How The CIA And KGB Fought Over Berlin | Battleground: Berlin | Timeline

[Music] in berlin the cia and the kgb find themselves face to face the war between the secret services was one dimension of a much larger conflict a confrontation that almost boiled over just under the surface of the cold war peter volta agent in the service of the soviet bloc between 1978 and 1988 he carried out nearly 100 tense trips between west germany where he lived to east berlin to deliver information at the time the metro crossed through the east part of berlin it slowed down through the stations which were more or less in darkness you could only see that the entrances and exits were blocked by sandbags and in each of these stations the police were patrolling with kalashnikovs that's what you saw traveling slowly through these ghost stations it was a very distinct image of the cold war for nearly 50 years while in the service of the kgb or the cia thousands of agents like peter volta were the cogs of the biggest information war in history it started on the 2nd of may 1945 the german war is there foreign [Music] two worlds now face each other two blocks clearly defined and in the heart of east germany one city that will become a battleground berlin split into two a new war is brewing but this one won't be fought head-on it's a new type of war a secret war of lies and intoxication cia kgb the aim of each is to establish their influence and impose their ideology [Music] in the ruins of berlin there will be all-out war the smiles and handshakes are forgotten the winners are still not allies [Music] peace treaties have been signed americans and soviets the two main winners don't have any energy left to fight each other on the ground so each side sets out its pawns and watches that's how the war of information begins here we have one of the key places in the cold war temple hof airport berlin wasn't situated just anywhere it was in the heart of the sector of soviet influence it was a thorn in the side of the russians a time bomb just waiting to go off would berlin be swallowed up by the soviet empire or would it stay a free city that was the basis of conflict between american and soviet intelligence services after the second world war in the united states they soon realized that things may get stormy the soviets were a step ahead they set up their intelligence service in 1917 30 years ahead of america a man is dispatched to berlin to set up the first cia cell on site peter sicil steps onto the tarmac of tempelhof airport on the 1st of october 1945. we had very little instructions of what to do we don't want the war we want to enjoy life we drank too much we burned the candle on both ends and it was only slowly that we realized that we had to wake up they've always been good at the game and they came into germany with a team of people who knew the territory knew the language knew the circumstances and knew security we had to learn security and it took us one or two years to do it america had never been in the espionage business the soviets win the first battle and it is brutal early in the morning of the 24th of june 1948 the soviet troops block the roads railway tracks waterways they're hoping to cut off west berlin with the blockade this is the first of the kgb's plans the information that the soviet intelligence agency had passed on was the following west germany had such economic problems that it was a burden that the americans wouldn't defend stalin stalin saw an opportunity at a time when the two sides were trying to increase their zones of influence to finally get its hands on west berlin west berlin we could either send our tanks and force our way in but that might cause the third world war we could accept it and agree to abandon berlin which for a time part of the american government wanted to do or we could try to supply berlin by ear this was my job for the next nine months 10 minus 12 months to find out what the russians plans were and by that time we were professional enough to be able to assess that the russians were not preparing to go to war we were sure of that we assured our government of it fittest socials agents know the exact state of the red army and the american government follow their advice they set off the biggest airlift in history for nearly a year the dance of the aeroplanes doesn't stop 280 000 flights mean that 2 million tons of cargo reached 2 million berliners the city won't be abandoned to the russians the cia wins its first victory [Music] yes the life of berlin has been maintained the airlift carries on [Music] however the game has only just begun [Music] since moscow at the start of the 50s stalin is leading an ideological battle against the world in korea vietnam china the communists are taking hold the kgb is still there behind the scenes berlin is the western limit of the empire new agents are put in charge of strengthening its position i agreed straight away to the offer to work for the kgb i've never regretted it we couldn't lose the gdr because it was the last defense against the socialist system in europe we absolutely had to protect it a pure product of the kgb he finished his career as a colonel he was 29 when he arrived in berlin the headquarters of the kgb which terrified everybody at the time carl's horst south of berlin the place was well known it was the saint antoine institute a former monastery a few meters from the building where the nazi surrender was signed the information war was going to damage the loser it was whoever went furthest and deepest into the enemy camp who would win and manage to bring back vital information to their government to do that we were prepared to use all means