, 40% western music or so... if they really followed that rule is another question
21:21 - Hue & Cry - Labour of love
22:42 - Jellybean - The Real Thing
27:07 - Johnny Hates Jazz - I don't want to be a hero
30:35 - Style Council - Wanted
40:00 - T'Pau - China in your hand
QuasarBarkas thanks man
~ 7:13 - 9:26 Cameo - Word Up
Thanks for the playlist, I was looking for that! 80's British Pop...Vielen Dank!
I saw this
Received and played back by a nice "Becker" car stereo. Good ol' times...
Fascinating.
I was assigned to the US Mission West Berlin at the time. I left in Jan. 1989, but came back to visit my German girlfriend numerous times. On one such visit, in summer 1990, the crossing at Glienicke Bridge had been opened, but only to residents of West Berlin. I accompanied my girlfriend, as we wanted an outing in Potsdam. At the time, I was no longer with the US government. We walked out to the GDR border post, where they were happy to process my girlfriend, but not me. I strongly implied (without actually saying) that we lived together, and, somehow, we talked my way in (and out later that day). So, I have one of the very few US passports with a GDR entry (and exit) stamp bearing the Glienicke Bridge legend.
BTW, exiting, which we feared might be an issue, was not, once they saw the entry stamp.
Did you marry her😂??
At the 42nd minute of your video, a Soviet border guard, his name is Evgeny, launches you onto the bridge. We served together on the bridge as well as at the railroad checkpoint and the big Bravo checkpoint.
Надо же.... интересно
This is the greatest youtube comment i’ve read, thank you for sharing
Wow...
You can tell which side your on based on the cars. In the West you see Mercedes-Benz, Porsches, VWs, etc. Once you get to the East, the streets are lined with Trabants, some Wartburgs, and a few Eastern Bloc imports such as Ladas.
And you think that would be all car-types that were traveling in the DDR (GDR)? All sorts of West cars drove around here. So nothing was limited with us. I'm not saying that in the west the cars were limited to bmw, vw or mercedes, because also in the west drove Trabis, Wartburgs, MZ motorcycles. The people in the West could in fact buy many goods from the DDR (GDR,) for example via OTTO or Quelle, without which they knew that these products came from the DDR (GDR).
@@Subraumspalte Yeah I´m sure the East was flooded with BMW´s, Mercedes and Porsches. What a load of bullocks.
I never saw any trabants or wartburgs in the west before 1990
@@Subraumspalte There was no any MZ bikes or Trabant on the streets in the west. And in GDR you could see sometimes VW Golf, what was gift from the family from the west Germany. Also stuff vie Otto or Quelle was partly produced in GDR but people in GDR did not even know that this stuff is produced in GDR, despite to buy it. This was only for export for western money such west german mark...
@@pommesmayo7336 Me neighter, I did just see Lada few times, with west plates and there was in Hamburg one trader who imported it to the west and as new car was really cheap but also bad quality...
30 seconds to enter GDR - priceless! I remember spending hours at Helmstedt border controls for visits to GDR due to family affairs.
Transit from West Germany to West Berlin. More than once a 3 hour wait. Praise God they never got the thought of taking our vehicle apart or arrest/interrogate us!!! Co-worker dated a girl from East Berlin. She was spied on, phone tapped etc. and he was arrested and held for 4 days. He had bought a golden watch for her birthday. They accused him of wanting to sell that watch on Alexander Square. Thankfully there were attorneys in place to negotiate with foolish authorities.
@@marionhollis4817 They just wanted him to give up GF in the east. She could marry him and so could be able to leave legally GDR, what was not really wanted by authorities at this time
I´m pretty sure the actual time spend at the checkpoint was more than 30 seconds.
The time spend should be more in the range of 5 mins ...
Allied forces had to adhere to a certain protocol when passing through checkpoints.
As @Centiros Partos mentioned he stopped filming upon arriving at the checkpoints to keep/maintain a low profile.
( to avoid raising suspicion among the Soviets - leading to unwanted troubles)
"How much does a three bed detached in Newbury cost?"
"It's over six figures"
A simpler (and much cheaper) time
35 years have passed but W124 and Golf Mark II are still there and kicking.
Man videos like these are pure treasure. It was a whole different era back then. Almost 30 years since the fall of the Wall. Now the walls are inside of us and in our heads.
antikoerper256 I was deployed there at the same time but in Bitberg as an pilot. I when to West Berlin to visit for an week & saw the wall around the city. Nice to reminisce on this from this video of those times.
