Bis Herbst 1943 war aber Berlin noch weitgehend unzerstört. Wenn der Krieg im Sommer 43 beendet worden wäre, würde man heute noch oben zu sehende Bausubstanz erleben können.

quite amazing how clean and well kept the city was compared to present day

Within five years this city would be in ruins How sad

Amazing video. How serene and clean Berlin was. The only thing missing is the youth. No young people no where to be found. Most were sent to all parts of the world and Europe to fight....How sad...

I don't mean to trivialize what was going on in Europe in 1940, but one minor difference I noted in this footage when compared, say, to the clips available here on KZfaq of Berlin in 1936 and 1937, is that there are noticeably fewer private cars on the streets. I don't know when gasoline rationing was introduced in Germany, but it would make sense that perhaps here (1940), fewer people could afford to operate them. But this is indeed minor compared to the observation George Suarez made earlier (SEE: below) regarding the absence of young people (especially young men). But many thanks for posting this: it gives me a tiny insight of a way of life that would soon disappear.

Very interesting. However, why do 350+ people vote down an historical film retrieved from archives?

Es ist sehr auffallend, wie wenig deutsche Kommentare zu lesen sind, finde ich traurig !

They had no idea that their city would be destroyed in 4 short years.

Was there in 2000. What a fascinating city. Not too far away are the Potsdam Palaces, not widely known, but some of the most breathtaking buildings ever built.

The calendar page shown in the first shot of this film is from 1940, not 1941. You can see "1940" above the month of October. This has already been pointed out by another comment below, in German.

00:11 Das Kalenderblatt ist vom September 1940, nicht 1941.

Fascinating to see the Kaiser Wilhelm church and the Kudamm prior to it becoming rubble.

Most of those buildings are gone...funny, it was already a city of millions but it looks very suburban, with a small-city feel to it. Also, interesting how most people depicted are women and men over 50 or so. Most military aged men were out fighting in Europe..

I lived in Berlin in the 80s its lovely to see it before the bombing really destroyed it. Thanks

Great footage. However, I am surprised with no nazi symbols over there. Is it digitally removed? I cant believe main areas in Berlin in 1941 were looking like without Nazis.

I was station in Germany in 1974-1975 and 1980-1983. I visited Berlin both times both the '70's visit was the most impressive. What struck me here was the lack of military vehicles and military men. But, then I realized that Berlin was a large city and even though it was the capital it was not a military city. Away from the government buildings it would be like any other city.

I was stationed in Berlin with the U.S. Army during the Cold War Allied Occupation years of 1974 to 1977 - and about the only thing I can recognize in the 1940 video is the Brandenburg Gate. Of course, Cold War Berlin has almost disappeared as well - to include that damn hated Wall that completely surrounded West Berlin for so many years. I notice that since the fall of the Wall, the city has had an excellent rebuilding. My old NSA duty post at Teufelsberg "Devil's Mountain" is still there, but has fallen into ruins. Andrew Barracks where the housing for Field Station Berlin was located has been repurposed to house historical items from the Cold War to include the STAZI (East German Secret Police) files on millions of Germans and on many Allied personnel.

This reminds me of present-day United States: No one understands or knows what is coming. All seems prosperous and peaceful.

Absolutely love the music in the background! What is the name of this song!

I walked under/or thur the Brandenberg Gate and enjoyed it. While at the same time thinking of the millions before me that have done the same.

Ich wird versuchen auf Deutsch zu schreiben. Ich lebe hier seit fest 6 Jahren, es ist.... seltsahm Berlin so zu sehen. Berlin in dem ich heute lebe ist so anders.

Beautiful, elegant city..such a pity it was almost completely destroyed in the war. At least the Brandenburg Gate remains

The pre-WW 2 Jewish population was 160,000, by 1939 it was 80,000, emigration due to persecution caused the population to drop, the time this film was made most were already deported to concentration camps, some were in hiding. Fewer than 8,000 survived. The smartly dressed people in this archive must have had some idea about the fate of the Jews in their city.

