Weirdest Attempts to Cross the Berlin Wall (1961-1989)

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  • Опубліковано 25 січ 2024
  • Following the conclusion of World War Two, Germany found itself divided into two newly established nations, commonly referred to as West Germany and East Germany. The capital city of Berlin was also divided in a similar geographical manner - the western portion of the city being administrated by the pro-democratic West Germany, while the eastern portion of the city was administrated by the USSR allied East Germany. The new border in Berlin initially proved no obstacle for the city's inhabitants, with thousands of civilians migrating from East Germany to West Germany, unsure of their future under the Soviet regime. In order to stop this mass exodus, the border was abruptly closed by the East German government and sealed off by haphazard barricades of cement blocks and barbed wire. The border was ultimately reinforced with a massive, impenetrable wall - complete with guard towers, gun emplacements, and mines. Many would-be escapees continued to attempt a crossing - with hundreds killed in the process or executed when caught. This is the story of the ingenious, risky, and outright bizarre methods of escape some East German inhabitants deployed to free themselves from oppression.
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    Between 1961 and 1989, more than 100,000 citizens from East Germany tried to escape across the border. More than 600 of them were shot and killed by the Border guards. At the Berlin Wall alone, 5000 people attempted the crossing and 100 of them were either shot or died accidentally when they were caught by the authorities.
    Their attempts to escape ranged from being quite ingenious to downright crazy.
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КОМЕНТАРІ • 467

  • @Get_The_BBQ_Sauce
    @Get_The_BBQ_Sauce 3 місяці тому +1778

    “Democracy is not perfect but we have never had to put a wall up to keep our people in.”-John F, Kennedy.

    • @bumpermanthesecond615
      @bumpermanthesecond615 3 місяці тому +81

      and then trump said the thing about the wall

    • @brainstewX
      @brainstewX 3 місяці тому +88

      ​​@@bumpermanthesecond615 What 'thing' would that be?

    • @esmeraldagreen1992
      @esmeraldagreen1992 3 місяці тому +87

      But we donerd a wall to keep people out, or do you leave doors and widows unlocked in your house?

    • @angeloluna529
      @angeloluna529 3 місяці тому

      ​​@@bumpermanthesecond615 the trump wall is to keep people from coming in illegally, not trapping people in. Trump and biden give no fucks if you leave.

    • @mr.dudbud4551
      @mr.dudbud4551 3 місяці тому +64

      ​@@esmeraldagreen1992seems like you cant even understand the difference between berling wall and a basic home door

  • @walterbar3118
    @walterbar3118 3 місяці тому +609

    This defenitly needs a second part.
    On the December 5th 1961 the wall was broken by a whole train. The engeneer was Harry Deterling who crossed the border between Spandau and Oranienburg together with 25 people.
    And you only told the story of only two of the three Bethke brothers. Ingo and Holger Bethke. But there was a third brother: Claus Bethke. In 1989 Ingo and Holger Bethke returned to the GDR in ultralight aircraft disguised as soviet airforce. They picked up thier brother Claus and his wife Marianne and landed in West-Berlin just in front of the Reichstag.
    Maybe the most badass escape in the history of the Berlin Wall.

    • @Ferrari255GTO
      @Ferrari255GTO 3 місяці тому +31

      It's wild the lengths that people went to in order to reach freedom. Even worse to think how many didn't make it

    • @TheGrace020
      @TheGrace020 3 місяці тому +11

      thats mega badass

    • @cylandar
      @cylandar 3 місяці тому +33

      What is up with that family being a bunch of escape artist lol

    • @BaronVonMott
      @BaronVonMott 3 місяці тому +28

      Considering the degree of escalation between each brother's attempts, imagine what a 4th or 5th sibling might have have tried 😂

    • @vipergtsmre
      @vipergtsmre 3 місяці тому +4

      I'm just happy to see that someone else knew this.

  • @Newdivide
    @Newdivide 3 місяці тому +108

    During the construction of the Berlin Wall, an East German border guard named Conrad Schumann was hesitant to cross over the barbed wires while guarding. Some of the West Berliners saw him acting nervously, knowing he wanted to jump. They shouted for him to, “come over!”
    After much deliberation, he jumped & dropped his PPSH SMG. During his time in West Germany, Schumann feared that the Stasi would try to assassinate him, but this never happened.
    After the fall of the Berlin Wall Schumann said, "Only since 9 November 1989 [the date of the fall] have I felt truly free." Even so, he continued to feel more at home in Bavaria than in his birthplace, citing old frictions with his former colleagues, and was even hesitant to visit his parents and siblings in Saxony. When he returned to East Germany after the reunification to visit his relatives, he was rejected by them. They saw him as a traitor who abandoned his family.
    On 20 June 1998, suffering from depression, he committed suicide, hanging himself in his orchard near the town of Kipfenberg in Upper Bavaria. His body was found by his wife a few hours later.