I recently visited Germany & Berlin in 2017 & it is much better now as Germany is unified.
@@frankchan4272 Eastern Pomerania, Eastern Brandenburg, East Prussia, and Silesia disagree with that statement...
@@tylerbozinovski4624 " Dank" Hitler abgeschaft !
Now the walls are in our arteries, our corneas, our pajamas, they even tried to build a wall to seperate me from the internet! Its like Pink Ffloyd said "all in all, have another cigar." No wait, thats not it, its "Mother may i trust the Wall?" And the answer is clearly not, walls seperate. And (w)all is (n)one! See what I did there?? Punnery of the highest order! Israel-Gaza, US-Mexico, walls are no good
The last song "China In Your Hand" by T'Pau, while they were crossing back over Glienicke Bridge was taken from their album Bridge of Spies. The irony!
Great footage, especially to someone (me) serving in Berlin when this video was filmed!. This brings back a lot of memories, but it has to be said that the contemporary music was infinitely better than today's tuneless dirges :)
Bbde 4/502 at this time good memories
Excellent showcase, guys! I can remember running across that bridge in 2011 to catch a tour bus. Really puts it all into perspective, doesn't it?
As someone studying International relations, I found this video helpful. Plus the music was so much better back then. Thanks
I just think it's bloody cool being able to watch in 2019 a 1988 op tour with British BRIXMIS staff driving through the DDR surrounded by Sov and NVA equipment whilst they are blasting Jellybean's "The Real Thing" off of BFBS Berlin radio.
Doesn't get much better than this on UA-cam, mates.
BTW, the only thing that still exists out of that sentence is the song. Everything else is gone.
Great video! Especially the difference between east and west is very good visible. Cars, trucks, roads, houses. Must been very special to drive around in the east. Do you have more of this? Greats from Netherlands
Awesome! I was born in 1987 & you drove through my childhood area & where I live today. Wansee, Nikolassee & Potsdam.
C’est littéralement un saut dans le temps ! J’ai ressenti la tension et le stress durant le trajet dans Berlin Est. C’est une seule ville avec deux mondes différents c’est incroyable
Danke! Ein wunderbares zeitdokument. Wie gut, daßdie Zeit vorbei ist.
These are really excellent and rare recordings. I was always wondering how a border crossing between West Berlin and Potsdam was working at Glienicke Bridge. For those viewers who don't know that: Glienicke Bridge has never been a general border crossing checkpoint, it could exclusively been used my members of the Allied Forces. But I have two questions. First: What have you done in Potsdam? Have you been there just to enforce your right to go there, or was there a reason? And second: The Soviet soldier obviously didn't check the interior of your car. So you could had been able to get an East German citizen to West Berlin, if you had the intention, without taking any risks. Right? I'd appreciate if you could give me an answer. Thanks.
Theoretically yes but the rule respected by both sides was no smuggling of DDR citizens, it would be a major diplomatic incident if an instance like this became known. Sounds kind of bad that was simply one of the baselines upon which to rest the entire coexistence problem. Great footage, I wondered how this crossing worked, as being non-military and not a West Berlin permanent resident, I only used the Friedrichstrasse S-Bahn station or Checkpoint Charlie.
I was 8 when these footage was taken buti think i can answer you. He was there to check if nothing unusual was taking place. When you are a leader of nuclear power and have minutes to estimate whether real world war is begining it is useful to have smb on the ground to check whether your info is correct. To avoid false alarms sov and us/allied leaders agreed to let very little units of military observers (de facto legal spies) move across the country. U think of many useless , stupid and dangerous military enterprises these missions really helped to avoid nuklear war.
@Udo Joerges I'm sure I was able to get close enough on foot to the Glienicke Brücke on the West Berlin side in the mid 1970s. I visited my late sister in West Berlin on several occasions and we often went for walks. Close enough, that is, to observe the DDR border guards on the bridge. I wasn't with the military, though.
@@SuperLittleTyke On the bridge, there were only sovjet soldiers: gdr, like frg was part of old germany whos personal were not allowed to control the -former- allied forces.
@@waltertanner7982 interesting, thanks! I had assumed they were East German border guards.
Apparently someone has run the entire video through a deshaker filter. I'm sure it was well intentioned, but it has screwed things up a bit. There are interlacing artefacts (wrong settings?) and the scrolling titles are flying all over the place. If you have access to the un-deshaked footage, could you upload it again in its original state? Thank you so much.
It is stabilizer used.
