Hi, I actually filmed and edited this video. There is a second one for the trip in reverse. Keith

Do not pay fines, do not admit offences.. request Soviet Officer. I will try this when I'm next in East Germany!

This was very helpful as i am planing a trip to Berlin soon. thank you.

I was with 62 Transport & Movement Squadron based in Berlin mid 80s and did this a lot. The RMP would take the times you left and when you got out at the other end they could see if your were speeding on the way. Being a junior rank, they would knock an hour off so you could speed. Since we always drove military vehicles, we would never bother to stop when a east German guard/police tried to stop you along the Auto Bahn for speeding, they would be parked on the hard shoulder, with a camouflage net over their white vehicle, which you could see for miles. We also carried one SLR and a baronet with 10 rounds of ammo which we had to hide within the vehicle. (We would discuss who got the weapon and who got the bayonet if confronted with a Russian tank). Also it was totally different at night, with neither us or the Russian solders followed the procedure, what would normally happen is that they would want to barter with you, at the time i was there they loved digital watches, which we could get cheap for a few pounds. So with one of them, you could get Russian military hats, badges etc. I had a good collection. (This bartering happened on the Berlin Military Train also).

I made this journey many times as a British civilian living in West Berlin. It's fascinating to see how the British / allied forces had to make the same trip. I was once fined on the Transit Strecke for speeding "Guilty" and once pulled over and admonished for not indicating while overtaking "Not Guilty, both while driving my 1973 Opel Manta A with West Berliner plates.

I got halfway through this and realised I was concentrating and trying to remember it all. Imagine your first time going through remembering to pull up get out, take these but NOT those, salute the officer if he’s a Soviet, wait there if they’re DDR police, give them this but make sure that it’s NOT stamped, but the other this IS stamped… Even for a soldier used to this level of instruction it must have been so daunting!

1977-79 served in Berlin and did many border patrols , threw food and fruit over the wire to the East German guards in their observation towers. They used to dangle their dog tags out the window to signify they had less than 6 months conscription left. Going from West to east was like entering a different time in history. Also did the military train guard from Berlin through East Germany and back , armed with a pistol , lots of women working on the railway lines at that time. Watched Rudolf Hess in Spandau prison from the attic window of our barracks just across the road. Loved West Berlin .

I never was the driver when this was required, but I did get to do the documents and salutes with the Russian Soldier at the check points. I remember the smell of cooking food behind the painted out window as I waited for the form to be stamped . I also picked up several copies of the Soviet News Magazines that were in the hut, (I still have a couple of them) where they had "photoshopped" out the birth mark of Mikhail Gorbachev. 2 years later the wall was down and all changed, I am pleased to have experienced it and this film brought it all back.

Thanks Mike for showing us this film-a nerve-wracking time for any Allied soldier with precise and complicated instructions to be followed in order not to enflame a delicate international situation!

I started my National Service in the SADF in early 1989. It is interesting to see what SEEMS like a dry, boring video as only the military could make, knowing that tensions would be high all through the trip. Thank you for showing us your world.

Great video for jogging your memory, I did this trip a few times but really struggle to remember most of it! I do remember an issue with the Russians just before Bravo, which necessitated the RMP to come and sort it out (which they did, very quickly) and many years later at the time of Perestroika I interviewed President Gorbachev and resisted the urge to mention the incident!

This is AMAZING! Thank you so much for posting it!

I went to Berlin the last week of December 1989. I never forget the final week of the DDR. We traveled with a West European Renault 21, equipped with a telephone, which was very rare at that time. We stayed in Hotel Stadt Berlin, the only hotel in the heart of East Berlin where foreigners were allowed. It was history in the making. Unforgettable.

You made a very interesting video. Thank you for uploading.

The guide on how "You are better off to stay home".

A wonderful and informative documentary ...thank you Mike Guardia channel for sharing 7:22

It must be strange to be German and see videos like this one. So recent, and yet so utterly alien.