possible at carl's horst nobody suspected what would happen next the danger would come from underground the cia was secretly preparing a plan that could totally change the ratio of power it became very clear to the americans british and french how little they knew about the eastern bloc the soviets had much more information it was easy to get there were telephone directories with details of all the american units names of their directors and their phone numbers none of that existed on the russian side [Music] that was when the americans had the idea of building a tunnel to tap the telephone lines of the russian military it was a way of collecting a huge amount of information they wanted us to find out where the cables were and we found out through our contacts in the east german postal service who were in charge of all the cables i thought it was a great idea [Music] the tunnel was dug 450 meters under the iron curtain to the soviet telephone lines from there the cia would use 600 agents who listened to half a million phone calls for 11 months they thought they had a key advantage but despite listening into soviet conversations they found nothing interesting [Music] what the americans don't know is that a man has betrayed them his name is george blake one of the british allies agents in reality a double agent he works for the kgb and his role in the tunnel makes him a legend among soviet spies blake sure previously he attended a meeting of british intelligence services in london in december 1954. it was there that he learned that the americans were planning to connect to the russian telephone lines this operation blake immediately understood the importance of this plan naturally and a month later all of the information and technical brief for operation gold found their way onto a desk in moscow at that time the kgb had to make a difficult decision should it stop the construction of the tunnel and risk compromising its agent or should it let the americans go ahead in order to protect their spy finally the soviets decided not to risk their agent they let the tunnel exist for 11 months 11 long months where their conversations were listened into then when it seemed the right moment the kgb revealed the existence of the tunnels [Music] [Music] the tunnel helps the soviet propaganda the kgb opens the tunnel to the press and condemns the dirty methods of the american imperialists george blake is finally unmasked but he manages to escape to the east he spends the rest of his life mocking his former friends in the cia [Music] the mission i was given was to infiltrate the soviet headquarters well i think today that i carried out my mission pretty well [Music] in 1961 east germany barricades itself and the jewel between the kgb and the cia materializes as a scar in the heart of the city with the berlin wall the cold war reaches its peak all contact is broken and it becomes vital to have men on the other side again this time the kgb has a local advantage that the cia will never have the stasi the intelligence service of east germany [Music] from 1958 moscow puts one of its men at its head he goes on to become a myth a legend he is known as the man without a face he's the least known and most feared spy in the west it takes 20 years to give him a name and a face marcus wolfe [Music] wolf's appointment a success of the soviet secret services there's no hesitation needed yes it was maybe the soviet secret service's greatest he success a legend thanks to the number of agents he hired i once asked him how many agents do you have he replied and i remember the phrase exactly my agents were everywhere 1981. in a rare document from the stasis archives he addresses an audience of spies he placed 5000 all over europe in honor and respect of the great tradition of soviet spies [Music] it wasn't long before the headquarters of the stasi at the heart of berlin struck as much fear as the kgb in moscow from this office for 30 years the head of information led an army of collaborators 90 000 employees and 180 000 three percent of the east german population in the basement of the building are the stasi archives tens of thousands of meters of shelves of files inside are names places faces lives examined and spied upon nearly one in three east germans is on file here under the kgb and the stasi spying in the east has become an impressive machine well he was certainly very much an intellectual i would say he was uh one of the uh master spies of the cold war he certainly was very effective especially in the later years in terms of spy on the west in terms of gaining secrets from the west technological secrets he had some very high place spies in west germany for example gabrielle agust at the bundesliga deans the west german intelligence service regularly supplied reports about nato about nato policies military policy about even cia intelligence documents [Music] marcus wolff orchestrated this huge collection of information and at the start of the 70s it was key the soviet union and the united states are both in the arms race and between them they already have over 40 000 nuclear warheads thanks to its spies reports the kgb is always a step ahead it always knows the positions of the american missiles the state of nato's troops the real threat that america poses to the ussr peter walter is 24 when he starts to work for the stasi his role is crucial in west germany he is responsible for protecting the men from the wolf system a distant relative headed the translation department for the west german country intelligence agency that gave me access to these offices situated outside the bounds of the high security area my visits were never recorded this relative