UA-cam was running a very invasive 'stabilisation' option for videos for a long time so it might have been through that
Very interesting video , everything cold war based is fascinating
Thank you for sharing! I was 8 at that time, growing up in BRD. Living in Potsdam for almost 20 years now. Very interesting to see what´s different and what´s still the same. You even caught the house I lived in for some years in Leipziger Straße 🥲
Have you ever returned to Potsdam? Glienicker Brücke is just a nice little bridge today with pedestrians, cyclists and cars passing unobstructedly...
Thank you for uploading this. I just read a book about the allied Military Missions in the GDR. Nice to see some moving pictures.
Great footage. The first part of the video was the exact same route I took every day to work in Potsdam a couple of years later after the Wall had come down. Not much has changed on the western side of the route since this footage was taken, apart from the Deutschland Halle having been pulled down. In Potsdam though a hell of a lot has changed, not at all so grey and drab anymore.
Nice back ground music from good old BFBS by the way. I always had my radio tuned to that in Berlin. Sad it's not broadcasting in Berlin anymore.
So much snow on the ground is not typical for Berlin. That was the winter in which we had a snow storm for a solid 8 hours which forced all traffic to come to a stop. Even the underground was affected,´ with entrances and exits blocked by huge snow drifts. The snow in the video was the last of it before it finally melted away.
Haha I just noticed that when you arrived on the Glienicker Bridge "Bridge of Spies"... the song China in your Hand is playing... from the album "Bridge of Spies" !!! xD Greetings to our beloved friends in the UK, from Berlin Germany! o/
I drove for USMLM in 1972 and 1973. Crossing the Glienicke Bruecke was a bit different then with about 6 concrete barriers staggered as well as "dragons teeth" barriers designed to stop tanks. I remember having to drive a 40 passenger bus through them for a mission party - NOT at all an easy task.
41:40 funny thing about this is this T-Pau Song was released on a album called "Bridge of Spies"
So this was a song from album Bridge of Spies played just before entering the real Bridge of Spies?
Sehr interessant für mich als Potsdamerin, die zum Zeitpunkt der Aufnahme 28 Jahre alt war und am 10. November 1989 zum ersten Mal die Glienicker Brücke nach West-Berlin überqueren durfte!
From 21:20 on the music is excellent, fabulous...! The music of my youth (I'm now 52 years old).
Brings back memories and a deep pain in my heart when I hear the old school 80s tunes in the radio. The 80s were the prime decade of the west
I still travelled by train from West Germany to West Berlin in September 1989. It was quite something.
There were basically three routes across the Berlin Corridor. The southern route was the longest, the northern route the shortest, and the central route, which I took, was no doubt the one to see the most of East Germany.
tolles Zeitdokument!
Bald wieder aktuell, dank FDJ Sekretärin Mutti MerKill?
@@roguewave1060 Geh mal bitte an die frische Luft.
What a blast from the past, I grew up in the GDR and this makes me feel like I’m young again
You know you're driving in the DDR when every seven in ten cars is a Trabant and two of the remaining three are military vehicles. The roads are remarkably more potholed in East Berlin than the West too.
But the road is not too bad though, by the communist countries’ standard
Very interesting footage. Strange to think that only a few years after this was filmed, I would be able to drive from Colchester to Dresden non stop, Crossing the old border around Helmstadt I believe. I remember The Old DDR autobahns being mostly concrete stabs construction. giving every journey a certain rhythm. Speaking of rhythm, radio stations played real music back then, albeit the channels would come and go every 5 minutes. 🇬🇧.
Most of the Autobahns were still from German Reich. DDR just continued using them without a lot maintenance.
Das waren noch Zeiten 👍☺ 32 Jahre ist das schon her . Danke fürs Hochladen 👍
Thanks for posting it is of great interest to me as my day would have driven a similar route (the mission house use to be in Geschwister-Scholl-Straße) back in the 50's. Unfortunately my dad died before he was allowed to tell anybody about his exploits.
thanks for upload. it's interesting for me, to see my Village 5 years before i was born 👍
When I was stationed in Berlin in 1987-1988 as part of the French forces, I took many pictures of the Wall and border crossing points. I took some at Glienicker Brücke April 10th 1988. On one of them, there is a white BRIXMIS VW LT-35 van with number plate 10 on its way back to West-Berlin... maybe you were on it that very day!
Since the details of the crossing are not on the film (for understandable reasons!), could you please explain how the control by the Soviet troops took place?