Got to love the funky tune at start and end of the video,proper 80's news bulletin tune!

I’m from a tiny village in the Scottish highlands and my dad is ex RAF. He was a civvy in the 80s and we used to go on holiday to Holland Germany a lot. I remember being sat in the back of the car and near soiling myself when I first saw fecking gun towers beside the bloody road….they were occupied by soldiers with guns that looked huge to my 7 year old mind! I soon forgot about that though when we were in Holland and I got a cone of chips from a stall - they were dripping in mayonnaise and I think that effed me up more than the towers!

I served with the RAF from 1971 to 1977 in Berlin. This certainly brought back a lot of memories.

Imagine getting stopped by Soviet troops with a VCR in your front window and explaining you're doing a video that willl end up uploaded to KZfaq...

Very interesting! I live near Checkpoint Alpha and know the track very well, at least since the reunion.

Very interesting. I was in the Royal Engineers in Hameln 1986-91 and in that time went through the DDR to do the Berlin marathon and later saw the unification of East and West Germany. The poor state of the Berlin corridor roads are what I particularly remember and the RMP having to help us at Bravo on the way back.

I was serving with the Armoured Sqn the night the wall came down what a night that was, I remember passing the one Soviet camps on the way out of Berlin the weekend before I was amazed at the state of the place, lots of broken windows covered with torn plastic....

This was genuinely quite chilling to watch

I made this journey with a West German holiday coach company. We all had to hand the the coach driver our passports. On taking our passports we had to stick a number on it at remember the number. At Marienborn we was parked out in the open and remained in the coach. Photo's of the coach was taken by the GDR border guards who then boaded the coach to individually hand out passports back...you had to give the border guard your number and he would go through the passport and give it back to you the year was 1979 and I was a 15 year old British civilian. Along the Motorway we stopped at a rest stop...we could buy cheap cigarettes and booze. I bought 3 cartons. You could pay in German DM £ or $.

Lived and served in Berlin from 1989 to 1992 some great memories

I think the Narrator's voice is excellent and very exacting.

Thanks for the video! My family lived in Ramstein AB in then West Germany from 1974-77. Dad always wanted to take the troop train to West Berlin, but my mom was too scared of the commies to go along with him. My uncle was Active Duty USAF in the mid 80s in Germany. He told me there was a sports car club, and they would host a periodic sports car drive from West Germany to West Berlin and back just to make the East Germans and Soviets angry/jealous when they saw NCOs driving Porsches, Mercedes, etc. 🙂

Thanks for this! I always wondered how one got to West Berlin from greater West Germany. Sure, everything says that "Berlin was wholly inside the GDR", but no info on how you got to West Berlin. Still, though, it's funny that this was made in 1989. Bit of a waste of production budget, eh? 🤣

Nice filmdocument 🇬🇧👍🏼 🙏🏼 I remember these travels well but as a german civilian 😬 🥵👮🏻‍♂️

About the breakdown procedure, you must understand that most people back then did NOT have mobile/cell phones, so they really had to do all of that to make sure the RMP knew what was really going on.

I remember hitch hiking from Berlin to Hamburg in 1987... amazing...

It seems so weird watching this procedure. I never did this trip (Even though I'm ex - Forces). But the Wife and I had a great holiday in Berlin a few years ago, stayed in a hotel in the former DDR and visited the Rotating restaurant at the top of the Tower.

I served in West Berlin in 1973-5 and 1988-9 and was based in Brook Barracks in Spandau. Happy days!

How beautiful this tour is on the beautiful German roads. The forests on both sides of the road

I lived in the British Sector of Westberlin and had played in a german dartsteam. We played against teams from the British Barracks, Smuts BKS, Wavell BKS, Alexander BKS, QLRs and so on. At the end we was very drunken. I had bought my tax free cigarretes at the NAAFI😊 I had many British friends but 1994 left the Royal Army the united Berlin. It was one of the best times of my life.

