It is now over 30 years since the Berlin Wall came down, and German reunification was completed after over 4 decades of the partition of Germany. It is easy to forget now how we lived in Europe only a generation ago, during The Cold War . This 45 minute video re-visits some of the most iconic Cold War sites in Berlin, principally the series of militarised checkpoints that allowed authorised Allied/Soviet Military and West German citizens (and only a very small number of East German Citizens) to cross between East and West. Where you still risked being shot dead for trying to climb the wall as late as 1989.
These were known by their phonetic alphabet coded names: Checkpoint Alpha, Checkpoint Bravo and the famous Checkpoint Charlie.
In this video we also explore the history of Berlin's shady past as the epicentre for Cold War Espionage and Black Ops so we will visit the infamous Bridge of Spies (The Glienicke Bridge) near Potsdam, made famous in almost every Hollywood Spy movie from 'Funeral in Berlin' with Michael Cain in 1966, to Atomic Blonde with Charlize Theron in 2017. of visit belined the wall where you would be stalked by the Stasi (East German Intelligence goons).
in 1961 Berlin's Checkpoint Charlie became the first flashpoint of a potential World War 3 between the Warsaw Pact and Nato as American and Soviet Tanks faced off against each other. 20 years later in 1981 a provocative visit by US President Ronald Reagan would take the Cold War back to Sub Zero relations.
This video combines present day footage with archival and historical images to not only tell the history of these sites but also to see how they look today.
Chapters:
2:35 Glienicke Bridge (The Bridge of Spies)
10:25 Remnants of the Berlin Wall today
15:56 Allied Checkpoint Charlie
24:12 Allied Checkpoint Alpha
28:55 Marienborn Grenztruppen Garrison
30:31 The BT-4x4 Border Command Tower
33:24 Marienborn DDR/Soviet Border Complex
37:43 Allied Checkpoint Alpha
40:40 Panzerdenkmal (Soviet War memorial)
42:00 Drewitz DDR/Soviet Border Post
43:35 My Summary
#berlinwall #eastgermany #coldwar #soviet