The Great Escape beneath the Berlin wall (1964)

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  • Опубліковано 14 січ 2025

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  • @stalkerentertainment3671
    @stalkerentertainment3671 3 роки тому +2403

    The crazy thing was that each escape attempt helped in adapting the wall to hinder any future escape attempts but really there were so many other escape stories, some really bold...

    • @andershargrave7246
      @andershargrave7246 3 роки тому +31

      I kinda enjoy the fact that this wall was even created. Something that Germany really needed at that time

    • @wilhelm2462
      @wilhelm2462 3 роки тому +149

      @@andershargrave7246 for what was that needed? It was simply a prison because too many people escaped that shithole.

    • @pvt.potato1943
      @pvt.potato1943 3 роки тому +103

      One time a dude stole a tank and drove it through the wall

    • @RealSaboTabby
      @RealSaboTabby 3 роки тому +102

      @@wilhelm2462 Don't pay much attention to them they're just a Russian troll

    • @SludgyRhino7883
      @SludgyRhino7883 3 роки тому +74

      @@pvt.potato1943 I believe one guy from Hungary or Austria flew a makeshift plane over the iron curtain and is living in Utah today

  • @youngmasterzhi
    @youngmasterzhi 3 роки тому +2877

    You should do a 1961 story of how an East German train engineer literally crashed his locomotive straight through the Berlin Wall, along with his family and 16 other strangers who were in for the ride

    • @terminal8531
      @terminal8531 3 роки тому +324

      Well German engineering is the best in the world.

    • @DrHydra47
      @DrHydra47 3 роки тому +88

      1961 was the year it was first built maybe he didnt know about it?

    • @eddharriselmedulan6187
      @eddharriselmedulan6187 3 роки тому +17

      That's a good idea

    • @lifefordummies
      @lifefordummies 3 роки тому +57

      There qss also a guy who armored a school bus and escaped woth his family

    • @pfw4568
      @pfw4568 3 роки тому +49

      @@DrHydra47 Wherever you were in germany at that time, you definitly knew about the wall as soon as they started building it.

  • @kevinmackay5233
    @kevinmackay5233 3 роки тому +2304

    WOW! Shoutout to the team at Simple History for pumping out the content continuously over the last few weeks!! We really appreciated the hard work you all put in! Cheers!

    • @Ttegegg
      @Ttegegg 3 роки тому +74

      From the people who used to make these for books. Do they still sell them?

    • @Simplehistory
      @Simplehistory  3 роки тому +223

      thanks!

    • @Simplehistory
      @Simplehistory  3 роки тому +171

      @@Ttegegg yes on amazon

    • @West_Coast_Mainline
      @West_Coast_Mainline 3 роки тому +13

      @@Simplehistory hi

    • @Tamnd605
      @Tamnd605 3 роки тому +9

      @@Simplehistory dang 40 seconds ago

  • @GuhTheBruh
    @GuhTheBruh 3 роки тому +1732

    "Freedom has many difficulties and democracy is not perfect, but we have never had to put a
    wall up to keep our people in, to prevent them from leaving us…"
    -John F. Kennedy"

    • @mypdf
      @mypdf 3 роки тому +125

      @@qqqalo That is s build to prevent people from entering, not from leaving

    • @andyfriederichsen
      @andyfriederichsen 3 роки тому +50

      @@qqqalo Have you seen the gangs and cartels that are in Mexico?

    • @Ttegegg
      @Ttegegg 3 роки тому +31

      @@mypdf and also probably not the best way to spend money. Probably better ways to mitigate immigrations then just big walls

    • @cageybee7221
      @cageybee7221 3 роки тому +19

      try to leave. go ahead, try. the wall is financial, thousands of dollars, i've been trying to leave for years.

    • @joelmaynard5590
      @joelmaynard5590 3 роки тому

      @@qqqalo The same wall that was dismantled?

  • @Duke_of_Lorraine
    @Duke_of_Lorraine 3 роки тому +477

    Another succesful escape : a man rented a fancy car, somehow got an uniform of an important Soviet officer, had an accomplice serving as his chauffeur, and just passed Checkpoint Charlie, no one dared asking for his papers on the eastern side.

  • @bogustoast22none25
    @bogustoast22none25 3 роки тому +774

    Love how at the end they just replay their tunnel drawings with no sound, so all you get to feel are seconds of eerie silence to what was explained as minute, just to get a sense of how it was.