At 11:17 This SSVC 'training film' was probably made earlier than 1989 since the white-on-black BFG private car number plates were changed to UK-style ones for RHD vehicles after PIRA began targeting British service personnel in West Germany, in 1988.

Wow, that was detailled and specific. Great to keep such memories alive in todays society, just as a reminder if need be. Also, I think the guys who made the film, two years later they were "why the fuck we go to that trouble?" :D

1986-87. Superb posting. I can’t remember the barracks name. It was a double barracks. 2 Infantry Regiments and a shared NAAFI. (That wasn’t such a great idea!) Out main gate near to chic Pichelsdorfer Straße. I loved the bars, the people, the shops. Wonderful to have been there before the wall came down. Rudolf Hess! Must be one of the last to see him in Spandau.

I was in BAOR from 84-86 and remember we all had to carry a SOXMIS card. Wherever you went there was a mass of mind boggling instructions you had to follow, I know people who made this journey. seems a lifetime ago but still very familiar.

In the RAF this film is what we would of classed as 'Pongo Proof'.

30+ years later and the thought of even having to do that seems daunting.

As a young man in the RAF I remember travelling through the corridor, as we passed the Trabant cars we waved at the occupants who were dressed in rags, they give us the finger which I thought was a bit miserable, I thought if that’s communism for you, you can keep it , it was only later on in life I was told that they weren’t allowed to fraternise with us and if caught would be answerable to the Stasi and probably prison, I also noticed how bleak the countryside was and clearly remember a dull little house with some smoke coming out the chimney, again later on in life, a former East German electrician instructor informed me that they weren’t allowed to paint their houses in bright colours, finally I remember reaching West Berlin, and taken back by the leafiness, grandeur and beauty, after all it was the showcase for the West, great times and humbled to go when the wall was up and to see the poverty communism brought

Brings back memories.....i left Berlin 1992, visited in 2004, stayed in a hotel in the former east, great place.

A very enjoyable video about a very different time. Fun fact, my 'other' car was built in what was the GDR/DDR. Can you guess what it is?

strangely hypnotic.

I did this trip many time in the military between 1981 to 1983, but can't remember getting out of the vehicle at the Russian check point at any point, same at check point Charlie, we always remained in the vehicle.

I remember in 1990 driving out directly westwards to Route2 instead of going south first, took you thru a huge Russian military base just the other side of the wall then got stuck in a Russian convoy as the road was only 1 lane each way took about 2 hours to get to Route2 almost 1 hour more than the old south route.

I knew someone who was stationed in west Berlin and they would take their R&R in the East as it was so cheap, when there locals would buy the clothes off their backs, especially Levis, Adidas, wrangler, and any brand name items of clothing so they started to take stuff over to barter, vodka was their main currency and unsmokable soviet cigarettes, cartons of 200 for 50p, this was in the 1970s,

I still find it hard to believe that in 1982, I did this, as an 18 year-old civilian, (in my 1st job) as an HGV driver, for a Wiesbaden-based firm. It was the defining moment in my politics: I leant out of my truck's cab and offered a stick of gum to an East German Border Guard. He had an AK47, slung over his shoulder and an Alsatian guard dog on a leash. The look of terror, at my gesture, taught me all I needed to know about their doctrine (former Chancellor Merkel's doctrine); he was terrified, looking over his shoulder, because of a gesture of kindness.

I remember this like yesterday, I was 15 years old my Dad was BAOR , we had a caravan and pitched it at an raf base in Berlin , im glad I was old enough to take it all in , going from West Berlin into the East was like going from a cartoon to a black and white movie

Thank god this madness ended 30 years ago.

super cool that we can just watch what used to be highly classified briefings that are now rendered defunct, from the comfort of our homes, just because.

