Ten Historic Soviet Sites of Berlin
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- Опубліковано 6 чер 2024
- As a result of World War 2 and its aftermath, the histories of the Soviet Union and Germany are inextricably linked.
Some of the most tumultuous world events of the 20th Century happened between these two countries, ultimately resulting in the division of Germany in 1945 and the Cold War for the next 44 years.
In 1990 Germany was reunified, and in 1991 The USSR, which at the time was the world's only other super power ,seemingly collapsed in weeks splitting into 16 independent states.
Now, well into the 21st Century we can still find remnants of that turbulent period in human history in present day Berlin.
This video is a 10 stop tour of historical 20th century soviet related sites in Berlin and their story.
Chapters:
00:00 Intro (feat Helene Fischer)
04:00 1 - The Reichstag
07:40 2 - The Soviet War Memorial Tiergarten
12:20 3 - Leninplatz
16:10 4 - The Soviet War Memorial Treptow
19:10 5 - Checkpoint Charlie
20:43 6 - Cafe Moskau
24:26 7 - Museum Berlin Karlshorst
27:10 8 - Spandau Prison
30:45 9 - Wunsdorf Garrison
32:57 10 - The Soviet War Memorial Schonholzer Heide
#soviet #ww2 #berlin #coldwar #documentary
Great video!
I especially appreciated that you took the time to explain how the war memorials (& cemetaries) are Soviet, not Russian. For us in Germany, that's an important difference, especially in the context of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. It's important to understand that the graves in Tiergarten and Treptower Park hold the bodies of not just Russian soldiers, but also Ukrainians, Georgians and many other nationalities that made up the Soviet Union.
Current-day Russia (and some of its sympathisers) may try to use these sites as propaganda tools these days. But one day, with the Putin regime a distant memory, these memorials will still be there to tell about the history of the Battle of Berlin and how Soviet, not just Russian, soldiers defeated Nazi Germany in Berlin.
Yes a very important distinction to make. And during the Cold War the Soviet Army was my ‘Enemy’ as a NATO soldier. Now 30 years later it is all just history. Thanks for your comment.
Similarly it’s important to always make a clear distinction between Nazis and Germans.
There's always some silly comment about the "Russian invasion of Ukraine" installed into a video like this. I guess with all the BBC/Sky propaganda surrounding this, it's par for the course. I'm not a Russophile by the way, just sick of hearing this same old trope wheeled out time and time again ad infinitum. Especially when there is a hell of a lot more to this "invasion" than what is being shown on western media.
I guess that every time I see something regarding the US I should comment about the US invasion of Iraq (and subsequent murder of hundreds of thousands of people) or the other times the USA has invaded sovereign countries and deposed their leaders in order to install sympathetic puppet regimes. Maybe I should mention the genocides in Vietnam, or the "dirty" bombs used in Iraq (and subsequent deaths and illnesses amongst Iraqi children) and other horrors inflicted by them?
I loved this video. Very Well Done.
Given that Pootis himself seems to hate all soviet leaders that weren't Stalin and his general views on the Union, it seems fitting to keep making that distiction.
Fun fact. The Soviet war memorials in Tiergartgen, Treptow and Schonholzer are controlled by treaty, which is a reason why they still exists.
Let us hope that the governments of Germany keeps the memorials not just because of some treaty, but also to remember.
There's some crazy countries that keep removing memorials like these for some weird reasons.
That is what he said also.
Fantastic video, Andy. Brings back many memories. I spent 6 years in BAOR in the 70's with frequent trips to Berlin. Little did I know that today I would return with this great video. Many thanks, Andy.
My wife served in BAOR in the 80's & 90's. She too was sent to Berlin on the train, passed through checkpoint charlie a few times. She didn't recognise it today. But remembers travel documents returned hot from communist photocopy machines.
For Russian dead of 80,000 that works out around 2,857 killed every day no wonder Eisenhower halted his armies at the Elbe, more American lives lost at this stage of the war would have sparked outrage in the US, not only that, but fighting for territory that was already earmarked for the Russian occupation zone.
Fascinating video Andy. Been to Berlin a few times and remember the fall of the wall but haven't visited all these sites. Your German/DDR videos particularly have been wonderful.
We have family in Hungary and I remember driving all the way there as a boy and still seeing DDR registered eastern block cars in the early 90s.
