Hey Guy / Girl, here's Stefan from Dortmund [close to The Netherlands by the way]. You're absolutely right. After Treaty of Warshaw was finished at all [end of 1991] you was able to travel to local markets on the "Eastern Side". Quite far away ... also into Czech Republic [which wasn't statued] or Poland. 2,000 Rubel for it [or something like it ... worth of round about 5 €uros right now. I didn't buy it. First of all I was a WESTERN German, secondly I stood in the western army "Bundeswehr" since 1990. And ... I never would like to shot down my neighbor if he / she / it enters my ground to give me the Post ... It was a very good comment by you - Thanks for it !! For example: my mum was born 1937 in Dresden, but moved to Dortmund after WW2 ... Stefan, 53 yo, Dortmund, Lieutenant-Colonel [Solltest Du zufällig aus "dem einen" oder "dem anderen" Teil von Germany kommen, können wir auch auf Deutsch schreiben ...]
@@StefanHaeger Hallo, danke für deinen Kommentar. Du meinst, dass die Selbstschussgeräte, kurz nach der Wende, zum Verkauf, auf Schwarzmärkten, angeboten wurden? Hab ich das richtig verstanden? Das ist interessant, das wusste ich nicht, kann ich mir aber in dem Durcheinander schon vorstellen. Grüße
@@simonkustner1561 Ich kann es mir aber nicht wirklich vorstellen, da die Selbstschussanlagen im Rahmen des Millionenkredits an die DDR an der innerdeutschen Grenze Mitte der 80er abgebaut wurden. So klamm wie die DDR war wurden die Anlagen bestimmt anders verwendet.
Little "fun"fact: When Trump back then announced that he would "build a wall and make the mexicans pay for it", a new founded german company called Heidelberg Cement stepped in with an actual offer to help - since germans know how to build walls. We also had several jokes back then that we actually built a border wall and made the russians pay for it. There are all kinds of most crazy stories how people escaped from the east. My favourite still is the guy who fled by swimming and surfing and he actually made it to the west - after the reunion. When he came to what he remembered as western Germany and was told that the border is no more... that must have felt somehow disturbing.
First of all: H*tler was an Austrian. And secondly, the wall did not only separate West from East Berlin, but it divided the entire country. If you want to know more about the balloon escape story, there's a movie about it, which was produced in cooperation with the two families Wetzel and Strelzyk. It's called "Ballon" (balloon). In fact, those two families lived in a small Thuringian town close to where I grew up and my father knew them personally. And, funnily, they fled to the area in Bavaria right behind the border (around the town of Naila) in which me and my little family live right now. Here's the English trailer to the film: ua-cam.com/video/95LBIwTOR7Q/v-deo.htmlsi=tSOTg_lBeb5KGc6t
my greatgrandma died on the other side of the wall alone, because her son, my grandpa could not see her after the building of the wall. that was the only time my mom ever saw him cry, she said.... and remember, the same wall was all along the german border to east germany. I grew up near there. my boyfriend of 1989 had half his family still on the eastern side of Berlin, and it was a crazy time, when they saw each other, after he fled with his mom, leaving his dad and sister behind....
The sentence you said that humanity is totally crazy, no matter how intelligent and trained you are, was so right and refreshing to hear that I really have to love you for your honesty ...
My father fled to West Germany with his parents and brother. I can only imagine how frightened they must have been. My father never spoke much about it. Later, after the Wall came down, they found out that their neighbors had been spying on them on behalf of the Stasi. Shortly after they left, they were already being followed. It must have been very close that they managed to escape. I am grateful that I didn't have to experience this madness.
An interesting fact about the fall of the border between East and West Berlin: When Günter Schabowski, the press speaker of the Central Committee, accidently announced, that people can now freely travel between East and West, it could've ended in a catstrophe. The Bordersoldiers at the wall still had the order to shoot anyone, who tries to cross over the border. No one told them, that people now can travel freely between East and West, but luckily, they were probably confused by all those people, who tried to cross the border
Many of these soldiers tried not to hit them, but if it took too long, they really had to aim at them, because otherwise it would have been too obvious. Not all of them, but quite a few, did not want to kill the fleeing people.