let me in and i could see all of the documents on his desk i could go through them and i found some very important names that i felt were important to relay politicians and syndicalists who were suspected by the west's agencies these were the names that i passed on and i know for a fact that thanks to that we managed to get several people out of the enemy zone [Music] we were stronger because we had ideology on our side which wasn't the case for our enemies it dictated the actions of all the agents of our secret service i can assure you that unlike others it was our ideals that drove our efforts that's probably why we work better we knew clearly which interests we were protected the battle between the cia and the kgb was ideologic and at that time communist ideals were finding a voice in the youth of the west peter walter is convinced that he can change the world false papers allowed him to make hundreds of trips to the east without raising suspicions his contact with the stasi lives here on stalin alley stalin avenue little moscow here in this building was a secret apartment it was rented to a woman an older comrade who was over 80. i had her phone number because of course i couldn't directly call canter espionage from west germany so i called aunt gertrude i suppose she really was called gertrude she noted dan what i had to say for example aunt emma is ill and can't come to the family party which meant that my meeting with my stasi comrade had to be postponed we'd established a list of code phrases that she noted down then she passed them to the stasi counter espionage over a secure machine works at full capacity what interests him at the start of the 70s is the deployment of american pershing nuclear weapons aimed at the ussr to obtain this information he invented an incredible system of espionage he recruited a new type of agent that he called romeo's a romantic name for a team of psychological demolition experts who were anything but gabriella klim has fled germany but she can't escape her memories 7th of july 1977 she was sat on the terrace of a cafe in bonn when a man approached her div de ventra time men tom minch it really was the man of my dreams i'd always imagined the perfect man and suddenly there he was in front of me i didn't think men like that existed my first instinct was to run away but i stayed we saw each other several times in 1977 and it went very quickly he quickly told me he loved me and wanted to marry me it went so quickly that we planned to get engaged in january 1978 gabriella was 32 she was a translator at the united states embassy for her the meeting was like in a romantic film however her romeo's love wasn't quite what she thought this love had a price to pay and that was the confidential documents that passed through gabriella's delicate hands [Music] i brought him documents but he was very skillful i didn't even pay attention to the documents that i brought back and he kept telling me it wasn't important and then the romeo becomes more insistent he vanishes then reappears marriage is forgotten romance gives way to blackmail gabriella takes more risks to try and save their love the documents that the embassy no longer needed were put into bags that were then burned these burn bags they won them for brand nah and it happened documented i took the documents in these bags i tried to take what seemed useful then i slipped them into my handbag and i left the embassy never checked then at the house i photographed them then threw them away or put them back in these burn bags there were documents about weapon systems like pershing missiles that i do remember it's a technique of compromise of compromising somebody who ultimately when compromised can't afford to admit that he has given information to his mistress we tried the romeo business ourselves very much later on the soviets it never worked we never found the right warfare we never found the right girl [Laughter] or the right romeos it's obvious we're much more successful for the stasi i wasn't a person just an instrument and the outside i was 32. pretty intelligent it hurt to knock her i had my life ahead of me and then this outside force arrived totally aware of his actions and decided to end the life of this woman sometimes it's okay and sometimes not at all the romeo's had more than 80 victims young women who provided the kgb with information from all the ministries all the embassies were there no morals yeah there's no morale this is not a morality plan far from it [Music] the cia was equally lacking in sentiments in the middle of the 1970s the communist system was more and more criticized the police state had enemies inside these were the men that the americans recruited after infiltrating enemy lines they blend into the background and stay invisible eberhard fetch 71 today in east berlin he worked for the cia for four years he was tasked with watching the movements of the russian troops [Music] that was the first how do i say my first spy training and here's carly in fact he was my liaison agent i met carly who died a few years ago on a train that was going to prague completely by chance seven years later in 1975 it was him who recruited me to work for the american secret services i didn't feel like east germany was my home i dreamed of living elsewhere in the west i also had a very romantic image of america america for me it was the country of freedom for me freight it was easy to recruit agents it was very difficult to quote good asians because a lot of the germans they wanted to show the heat of the russians we were not interested in that we were interested in information and a lot of them got caught because they were they wanted