When in doubt, request the presence of a Soviet Officer

Erich Honecker joke (German communist politician who led the German Democratic Republic from 1971 until shortly before the fall of the Berlin Wall in November 1989.) Erich is with his mistress Helga and says to her; "My darling Helga I love you deeply and will do anything for you" She says; "Erich, I vant you to tear down ze Berlin wall" He thinks about it for a moment and replies; "Zis is good, you vant to be alone with me"

Crazy how times have changed.

Did anyone get lost, breakdown???? Would love to here their stories. I was stationed in Belgium/The Netherlands late 80's. Had some interesting journeys back snd forth!!!!

I hope Harry Kane has seen this informative video for a safe and efficient passage into Germany.

Fascinating!

Been there done that.Nearly every Einfahrt and Ausfahrt you would be tailed by some sort of jeep.Or see police cars in the central resevation under a cam net to catch you speeding.

Chris Rea doing the security announcements. Thank you sir. (lol)

What a pain! Thank goodness this is all over…..

In Dolby THX quadrophonic stereo sound !

Amazing how when my German mom took me to my first visit to West Germany in 1984 (I'm a GI baby) I was literally right at the edge of the Iron Curtain only kilometers away. I still remember the special news report in 1989 about the Wall coming down and my mom couldn't believe it. My Army veteran Dad simply said "I never thought I'd see this in my lifetime." My uncle Klaus once got into trouble having cartons of cigarettes in his car when he got stopped on the autobahn checkpoint into West Berlin. The East Germans did a good job scaring him but took the smokes and let him go.

Whats the name of the song that plays at the start?

my left ear loved this

Lol, I was there in 1989 visiting from where I was based in Fallingbostel.

Never drove but used the 'propaganda express ' from Hannover to Berlin many times. In fact, I still have an unopened bottle of wine from the buffet car. Being served a meal with wine by white gloved waiters at the border when the engine was changed to a DDR one. I always wondered what the poor old Russian and DDR conscripts thought about it? Great times.

At this time, a 36 years old Putin worked as kgb officer in Dresden. Control of the people.

West Berlin rocked. 84, 87,88,89,90. Great times!

Nice yorkshire closing

How on earth were you supposed to remember all this? 4 minutes in, and I'm already totally confused!

Can I get this guy as my satnav?

My dad was in RAMC at Kladow in Berlin and our family made this trip a couple times. It was such a different Berlin back then : clean, orderly and safe. Dad was correct when he told us how the DDR was a brutal military dictatorship and couldn’t care less about their people. No wonder the Ossies wanted out when they suffered under the DDR and Stasi

back when the British army was a proper army

I did it several times but only on the British Military Train!

Did this journey many times as a child with my parents.....my dad was butchery manager for the NAAFI.....I used to be terrified of the Russian Guards 😂

The sound is not working.

Who maintained this stretch of the Autobahn, the GDR or West Germany?

My father made this video ❤

God imagine the dystopian horror of Russia having this kind of authority, anywhere, anytime. I'm glad i'm too young to have ever had to experience it.

My Mum went through east Germany to get to west Berlin

Question? What would happen if you didn't return a salute?

Blimey....takes me back ;-)

Is this from afn TV or SSVC TV?

Sounds awfully complicated.

Why was it so crucial for BFG forces to return the Soviet sentry's salute? "We come in peace" ?

So is this film and procedure only for the UK personnel? Are there French and Americans who follow their own? Or did the British control this for all the Allies?

Very Scary Times

Amazing really this was Germany within living memory. Thank goodness its over.

No way I'm going there now, it sounds like a right minefield!

i wish travelling with ryanair was this easy.

Just in time for the end of the IGB

Amazing historical film, with instructions not to engage with DDR officials or obey their instructions, always requesting the presence of a Soviet Officer if in doubt

Do not use Rastatten 😂 that one caught me off guard 😂

No sound

why did it say the end, that you should not talk in russian to a soviet military personnel because it woul attract attention? wouldnt it make it easier?

No sound?

Wow this is really interesting esp how you were only to engage with Soviet officers and never East German ones... I wonder why this was?