Don't know how i stumbled on this video, but I'm so glad I did! I have been to Berlin only once and didn't see half of this so a return visit is must! Very clear and straightforward presentation, it is so sad to think of the amount of sacrifice it took to bring WWII to an end, and here we are again with a war in Europe, I wonder how the next generation of war dead will be honoured.
This channel should have at least 100k if not a million subs with the content you provide here...
That was, frankly, an excellent video - respectful and thoughtful, well written and presented. Superb!
Another great video Andy…..Especially for highlighting and noting sensitivities at the commencement, and throughout. History is history and the realities and the facts cannot be altered. Please keep posting these interesting and informative videos. Thank you.
I am really pleased of how well the subjects are researched and presented. I live in Berlin, as a foreigner that likes the city's past I've been and read about the sites you showed countless times but man, your (hi)story telling makes me feel like I visited them for the first time
Having lived in Berlin as a kid (Dad in the Forces) and then worked in the city from 1999-2004 I found this the history put forward in the video really interesting as i did visit most of the sites dipicted here. Great work Andy.
Wonderfully done telling the history of the bitter end of WW2 and rolling into the Cold War and into the opening in the unification of Germany.
Thanks for this terrific, informative video. Well done and respectful.
Much appreciated!
5:34 ironically the German parliament (called the Reichstag) was powerless since 1933 and therefore the Reichstag building was merely a hollow shell.
... es fehlt in diesem Zusammenhang der "Reichtagsbrand" im Jahr 1933, mit dem daraus beschlossenen "Ermächtigungsgesetz" , wobei sich die gewählten Abgeordneten selbst den Weg frei machten, für die folgende Hitler-Diktatur .
Auch viele Deutsche Bürger wurden ab diesem Zeitpunkt verfolgt, oder sind in KZ Lagern inhaftiert, oder ermordet worden
Wonderful video Sir. 🇮🇹
I was stationed there from 1988-1991 (Tempelhof/T-Berg). I thoroughly enjoyed seeing all the old sites. Great memories.
your story really encapsulates the massive loss of lives on all sides in just one single battle during the war
I served with Berlin Brigade at US Mission Berlin on Clay Alle. When we toured East Berlin we had to wear our class A uniforms. An East German merchant marine once approached me in a cafe and asked if grade B actor Reagan was really elected as US president. I said go figure.
I guarded hess or prisoner no 7 from 1984-1987 when posted to Berlin. Charlie looks a lot different now.
Great Video as usual Andy. Obviously as a 1st Battalion ,Queen's Coy Bod it brought back some great and not so great memories of Berlin. Especially as we lost a couple of the blokes recently RIP Budgie .Skid And Juppy.. Guarding that prison was a bloody pain. but an experience none the less ,We had a Company Photo in 2 dress taken outside the Reichstag , i think it was a museum then(1980) Also i really enjoy the Soviet content as we used to do Train Guards ... only went to the East a couple of times as we went on a couple of Orientation trips in uniform ,to the war memorials . etc. only been back there once for a day during a Baltic Cruise.... must go back again before i get too old ha ha.. Keep up the great work Andy.
The 1979 - 1981 Berlin Tour was just before my time. I joined in Hounslow. All my cold war stuff is from the 1985-1991 Munster BAOR posting
I will be in Berlin July 2023. I will go to most these sites. I served in the U.S. Army durring the Cold War and this visit is a must for me.
LOL, "Hesscos" Tescos, brilliant! Thanks for yet another great documentary!
I was a very young boy when I went through a checkpoint from west Germany to east. I still remember it very well, even though I was very young. I still to this day, have a piece of the Berlin wall that I chipped off myself as a young fellow. I’m sure it’s worth nothing but to me it has terrible significance. After the wall came down, we were able to see my grandfather’s bakery, which still stood. They had run the wall right down the middle of the street. And on the west German side, it thrived. On the east Germany side the building was collapsing and still riddled with the bullet holes of World War II. Completely unusable because the wall was right in the middle of the street. On the west German side the economy was good enough to deal with that situation. Very much not so on the east German side. Old memories, but they still retain their value.
Nice job, Andy. Well done! Thank you.
I like your videos, thanks. It makes me want to visit Berlin.
Fun fact three: I lived in the building on the left side at Warschauer Strasse and Karl Marx Allee (Stalinallee). I'm really enjoying your videos. If you make your way back to Berlin let this American buy you a beer!