I've seen little of Berlin that was not propaganda or military...thank you

Dafür, dass die Bilder aus dem Krieg sind, fällt mir auf, dass ich bis auf eine Person keine einzige Uniform sehe. Und das im NS Deutschland. Schon merkwürdig.

this was before the Russian campaign, life then was normal and no one would guess that most of Europe was already conquered. After invading Russia things were different as the nation was quickly depleted of its men

The reason people like seeing these things is the fascination with a society where the message came from the top to be proud of who you are as a particular european ethnic group and the society your ancestors built and you are taking forward, not to feel that your existence is somehow corrupt, you are racist, sexist, global warming is destroying the environment etc etc. It's nothing but shame and doom, coupled with a worship of economic growth statistics for seemingly no higher reason. People only feel moral by embracing this shame and giving everything to outsiders. We are living some kind of civilisational penance at an almost religious level. I'm not German btw but I was in Berlin recently.

I think is interesting how traditional, even conservative, the architecture of the center of Berlin looked. It's known that Hitler hated a modern art and avant-garde architecture, which abounds in 30's for example, in neighboring Czechoslovakia. Paradoxically, after the occupation of Prague, the German Nazis preferred to live there in modernist apartments and villas, which were designed mainly by Jewish architects... 🤭

Just compare with Belgrade, Warsaw and London, at that moment, to name a few examples. This ""peaceful city" was the capital of the country that bombed and destroyed so many beautiful cities in Europe.

And four years later, it was a bombed out trash heap. Those who sow the wind shall reap the whirlwind.

Многие из них не знают, что половина всех жителей города сгинут в войне

Wonderful footage, thank you for posting it 😃

I visited Berlin a few years ago and it's unfortunate that it wasn't rebuilt as it was before the WWII. I visited Vienna and i imagined that maybe Berlin could be so before the war criminals destroyed it.

Schönes Bildern von der Haupstadt !!

It doesn't even look like Nazi Germany...

Search old clips dated in the 1930’s and you will see the same clean city streets. Of course, all that changed when the allies started bombing the cities to ashes.

Those people couldn’t imagine what Berlin would look like in four years’ time. 😒

Stalingrad was a pretty city in 1941 too.

What you notice immediately: Not a single young man of fighting age in the street. Only old men and women. Pretty much their entire fighting age population was conscripted at this point basically.

Even the Kranzler was open, with a reasonable number of customers. In 4 years, this would almost all be rubble

How peaceful and prosperous Berlin looks like the war really hasn't come there yet. Compare this to the devastation, ruin and misery of Warsaw.

amazing

Die Gedächtniskirche sieht so schön und heile aus. Ich glaube es wäre wirklich mal angemessen, sie wieder neuzumachen. Aber ne, wenn das dann wie das Humboltforum wird, dann sollten wir das lieber doch so lassen.

Great video

The calendar shows the year 1940. 5 years after this video the city will be in ruins. Every building will be destroyed or severely damaged. Tens of thousands of dead bodies will be lying around and the odor of death will be omnipresent. 😥

In October 1940 (as indicated by the calendar at the start of this film), the average German probably thought things were going well. The Nazis had occupied much of western Europe in June, and no actual warfare was occurring. Germany had not yet attacked Russia either. So it might've seemed like life was just going to get better in the glorious Third Reich while it assumed its rightful place as the ruler of all of Europe. Except it wasn't going to get better. It was going to get catastrophically worse, starting a year or so later, and deservedly so.

If they only knew what's coming!

Love Berlin meine zweiter zu hauser 16jahren hab ich few oh the dort 👍👍👍mein sohnen sint Berliners und ich aus Glasgow .....na denn Prost 🥃

Was ich schon erstaunlich finde ist keine Uniformen ,Reichsflaggen, ect.,... Sonst wird doch immer in der Welt gezeigt wie sehr übertrieben wir immer waren, ...

If one enemy bomb falls on Berlin, you can call me Meyer

Warsaw was more beautiful before Germany destroyed the capital of Poland

yes ... the magnificent Berlin and its inhabitants are almost idyllic, after all, no one can see the chimneys of the crematoria in Dachau and Buchenwald, which have been smoking for many years. And I forgot that they were Nazi from Naziland and if there were any Germans, they were innocent because they only obeyed orders or played in a military band ...

My uncle was an American child in Paris in the Thirties (his dad worked at a bank there) and remembered Berlin as lovely and particularly as having lots of park and woodland. Too young for politics but he remembered that his dad had early hopes for Mussolini (Fascism was supposed to combine the best of capitalism and socialism though as usual with politicians it ended up with the worst) but always thought the Nazis mad, bad and dangerous.