I’m 63 years old and I still remember the day the wall came down. For the first time, we were able to meet face to face and hold two of our surviving family members in our own arms that that had been trapped behind the “Iron Curtain” after the war. Unfortunately, one of the two remaining family members we had died of cancer before she could make it to the West and truly experience life outside the remnants of oppression. The one remaining family member now lives with us and is a successful and prosperous United States citizen. People who were not directly affected by the horrors WWII and the concentration, extermination and work camps have no idea what evil humans are capable of inflicting upon other humans. War, hate, violence, and ostracism of any individual or group of individuals is completely unacceptable and should never be tolerated by any decent society.
19 днів тому
This border was the dividing line between the NATO and Warsaw Pact blocs. Like the border in Korea, it was a ‘hot line’. At times, there were even mines and spring guns. From the mid-1970s, around 45,000 soldiers served in the border troops, along with almost 30,000 ‘border troop assistants’. In line with the doctrine of the ‘Eastern Bloc’ countries, this border was the first line of defence of socialism. It was designed not only to prevent escapes, but also the infiltration of enemy agents or troops. In this sense: ‘Friendship’ - the greeting of the FDJ (Free German Youth) in the GDR
There is also an escape attempt from East Berlin where a tunnel was dug and where several adults and children were able to escape but the tunnel was told to the Stasi
You are of course right, many people that witnessed the GDR and the wall are still alive - since it was run and furthermore built and 'upgraded' till 1989, so in historic context till just recently. My granddad managed to escape while it was in one of its earlier stages together with his brother. He did not see his parents and sister for many years untill he was allowed to travel into the GDR as an official West-German. My father's fiancee is from the East growing up in the wall's shadow. Angela Merkel was a GDR citizen. Some members of todays left-winged party 'Die Linke' (lit. 'The Left') had been members of the GDR governmental party 'SED'. These are just a few examples of how present this past still is and I often wonder why this experiences and historic events are not discussed and taught internationally more often, especially in this current times of more and more protectionism worldwide.
I was in West Berlin with my school in 1976 and we had a one day trip to East Berlin then. The security measures to get there were unbelievable and frightening. Something I will never forget.
@@maraeni No our school took care of all necessary paperwork. But we had to change a certain amount of Deutschmark to eastern money. But everything in East Berlin was quite cheap. So it was a challenge to spend it all in one day 😀
Im born 1969 in the west, but we have many family members in the east. When I first drive through the border with my parents I was 6 Years old and I was so afraid of the east border patrol that I can‘t help but crying from the moment we see the border. We stand in row for passing for 4 hours and I was constantly crying.
The former border is now largely called the “green belt of Europe”. It is a nature conservation project that aims to preserve the Iron Curtain border strip across Europe, which was largely left untouched due to the Cold War. This “Green Belt” has a total length of over 12,500 km and extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north of Norway to the Black Sea on the border with Turkey, and runs along 24 European countries. Within Germany, some parts of the former border are now hiking and cycling trails. My family was also separated by the war and the borders. On my mother's side, my family originally lived near the city of Allenstein (now Olsztyn, Poland). A large part of the family managed to escape to the West at the end of the war (between 1943-1945). My grandmother couldn't escape with her three small children and after the Polish takeover she decided to "relocate" to East German Thuringia in 1947. (Anyone who didn't want to become a Polish citizen had to leave the area and could only go to East Germany) In 1954 she visited relatives in the West with her youngest child; the son was not allowed to leave the country with his wife because he was doing his military service. Thanks to the foresight and persuasion of a relative, my grandmother did not travel back to Thuringia.
1975? I was 15. But I wasn't in Berlin. I never lived close to the border. Or I should say, the only border I ever lived close to was the border to Denmark. But I've more than once heard the story of how my mother's family made it across the border of (back then) the Soviet-occupied zone to the West, long before anyone thought about building that wall. Which eventually allowed my parents to meet in the school that 1997-2000 became known as the scenery of the German TV series _Die Schule am See._
I heard that the East German (GDR) authorities used GDR athletes to test new designs of the wall, that is how they found a smith round top to the wall was more effective than the wall being topped by broken glass or barbed wire.