    • @eerie5964
      @eerie5964 3 роки тому +85

      No it was get to 10 minutes on the video to get an extra ad

    • @bogustoast22none25
      @bogustoast22none25 3 роки тому +24

      Ah. Still though, eerie

    • @candowe4926
      @candowe4926 3 роки тому +26

      @@eerie5964 UA-cam made it 8 minutes a while back, and also it’s 9 minutes and 59 seconds

    • @comradekenobi6908
      @comradekenobi6908 3 роки тому +2

      @@eerie5964 capitalism

    • @tonypeppermint5329
      @tonypeppermint5329 3 роки тому +4

      @@eerie5964 One second off.

  • @Nint-km7kd
    @Nint-km7kd 3 роки тому +133

    I remembered stories of our history teacher from when she attended school. In the 70's when she was a kid, the teachers back then told her that the wall in Berlin was there to stay strong for possibly centuries and wouldn't collapse.

    • @kishascape
      @kishascape 2 роки тому +2

      Well she was right, pieces of it are still around in places. Unfortunately the Soviet Union wasn’t as strong and made all of that irrelevant.

    • @chetpomeroy1399
      @chetpomeroy1399 2 роки тому +1

      @@kishascape Well, at the time the Wall came down, the Soviet Union was teetering on collapse. But at time of the Wall's construction, it was a *formidable* potential adversary, even throughout the 1970's, as I remember.

  • @timg2088
    @timg2088 3 роки тому +502

    Excellent!
    Some of the most dramatic pictures I have ever seen are from East Germans running across the border into West Germany and to FREEDOM, before the Berlin wall was built. Some escaping over the wall before it was completed and some great pics of those who had just escaped. Now staring back across the border at the guards who just tried to kill them just a few seconds before.
    The famous pic of an East German guard shedding his weapon and his gear as he flees across the border into freedom and into West Germany is my favorite. Staring back across the border at your (now former) co-workers is priceless.
    The courage the West German border guards displayed in protecting those who ran across the border is often overlooked.

    • @nonoman3246
      @nonoman3246 3 роки тому +18

      Imagine this happened in korea, history repeats itself

    • @bkan373
      @bkan373 3 роки тому +1

      ah yes, freedom, it isnt like in the west the nazis were on the gobernment ay

    • @hughmungus1767
      @hughmungus1767 2 роки тому +3

      One of the things I remember best about my trip to East and West Berlin in 1983 was all the crosses on the West Berlin side of the Wall commemorating the East Germans who had been killed by their own countrymen while attempting to cross the Wall to freedom. Some of those crosses contained the names of the people who had died and the date they had been killed but many contained only the dates and the German word "Unbekannt" (Unknown). So many people killed and nothing but the date of their deaths was known, even years later because the East Germans had (presumably) refused to identify them even though they must have eventually figured out who had tried to flee. When I returned to a unified Berlin in 1991, I was pleased to see that many of the formerly unknown victims had finally been identified, (presumably) because the East German regime was gone and researchers could determine who had been killed in those incidents. Finally, *most* of the dead had been identified. I'll never forget seeing the proof that people will literally risk their lives to be free because freedom is not just an abstract idea to some people: it is something that some people need to make their lives worth living. I hope I show the same courage and determination if I ever feel I have to flee my country.

  • @brucebelvin2058
    @brucebelvin2058 3 роки тому +92

    West Berliner: "You smell like scheisse. Did you just escape through tunnel 57?"
    Escapee: "No I was practicing for the Tokyo Olympics. I'm a pole vaulter."

  • @NeoDragonCount
    @NeoDragonCount 3 роки тому +159

    Can't say this enough; I love Simple History and I watch, and re-watch, their videos all the time! Learned about stuff they never covered in history class!

  • @BloodlMagic
    @BloodlMagic 3 роки тому +93

    *the folks at Simple History:* "have you heard of this historic event? Well let us tell you a lesser known part of it!" And that's what makes this channel one of my favorites.

  • @openthinker6562
    @openthinker6562 3 роки тому +241

    “Democracy isn’t perfect, but we have never had to build a wall to keep our people in.”
    John F. Kennedy, shortly after the wall was built.

    • @firefly9838
      @firefly9838 3 роки тому +6

      Kennedy is in my top 3 favorite presidents

    • @bkan373
      @bkan373 3 роки тому

      not only copied but gringo bs, open thinker says, the one totally lied by the media

    • @ps92809
      @ps92809 3 роки тому +3

      @@bkan373 gringo bs lol

    • @bkan373
      @bkan373 3 роки тому

      @@ps92809 tf does that mean

    • @ps92809
      @ps92809 3 роки тому +2

      @@bkan373 idk but its funny

  • @friendlyman_
    @friendlyman_ 3 роки тому +86

    Went to Berlin and got a tour around the Stasi prison there from someone who tried to cross the Berlin wall. Absolutely crazy tactics they used to break people, like driving for 3 hours aimlessly so you didn't know you were still near Berlin, no windows to look out of to tell the time of day or where you were, soundproof 'silent rooms' where they basically tried to drive you mad. If anyone is interested, it was the 'Berlin-Hohenschonhausen' memorial and it's well worth the tour if you can get it.