to be heroes and what happened to them to those who got some of them got executed some of them ended in siberia it was a very with a not a nice game beneath a suzanne dove i started to think about this job all the time i was always asked for more to go to places further and further away for example one day they wanted me to go and observe the soviet army's biggest petrol depot after a while it became too much for me and also my wife was implicated she helped me to decipher the coded messages on the radio she begged me to stop this nonsense of course i became more and more scared today i don't know how i managed to sleep at night to work normally to carry out my job as engineer when i was living with a sword of democracy [Music] it happened on the 28th of june 1979. i was going down a street in my car when a brown vulgar suddenly came up behind me british company and then blocked my way for me three men jumped out of the vehicle and one of them asked me if i was eberhart fetkenhoyer i said i was and he asked me to follow them as we had business to settle [Music] during the trip i told myself to take a long look at these trees because you may not be seeing them again soon and that was what happened eberhard fed canoe had fallen and the cia had lost an agent he was to be transferred to the most sinister detention center in berlin horne schonhausen the stasi prison here he was interrogated by secret service agents quickly judged then convicted for spying over four years on soviet military bases in all eberhard fetchinger will spend six years in a cell like this one a new victim of the war of the secret services [Music] the cia and the kgb continue this fight by each side trying to uncover traitors in 1974 the secret services in the west bring down a man that shakes west germany right up to the highest ranks of the state the man who whispered in the chancellor's ear one of willie brandt's closest advisers was actually a stasi agent he started one of the biggest post-war scandals in the world of espionage his name was gunter guillaume and he moved to the west at 29. with his wife he settled in frankfurt and joined the social democratic party officially living the life of a normal citizen this exceptional spy climbed all the ranks of what became the ruling party the stasi agents were sent to west germany there they sometimes ended up in poverty with nothing no money no help the soviet intelligence service cut contact and wouldn't support them at all they had to make their own way own career until they were successful several did succeed among them 20 years to reach the chancery 20 years spent delivering documents on the west german political orientation when he was uncovered on the 24th of april 1974 chancellor villebrandt is forced to resign and kuntu kyom is arrested for it was very early in the morning apparently the police and the secret services always come very early what woke me up was the noise a racket all through the apartment voices and there in the door frame i saw my father he was in a dressing gown and facing all these men in dark suits this image was completely surreal and then in a sort of parade my father my mother then my grandmother lined up in front of me so he could say goodbye my father didn't say a word he took me in his arms and hugged me my mother was completely devastated she was saying my poor baby don't worry it's a mistake everything will be fine my grandmother wouldn't stop crying it only lasted a few minutes then my parents and my grandmother were taken away and i was left on my own in the apartment pierre baum was 16 at the time he only has a few photos left of this family that was torn apart he never received any explanation from his relatives to what point did my father really believe what he was doing as a spy what did he really think of east germany i'm of the opinion that over the 20 years he spent in the west he was certainly an agent but he'd also evolved and been influenced by the west i think that for my father this double life wasn't just a lie to me and others i think it destroyed him from inside he spoke about it much later he said that he worked for two men on one side he worshipped marcus wolfe the head of espionage in the gdr the other man was willie brunt who my father loved [Music] i'm certain that it was difficult for my father right until his death to know to analyze what he really was this man with two faces was tried and sentenced to 13 years in prison in 1981 gunter guillaume is released and returns as a hero to east berlin he's welcomed by the man who made him the most famous spy in the cold war marcus wolfe [Applause] [Music] [Music] for me a process was started which lasted a long time and maybe still goes on today well after the deaths of my parents this process maybe won't have an end because i live in a permanent search to find the real identities of my parents who was my mother who was really my father [Music] at the start of the 80s the guillaume affair didn't help the relationship between the cia and the kgb once again the cold war entered a very tense period that's when one of the less well-known episodes began in november 1983 the russians are convinced that the third world war is imminent one man plays a key role in defusing this situation klaus eisner is now 76 he was a colonel in the stasi his job was to go through the information gathered by agents on the ground in 1983 nato began large-scale military maneuvers the tension was so high that the soviets genuinely feared that nuclear missiles would be fired at any moment in east germany pilots were in their planes armed with nuclear missiles with the propellers already turning luckily and i admit i'm proud of it