Whenever i'm about to win back some trust in humanity, i just open a video like this and read the comments to make sure it's gone again.

Cidade encantadora, histórica, capital de um país com um povo muito inteligente, precursor de enormes descobertas na ciência, na literatura, nas artes, na tecnologia, no desenvolvimento humano! Destruída totalmente por ingleses, norte-americanos russos e seus povos-colonias, mas reconstruída em tempo record, voltando a ser a Capital mais importante da Europa, e o país mais poderoso economicamente! Os germânicos são brilhantes, magnificos, extraordinários!

Place + Time + Music = *PEAK ANXIETY*

watching the movie from a post-WWII perspective it is striking to register how much has been lost from Berlin as it used to be - by starting a war that should have never been. Now Berlin is still a beautiful city but different, after all things change with time and it is o.k. to love the past and still embrace the present time. The destruction of Berlin and other German cities had a reason, Nazi Germany and its war, and it is well to be reminded of history by not trying to rebuild the city as it had been before, e.g. in the case of the central Kaiser-Wilhelm Memory Church.

они не представляли, что они получают ад, который они дарили другим

Interesting clip thanks

But these os not filming in 1941 or 1940. I suspect are a mix of pre-war different filmations.

A rather creepy counter point to all the chaos and death happening around the city and what would come to the city soon enough. Powerful stuff.

Is this gedachtniskirche in the beginning over there?

Ville magnifique telle que décrite par le regretté Philip Kerr dans son extraordinaire série Ayant Bernie Gunther, ex-inspecteur à l'Alex comme héros.

Not one animal in sight 👍😀🇵🇹

Berlin..ein Phönix! Die coolste Stadt der Welt...ist heute etwas ramponiert und mitgenommen..aber this city will never die egal was kommt.. !!! Grüße aus dem Wedding 😎☝️

Four years later the city would look very different. The citizens are in for reality check

I feel some tension in the air, of berlin, Germany was at war,..horrible moments..

Es la la luz congelada en ese tiempo . Ricardo Alegria zambrano Popayan cauca Colombia .

amazing to think the war was still on and a severe air raid could have happened any moment

so whats the actual date? Looks like Sept 12, 1940?

Como um louco destruiu uma cidade tão linda.

0:24 Kaiser Wilhelm memorial church on KuDamm before it sustained damage during bombing & shelling, becoming today's unrepaired "broken tooth" memorial

I remember the devastation of the Blitz on London, its good to see Berlin before it was destroyed in the same manner. What goes arounf comes around does it not ?

I have been there more than a few times before and after the wall came down. A beautiful city. This video was apparently made the day after Germany declared war on the United States. The good times would not last, and had already ended long ago for the persecuted groups across the country and Europe.

People falling for 80 year old propaganda is pretty funny

Was spielt die Musik?

Que adelantados estaban estos alemanes. Las imágenes que veo son muy similares al Stgo. Centro actual. Me refiero al casco histórico porque Stgo. actualmente también es una de las ciudades más modernas del mundo.

Ja byłam w Berlin kiedy jeszcze był podzielony, To Alexander place, ja byłam 1975,

@ Berlin 1941

No swastikas, no soldier. Normal day in the Berlin. Of course in the holidays this attribute appears, like in any other country.

Also fascinating or maybe even odd .. 1940 was a year when Nazi Germany was at its peak and this is the capital Berlin and yet not one shot shows any NAZI Swastika Flag hanging anywhere on any building or monument .. rather curious

Almost no automobiles...

Wenn das Video jetzt noch in FARBE gewesen wäre ....... Waaauuuuuuh. Dann wäre man noch näher dabei. Farbaufnahmen aus dieser Zeit sind atemberaubend schön. Schwarz/Weiß,.... da ist man immer ,,so weit weg,,. ;---)

CIDADE DE BERLIN 1940

Wtf is wrong with the comment section? So many nazi’s lovers here....

Oh dear , there seems to be a theme appearing in the comments section . For those looking nostalgically at this 1940s all white Christian utopia , well it was responsible for the murder of millions and the enslavement of many more . Modern multi cultural Berlin is a much better alternative . I'm sure there will be those with an alternative view .

Even more drab. The bombing hasn't really started yet. A lot less cars. Unless you worked for the State. And more bicycles are seen.