  • @corymorimacori1059
    @corymorimacori1059 3 місяці тому +351

    “Torn down that wall like the Koola Aid man! Oh yeah!” Mikhail Gorbachev

    • @campbells0ups
      @campbells0ups 3 місяці тому +35

      real internet champs know where is is from.

    • @The617Viet
      @The617Viet 3 місяці тому +27

      You two need yoga

    • @noodlebomber4847
      @noodlebomber4847 3 місяці тому +22

      ​@@The617Vietyou need a shower!

    • @katyusha408
      @katyusha408 3 місяці тому +20

      And you both need to learn how to handle REAL power!

    • @noodlebomber4847
      @noodlebomber4847 3 місяці тому +14

      @@katyusha408 did somebody say, REAL POWER??

  • @StimkySkunko
    @StimkySkunko 3 місяці тому +385

    "Capitalism builds walls to keep people from coming in. Communism builds walls to keep people from running away."

    • @TheMegatuz
      @TheMegatuz 3 місяці тому +22

      Yup. Communism needs free/poor labour to stay around.

    • @PROVOCATEURSK
      @PROVOCATEURSK 3 місяці тому +21

      @@TheMegatuz That´s capitalism. Capitalists need more people to exploit, poor countries to extract resources while giving no social benefits to their own people.

    • @mikeljackson9192
      @mikeljackson9192 3 місяці тому +4

      @@TheMegatuz😂😂😂 so does Capitalism
      Capitalist wealth inequality just has a better PR team

    • @lemonacidrounds7293
      @lemonacidrounds7293 3 місяці тому

      @@mikeljackson9192 In the communist countries people who are talking against the government and the system often disappear! I've lived under this regime for 9 years! If you're coming from a poor family with no connections on highest levels even if you're the best in some sport you won't be representing your country before the world! The one who's going to do it does not have any skills but their family know military generals or colonels from the army which means anything is possible. Under communist regime the most important thing you need to remember is: "Ask what you can give to your country, not what the country can give to you!" and you stick by it. Meaning, you're working 9-12 hours per day for $50 a month. That was then. The purpose is to keep you and your family struggling so you can only work, sleep, work, sleep, work, sleep until the rest of your days. That's what communism needs - working class, minimum payment, no questions! Oh, did I forget to mention you don't have the right to watch or discuss the inventions created in Capitalism countries. The media and newspapers will only show you what the communist countries have invented and nobody will give you any info about the development of countries that are not under communist regime cause for the communists it was always a challenge! German citizens tried to escape the Eastern block for a very good reason!

    • @lemonacidrounds7293
      @lemonacidrounds7293 3 місяці тому +22

      @@PROVOCATEURSK In the communist countries people who are talking against the government and the system often disappear! I've lived under this regime for 9 years! If you're coming from a poor family with no connections on highest levels even if you're the best in some sport you won't be representing your country before the world! The one who's going to do it does not have any skills but their family know military generals or colonels from the army which means anything is possible. Under communist regime the most important thing you need to remember is: "Ask what you can give to your country, not what the country can give to you!" and you stick by it.

  • @princessmarlena1359
    @princessmarlena1359 3 місяці тому +226

    Other attempts did NOT include a giant slingshot, a motorized pogo stick, a super powerful trampoline, or 99 red [helium] balloons.

    • @balls9420
      @balls9420 3 місяці тому +15

      A big stick of dynamite may have been attempted.

    • @Literallyryangosling777
      @Literallyryangosling777 3 місяці тому +22

      They should just painted a tunnel and then cross it duhh

    • @zacharyanimates
      @zacharyanimates 3 місяці тому +24

      I heard in January 4th, 1971, an East German citizen named "Will E. Kayoty" tried to cross the Berlin Wall in an attempt to catch one of his Ostriches which had broken free from his farm and ran across the wall. Will apparently "used a homemade jetpack" to attempt to fly over the wall. He managed to get some lift and actually made it into the air. Unfortunately, he was immediately killed by East German guards while he was trying to fly over the wall. His body was shortly recovered with a few wooden signs and dynamite.

    • @smalltime0
      @smalltime0 3 місяці тому +7

      In the song, aren't the balloons coming from the west?

    • @davidpawson9047
      @davidpawson9047 3 місяці тому +5

      However, in 1979, eight people did escape over the border in a homemade hot air balloon. Prior to the fall of the wall in 1989, the Bethke Brothers (they were involved in the zip-line escape) flew an ultralight back into EB, picked up their other brother, and flew back.
      This was serious business, and many people died attempting to escape.

  • @crunchtime5102
    @crunchtime5102 3 місяці тому +144

    The fact that these people weren’t soldiers, but students, circus actors, and family members is fucking insane. It’s so fascinating to see how human ingenuity is ramped up ten-fold whenever there’s a desperate need for freedom. You see it in clever prison escapes all the time. It’s amazing!

    • @stevemc01
      @stevemc01 3 місяці тому +4

      well I think one guy was a military officer; he drove the APC through the wall after all.