    • @wojszach4443
      @wojszach4443 3 роки тому +5

      then read on Cheka, they made Gestapo look like amateours

    • @lukassssi
      @lukassssi 2 роки тому

      they not gonna drive you around today with this oil prices

  • @rdsyafriyar
    @rdsyafriyar 3 роки тому +41

    "To understand is hard. Once one understands, action is easy." - Sun Yat-sen

  • @mryeeter8175
    @mryeeter8175 3 роки тому +52

    *This is a certified Berlin classic.*

  • @wojszach4443
    @wojszach4443 3 роки тому +485

    For some mysterious reasons communistic countries have more guns on border facing inwards rather than outwards, anyone knows why?

    • @cageybee7221
      @cageybee7221 3 роки тому +20

      you just watched a video where armed men dug a tunnel under the wall, and you still ask that?

    • @HuyTran-dy3vt
      @HuyTran-dy3vt 3 роки тому +141

      @@cageybee7221 he was being sarcastic

    • @ericsuarez834
      @ericsuarez834 3 роки тому +6

      What communist countries you know? Here in the USA we got lots of immigrants escaping their capitalist countries every day

    • @wojszach4443
      @wojszach4443 3 роки тому +15

      @@cageybee7221 there is a little thing called rethoric question, you ask question for which answear is obvious

    • @wojszach4443
      @wojszach4443 3 роки тому +46

      @@ericsuarez834 entire Warsaw pact, West Taiwan aligned countries, whatever Pol Pot Mugabi or Castro did, there is a lot of evidence to prove how communism is inhumane

  • @drivenbyrage5710
    @drivenbyrage5710 3 роки тому +53

    My mother escaped from East Germany around the same time. She never liked to talk about it. My guess is she went through some terrible things as a teenage girl before she finally got out. Now, I wonder if she was one of the ones who used the tunnels to escape. She is 85 with dementia now. I guess I'll never know.

    • @kishascape
      @kishascape 2 роки тому +2

      You never know. People tend to let things out in dementia.

    • @petersuozzo1227
      @petersuozzo1227 11 місяців тому

      @@markolysynchuk5264well, your permission had to be printed on an official form, completed in triplicate. ;-)

    • @ElizabethGrindon
      @ElizabethGrindon 2 місяці тому +1

      The Stasi kept tabs on everyone. Those records have been preserved and the public can see them. They made lists of people who escaped. The Stasi had something like one informer for every 62 people. I'd be very surprised if your mother's name was not in one of the 85 million pieces of paper that the Stasi had.

  • @thecheebra7655
    @thecheebra7655 3 роки тому +245

    Have you done the story of the family who escaped east germany with a hot air balloon? It's probably the most creative way someone escaped east germany.

    • @davidsaville5239
      @davidsaville5239 3 роки тому +9

      There was a film made about it

    • @pfw4568
      @pfw4568 3 роки тому +31

      Or the three brothers which all escaped by different means. One swam, one shot a rope across the border from one house over to the other and the third being rescued by the other two by plane. The two brothers even drew a red star under the plane to confuse the east german guards by thinking, those were soviet planes. It all worked out. One of the brothers filmed their rescue action by plane and you can watch the whole thing

    • @DerBoss888
      @DerBoss888 3 роки тому +6

      I had a teacher that was a relative of the people that escaped

    • @DerBoss888
      @DerBoss888 3 роки тому +1

      With the air balloon

    • @anomaly395
      @anomaly395 2 роки тому +3

      @@pfw4568 Link?

  • @garrisonnichols807
    @garrisonnichols807 3 роки тому +30

    Ronald Reagan was told by some of his entourage not to mention the wall when he went to the American sector in Berlin. He was at a restaurant and asked a waitress about her feelings about the Berlin wall. She told him a story about escaping years ago and how most of her family was still trapped behind on the other side where she hadn't seen them since. The rest is history.

  • @Wil_Dasovich
    @Wil_Dasovich 3 роки тому +15

    This was a good one!

  • @peterhuehn6137
    @peterhuehn6137 3 роки тому +60

    My dad and his family escaped East Germany in 1961. My grandfather told the guard that they were going into the west to go to the zoo and would be back by sun down and they were let through.

    • @kishascape
      @kishascape 2 роки тому +1

      Yes there were checkpoints and people were frequently allowed in to visit family and out for shopping.