My father told me stories of people he saw jump the wall. He saw one use an excavator to jump over. some parts of the wall were better than others, yet still dangerous.
I lived in West- Berlin, when the wall was still there. For us Finns it was not so bad, we could visit East- Berlin easily. Some products and restaurants were cheaper as in West- Berlin.
Look for " The East German border. An explanation of how people were prevented from leaving this 'paradise'." by History on UA-cam. He explains about the inner German border. People tend to forget that it wasn't just the Berlin Wall dividing a city but that a whole country was divided. Fun fact about that video: I grew up in Thuringia (GDR back then) and now live in Bavaria. :D
Your comment at 3:50 is probably the true reason why aliens didn't contact us for now^^ ... The eastern part of Berlin did have watch towers to spot people running from the GDR, in the western part we did have sightseeing towers where we were able to watch the wall like a tourist attraction. I remember visiting west Berlin as a teenager standing on one of the towers watching the border and waving to the eastern border cotrol in their towers.
I really love his reaction videos, but at that point I put myself the same question. How does he bring Mr. H. in when it is about the Berlin Wall? The war was over and East Germany was ruled more or less by the Soviet allies. Just like West Germany was built with the help of the other allies - the only difference was the mindset of the allies. In the east is was the nondemocratic socialist mindset in combination with the power of the Soviet Union while in the west it was a democratic, capitalist mindset with the power of the US, Brits and France. So the brutality with wich the fleeing Eastgermans were shot had nothing to do with Mr. H. but with the Soviet Union!
@@Herzschreiber You completely missed what he was saying. I think he was trying to say that the brutality of the Soviets was driven by the brutality that the Nazis and Hitler had shown them and the rest of Europe previously. Obviously it very much has everything to do with Hitler. Had he not risen to power and started WW2, Germany would never have been divided up by the allies. So yes, the Berlin wall is a result of and due to Hitler.
@@Witchaven true to a certain point. But at least it was the decision of the Soviet Union how to react on the brutality to the war. And all other allies managed to help the civilians because their mindset was different from the socialist mindset of the Soviets. Which means we both are right in a certain point of view, but those points are different ones.
@@Herzschreiber Absolutely, ultimately it was the Soviets that chose to take such a hardline and brutal approach, no surprise really considering how they treated their own citizens. I was just trying to clarify what was my understanding of his reference to Hitler in the video.
Great reaction by you - thanks for it !! BUT [based upon her REALLY OWN WORDS] a "well educated female journalist" from the U.S. asked me only 5 years ago: "... yeah! I know everything about the Berlin Wall! But ... why didn't they take a walk around it?" Okay. "Why the Mexicans don't come from Canada?" [It would be another stupid qustion similar to her's ...] Stefan from Dortmund, Germany. 53 yo, stood in "our" WESTERN army - behind the wall they got their own one for sure ...
Austria and South Germany are basically the same people. Check out the Austro Prussian war in which the North and South of todays Germany were at each others throats. There is not a country on this planet that has fought more wars than the Germans. Deutschland has the highest number of castles worldwide (estimated 25.000)and for good reason. Before the unification of the Holy Roman Empire, Germany was nothing but a mass of Dukedoms, Baronies and smaller Kingdoms. Germany and Austria have also greatly varied in size over the centuries. Germany and Austria are now way smaller than before.
The inner-German border was additionally secured with automatic firing systems and 1.3 million mines.
automatic firing systems
Look at en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SM-70
Hey Guy / Girl, here's Stefan from Dortmund [close to The Netherlands by the way].
You're absolutely right. After Treaty of Warshaw was finished at all [end of 1991] you was able to travel to local markets on the "Eastern Side". Quite far away ... also into Czech Republic [which wasn't statued] or Poland. 2,000 Rubel for it [or something like it ... worth of round about 5 €uros right now.
I didn't buy it. First of all I was a WESTERN German, secondly I stood in the western army "Bundeswehr" since 1990. And ... I never would like to shot down my neighbor if he / she / it enters my ground to give me the Post ...
It was a very good comment by you - Thanks for it !! For example: my mum was born 1937 in Dresden, but moved to Dortmund after WW2 ...