    • @PROVOCATEURSK
      @PROVOCATEURSK 3 місяці тому +2

      A freedom to be filmed in a gym and being "exposed" as a predator?

    • @holgerwnuck2626
      @holgerwnuck2626 3 місяці тому +2

      At that time, all men had to do basic military service (approx. 2 years in the West and 3 in the East). Only West Berlin was exempt from this, but only if you studied there. And one case even involved a soldier.

    • @davidpawson9047
      @davidpawson9047 3 місяці тому +1

      One of the most famous photos of 1961 was that of a young East German border guard, Hans Konrad Schumann, who simply ran and jumped over the razor wire during construction of the wall.

    • @jarate8076
      @jarate8076 3 місяці тому +1

      @@PROVOCATEURSKlmao what

  • @Mark_nobody3
    @Mark_nobody3 3 місяці тому +73

    That walk animation was so cartoonish, it’s amazing 😂
    3:00

    • @ratgobbler
      @ratgobbler 3 місяці тому +7

      Bro skeddadled

    • @Average_boi
      @Average_boi 3 місяці тому +2

      cartoon sneaking ahh walk

    • @49ersPunting
      @49ersPunting Місяць тому +1

      Bro was floating over the ground😆

  • @richewilson6394
    @richewilson6394 3 місяці тому +49

    There was an escape attempt that was done by a couple who had a very low ride car. They made sure that they was low as the borders guards road barriers were and drove as fast as they could through and made it through it without even a scratch.
    Then there was a guy that made his own scuba equipment and made it across that eventually became something of a novelty aquatic toy as a result.

    • @MyRegardsToTheDodo
      @MyRegardsToTheDodo 3 місяці тому +7

      The car was a rental and three people escaped that day, an Austrian electrician working in East Berlin, his East German fiancee (who hadn't been allowed to leave the DDR) and his future mother-in-law (whom they had put in the trunk). The funniest part about this: The same escape was replicated a few days later by another couple, using the same rental car.

    • @ThePaperKhan
      @ThePaperKhan 3 місяці тому +2

      The low car one im sure everyone knows about considering that i believe it was on the history channel at some point. I think the car was a Austin Healy Sprite?

    • @richewilson6394
      @richewilson6394 3 місяці тому +1

      @@ThePaperKhan Yeah I think it is in Austin Healy saw it on episode of mysteries at the museum on The travel channel which I wish they still did that that was a good show. It made me motivated to do stuff around my town.

    • @MsBlackdeath13
      @MsBlackdeath13 2 місяці тому +2

      I’m pretty sure you can see a replica of the car at checkpoint Charlie in Berlin. Went there some years ago and saw it.

    • @richewilson6394
      @richewilson6394 2 місяці тому +1

      @@MsBlackdeath13 Yeah I heard about it on the show mysteries at the museum and I guess that's what they used as their item I can't remember it was that or the The gate that they had at that entrance where it happened.

  • @freddymaierx2363
    @freddymaierx2363 2 місяці тому +8

    As someone who lives in Germany (Saxony) I'm shocked when People say that we live in a dictatorship and that they want the wall back
    People don't wanna learn from the past

  • @mattowens3451
    @mattowens3451 3 місяці тому +36

    Born in 1981.. I have a vague memory of small chunks of concrete in little presentation boxes being sold at Walmart as "peice of Berlin wall" as suoviners. This was when Walmart was just a department store. No groceries no "Super store". This was in middle Alabama of all places.

    • @Hvfftyyhjhgg
      @Hvfftyyhjhgg 3 місяці тому +1

      Interesting. Do you suspect they were genuine or fake..

  • @Stellaris556
    @Stellaris556 3 місяці тому +15

    There was another famous attempt that went well in 1964. There was a doctor who managed to smuggle 9 people to West Germany with his BMW Isetta bubble car, he almost got found out by border guard's dog. There's a video of it on BMW's official channel titled The Small Escape

  • @Mach5Johnny
    @Mach5Johnny 3 місяці тому +18

    I’d love to see Count Dankula do a video on the craziest escapes from East Berlin.

  • @holgerwnuck2626
    @holgerwnuck2626 3 місяці тому +13

    Greetings from Germany. It's very exciting how they mix real history and myths together. From the beginning, the so-called border troops had orders to stop any border breakthrough by all means, which also included the use of firearms. The only thing they weren't officially allowed to do was shoot at minors, but this still happened often. It is also absolute nonsense that one out of six GDR citizens worked for the StaSi, because not everyone actually provided information as an IM (unofficial employee). The three brothers who escape in the last story are really exciting, but they had very good mountaineering equipment, but what is even more exciting is that the third was helped to escape with the help of an ultralight aircraft. Incidentally, most of them did not flee to Berlin but to the direct inner-German border or via other Eastern Bloc countries. The collapse of the GDR had little to do with the Polish Solidarity protests, but rather with the fact that the leading communists had run the country and the infrastructure so badly and that people could only buy the bare necessities with their money. Back then, people hardly demonstrated for the freedom to travel; it was about being able to buy cars, furniture or technology in the store, for example, without having to wait months or years for it. In this context, unfortunately, a lot of things are generally misrepresented abroad.