    • @Rayitolaser569
      @Rayitolaser569 2 роки тому

      Lmaooo

  • @sankyu3950
    @sankyu3950 3 роки тому +134

    When you have max walls in your townhall but your enemie spams miners instead

    • @looinrims
      @looinrims 3 роки тому +11

      Rushes town hall just to make max level walls:

  • @shaneleskinen2111
    @shaneleskinen2111 3 роки тому +18

    Glorious. The ingenuity of the imprisoned and cornered never ceases to amaze.

  • @rishav_killerx6011
    @rishav_killerx6011 3 роки тому +223

    Incredible story, didn't knew this also happened during cold war, Loved it ❤️❤️

    • @Ttegegg
      @Ttegegg 3 роки тому +1

      History is very weird

    • @Christopher-rw2bp
      @Christopher-rw2bp 3 роки тому

      @@Ttegegg how so?

    • @suntzu4545
      @suntzu4545 3 роки тому +2

      @@Christopher-rw2bp emu war

    • @suntzu4545
      @suntzu4545 3 роки тому

      @@Christopher-rw2bp A place in england getting flooded by booze

    • @suntzu4545
      @suntzu4545 3 роки тому

      @@Christopher-rw2bp And also the funny dancing plague

  • @pokefan-ix7sh
    @pokefan-ix7sh 3 роки тому +34

    Tunnel 57 was a tunnel under the Berlin Wall that on the 3rd and 4th October 1964 was the location of a mass escape by 57 East Berlin citizens. Student and future astronaut Reinhard Furrer was among the West German escape helpers who assisted the East Berliners in escaping. During the escape, East German border guards came upon the scene. A West German escape helper, Christian Zobel, opened fire, the bullet piercing the lung of young East German guard Egon Schultz, who was then fatally wounded by friendly fire from another guard. This friendly fire was kept secret by the GDR government.
    Commemorative plaque on the house at Strelitzer Strasse 55, in Berlin Mitte
    A memorial plaque on the site today commemorates both the successful escape, and Schultz's death as a victim of the Berlin Wall.

  • @thomascolauto
    @thomascolauto 3 роки тому +1

    Thanks

  • @harrietharlow9929
    @harrietharlow9929 2 роки тому +8

    I had family in East Berlin. My aunt went through stuff in the closing days of WWII that were just horrendous. I remember visiting East Berlin in 1960 and 1972. You wouldn't believe how much rubble was there 15 years after the war had ended and that rubble was still there in 1973. Compared to West Berlin, it was a dismal place. I still remember crossing at checkpoint Charlie clearly--and that has been half a century now.
    I cried with happiness as I watched the Wall being torn down on TV. My uncle didn't live to see that (my aunt died in 1961 or 1962 and my uncle died in 1988), but I know how happy they would have been to see that.

  • @valuedhumanoid6574
    @valuedhumanoid6574 2 роки тому +4

    I had to travel to Germany on business two years after the wall came down. At one point I had to travel to Magdeburg, which is former East Germany. Going across the old border is like driving back in time. You just can't imagine how much damage the USSR did to that beautiful landscape. Just looking at the roads you can see the huge difference. You go from high tech autobahn that the German's have no peer to old beat up concrete that has not been repaired for years. Every building in town was the same greyish/brownish concrete square shaped block. No color. Cobblestone streets, dirt alleys, no lighting outdoors, just bleak. It didn't help that I was there in the dead of winter. It was midnight dark until 9am, then dark, overcast sky, then dark by 4pm. For 4 weeks I never saw the sun. When I flew out of Hanover, the plane broke thru the solid cloud cover to pure, unblocked sunlight. It was the most intense feeling of joy I have ever felt. I just cannot describe it. I am sure that the country has been restored by now, but back then it was two different worlds. Seeing the old 1960's era Trabant cars and the Russian Vaz Ladas and their smoky 2 stroke engines tooling around in the 90's was also a mind blowing thing

    • @koenven7012
      @koenven7012 2 роки тому +1

      It has improved, but there still are differences between the two regions.

  • @brandtc.7991
    @brandtc.7991 3 роки тому +11

    Seriously, one of the best channels on UA-cam! You show and teach our history so well and keep it in a way to honor our past.