Stefan, 53 yo, Dortmund, Lieutenant-Colonel
[Solltest Du zufällig aus "dem einen" oder "dem anderen" Teil von Germany kommen, können wir auch auf Deutsch schreiben ...]
@@StefanHaeger Hallo, danke für deinen Kommentar. Du meinst, dass die Selbstschussgeräte, kurz nach der Wende, zum Verkauf, auf Schwarzmärkten, angeboten wurden? Hab ich das richtig verstanden? Das ist interessant, das wusste ich nicht, kann ich mir aber in dem Durcheinander schon vorstellen.
Grüße
@@simonkustner1561
Ich kann es mir aber nicht wirklich vorstellen, da die Selbstschussanlagen im Rahmen des Millionenkredits an die DDR an der innerdeutschen Grenze Mitte der 80er abgebaut wurden.
So klamm wie die DDR war wurden die Anlagen bestimmt anders verwendet.
Little "fun"fact: When Trump back then announced that he would "build a wall and make the mexicans pay for it", a new founded german company called Heidelberg Cement stepped in with an actual offer to help - since germans know how to build walls. We also had several jokes back then that we actually built a border wall and made the russians pay for it.
There are all kinds of most crazy stories how people escaped from the east. My favourite still is the guy who fled by swimming and surfing and he actually made it to the west - after the reunion. When he came to what he remembered as western Germany and was told that the border is no more... that must have felt somehow disturbing.
Heidelberg Cement is not new founded it is in service since 1874. It is only renamed from Heidelberg Materials to Heidelberg Cements.
Kennst Du die Geschichten der Brüder Bethke? Das sind Husarenstücke!!!
we know how to build walls, except for your borders.
First of all: H*tler was an Austrian.
And secondly, the wall did not only separate West from East Berlin, but it divided the entire country.
If you want to know more about the balloon escape story, there's a movie about it, which was produced in cooperation with the two families Wetzel and Strelzyk. It's called "Ballon" (balloon). In fact, those two families lived in a small Thuringian town close to where I grew up and my father knew them personally. And, funnily, they fled to the area in Bavaria right behind the border (around the town of Naila) in which me and my little family live right now.
Here's the English trailer to the film: ua-cam.com/video/95LBIwTOR7Q/v-deo.htmlsi=tSOTg_lBeb5KGc6t
my greatgrandma died on the other side of the wall alone, because her son, my grandpa could not see her after the building of the wall. that was the only time my mom ever saw him cry, she said.... and remember, the same wall was all along the german border to east germany. I grew up near there. my boyfriend of 1989 had half his family still on the eastern side of Berlin, and it was a crazy time, when they saw each other, after he fled with his mom, leaving his dad and sister behind....
😢😢....
The sentence you said that humanity is totally crazy, no matter how intelligent and trained you are, was so right and refreshing to hear that I really have to love you for your honesty ...
My father fled to West Germany with his parents and brother. I can only imagine how frightened they must have been. My father never spoke much about it. Later, after the Wall came down, they found out that their neighbors had been spying on them on behalf of the Stasi. Shortly after they left, they were already being followed. It must have been very close that they managed to escape. I am grateful that I didn't have to experience this madness.
I still have a large piece of the Berlin Wall. I lived right in front of it.
Lucky you.
@@giobozzde fortunately born in West Berlin. that was my luck 😅
An interesting fact about the fall of the border between East and West Berlin: When Günter Schabowski, the press speaker of the Central Committee, accidently announced, that people can now freely travel between East and West, it could've ended in a catstrophe. The Bordersoldiers at the wall still had the order to shoot anyone, who tries to cross over the border. No one told them, that people now can travel freely between East and West, but luckily, they were probably confused by all those people, who tried to cross the border
Many of these soldiers tried not to hit them, but if it took too long, they really had to aim at them, because otherwise it would have been too obvious. Not all of them, but quite a few, did not want to kill the fleeing people.
I’m 63 years old and I still remember the day the wall came down. For the first time, we were able to meet face to face and hold two of our surviving family members in our own arms that that had been trapped behind the “Iron Curtain” after the war.