    • @davidpawson9047
      @davidpawson9047 3 місяці тому +2

      Waiting two hours on line to purchase strawberries ... one of the crowning achievements of the workers' paradise! It's been barely 35 years, and already people refuse to believe.

  • @poptat1
    @poptat1 Місяць тому +2

    My greatgrand father was a carpenter, and he was allowed to cross the border to retun funiture to his customers in west berlin. He used this oppurtunity to smuggle all his funiture and family across the border.

  • @schlirf
    @schlirf 3 місяці тому +12

    Wasn't just in Berlin either. Saw a few attempts along the Grenz in Fulda back in the day.

  • @codeman1987
    @codeman1987 3 місяці тому +1

    Lets all take a moment to say thanks for amazing content delivered in amazing tone

  • @juliusquasar1565
    @juliusquasar1565 3 місяці тому +30

    My dad was an officer in the US Army, he actually flew in and out of West Berlin a few times.

    • @grimaffiliations3671
      @grimaffiliations3671 2 місяці тому +3

      half of americans are rooting for putin today, how far we've fallen

  • @ShockDeed
    @ShockDeed 3 місяці тому +1

    I love your videos and i have been watching your videos for years

  • @tearune4985
    @tearune4985 3 місяці тому +34

    And some people really want socialism again…

    • @b62boom1
      @b62boom1 3 місяці тому +9

      Communism and socialism are not the same thing. The Soviet Union was not socialist, it was an authoritarian Communist State.

    • @Unknown_Genius
      @Unknown_Genius 3 місяці тому +17

      @@b62boom1 You do realize that there's no direct "socialism", right?
      It's a broad term for a general Idea, which ranges from Communism (including the USSR, which is a picture perfect example as to how socialism could work) over the idea of self governed states (no political parties in charge, probably will end up like the USSR on the long run mainly because its rather easy to seize power in such a scenario) to Capitalism with extra rights - socialism is overall the most expanded upon idea where no one really knows how you'd actually properly be able to make it reality and its been a constant discussion among many how to achieve a secure, actual functional and stable socialist state to no avail (especially since it's already a struggle to make a precise idea as the idea itself already includes multiple different possibilities of how things are to be run).
      Or in short: The Soviet Union was socialist in a lot of ways, the whole production and ownership system pretty much was socialist and within the books of general ideas - worker rights and unions overall are considered socialism as well.
      What you're talking about (given your other comment about capitalism) is pretty much the anarchist communism approach - which essentially is a self governed state as it breaks down on its own as more than enough people naturally struggle for power and/or abuse the freedom that no government tends to bring (either that or you're already further down the line to the authoritarian communist approach, at which point, why talk like it'd be different).

    • @royale7620
      @royale7620 3 місяці тому

      ​@@b62boom1thats what garbage leftoids that say " that wasnt real kk00ommunissm lets try again" say 😂😂 pathethic

    • @PROVOCATEURSK
      @PROVOCATEURSK 3 місяці тому +1

      The ideology is not evil, the people on the other hand were. Literally all people in power are evil, look at what capitalists are doing, child slaves mining metals for Iphones.

    • @vetinaris1297
      @vetinaris1297 3 місяці тому +6

      And some people really need education as to what words actually mean.

  • @smalltime0
    @smalltime0 3 місяці тому +7

    Didn't even mention all the escape attempts featuring the Detlev-Rohwedder-Haus, the most notable being Heinz Holzapfel and his family in 1965.
    Especially because at the time it was the House of Ministries.

  • @RoTanchist912
    @RoTanchist912 3 місяці тому

    i respect your videos and you i learning history from you very easy

  • @theromanorder
    @theromanorder 3 місяці тому +5

    please do a video on these
    (this is a copy and paste list for a few channels)
    units and tactics/evaluation of loadouts of troops (from different jobs (and other branches)
    like the 82 snd 101 airborne units
    or infantry tank units, (or when tanks were assigned a infantry unit like i think earlier war Russia then all tanks were formed into there own units wich meant the infantry no longer knew the true strength of there own tanks but alowed tank units to fight more efficiently)
    the tank doctrine of countries
    evaluation of tank veiw ports
    evaluation of tanks/armored vehicles of different countries
    evaluation of aircraft types of different countries,
    different between navil and army/air force fighters
    logistics units of the axes and allied powers in ww2
    ww1 estern front tactics
    Russian Civil war tactics and strategies
    navil ship cross sections (all the rooms and how it all works)
    evaluation of types of ships
    or evaluation of navil warfare (or just dedectsded videos on ww1 and ww2 navil doctrine as theres stuff out there on other times of history)
    air craft carrier strike group formations exsamples (from different countries)
    ancient persan ships,
    ancient veneti ships (gauls that fought ceaser)
    ships used by genoa and the vernesain republic
    the vernesain republic government
    all sailing ships, (i know theres many on yt but some contradict each other and i think theres more left out)
    ancient macenean greek and trojan troops
    2b9 vasilyok morter
    tactics used so far in the Ukraine war,
    better for squads to be 2 teams of 5 or 3 teams of 3,
    and probably the easiest, better to keep troops well feed or starved like an animal
    how dose age effect comsnders eg napoleon got older so took less risks,
    ancient urban warfare
    ww2 tactics in Asia, tactics in the Chinese age of warlords, (and Chinese civil war)
    tactics in the ruso jap war
    cold war navil tactics,
    Korean war tactics,
    strange tactics or unque battles from the American war of independence and America civil
    how were 17th centry sailing ships build
    types of bombs lunched by drones
    comands given on sailing ships (like ease the sheets and get ready to chine, or slack n beases, basically things you hear movie capitns say)
    why did the nazis never return (or a video on best occupations)
    why did the Japanese empire fall, dont just say "America" like things like how there army and navy argued alot
    alot more on the Polynesians and māori, but please learn pronounceations if you do this