The bridge divided East Germany controlled by the Soviets, and West Berlin, controlled by the Allies.
You might like to know that in the Espionage Museum in Berlin, there is a complete model of that bridge showing a famous occasion when an important spy swap was carried out. The American Ambassador was there together with the 'notorious' East German lawyer who was the go-between and general fixer for the DDR. In fact you can go past that bridge when you take the train to Potsdam and not notice it.
What a time capsule this video is. Thank you for uploading
That is a fantastic and very important historic bit of filmwork, especially the crossing of the Glienicke Bridge both ways.!
Great video. Thanks for the uploding.
I never transitted via Glenicke Brücke, but we did via Checkpoint Bravo and Alpha, there in Bravo and Alpha we used to use a document called a BTD - British Travel Document which had our IDs and names stamped by British Forces Command from Infantry Brigade. The journey wasnt allowed to take under 2 hours otherwise they knew we were speeding. Then we approached the Soldier, dad got out of the Car, locked it and saluted the officer. Afterwards the soldier would look at the document and look at the people in the car vs our IDs then dad would salute the soldier go in the office where a Russian Officer was and he would salute the Officer and the officer would stamp the document, salute dad, dad would go out show the soldier who would salute my dad and then we were through the checkpoint in about 10 minutes
scunnin224 i
Checkpoint Alpha is now a customs office and the DDR/Russian border control complex a short distance on at Marienborn is now an Autobahn Rest Area.
It's aesthetic and ironic af that Johnny Hates Jazz's song "I dont wanna be a hero" is playing on this very cold war era drive
It's already ironic that BFBS played this song at all.
@@olli2591 They were listening to a casette.
Thank you very much, this video is very interesting for me. Yesterday I made a video exact at the same spots, as you did 31 years, ago.
The former BRIMIX house was owed by the famos German fashion guru Wolfgang Joop. Now, since last year it's owned by the SAP boss Hasso Plattner. The famous and rich live there in the so called Berliner Vorstadt.
You can watch it here:
ua-cam.com/video/xk4k9avdV2Y/v-deo.html
At 01:03:33 min you can see it. At 07:14 you can see the bridge of spies, too.
Super Zeitdokument! DANKE SCHÖN!!!!
Bald wieder aktuell, dank FDJ Sekretärin Mutti MerKill?
Would be fascinating to see a Picture-in-Picture of the modern Berlin-Potsdam following the same route.
The Radio Station in the Background is BFBS!
In the second half of this video, when the camera operator zooms in on the dashboard, in the radio display is visable the frequency 94.3. American radio RIAS 2 broadcasted on this frequency.
Correct, the radio station is indeed "BFBS". At 09:29 you can hear the stations jingle "BFBS". At 25:27 it looks at the display like 94.3 MHz, which was one of several frequencies, which BFBS used once in Berlin with 3 or 6 kWatts at the nearby transmitting tower "Olympia Stadium" according to de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sender_Olympiastadion .
Since BFBS is "British Forces Broadcasting Service" and this military mission in the video is british, this makes sense to me.
Still a bit salty BFBS is gone in my part of Germany (far west, think Düsseldorf area). Loved listening to that station as a kid and it helped me _a lot_ with learning English.
It was also one of the 3 strongest stations in my area, so just about any junk radio could receive it. These days there's some annoying culture and arts station on that frequency (96.5MHz) :(
@@heiko3371 During the 2nd part of the video (where the music is also considerably louder), they're listening to a tape though, not the radio. Someone elsewhere in the comments mentioned "Now That's What I Call Music 10" and all the songs seem to match the track list. Plus just after 43:26 you can hear the driver eject (and presumably flip) the cassette and at 44:24 he pushes it back in to start playing. The radio is a "Becker Europa Cassette Electronic 730" btw
Thank you so much for sharing this video. I was 5 when the wall came down and it was one of only a few times my Dad cried in front of me. I can only imagine how much beer flowed that night.
Wow I can almost smell the inside of that 1980s car‼️🚗🚘❣️
Or the Wartburg and Trabant in front of them.
29:38 That's the moment I've been waiting for.
I always find it interesting watching these vids of driving through different countries fascinating, but to see that sort of thing in the DDR was really neat. Thanks.
Thank you for your service at BRIXMIS!
Kind regards from Potsdam.
This was great to see, especially seeing the Mission House where as a child we spent many weekends there, it was a very special time, little did we know why my dad was there, as kids it was one big adventure, loved boating on the lake, the BBQ's and the cinema room, good times.