Unfortunately, one of the two remaining family members we had died of cancer before she could make it to the West and truly experience life outside the remnants of oppression. The one remaining family member now lives with us and is a successful and prosperous United States citizen.
People who were not directly affected by the horrors WWII and the concentration, extermination and work camps have no idea what evil humans are capable of inflicting upon other humans. War, hate, violence, and ostracism of any individual or group of individuals is completely unacceptable and should never be tolerated by any decent society.
This border was the dividing line between the NATO and Warsaw Pact blocs. Like the border in Korea, it was a ‘hot line’.
At times, there were even mines and spring guns.
From the mid-1970s, around 45,000 soldiers served in the border troops, along with almost 30,000 ‘border troop assistants’.
In line with the doctrine of the ‘Eastern Bloc’ countries, this border was the first line of defence of socialism. It was designed not only to prevent escapes, but also the infiltration of enemy agents or troops.
In this sense: ‘Friendship’ - the greeting of the FDJ (Free German Youth) in the GDR
There is also an escape attempt from East Berlin where a tunnel was dug and where several adults and children were able to escape but the tunnel was told to the Stasi
You are of course right, many people that witnessed the GDR and the wall are still alive - since it was run and furthermore built and 'upgraded' till 1989, so in historic context till just recently. My granddad managed to escape while it was in one of its earlier stages together with his brother. He did not see his parents and sister for many years untill he was allowed to travel into the GDR as an official West-German. My father's fiancee is from the East growing up in the wall's shadow. Angela Merkel was a GDR citizen. Some members of todays left-winged party 'Die Linke' (lit. 'The Left') had been members of the GDR governmental party 'SED'. These are just a few examples of how present this past still is and I often wonder why this experiences and historic events are not discussed and taught internationally more often, especially in this current times of more and more protectionism worldwide.
I was in West Berlin with my school in 1976 and we had a one day trip to East Berlin then. The security measures to get there were unbelievable and frightening. Something I will never forget.
Did you also need a "Identitätsbescheinigung"? We needed one when visiting Erfurt in 1990.... I still have it on my wall to this day
@@maraeni No our school took care of all necessary paperwork. But we had to change a certain amount of Deutschmark to eastern money. But everything in East Berlin was quite cheap. So it was a challenge to spend it all in one day 😀
In 1978 the same experience. 1989 was the best year ever. The joy was unbelievable. ❤
Im born 1969 in the west, but we have many family members in the east. When I first drive through the border with my parents I was 6 Years old and I was so afraid of the east border patrol that I can‘t help but crying from the moment we see the border. We stand in row for passing for 4 hours and I was constantly crying.
The former border is now largely called the “green belt of Europe”.
It is a nature conservation project that aims to preserve the Iron Curtain border strip across Europe, which was largely left untouched due to the Cold War. This “Green Belt” has a total length of over 12,500 km and extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north of Norway to the Black Sea on the border with Turkey, and runs along 24 European countries.
Within Germany, some parts of the former border are now hiking and cycling trails.
My family was also separated by the war and the borders.
On my mother's side, my family originally lived near the city of Allenstein (now Olsztyn, Poland). A large part of the family managed to escape to the West at the end of the war (between 1943-1945). My grandmother couldn't escape with her three small children and after the Polish takeover she decided to "relocate" to East German Thuringia in 1947. (Anyone who didn't want to become a Polish citizen had to leave the area and could only go to East Germany)
In 1954 she visited relatives in the West with her youngest child; the son was not allowed to leave the country with his wife because he was doing his military service.
Thanks to the foresight and persuasion of a relative, my grandmother did not travel back to Thuringia.
To this day where the wall once stood, a brass rail is embedded in the ground, so people do not forget.
1975? I was 15. But I wasn't in Berlin. I never lived close to the border. Or I should say, the only border I ever lived close to was the border to Denmark.
But I've more than once heard the story of how my mother's family made it across the border of (back then) the Soviet-occupied zone to the West, long before anyone thought about building that wall. Which eventually allowed my parents to meet in the school that 1997-2000 became known as the scenery of the German TV series _Die Schule am See._
I heard that the East German (GDR) authorities used GDR athletes to test new designs of the wall, that is how they found a smith round top to the wall was more effective than the wall being topped by broken glass or barbed wire.