  • @rjames3981
    @rjames3981 20 годин тому +1

    Reminder that the biggest escape was from West to East in 1988 - ref LA Times
    ‘West Berlin police Friday chased nearly 200 squatters from a disputed parcel of land near the Berlin Wall after a monthlong struggle that pitted environmentalists against city developers.
    When the removal order came, the squatters found an unusual escape route--over the Berlin Wall into the city’s Communist side’

  • @francesquare8708
    @francesquare8708 3 місяці тому +13

    4:50 the guy's arm is flashing

    • @s_e-LBR
      @s_e-LBR 3 місяці тому +2

      portable epilepsy device /j

    • @francesquare8708
      @francesquare8708 3 місяці тому +1

      @@s_e-LBR people cant escape if they are having seizures

    • @s_e-LBR
      @s_e-LBR 3 місяці тому +2

      @@francesquare8708 imagine trying to escape but an east german guard just gives you an instant seizure 💀

  • @joechucks1555
    @joechucks1555 3 місяці тому

    @simplehistory I love your Channel been following since 013. Hope one day you will cover Biafran war which had a death toll of 2-4 million women and children. Hope you cover that some day

  • @Bo-Dog
    @Bo-Dog 3 місяці тому

    Cline was a bold man squirreled his way over the wall😥! Fell and broke both arms but made it to the other side👏!

  • @TheRealAssix
    @TheRealAssix 3 місяці тому +13

    Imagine people being so happy in your regime you have to build walls to protect them to run away.

    • @PROVOCATEURSK
      @PROVOCATEURSK 3 місяці тому +1

      Imagine going to a foreing country, killind their native population, demanding unlawfull taxes, killing the best anticommunist fighters, then nuking civilians.

  • @wirelessone2986
    @wirelessone2986 3 місяці тому +8

    Armored car guy they let his mom live..she probably had to disown him

    • @masterDevis
      @masterDevis 3 місяці тому +4

      Always a shock how low people will go to save their own skins

  • @C.A._Old
    @C.A._Old 3 місяці тому

    *What a great stories and words.*

  • @alfrancisbuada2591
    @alfrancisbuada2591 3 місяці тому +4

    Shoot me out of the cannon, Otto!
    -A circus performer in a cannon

  • @tavish4699
    @tavish4699 3 місяці тому +5

    Do you guys know how hard it us to skimmy along a rope let alone a steel one?
    It takes incredible strengh and is a hated obstacle in every basic Training of any army

  • @enescakir4264
    @enescakir4264 3 місяці тому

    Nice video but I expected from you to talk about first person passed the wall a East German soldier and it was one of the symbol photographs of Berlin Wall

  • @AVKnecht
    @AVKnecht 3 місяці тому +3

    Two other grate escape stories: In 1979 two families escaped via a hot air balloon. In 1971 a doctor swam about 40km through the Baltic Sea. His provisions for the trip consisted of chocolate, pain killers and methamphetamine.

  • @Falkriim
    @Falkriim 3 місяці тому

    I’ve always been interested in the Berlin wall. This is some good stuff

  • @user-pq8zb8we1b
    @user-pq8zb8we1b 3 місяці тому +12

    You were my childhood! Keep up the great videos!

  • @JasonSpreyer
    @JasonSpreyer 3 місяці тому +7

    You should do who are the Cossack

  • @trevorphillips2250
    @trevorphillips2250 3 місяці тому

    Maybe a very specific topic, but can you make a video about Christman Genepa Tinga? I guess people would really like to hear about his history!

  • @WorshipHunglabungla55
    @WorshipHunglabungla55 3 місяці тому +3

    you should make a video about the secret stasi prison, Hohenschönhausen

  • @skghistory
    @skghistory 3 місяці тому

    I’m so glad i saw this video early

  • @peterking8586
    @peterking8586 3 місяці тому +7

    I’ve patrolled the wall, from the West. We weren’t allowed to directly assist an escape, but we could create “a distraction”.
    The day that dammmm wall fell felt like we had won.