We live in the neighbourhood now and I take my daughter swimming and rowing on the lake in the summer. As the park now has an official „nudist beach“, I guess it is much busier than back in your days! ;-)
Recently talked to an old lady who grew up in the area. She told me she and her friend broke through the ice walking across the frozen lake when they were kids. Staff from the British and French missions came to get them out. Must have been quite an experience back then with a lot of nervous questions being asked...
2024 and I'm watching this whilst sat eating a steak listening to an 80s conversation! Just got to the Glenicke Bridge part. Fascinating
The music was better in 88. Hue &Cry "Labour of love, WET WET WET "I don´t want to be a hero", Style Council "Wanted".
t´Pau China in your Hands in the end of record, wonderful
A great documentary with the best soundtrack!!!! I drove often on that bridge in the last 5 Years and it's quite unbelievable how the world has changed and somehow it's always still the same
Thank you very much! Fascinating and rare footage because that checkpoint was only used by the allies. So, the controls were managed by the Soviet forces only?.
In 1987 I took the public bus to Glienicke Brucke from S-Bahn Wannsee, but I was not able to see what was behind... Impressive time document anyway, thank you for uploading, but what was actually the purpose to patrol like this?
The license plates. I believe a six digit plate denoted a front line unit, while a four digit denoted a logistical second line formation, according to Tony Geraghtys book
34:52-34:57 56-44 ТЛ, ТЛ - Tula Oblast, 34:26 06-70 AA, AA - Grouping of Soviet troops in Germany. Six digits were on a diplomatic soviet numer plates with red background and on a soviet numer plates with yellow or orange background for foreigners or for cars for export.
@Werner Monoton
Civil number plates had three letters.
In the Russian Wikipedia article on Soviet license plates there is a hidden table with the distinguishing marks on military license plates. There was no differentiator ТЛ there, so I assumed it meant the same as on the civil plates. Only later did I read that the military equipment in the USSR was registered not by the region of location, but by belonging to the units and formations of the Armed Forces of the USSR, and the letter combinations on the license plates of the Armed Forces did not coincide with the civilian ones.
Note the aircraft standby illuminated compass mounted where the rear view mirror should be.
The Brixmis G wagens had the rear view mirror removed to give a clear field of view for the officer observer sat in a centrally mounted rear seat. Additionally you will notice near the 34 minute mark when they are stopped in traffic behind the military ambulance truck that the rear seat observer also had a set of wing mirrors mounted on the B pillar behind the two front seat occupants.
Interesting detail. Didn´t recognize them while watching the vid.
Makes sense to replace the rear mirror with something useful during spying activities.
The monitoring officer sitting in the middle would block the rear view anyway.
... but those additional side mirrors on the B-pillar may have obstructed the drivers rear view to some degree as well ...
Amazing video! Two different worlds living in same city. 9% mortgage in Redhill was quite a lot!
The memories and the time I spent at TCA and if I were going to BRD I would be going through checkpoints Bravo to Alpha in Helmstedt.
Thank you very much for the video, it brings back memories. Regards!
In case anyone's curious, from 21:21, it is 'NOW That's What I Call Music! 10' compilation album (released 1987) playing. Though I'm still curious if it is on tape or CD (more inclined to think it's the former).
Very Interesting. As an Austrian who nearly had to live through a division like this aswell, I'm very grateful the division never took place.
Yes, the Austrian government's success in moving the Soviets out in 1955 can scarcely be overestimated.
Certainly rare video - I have never seen a video of crossing Glienicke during the DDR period.
Only a few traffic signs in the east. For me as a young western boy with relatives in the east, I felt free and uncontrolled in GDR bc of that. Like to be as young as I was then
Меня трясет от эйфории, когда я смотрю это видео. 45 минут - и хочется еще больше. Если бы изобрели машину времени, я прыгнул бы в 80-е на границу ГДР и ФРГ. Феноменальный исторический период!
Это камера трясётся 😂
Fascinating footage. ❤
Thanks for sharing.
Thanks for uploading. It´s an important piece of history. These activities were principly known by the public but went way below recognition level in everydays life. People (general public on both sides) usually did not really see it as something "special".
Although from todays point of view it was not "normal" - in some way it was ...
For me - being from West Germany - it always felt like something peculiar/strange when I visited Berlin but of course it was due to the special status of the City.
That takes me back! Driving past the Deutschlandhalle and onto the Avus! Usually, next stop the PX!
Amazing footage, thank you for posting!!