I've spent a lot of time in Berlin as my Mother in-law moved there in 1988 and lived there for over 20 years.I was based in Dortmund with the R.A. in the 80's and met my wife whilst on detachment to the Army Mountain Training Centre in the Harz Mountains)
I first travelled to "West Berlin" in march 1990 as the DDR still existed and the wall still stood (although crossing over into East Berlin was possible) I remember.seeing the Soviet troops guarding the Soviet War memorial at the Tiergarten,East German border guards at the wall in front of the Brandenburg gate,the death strip,Checkpoint Charlie (also bravo and alpha getting to and from West Berlin) Friedrichstraße (Tränenpalast) etc.Over the years since the wall fell the city has changed a lot but there is still enough of it's cold war history to be found and seen.
Thanks, Andy. Quite educational and eye-opening as always! Love the 4K resolution, too.
"History is there to be learned from"
These words never meant so much.
Thanks Andy, I really love your work. Keep it up mate. Love hearing the stories from when you were stationed there.
Thanks for the tour and your comments. My understanding is that now the Berlin office of parks and gardens is responsible for the upkeep of the memorials. I would have included the former Soviet Embassy on Unter den Linden in the list. Schoenholtlzer Heide was new to me, and I appreciate the distinctions you make between it, Treptower Park, and the memorial in the former West Berlin.
It all has an echo of Ozymandias.
"They did not arrive as liberators"... very good point and well put. Thank you for another smashing video.
Great Job Andy!
Another very interesting and captivating video Andy, thank you for making these... can you show us around Teufelsberg next time?
Good content and well presented.
Andy this was great. Wish you made it last year when I returned to Berlin! I’ve definitely seen some of these sights but you’ve given me other spots to check out on my next visit!
Great video. :)
It brought back a lot of memories. The first time I was in Berlin was in 1986, briefly in 1989, and then again in 1992.
It was an unbelievable difference even though it was just a few years apart. 1986 one felt watched all the time whilst in East Berlin and there were uniformed people all over the place. 1992 everything was so relaxed. I even drove through the Brandenburger Tor, which was btw not allowed (I didn't know that and was just a "stupid tourist" :)).
" Mr. Gorbatjev...tear down this wall!". He didn't do it...the people themselves did. :)
13:56 Perfect description of Soviet architecture-‘Brutalist.’
Berlin's architecture is not "Soviet" . Much of the spirit of Bauhaus went into designing and building East Berlin, at least until the late Ulbricht years, when Honecker was already gaining influence. I think it's still a shame that Palast der Republik was torn down, but that's another story
Another great and informative video. Thanks for the content.
Well made video! Thanks to show it to the world.
Awesome video 👌🏻 In 2013 I was attached to 3rd regt RHA, prior to deploying to Afghanistan. We had a cultural tour to Berlin, looking at the sites of importance to the BAOR. I was amazed at the damage, still evident on a lot of buildings in Berlin.
I also went up the Berliner Fernsehturm and was fascinated by the difference in building architecture between the DDR & West Berlin. One final point, a hotel I stayed in, in the UK was owned by an ex guards regt CSM. He was one of the British contingent who guarded Hess at Spandau 😳
Really well done. Thank you!
Excellent video!
Excellent and very informative. I have been to Berlin several times, but have only visited the Tiergarten memorial. Wish I had seen the others you have shown us!
Excellent, excellent video!
This is another really impressive video from you. Its extremely hard to cover the naunces and complexities of the post war situation in this kind of format and you do it really well.
Especialy the distinction between an invading and liberating army and the appalling treatment meted out to the civilian populatoin before the arrival of the Western powers., and how this is the lens through which the memorials are often viewed.
The ending of the video is fantastic. A soldier's respect for fallen soliders really comes through.
Great videos! I live about 50km north of Berlin and we have no anti-Russian sentiment in our village, we even have our own little Soviet war memorial. I never knew about Schönholzer Heide, a definate visit planned for next time in the city. Thanks.
Anther very informative video Andy, thank you.
This is a quality video my man
Amazing video! Thank you for sharing with us.
Thank you Andy for this interesting and balanced documentation. I did a quick check on the spectacular photo of the Moltkebrücke. It seems it was shot in the opposite direction as your film shot, i.e. from the Reichstag’s perimeter outwards. The book Panzers in Berlin 1945 mentions that Tiger II Tank No. 314 from the schwere SS-Panzer-Abteilung 503 knocked out several Soviet tanks in this place.
