Absolutely, that shows dedication and makes ot so mich more interesting.

That’s so interesting! Did you ever feel like you wanted to escape to the West?

👍👍🪂 1:02

I went there after the wall was gone. However, there is always something that shows exactly where thr wall was. Very exciting

@@Jvd1925 I did an individual trip from from Peking to West Berlin, and all by railway in 1983. It took ten interesting days and the price was only around 300 US$. As I used a western passport, I didn't have to escape from the GDR. But obtaining all the visas in Peking was a big hassle.

Thank you!

AlfaGiuliaQV Yes, it's sad but the Secret Service says He knew about this escape or he could know this. And he had to make a report. 🤷🏻‍♂️🙄

"Up to two years". So we don't know how long he got, maybe less.

HighWealder Sure, because Klein Glienicke is no part of Berlin and non-residents could NOT visit the place before 1990. Greetings

We were there at the same time…I was in 38 (Berlin) Field Squadron, Royal Engineers, based in Spandau.

Entenschnabel was also crazy!

I wonder why it was considered dangerous. In the 1980s the East-Germans tried to make the Berlin Wall look more acceptable, "friendlier". There were cosmetic changes such as disguising concrete road blocks as flowerbeds but also removing the last Selbstschussanlage in 1984. The Berlin Wall had never been mined either as anyone blowing up on a mine would certainly not go unnoticed on the western side.

Can you expand on this?

@@murfnturf23It was a school trip to “Berlin, Hauptstadt der DDR” (hope you got the joke), Weimar, Dresden, Wittenberg, die Sachsische Schweitz, Sans Sousi. Food was bad and beer was worse. The air was a brownish-grayish-green and huge numbers of people were in uniform - and we actually saw a platoon of soldiers goosestepping. The worst part was the constant surveillance (as well as the perception one was being constantly surveilled). I’ll have to go and downgrade that now that we all live in a digital panopticon.

I really like your questions. Many Germans are struggling with the concept of the GDR because it was a dictatorship but in some aspects its different than third reich. The third reich is mostly associated with one dictator, a horrible war, genocide and damages in architecture, culture and reputation of Germany. The GDR wasn't led by one dictator, it was a fishy group of old men, they even managed to rebuild some parts. In the early days of the GDR there were some hints that it is not a democratic country, they looked up to Dtalin, the 17th June,.... People who were considered "evil" were punished with mental tricks. It wasn't that obvious and the government actively suppressed talking with a help of a psychological warfare. I have spent my whole life in a part of former West Germany, the majority only knows about the deadly wall. They don't really care und they don't want to change that. It gruesome for the future of Germany

Most of the leadership of the DDR were in concentration camps or living abroad actively fighting and agitating against fascism during the third reich. The two states were diametrically opposed in every way. The DDR’s “propaganda” talked about egalitarianism, equality for all people including women, minorities, Jews, foreigners etc. East Germany didn’t do a de-nazification where it educated its citizens and children about the terrible things “Germany” did- they instead taught their citizens about the fight and struggle of anti-fascjsts against Hitler- a coalition which defeated Fascism after so many lives lost- a coalition in which the German Communists played an important roll. No one in east germany saw similarities between the regime that encouraged kristallnacht and murdered six million Jews - and the regime that was made up almost entirely by the few German Jews, Union Members, Communists, and Socialists who somehow managed to escape from getting murdered by the Nazis. East German propaganda was all about agitating against war and for peace, against racism and antisemitism and for equality. It also raged against the military industrial complex and the corporations and rich capitalists who fueled hitler’s war machine and saw no issue using slave labor and violent take overs of other countries’ resources to make more profit. Comparing the DDR to Nazi Germany and seeing similarities is moronic. You’ll be hard pressed to find any true anti-fascist who doesn’t have at least a grudging sense of respect and admiration for the German Communists and their work. Likewise, any apologist for Naziism is without question a violent opponent and full of visceral hatred towards the East German experiment which right wing Germans still view as a project conceived by and ultimately under the tutelage of Jews, Russians, and other “foreign” elements.

​@@craiggaulzetti2255it was however a centrally managed economy controlled by a party. There was persecution of dissent and genuine socialists were not permitted.

​@@craiggaulzetti2255it was part of the Soviet machine, it was part of a military industrial complex painted red instead of black. to say there were no similarities is tankie cope. it was an evil regime. Less evil than the Nazis, for certain, but still evil.

@@craiggaulzetti2255 and you dare to talk about equality. the red princes aka the leadership had their own enclaves (Wandlitz) only west consumer goods in the fridge, western medicine bought at an apothek in West Berlin (daily run by Stasi) etc. etc. The germans are a disciplined people (east and west) thus there was no stasi-man hanging from every lamp post in Karl Marx Allee ( and it is looong). And most of the lower cadre of Nazis (blockwärte end such) just changed their cap badge and it was business as usual. Remember Generalfieldmarshal Paulus He came back to Dresden, and was in charge of organising the NVA. An d when you talk about "slave labor", where do you think IKEA got their stuff made?? East german prisons!!