  • @fazefarcry
    @fazefarcry 3 роки тому +31

    1:29 if your want to ignore the FUBAR sponsor, here’s where the show actually starts

  • @hughmungus1767
    @hughmungus1767 2 роки тому +15

    Some years ago, I saw a documentary about some of the attempts to escape East Germany. One unsuccessful attempt that was described really moved me. A young East German couple discovered that they were expecting their first child. Although they had grown up in East Germany and could (grudgingly) tolerate it, they felt passionately that they could not subject their unborn child to that life and started trying to find a way to get across the Wall, which by this time was very highly developed. They had an idea that it might be possible to sneak through a specific forested area and then get over the Wall so they went to this area just to look over the possibilities and risks, not to actually escape on that particular night. As they walked through the forest, the border guards somehow detected them and without a word of warning, opening fire with live ammunition. The man threw his pregnant wife to the ground and lay over her to try to protect her but, sadly, she was already dead. The border guards arrested him and threw him in prison for five years just for being in a restricted area without a pass (you couldn't go closer than 5 km to the Wall unless you had a pass). I was absolutely infuriated - and remain that way to this day - to learn that they actually forced him to pay for the bullets that were used to kill his wife and unborn child. That's how utterly cold-hearted the East German regime was!

  • @helloimskip
    @helloimskip 3 роки тому +64

    Since we're talking about Tunnel 57. Please make more animated stories of people attempting many ways to escape the Eastern Bloc. Like the Czech Hijacking.

  • @CliffCardi
    @CliffCardi 3 роки тому +30

    Did you hear of the 2 Germans who in 1986, built their own windsurfing boards to escape to Denmark via the Baltic Sea?

  • @theuralictribes5689
    @theuralictribes5689 3 роки тому +34

    Fun fact:
    The irony is that there was someone who mentioned an idea of rebuilding the Berlin wall except this time it won't be called the Berlin Wall nor it will split Germany in half.
    Fun Fact 2:
    The Berlin Wall was guarded my Czechoslovak Wolfdogs specifically mix bred to become active guard dogs.

  • @daniellebcooper7160
    @daniellebcooper7160 3 роки тому +50

    Another great video, thank you. It makes me appreciate living in western society, and wanting to defend it even more.

    • @darius9333
      @darius9333 2 роки тому

      Eastern has its good part.

  • @compatriot852
    @compatriot852 3 роки тому +35

    The amount of unique ways people managed escaped from the Soviet Union are endless and I feel you could easily make hundreds of videos on it.

    • @hughmungus1767
      @hughmungus1767 2 роки тому +2

      The Haus am Checkpoint Charlie ("House at Checkpoint Charlie") museum in Berlin, which I believe still operates, contains a wonderful collection of information about the many clever ways East Germans used to escape to the West. I highly recommend it.

  • @direwolf8257
    @direwolf8257 3 роки тому +9

    Loving the increase in quality and rate of these vids!

  • @kellyeill7719
    @kellyeill7719 3 роки тому

    Thanks!

  • @brandonchappell8545
    @brandonchappell8545 3 роки тому +20

    Video starts at 1:27

    • @kv-2156
      @kv-2156 3 роки тому +1

      Thank you

    • @pepsi-cola2791
      @pepsi-cola2791 3 роки тому +1

      Ridiculously long sponsor

    • @brandonchappell8545
      @brandonchappell8545 3 роки тому

      @@pepsi-cola2791 every time! I don't mind ads because I get it, it's what you got to do but these are just too much

  • @MrTheHillfolk
    @MrTheHillfolk 2 роки тому +8

    Went to Berlin in 2005.
    Going from the east side back to the west was like the wizard of oz where it goes from black and white to color.
    The east still had alot of catching up on culture.
    Houses on the east were all drab and gray and the west side had wild colors like yellow and red houses with expression.

  • @mrgrinderman8861
    @mrgrinderman8861 3 роки тому +14

    Always happy to hear stories about the Berlin wall!

  • @PhysicstIsaac
    @PhysicstIsaac 3 роки тому +12

    Excellent, Father has provided us with more new content again, it's getting better everyday.

  • @DudeStone
    @DudeStone 3 роки тому +13

    Amazing video of history and the graphics department stepping it up a bit overall one of the best of your work

  • @AXIAM79
    @AXIAM79 3 роки тому +5

    I remember from a documentary years ago that the owner just gave the key to the students and told them along the lines of "whatever happens, I don't know you and I wasn't aware of this"

  • @derickpoteet7502
    @derickpoteet7502 3 роки тому +9

    Holy crap, hearing this guy say "Raid shadow legends" might be my favorite single voice line I've heard in ages lmao

  • @nateallen2714
    @nateallen2714 3 роки тому +4

    My German teacher I’m high school had a piece of the Berlin Wall. She went there on a school trip when the wall was being taken down.

  • @jeeferw7770
    @jeeferw7770 3 роки тому +24

    My respect to all those college students 👏 , they are true heroes for all those people who safely crossed the border.