    • @KurianfromIndia
      @KurianfromIndia 3 місяці тому +3

      It was a victory of people more over the victory of democracy over communism.

    • @PROVOCATEURSK
      @PROVOCATEURSK 3 місяці тому +1

      @@KurianfromIndia What is good about democracy? People can vote for commies, mafia, nazis and genocidal maniac worshippers.
      Also the aveage voter is pretty dumb.

  • @Alphoric
    @Alphoric 3 місяці тому +4

    And what’s crazy is there were simple tunnels running through the border the entire time. Remember they had a sewer system which ran throughout Germany and ran through the borders/wall

    • @MyRegardsToTheDodo
      @MyRegardsToTheDodo 3 місяці тому +6

      This sewage system was also barricaded, especially after it had been successfully used as an escape route.

  • @ScoutSniper3124
    @ScoutSniper3124 8 днів тому

    There used to be a little museum at Checkpoint Charlie. It had several examples of escape methods, including a hang glider and a car with the fuel tank drained and hatch cut into so a person could hide there. Sad that people have to live in such places where escape is the only viable option. I remember walking along the western side of the Berlin wall eyeing the East German guards with machine guns aimed down at their own country.

  • @girl1213
    @girl1213 3 місяці тому +9

    As a German/Polish American, the Demolition of the Berlin Wall is always a fascinating part of its history to me since it started in the year I was born. So I never witnessed or even heard what it was like with the Berlin Wall, but it fascinates me nonetheless.

  • @ahmedbouami5389
    @ahmedbouami5389 3 місяці тому

    nice video

  • @johnnicastro5931
    @johnnicastro5931 3 місяці тому +4

    Thank God for David Hasselhoff and his keyboard scarf. The wall may still be standing today if weren't for him.

  • @codyadams3870
    @codyadams3870 3 місяці тому +2

    Wow what history

  • @alexanderleach3365
    @alexanderleach3365 3 місяці тому +1

    I've seen several pieces of the Berlin Wall.

  • @rora8503
    @rora8503 3 місяці тому

    There are many more interesting escapes over the border. From sown airbaloons to wind surfing. There is an entire museum dedicated to it in Berlin

  • @mihagjura9094
    @mihagjura9094 3 місяці тому

    Did you know that from 0:41 to 1:00 they were just playing at construction site?
    But still a great video.

  • @vipergtsmre
    @vipergtsmre 3 місяці тому +3

    Desperation causes people to do crazy things.

  • @janahabermann1418
    @janahabermann1418 3 місяці тому

    Very interesting

  • @yellowforester998
    @yellowforester998 21 день тому

    The good ol' Trabi at 7:00. 🙂

  • @zhuangsaur227
    @zhuangsaur227 3 місяці тому +7

    Was life in East Germany extremely severe? Or was it strict but compared to other regimes not oppressive?

    • @michaelphelan423
      @michaelphelan423 3 місяці тому +16

      My mother escaped just after WW2. In the early 70s she went to the East to visit the mother of a soldier who was killed in the war. She was told by the authorities that, if asked what life was like in the west, she was to say, “just like everywhere else”. Sure enough she was asked that question and she gave the “party” answer. Upon hearing this, the mother in the East said, “that’s not true, just look at the way you’re dressed and you can come and go as you please”. My mother said that it was heart wrenching

    • @zhuangsaur227
      @zhuangsaur227 3 місяці тому +3

      @michaelphelan423 It must have been similar to North Korea? Given I read the Khmer Rouge though were on another level of extremism in thier ideology ...

    • @StimkySkunko
      @StimkySkunko 3 місяці тому

      It was just like any other communist regime. Oppressive and authoritarian to the bone, with secret police constantly spying on people, and people getting jailed in gulag-like prisons if not executed out of mere suspicions of being dissidents.
      You can vote your way into communism, but you'll have to fight your way out of it.

    • @StimkySkunko
      @StimkySkunko 3 місяці тому

      Of course it was authoritarian and oppressive, just like any communist government. People jailed or "terminated" on a whim for mere suspicions of "dissidents", secret police monitoring citizens 24/7, people starving and freezing to death, the whole jist.

    • @davidpawson9047
      @davidpawson9047 3 місяці тому

      It was quite unpleasant. You would not have cared to be there at all.

  • @DanielRostTheDanro101
    @DanielRostTheDanro101 4 дні тому

    I feel like I need to point out the soil was not clay it was more of sandy type of soil,due to the ice age and the glaciers that flared the land. Additionally Berlin was built on a swamp that also where it got its Slavic name from. Due to this the subway system in Berlin was also not as deep because to was harder to go any deeper.

  • @theywontfind_me
    @theywontfind_me 15 днів тому +1

    2:54 the dude from west Germany: is that body for me?