I love what you said at 3:35. So true.
Yes I existed in 1975. In 1981 I visited Berlin and saw the wall. Very deadly, scary and deviding.
He was Austrian
My father told me stories of people he saw jump the wall. He saw one use an excavator to jump over. some parts of the wall were better than others, yet still dangerous.
I lived in West- Berlin, when the wall was still there. For us Finns it was not so bad, we could visit East- Berlin easily. Some products and restaurants were cheaper as in West- Berlin.
Look for " The East German border. An explanation of how people were prevented from leaving this 'paradise'." by History on UA-cam. He explains about the inner German border. People tend to forget that it wasn't just the Berlin Wall dividing a city but that a whole country was divided. Fun fact about that video: I grew up in Thuringia (GDR back then) and now live in Bavaria. :D
Your comment at 3:50 is probably the true reason why aliens didn't contact us for now^^ ... The eastern part of Berlin did have watch towers to spot people running from the GDR, in the western part we did have sightseeing towers where we were able to watch the wall like a tourist attraction. I remember visiting west Berlin as a teenager standing on one of the towers watching the border and waving to the eastern border cotrol in their towers.
I've been to the GDR once in the late 80's
6:42 what are you talking about?
I really love his reaction videos, but at that point I put myself the same question. How does he bring Mr. H. in when it is about the Berlin Wall? The war was over and East Germany was ruled more or less by the Soviet allies. Just like West Germany was built with the help of the other allies - the only difference was the mindset of the allies. In the east is was the nondemocratic socialist mindset in combination with the power of the Soviet Union while in the west it was a democratic, capitalist mindset with the power of the US, Brits and France. So the brutality with wich the fleeing Eastgermans were shot had nothing to do with Mr. H. but with the Soviet Union!
@@Herzschreiber exactly
@@Herzschreiber You completely missed what he was saying. I think he was trying to say that the brutality of the Soviets was driven by the brutality that the Nazis and Hitler had shown them and the rest of Europe previously. Obviously it very much has everything to do with Hitler. Had he not risen to power and started WW2, Germany would never have been divided up by the allies. So yes, the Berlin wall is a result of and due to Hitler.
@@Witchaven true to a certain point. But at least it was the decision of the Soviet Union how to react on the brutality to the war. And all other allies managed to help the civilians because their mindset was different from the socialist mindset of the Soviets. Which means we both are right in a certain point of view, but those points are different ones.
@@Herzschreiber Absolutely, ultimately it was the Soviets that chose to take such a hardline and brutal approach, no surprise really considering how they treated their own citizens. I was just trying to clarify what was my understanding of his reference to Hitler in the video.
Great reaction by you - thanks for it !!
BUT [based upon her REALLY OWN WORDS] a "well educated female journalist" from the U.S. asked me only 5 years ago: "... yeah! I know everything about the Berlin Wall! But ... why didn't they take a walk around it?"
Okay. "Why the Mexicans don't come from Canada?" [It would be another stupid qustion similar to her's ...]
Stefan from Dortmund, Germany. 53 yo, stood in "our" WESTERN army - behind the wall they got their own one for sure ...
8:48 Sorry, my dude, I can’t let that one go unanswered.
Those two walls need more context than that and you’re simply not ready for it all yet .
Have a look at the rest of the border..it was more cruel than in Berlin..
Austria and South Germany are basically the same people. Check out the Austro Prussian war in which the North and South of todays Germany were at each others throats. There is not a country on this planet that has fought more wars than the Germans. Deutschland has the highest number of castles worldwide (estimated 25.000)and for good reason.
Before the unification of the Holy Roman Empire, Germany was nothing but a mass of Dukedoms, Baronies and smaller Kingdoms. Germany and Austria have also greatly varied in size over the centuries. Germany and Austria are now way smaller than before.
Austrians seem to have this habit of exporting people to become leading conservative politicians elsewhere, in Germany or California...
I don't care if you build the wall to keep your own citizens in or the ones of your neighboring country out, it's messed up either way.
And it all was useless. In moment of really need they failed. What led to the reunification. And Billions of costs.
If you guys get trump back in power, you get the same