  • @ianlarson517
    @ianlarson517 3 роки тому +3

    I was gifted a piece of the Berlin Wall that has some paint on it. It was from my friends mom who just happened to be there when it fell. She went on a spontaneous weekend trip to Berlin with some coworkers when it came down.

  • @edwardkasimir8016
    @edwardkasimir8016 3 роки тому +36

    this video begins at 1:27

  • @iowa_lot_to_travel9471
    @iowa_lot_to_travel9471 3 роки тому +6

    The illustration of the SKS is great in every episode
    TV Sergeant Schultz: i know nothing Nothing
    Real life Sergeant Schultz: shot by friendly fire

    • @OffGridInvestor
      @OffGridInvestor 3 роки тому +1

      East German schultz couldn't get Dutch chocolate

  • @revolution8863
    @revolution8863 3 роки тому +16

    This would make for a very interesting movie!
    Simple History always makes incredible and the best history content! 👍

    • @OffGridInvestor
      @OffGridInvestor 3 роки тому

      There's PILES of ones like this that happened with east Germany

  • @twinslife1563ferev
    @twinslife1563ferev 2 роки тому +2

    Tunnel 57. The fact it was built by college students RESPECT

  • @GunsIinger_YT
    @GunsIinger_YT 3 роки тому +9

    My grandfather served at the Berlin wall (1960 - 1963) (US 🇺🇸)

  • @romerickhidalgo7298
    @romerickhidalgo7298 3 роки тому +1

    I appreciate this youtube channel....learn a lot.....and thank u for pushing more content this past few years

  • @jones7590
    @jones7590 3 роки тому +45

    My father (no volunteer) was in the Egon-Schulz-Companie (named after this "hero").
    The high-ranking officers praised Egon Schulz for his will to die for the system and so on.
    Later all found out what really was the truth, but some already whispered about it.
    Always a interesting time when he speaks about his years there.
    To the political side: many ex-SED-Members integrated themselves in the now existing political party "Die Linke".
    It´s sad to see young people vote for parties in which are many criminals that supported the shooting from innocent germans or still support communism.
    A "denacification" just for communism should have took place.

    • @hkiller57
      @hkiller57 3 роки тому +4

      plenty of exgestapo and other nazis got rolled into the west german police and political parties as well, its not just former soviets with that problem

    • @jones7590
      @jones7590 3 роки тому +4

      @@hkiller57 ah great whataboutism about a problem that everybody in Germany knew about.
      Im pointing it out because nobody talks about the "Mauermörder" which are the people behind the shooting of innocent people, torture and interogation.

    • @hkiller57
      @hkiller57 3 роки тому

      @@jones7590 ah look at you pretending that the crimes of the stasi arent just as well known or talked about

  • @Lnwf-ts9tb
    @Lnwf-ts9tb 3 роки тому +6

    I just watched The Tunnel in my German class. It was pretty good. The movie is in all German with English subtitles and showed other attempts to cross over recorded in history, like a bus ramming through the wall. I suggest giving the movie a watch if you know German or want to read subtitles the entire time

  • @user-fk8tr5ev8q
    @user-fk8tr5ev8q 2 місяці тому +3

    1:27 to skip the ad

  • @Beanbag777
    @Beanbag777 3 роки тому +1

    This Channel always entertains but once in a while it also stirs the heart deeply . Thank you

  • @tfrowlett8752
    @tfrowlett8752 3 роки тому +18

    Please can you do a video on either Wilhelm Voigt or Reginald Jones, though the latter caused the repainting of an entire submarine fleet.

  • @weetytoaster1835
    @weetytoaster1835 3 роки тому +14

    BRUH!!!! My friend on discord makes it seem like the Soviets were innocent and didn’t do any fucked up things 3:50. Please make more videos exposing what things the Soviets dead

    • @Cornblumen
      @Cornblumen 3 роки тому

      They killed a lot of people

    • @Cornblumen
      @Cornblumen 3 роки тому +1

      Does a genocide to innocent people

    • @Cornblumen
      @Cornblumen 3 роки тому +1

      Literally putting people to gulag

    • @weetytoaster1835
      @weetytoaster1835 3 роки тому

      @@Cornblumen I know and I want to know the events of those killings

    • @weetytoaster1835
      @weetytoaster1835 3 роки тому

      @@Cornblumen I also need pictures to

  • @prinz5816
    @prinz5816 3 роки тому +21

    Great video! Could we maybe see some napoleonic videos aswell? Love your channel and your content. Keep producing gold.