  • @m.s.1067
    @m.s.1067 22 години тому

    For the record, October 3rd 1990 was not when it was demolished. It’s when East Germany legally and officially reunited with West Germany to become Germany. The wall was demolished slowly between June and November of 1990. And the so called Fall of the Berlin Wall is a much more fascinating story than represented here.

  • @anabanananaa
    @anabanananaa 3 місяці тому +2

    When I saw this video title I knew for A FACT that someone was going to make a tunnel under the wall, and I was right!

  • @skylineXpert
    @skylineXpert 3 місяці тому

    When i heard the story of the Bethke brothers.
    Damn they really humiliated Mielke & Honecker...
    Hubert Hohlbein i know his tunnelling work as well. He helped his own mother escape...

  • @gneu1527
    @gneu1527 3 місяці тому

    Imagine having to build a wall just to keep people from leaving.

  • @Diligentortoise2023
    @Diligentortoise2023 2 місяці тому +1

    "A East German people wanted to escape East Germany so they will be reunited with their family"
    -A wise man

  • @kaleberg1528
    @kaleberg1528 3 місяці тому +1

    There is a good size chunk of the wall where I live in missouri. It's pretty neat that the shipped a chunk that's like 8foot wide by 10 foot tall all the way over here

    • @lilyofshalott
      @lilyofshalott 3 місяці тому

      There’s a particularly well known block at my university, with really nice graffiti on it

  • @CoryAlley
    @CoryAlley 2 місяці тому

    I love the sks animations

  • @thenewongoam2486
    @thenewongoam2486 3 місяці тому +7

    Deutschland Trilogy is the best.

  • @Irobert1115HD
    @Irobert1115HD 3 місяці тому +3

    calling the GDR a independent nation is a very far stretch to be honest.

  • @addam6666
    @addam6666 3 місяці тому +1

    What about the BMW from that old comercial?

  • @abysm2133
    @abysm2133 2 місяці тому +1

    tightrope guy pulled a sam fisher 💀

  • @markgordon4368
    @markgordon4368 3 місяці тому +4

    Hedwig and the angry inch 😂

  • @hanrenchou128
    @hanrenchou128 3 місяці тому +2

    I like how important figure drawn much more in detail than the last time.

  • @Vengeful_Zx
    @Vengeful_Zx 3 місяці тому

    The tunnels people built are kinda cool though I remember watching a movie about it in German class

  • @boushido1
    @boushido1 3 місяці тому

    They have a museum in Berlin full of relics from escape attempts. My personal favorite is the hot air balloon. 🧐

  • @luckyFrenchy
    @luckyFrenchy 3 місяці тому +3

    Hey simple history, can we have one day a video on the organization of the Maginot Line ?

    • @lewdandowski
      @lewdandowski 3 місяці тому

      Good idea, we need more videos from this channel about the battle of France

  • @elonc1627
    @elonc1627 3 місяці тому +2

    My grand grandma escaped, and she is still alive today

  • @nekomasteryoutube3232
    @nekomasteryoutube3232 3 місяці тому

    thankfully Engels is still alive today. Sadly they are getting old at 81 years old.
    At least his escape succedded and now hes got a family.

  • @JDMatthias
    @JDMatthias 3 місяці тому +8

    I broke down weeping
    How can mankind allow such government, in belief that they themselves need to be Authoritative over the will of the individual who has freedom, granted by Holy God Almighty, to enact a free will either to holiness or to sin?
    How can such wickedness exist amongst us? That we desire to close off that freedom?

    • @LittleKitty22
      @LittleKitty22 3 місяці тому +1

      Look around you - the conditions we now have in many Western countries (especially the UK) are worse than what occurred in East Germany (according to East Germans!!!) and nobody does anything or says anything. People unquestioningly do as they are told in exactly the same way the majority of people did then, as well as under the nazis.

    • @mr.dudbud4551
      @mr.dudbud4551 3 місяці тому

      Seems like we never gonna understand their psyhology

    • @StimkySkunko
      @StimkySkunko 3 місяці тому +2

      Human greed, and thirst for power, simply put. Either to reign over others, or to appease the despot to be in a superior position to others. Human nature, in a nutshell.

    • @clamcrewcarclub6017
      @clamcrewcarclub6017 3 місяці тому +5

      Communism and people willing to trade their own personal freedom for perceived safety/fairness

  • @GrumpyIan
    @GrumpyIan 3 місяці тому

    There's a massive chunk of the wall at the Dayton Air Force museum.

    • @davidpawson9047
      @davidpawson9047 3 місяці тому

      There's a small chunk on the shelf in my study. 🙂 A treasured gift from some Ossis I am close to.

  • @KCandFriendsUSA
    @KCandFriendsUSA 3 місяці тому

    Believe it or not: Eleven months before the wall fell, there was an episode of David Seville and The Chipmunks, where they performed at the wall and destroyed it.

  • @si-borg1500
    @si-borg1500 3 місяці тому

    Make a video about the Underground Railroad.