Great audio quality for a military vehicle 👍🏻
Great contemporary document. I was 13 at the time and growing up behind (or before - depending on your perspective ;)) the Iron Curtain.
The YT algorithm brought this video to my attention after virtually taking a ride in the cockpit of a cab from New York Queens to Manhattan in 2022. I have to admit, the condition of the roads isn't all that different.
Thank you for the reminder CP. And that track, crossing that bridge...
The Soviet counterpart in the DDR to the Brit , American, & French Liaisons had transit routes as well going to and from the respective Brit, US, and French sections of West G. Wonder if video footage from the Soviet transit routes exist.
This (Michendorf -> Potsdam) was my daily way to school back then.
Mal ein spannendes Video! Neben dem weises Haus in der Seestraße war eine Schule, in der ich ging!. In der Berliner Straße nicht weit von der Gliniker Brücke wohnte ich. :)
Was that the Kinderwochenheim? I just read a book about that school and the house it was in! "The House at The Bridge," by Katie Hafner.
Ein Kinderwohnheim befand sich unmittelbar auf der Potsdamer Seite der Brücke. Es ist die Villa Schöningen. Das befand sich auch im Sperrgebiet, wo Leute im Alter von über 14 Jahre nur mit Genehmigung betreten durften. Die rotweiße Straßenbarriere auf dem Video zeichnete die Sperrgebietsgrenze im Hinterland. Kinder konnten ohne Probleme bis an den Grenzzaun/Schranke an der Brücke kommen. Ich selber war als Kind auch mal da.Mit besten Grüßen Christoph Müller Villa Schönigen: www.villa-schoeningen.org/
Mein beileid das du auf der seite leben musstest
Vielen Dank für das Hochladen. Gefällt mir sehr gut.
Übersetzt:
Thanks for uploading. I like it very much.
My pleasure!
Patrick Brandt.
This video reminds me comunism time in Poland.Everywhere gray and gloomily.Polish roads were even more horrible than in GDR.Plenty holes.There in Poland before 89 were a lot of carts,especially in countryyard.But in Poland people used to drive cars not only from USSR pact as Ladas etc.If I well remember about 10-15 % cars were producted in West Europe.My neighbor had Renault 5.Others West European cars like Wolxvagens ussually Golf I Peugeots Citroens Fiats I could noticed often.Ocassionally I had seen even Mercedes BMW Toyota or Volvo
To bylo fantastický.To musel být zážitek.Adrenalin jako sviňa.
No, crossing the Bridge of Spies (Glienicke Brücke) was allowed only for the Allied Military Liaison Missions from UK, USA and France, and occasionally by diplomats. There were several escape attempts by East Germans at the bridge attempting to flee the GDR.
The British Commanders'-in-Chief Mission (BRIXMIS) to the Soviet Forces in Germany (GSFG) was formed on 16 September 1946 under the Robertson-Malinin Agreement between the chiefs of staff of the British and Soviet forces in occupied (east) Germany. The agreement called for the reciprocal exchange of liaison missions in order to foster good working relations between the military occupation authorities in the two zones.
Similar agreements were made the following year by the Soviets with the French (FMLM) and the Americans (USMLM). For unexplained reasons the agreements differed significantly as BRIXMIS was allowed to have almost as many liaison staff in the Soviet Zone as the other two missions combined. The agreements remained in force until 2 October 1990 when all three missions were deactivated on the eve of Germany's reunification.
Thank you for sharing! I was a teenager in American high school in West Berlin from 81-85 while my father was stationed there. Major Arthur Nicholson of your U.S. Mission counterparts lived just a few houses from me until he was killed.
I especially liked seeing areas I recognized on the West Berlin part of the drive. What a piece of history that too many of my fellow citizens have no idea existed.
I was living in Berlin, Karlshorst in 1990-91, 6-9th grades, my father was a Russian officer. Good times, warm memories
Great NOstalgia! Thanks for sharing!
ha ha listening to BFBS I suppose whilst driving though east German streets. I remember the time very well.
AlternativeDesign100 I think it is Paul Gambaccini on the radio?
The one thing that strikes me was the chat that the two guys had about their mortgages and the exceedingly high interest rates was it 12 pc
And the state of reclaims in Reading.
Other than the Trabants, I think the trucks. the buses and the road lamps are also very recognizable on both sides
This was very interesting to watch. I assume you taped this because of intelligence purposes? That would explain the zooming in on every military vehicle and if possible their tags.
beautiful document!
Excellent video and amazing music. I miss the late 80’s.