    • @wesleyy2502
      @wesleyy2502 3 роки тому +1

      Epic History has great video's on the napoleonic wars if you haven't seen them. I highly recommend them

    • @charlie8344
      @charlie8344 3 роки тому

      @@wesleyy2502 those videos are from 2 years ago, and their still nice

    • @wesleyy2502
      @wesleyy2502 3 роки тому

      @@charlie8344 Yep great animations on battles and great narration.

  • @brianjschumer
    @brianjschumer 3 роки тому +5

    Do a story on the family of Cubans fleeing Cuba in a bathtub with a plastic tarp as a sail and old tires and garbage pails as floaties

  • @NesquikYeeeaaah
    @NesquikYeeeaaah 3 роки тому +2

    Dude this is one of the most insane videos I've seen, keep it up

  • @T.Y.B.o.d.
    @T.Y.B.o.d. 8 місяців тому +1

    I loved this video. I watched it because it reminded me of the book A NIGHT DIVIDED.

  • @DeletedChannel-p2h
    @DeletedChannel-p2h 3 роки тому +3

    when I heard that Reinhard was on one of the Space Shuttle Challenger missions, I quickly Googled if he was on the one that exploded, luckily he wasn't.

  • @grandmentos3956
    @grandmentos3956 3 роки тому +2

    Love seeing the animation improve while keeping the theme. Keep doin’ watcha doin’, great as always

  • @davidarango4679
    @davidarango4679 2 роки тому +4

    There was also this one guy who snuk his girlfriend across the border inside his front passenger seat of his car. Since he made several trips over the border to see her, the border guards got used to seeing him. He carved out a space in the front seet for her to sit in. Once he got to the check point, the E. German border guards so used to seeing him didn't even notice the front passenger seat and let him on through.

  • @sebashtundakeng8683
    @sebashtundakeng8683 2 роки тому +2

    the story of the tunnel is a must watch

  • @LSTNSCRFN
    @LSTNSCRFN 3 роки тому +9

    Great video covering more East Berlin Escapes do one of the Hot Air Balloon that flew over east Berlin and landed in West Berlin

    • @wazzup233
      @wazzup233 3 роки тому +3

      And cue the tune of 99 Luft Balloons

  • @RockyMountains0721
    @RockyMountains0721 8 місяців тому +1

    One of my favorite escape stories from East Berlin was the story of the two brothers who used a hot air balloon to cross over to the West. They flew their balloon over the wall at around 4:00 in the morning under the cloak of darkness. The brothers also knew that there were less border guards along the Berlin Wall at that hour of the early morning.

  • @Burty_YT
    @Burty_YT 3 роки тому +12

    Can we all agree that when they upload our day is instantly better!😍

  • @YangLeee
    @YangLeee 3 роки тому +1

    Love this channel

  • @nievelatino9691
    @nievelatino9691 2 роки тому +6

    So Germany was like Korea except being north vs south it was East vs West

  • @curraheewolf
    @curraheewolf 3 роки тому +2

    I never knew that story. Thanks Simple History for sharing. 5 stars! *****

  • @arober9758
    @arober9758 3 роки тому +4

    Excellently neat job on this Cold War story fellows!!!🌍🌍🌍🌍🌍🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🥇🥇

  • @FYMFTP
    @FYMFTP 2 роки тому +1

    The fact that the entire thing was funded by a magazine so they could get a story should really be an eye-opener.

  • @bruhism173
    @bruhism173 3 роки тому +8

    Can you cover the signing of the declaration of independence? Or the siege of fort McHenry where the men used their owns lives to hold up the American flag to not declare defeat? Keep up the good work

  • @KollexYT
    @KollexYT 2 роки тому +2

    WOO!
    The escapees won the fight against the boarder guards!!

  • @panosf.kennedy2253
    @panosf.kennedy2253 3 роки тому +7

    All free men, wherever they may live, are citizens of Berlin, and therefore, as a free man, I take pride in the words "Ich bin ein Berliner!

  • @fuall6993
    @fuall6993 3 роки тому +1

    I like how they do a minute of silence at the end

  • @bockqses
    @bockqses 3 роки тому +4

    There's a book about this, it's called "A Night Divided"

  • @kb4903
    @kb4903 3 роки тому +4

    Is there any movies on something like this? Seems a great story.

  • @BrandonCarraway91
    @BrandonCarraway91 2 роки тому +1

    Can I just take a moment to say: damn good sound design. I looked over my shoulder, thinking I heard two Asian ladies talking behind me - where a wall was. Then I realized it was the video. 🔥

  • @Frosty_tha_Snowman
    @Frosty_tha_Snowman 3 роки тому +3

    I recommend watching "the Uprising" about the Warsaw ghetto, it's an amazing movie.
    I also recommend "the Defeated" on Netflix, it depicts post ww2 Berlin.