  • @bikeenjoyer977
    @bikeenjoyer977 Місяць тому +1

    This is exactly what is happening on the US southern border but instead of meeting people who have traveled for months with kindness and help we do our best to ship them back to the awful situations they are trying to escape.

  • @ben9724
    @ben9724 2 місяці тому

    Fun fact, the first woman chancelor of Germany was there in West Berlin when East officially gave the green light to go to the west side.

  • @popcornpizza8869
    @popcornpizza8869 18 днів тому

    imagine someone escaped the last day and then they wake up to no wall

  • @lifefordummies
    @lifefordummies 9 днів тому

    there was also the armoured school bus, the glider...

  • @evanswinford7165
    @evanswinford7165 3 місяці тому +1

    I have a chunk of the Berlin Wall.

  • @caseclosed9342
    @caseclosed9342 8 днів тому

    NBC sponsoring a tunnel….why am I only half-surprised?

  • @Dr.W.Krueger
    @Dr.W.Krueger 3 місяці тому

    My family just took a vacation in the Hungarian People's Republic during the summer of 1970 and never returned to the GDR. From there we made it to West Germany.

  • @rabitec.
    @rabitec. 3 місяці тому +1

    My Grandma escaped through the Wall with the Passport of a Belgian Woman that looked very similar to her which had been smuggled in by my Grandpa when he visited her

  • @rapatacush3
    @rapatacush3 3 місяці тому +32

    People still try to defend comunism

    • @b62boom1
      @b62boom1 3 місяці тому +3

      People still try to defend capitalism.

    • @rapatacush3
      @rapatacush3 3 місяці тому +22

      @@b62boom1 you saw the video. Cant you handle the truth?

    • @dadanifit
      @dadanifit 3 місяці тому +8

      ​@b62boom1 Most prosperous countries are the most purely capitalistic. Singapore, Switzerland, Taiwan and Ireland leading in economic freedom, followed by less purely capitalistic countries (yet capitalistic enough): New Zealand, Estonia and Luxembourg.
      You will never hear about someone from any of these countries desperate to flee to Cuba or Venezuela or Iran or North Korea or Russia.

    • @moisesezequielgutierrez
      @moisesezequielgutierrez 3 місяці тому

      ​@@dadanifit Unless your country is named "Vietnam"
      Wait Is Vietnam still a communist Country?

    • @HLi-eu5er
      @HLi-eu5er 3 місяці тому +6

      These people never lived in a communist country.

  • @enniofriede
    @enniofriede 3 місяці тому

    starts @2:12

  • @topcat5988
    @topcat5988 21 день тому +1

    “Gorbachev, Take down this wall!”
    ~Ronald Reagan

  • @aimandanial9228
    @aimandanial9228 3 місяці тому +1

    Can you do about Malaysia Vs Indonesia confrontation in 1963 history

  • @SantaFe19484
    @SantaFe19484 2 місяці тому

    You forgot to mention the escape by balloon and surf board.

  • @usmcdevildog3497
    @usmcdevildog3497 3 місяці тому

    Voting in for MACV-SOG and Jim Corbett the Maneater hunter

  • @mr.nuggem8052
    @mr.nuggem8052 3 місяці тому +5

    day 14 of asking for a video about the wagalla massacre in Kenya

    • @wirelessone2986
      @wirelessone2986 3 місяці тому

      I've never heard of that dear sir

    • @primarchguysmith5321
      @primarchguysmith5321 3 місяці тому +1

      I don’t believe it waluigi massacred people?! I thought he was just a tenis loving weirdo

    • @NoYes-pp8bo
      @NoYes-pp8bo 3 місяці тому +1

      that would be a pretty interesting video we need more African history on this channel 🇰🇪 🇰🇪

    • @mr.nuggem8052
      @mr.nuggem8052 3 місяці тому +1

      @@wirelessone2986massacre of ethnic Somalis by the Kenyan army in 1984

    • @wirelessone2986
      @wirelessone2986 3 місяці тому

      @@mr.nuggem8052 May God help the Somali's

  • @eddychong9477
    @eddychong9477 3 місяці тому +1

    That one time a shopping cart size BMW smuggled a person successfully across the border

  • @joshreich6797
    @joshreich6797 3 місяці тому +3

    To own a piece of the wall is 20 bucks if anyone was curious lol

  • @clintoncyrilvoss4287
    @clintoncyrilvoss4287 3 місяці тому

    Simple history for simple people.

  • @Valk080
    @Valk080 3 місяці тому

    hello simple History im from Glienicke Nord bahn its over berlin in our minicity there where 3 siblimgs that dig a hole to wst germany in the Ottostraße its a very famous story 2

  • @RustyBear
    @RustyBear 3 місяці тому

    What about the guys with the bulldozer?

  • @sergiopiparo4084
    @sergiopiparo4084 3 місяці тому

    This video is a remake I watched it before

  • @megacup3977
    @megacup3977 20 днів тому

    1:52 100k tried to escape and ore than 600 where shot that really helps it could have been 1k shot are even 50k shot bruhhh