Great stuff!!
Hello, thank you for this wonderful video! It is a pleasure to see, to review, and to learn, thanks to your clear and unbiased explanations, these different places in Berlin.
Sincere greetings from France!
Stalinallee was built in a style that was supposed to be reminiscent of the stately architecture of the Empire (just like the NVA was essentially a Prussian army). The facades were so dominant that the groundplan of the houses didn't fit them. So occasionally there are rooms that are half obscured, or are in between two windows.
Kaffee Moskau is not in soviet style, but clearly expresses Bauhaus International Modern Style. In fact, Rotterdam, which was rebuilt after the war has reconstruction architecture that is very much like East Berlin (also reconstruction architecture).
Subbed good stuff. clear to the point no ads just facts and first hand account this is quality content.
Great video! Thank you.
Thank you so much! Excellent documentary. 😊👍🇬🇧
Thanks for the great video. Very interesting.
Good content! Thanks!
Enjoying your videos tremendously.
Fantastic segment
Excellent videos on (mostly East) Germany during the Cold War. It's nice to see someone make proper documentaries "like in the old days". No flashy CGI, no fake "danger-drama", no fake "OMG, we might have found something that nobody has seen before", no lame "reenactments", just facts put in context of their time and their surroundings. I don't understand how you have only 28k subs, this is genuinely educational!
Really impressive and complete video, really enjoyed it. The information was on point!
This was an excellently done video for us.
Subscribed.
Another great video. Really interesting and I love all things Berlin. I have been to Berlin several times in the 45 yrs I lived in Germany but it is nice to have the history and on my next visit will hopefully get to have a look of some of these sites. Thank you.
Great video! In my next visit to Berlin I'll consider all your background information about these monuments and sites.
Great work, thanks.
very good,learnt a lot there.thanks.
Well made video. Thanks for this. In 1987 my father and I went to west Berlin for a 4 day visit. We arrived late at night and went for a walk. Came across the Soviet War Memorial in Tiergarten at about 10PM. As we approached it for a better look, 2 West German Policemen with guard dogs chased us away. We didn´t know it was forbidden to get near to it. And less at night.
Very interesting. Thanks.
Absolutely wonderfull video, of my favourite city. Well done!
Loving all your videos 🫡
Great video!!!!
Excellent video. Super.
Thank you great video, most interesting!!
amazing video..thank u!!
Fantastic video's. Really enjoy them
love your video, and I agree you, memory must not be erased, it must be keep for future generations
Nice and accurate documentary. I know Berlin very well, but it's nice with clear reminders.
BZ Sir!
Excellent documentary.
I’m very pleased to have found your channel.
Ian
Fantastic video x
Another excellent video. I enjoy the detail and the pace. Your tone was appropriate too - no jingoism.
Superb video. Thank you for all the work. I learned something.
I love your work thank you for all this hard work
Excellent video. Interesting, informative, and well crafted. You, sir, have a new subscriber.
Great video, you really know your stuff 👏👏
*_I have 2 grandparents from Russia and 2 from Germany. I hope to visit both countries someday._*
Excellent!
Another fantastic video Andy! Ilove Berlin, most recent visit was 2019. I visited the Soviet Memorial in Tretower Park, an impressive site. I laughed at the "HessCo" comment, got to love British humour!
Spandau Ballet is a band yes, but also the name of the struggle against the hangman's rope. I can never get the image out of my mind when that song comes on.
Many thanks for these educational videos!
Coffee Moscow is today coffee Kiew -
The style of the clock in the GDR was slightly different (more edgy and no ads underneath) compared to those at Platz der Vereinten Nationen nowadays.
I moved 1987 to Berlin(West) from south of FRG and one of my first political outdoor activities was to burn out the candles that the Nazis set up in Spandau on the day of Hess' death. It was a very good decision to swap the prison for a supermarket so as not to create a place of pilgrimage here!
Thank you for the video ..... good job!
Thank you for an excellent tour , with the exception of Spandau and the final cemetery l have visted them all , however as is often the case with the absence of a guide certain key points are missed , grateful for your time and effort filling in the blanks . Berlin is fascinating, having recently done the OKW bunkers at Zossen i look forward to a return trip , i have my sights set on the Seelow heights .
