A Rare Look Into 1959 Berlin In Newly Divided Germany | Look at Life | Our History

uh [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] this is a shop window west berlin half a city a hundred miles behind the iron curtain half a city the west rebuilt in the heart of communist east germany the last outpost of western democracy on the road to moscow the mayor of west berlin willie brandt left his office near the kaiser's ruined church to come to britain earlier this year to see if we knew how long the germans in berlin must wait before he can ring his croydon cast freedom bell over a reunited city he got no answer [Music] meanwhile the west berliner housewife has the red army for neighbors but the street markets are well supplied and there's no need to queue for food or wait to be served of course a dog's life's a dog's life anywhere the kefirstan dam is the bond street and piccadilly of west berlin but as you travel east along it the shops and bars get fewer and the notice boards go up everything stops at the border with east berlin [Music] frontier police check cars on both sides of the border the east german people's police are on the alert this bridge marks another part of the border and on the other side communist slogans are evident a bear is the coat of arms of the west berliners they enjoy their days out at the zoo or in the funkturn park the nearness of the slogans and the red flags doesn't stop the fountains playing and there's always time for a young man and this girl [Music] well even sea lions have hearts on the surface at any rate it all looks calm and peaceful here you can sip a glass of beer or take a quiet walk in the fabulous flower gardens [Music] or you can watch other people going around in circles the traditional end to a perfect day is a trip up the aerial tower of radio free berlin the view from the top is a favorite of willie brantz [Music] from up here he can see the ultra modern congress hall he hopes will one day house an all german parliament [Music] he can see the smart suburbs 120 000 new houses blocks of flats designed by architects from every nato country a shop window for housing for nato for the west [Music] but the shop window has to be filled from the west [Music] and here's the memorial to the men who lost their lives building the biggest air bridge of all time that was 10 years ago the russians closed the roads into west berlin and two and a quarter million people were fed fueled and clothed from the air [Music] this year earl athlete mayor brandt the generals and the politicians laid wreaths of the 10th anniversary ceremony [Music] today the roads are open again under the watchful eye of the guards the traffic flows freely but the city stays divided beyond the brandenburg gate is east berlin and on the border is the russian war memorial where armed red soldiers maintain a 24 hours patrol [Music] over the border go the west berliners to spend their much more valuable west german marks [Music] and the west berlin police make a polite but thorough search of every car [Music] east berlin's piccadilly is the stalin alley with its huge blocks of flats offices and state-owned department stores here too are slogans and propaganda posters [Music] this one says sweep away nato make west berlin clean [Music] in east berlin is the cemetery in the war memorial park of 6 000 soviet soldiers who fell in the battle for berlin the statues were molded in moscow [Applause] so [Music] the soviet union sends more tourists to east germany than any other country says the official handout and some of the sites must be familiar to them functional blocks of flats on the moscow pattern a lot of them but much of east berlin has still to be rebuilt the old theaters for instance walk up the steps of any east berlin tube station near the border and you're back with war damage as it was in 1945 goebbels old propaganda ministry has been repaired it is now the east german information ministry but hitler's right chancellory his 10 downing street is still a heap of rubble the airaid shelter where he died is half blown out of its concrete bed in spandau jail three of hitler's friends hess spear and von shearer are still serving their sentences but the biggest human hangover of the war is the endless stream of refugees ten thousand a year walking riding hiding their way from east germany to the west how long will this stream go on perhaps until the motto on the bell comes true that this world under god shall have a new birth of freedom [Music] so [Music] you

Channel: Our History

Views: 367,374

Keywords: our history, documentary, world history documentary, documentary channel, award winning, life stories, best documentaries, daily life, real world, point of view, story, full documentary, history, historical, history documentary

Id: ZVPNlgp1gnE

Length: 10min 32sec (632 seconds)

Published: Sun Apr 17 2022