  • @SaschaDBrickman
    @SaschaDBrickman 3 роки тому +2

    I'm from Germany thank you for making this Video

  • @macariomatira3234
    @macariomatira3234 3 роки тому +5

    We Wish to feature about the Philippines under Martial Law from 1972 to 1981

  • @Pressed_For_Time
    @Pressed_For_Time 2 роки тому +2

    A 10 minute crawl to freedom. Incredible.

  • @Lanceyboy03
    @Lanceyboy03 3 роки тому +3

    My dad told me a story about my Opa and Oma regarding the division of Germany after the Second World War. It wasn’t quite as impressive as this but I still found it very interesting.

  • @rocketman6478
    @rocketman6478 2 роки тому +2

    Anyone else noticed. In the amount of time it took to watch this video, a person would have been crawling their way to freedom. 10 minutes

  • @johndoogan3712
    @johndoogan3712 3 роки тому +17

    There's a really good 😊 story about the cyclist 🚴 who built a huge hot air balloon 🎈and flew with his family out of Czechoslovakia to land in Austria 🇦🇹. The basket was reinforced underneath by a thick steel plate to protect them from ground fire and carried four large propane cylinders feeding a home built burner, the balloon 🎈had to lift almost a ton in weight including his bicycle. A mig was tasked to find them which lost them when they flew into cloud ☁️. They found that the burner had to remain lit constantly to prevent the balloon from descending. During its 15 mile flight it reached an altitude of 15,000 feet to finally land in countryside when a policeman 👮 who watched the balloon's descent came to investigate.
    They became Austrian residents and worked to pay 💰 off the import charges for one ☝️ balloon 🎈.
    I read an article many years ago in the Reader's digest about this story and I write this from memory.
    Please do a video about this story.

    • @ElizabethGrindon
      @ElizabethGrindon 2 місяці тому

      What a great story! I'm going to have to read more about that. Thanks!

    • @johndoogan3712
      @johndoogan3712 2 місяці тому

      @ElizabethGrindon The next time walls are built, it won't just be East and West it will also be North and South!, a hardened and rigidly enforced border fully intended to effectively deter illegal migration.

  • @lukeansell6709
    @lukeansell6709 3 роки тому

    The music, sounds, animations and historical information is very well done in these videos, thank you.

  • @macrotaste6585
    @macrotaste6585 3 роки тому +3

    Hey simple history, Native German speaker here. Great video to an important part of Germanys history.
    But I think you made a mistake "freie wahten" is incorrect it's "freie Wahlen"

  • @syncmaster710n14
    @syncmaster710n14 2 роки тому

    When he said sergeant schultz, all I could think was, "I see nothing! I hear nothing! I know nothing!"

  • @ModelAviationStation
    @ModelAviationStation 3 роки тому +3

    This would make a excellent movie.

  • @lourdesmontenegro-montesa2811
    @lourdesmontenegro-montesa2811 3 роки тому +2

    The ending is haunting in a way

  • @highleaf1197
    @highleaf1197 3 роки тому +19

    Democracies are never perfect but we never had to build a wall to keep our people in

    • @peaveyst7
      @peaveyst7 3 роки тому +2

      but you have to bomb it into people

  • @oliversherman2414
    @oliversherman2414 3 роки тому

    I love your channel keep up the great stuff

  • @thomasmaxwell7239
    @thomasmaxwell7239 3 роки тому +10

    If communism and socialism is such a good thing, why are people willing to die to escape it? I simply don't understand the mindset of my fellow college students. Great video and very informative!

    • @masonpyle5929
      @masonpyle5929 3 роки тому +5

      “Because true communism/socialism hasn’t been tried”-Woke College Students. Hey I agree as an American college student I believe that since my fellow American college students love communism and Che Guevara, they are crazy. American colleges should allow students to go to Cuba for a semester. I actually want that since they will change their mind on Communism/socialism after seeing what it does to a country.

  • @ElizabethGrindon
    @ElizabethGrindon 2 місяці тому

    Just finished a book called "Tunnel 29: The True Story of an Extraordinary Escape Beneath the Berlin Wall" by Helena Merriman. This is about an earlier, successful escape. She interviewed some of the diggers and escapees. That escape was partially funded, in secret, by NBC news who filmed the tunnel diggers as they worked and the tunnel. It was the first made-for-TV event of its kind. Excellent book. Much info about the Stasi, the East German secret police, and how they operated.

  • @BinaryzeroNYC
    @BinaryzeroNYC 3 роки тому +6

    I honestly loved the end....you should have recorded dirt shuffling and shovel noises and than a siren and gunshots