Great video. I was in West Berlin twice when I was a naval officer but never ventured into the Soviet Zone. Didn’t have the time or inclination as I knew photography was strictly verboten and I took a camera everywhere I went. Didn’t want to wind up in a gulag or face disciplinary action.
You tell a great story.
I really enjoyed watching this video (documentary). 👍🙂
Getting a absolute kick out of the Cold War Germany content! Love it.
Teufelsberg is the best and most interesting Cold War site in Berlin, by far. It was build by the Americans. In East Berlin, the most interesting Cold War site, well sorts of Cold War, is an abandoned amusement park called Spreepark. I would say.
I am also fascinated in the story of Teufelsberg, is it true that the entire elevated area was built out of the rubble from Berlin?
@@mikebillett7935yes. There are actually several of these ‚rubble mountains’, ‘Trümmerberge’, in Berlin, Teufelsberg is just the largest.
Teufelsberg was built in the BRITISH sector of Berlin and yes it was a rubble mound.
Some additional facts: Officially all of Berlin was excluded from what would become the Federal Rebublic and the GDR in May and October 1949. It stayed theoretically one entity under Allied command or at least supervison. As the Soviet Union saw this legal construction as an opportunity to have some access into all of Germany it opposed the idea of splitting the city. Whereas the demarkation line between the Soviet Zone and the American and British Zones from the Bavarian Forest to the Baltic Sea and around the three western sectors of Berlin became more and more unpenetrable the line border through Berlin had to be kept open. And there was no barrier or anything between the Soviet Zone of Germany and the Soviet Sector of Berlin. Had the Soviets sealed that line they would have destroyed the fiction of that entity of Berlin and they would have excluded themselves from the western parts of the city. But between 1945/1949 and 1961 a lot of events drove wedges between the political realities and the post-war agreements between all four Allied Powers. At first the Soviet Union allowed the East German state to declare Berlin its capital, theoretically all of Berlin. That was a violation of those agreements between the Allies. Each year the GDR would hold big parades on May 1st with its military and the Western Allies would repeatedly protest in Moscov about that. They underlined that East-Berlin (the Soviet Sector) was no part of the GDR.
And as the borders between West- and East-Germany had become fortified and secured with razor-wire, later landmines and people got shot when they tried to cross the "Zonengrenze", Berlin became an absurd loophole for fleeing East-Germans. They took a train to their own capital. Then they took the S-Bahn (operated all over Berlin by the Soviet-controlled pre-1945 "Reichsbahn") and rode west. The East-German government could do nothing about that. Well, they arrested people when they carried huge suitcases with all their belongings into S-Bahn stations. The parents of a schoolfriend of mine took that route in around 1960. They took their baby-boy, all he had was his teddybear and the clothings he wore and were in West-Berlin.
When the town parliament of Berlin (the "Red Townhall", nicknamed after its red bricks) in the Soviet Sector could not discuss matters without being harrassed by the communists, the three western Sectors got their own politcal bodies in the western part of the city. Berlin fell into two parts, the only items where the four Allied Powers cooperated were the flight control system and the guarding of the war-criminals in Spandau Prison (until Hess committed suicide in the mid 80s).
East Germany was in danger of bleeding to death. Finally the Soviets agreed to give the East-German government the right to built the "Wall".
Between 1961 and the 1970s a number of agreements made life easier for the Germans on both sides of the innner-German border and the Berlin-Wall. Legally we do have to make a very strict distinction between those two terms. As West-Germany never recognized the GDR as a nation but only as a state within Germany it did not accept the inner-German border as a national border, only as a limit to the validity of its own constitution. And as far asWest-Berlin was concerned it became the subject of West-German -Soviet talks and treatises between all four Allies. Basically West-Berliners lived under "German" law, that is West-German law, but they were no citizens of the Federal Republic. Their local parliament sent delegates into the West-German parliament but they were not allowed to vote there. All talks between the two German states needed Allied agreements whenever they touched anything that applied to all of Germany (in accordance with the Potsdam Conference from 1945). The end to that nighmarish maze of agreements came on midnight, October 3rd, 1990. In that second the "Deutsches Reich" from 1871 was finally dead when the four Allied Powers handed all souvereignty over Germany to the Federal Republic.
Another very good documentary. I have always been interested in Europe's history and this chapter is fascinating and after watching these episodes of Andy's i feel like I've almost been there which one day i would really like to check out for myself. Thanks again Andy for another brilliant documentary as good as any.