we had a source in the headquarters of nato we lived in total paranoia especially the soviet military heads they feared a war and we tried to bring them back down to earth by providing the facts in moscow the authorities are convinced at the last moment that nato aren't planning to attack the ussr the threat of nuclear conflict dissipates [Music] there our agent who we called topaz played a decisive role and nobody at that time knew that we were on the brink of war [Music] thanks to the secret services many critical situations were diffused in europe in general it's known that governments lie and cheat to know their real intentions you need to have an authority with independent information to mutually keep tabs on each other the secret services contributed to peace in europe they allowed explosive situations to be identified enough in advance to be discreetly settled by the diplomats in the middle of the 80s the war between the cia and the kgb changed considerably to respond to soviet power ronald reagan began the star wars an enormous project for a missile defense shield the last phase of the battle was getting started in moscow these photographs that piled up on the desk of the intelligence service worried those at the highest level the americans were striking a blow that could be fatal to the ussr the ability to infiltrate agents into the eastern bloc was incredibly difficult to do human intelligence was not not something that we were particularly effective at mainly because of the ability of uh the soviet union in the eastern bloc to protect themselves counterintelligence so we had to find the technical collection means some of this was imagery intelligence some of this was the u2 spy plane with satellite technology and so the nsa decided to build a state-of-the-art signals intelligence facility and the highest peak in west berlin and of course west berlin being surrounded by east berlin means that in every single direction you're looking at enemy territory so it's the perfect place to put a a intelligence gathering radio uh facility um and in doing so they were able to uh to listen even beyond just east germany actually into the eastern bloc and it was incredibly important for gathering information during that time teufelsberg the devil's mountain a visible sign of the advantage that the cia was gaining on the kgb the ussr's economy is dying moscow is no longer capable of financing this cold war and following the united states at teufelsberg hundreds of american agents are driving this monster of technology thirty years later the empty carcass of the beast remains is we're in one of the most fascinating places in the cold war 150 meters above sea level today it's dedicated to art but it was once devoted to the arts of espionage from here thousands of phone calls were listened into as far as east europe it's here they were recorded transcribed and analyzed everything washington knew was based on the work carried out here from up there the cia agents watching the soviet bloc struggle and its empire crumble away it's the beginnings of peace the kgb and the cia make contact the australia is my 1985 the 11th of june it's exactly midday on the glenica bridge in south berlin it's here that the most important exchange of spies in history will take place from the east a small bus just arrived there was this bus ride from the prison the pressure was so intense that i kept asking myself what is happening what are they going to do to me you're not really in control of yourself in these moments you've reached the limits of what a person can psychologically stand on the gliniker bridge a ballet of armored vehicles the american richard burt in black sunglasses goes out onto the bridge he greets wolfgang fogle the man who negotiated this exchange of prisoners for the stasi smiles and handshakes are exchanged never in history of the cia and the kgb being so close on one side four soviet spies captured by the americans are returned home on the other 23 agents recruited by the cia and imprisoned by moscow on this bus is eberhard fetchner [Music] klaus who looked after the relations between the two german states got on the bus i think there was also the american negotiator they said to us don't worry nothing more is going to happen to you and to prove it we're getting on the bus and staying with you spider [Music] when i cross the line that marks the border i remember it like it was yesterday i felt something incredible it's over they have no more power over me their grief is inferior each side took their men the cold war had reached its end and in 1989 its most visible symbol would collapse [Applause] i think the fault of the wall you've got the victory of the west is the big victory in the worst because it it proved that the system they built could not sustain could not last and that you could not isolate a society from the rest of the world the intelligence services are no longer a threat 15th of january 1990 berliners blockade the headquarters of the stasi the people reclaim their history [Music] you think in a way yourself you had played a role in that a very small one very small one just a little little stone in a big wall the kgb had lost this war in moscow the soviet system doesn't last long [Music] later the cia and the kgb would find themselves engaged in battle once again but berlin remains the place where they fought the fiercest and closest battle in almost hand-to-hand combat [Music]

Channel: Timeline - World History Documentaries

Views: 2,094,320

Keywords: TV Shows - Topic, Documentary, the cold war, Documentaries, History, documentary history, Channel 4 documentary, stories, Full Documentary, BBC documentary, Documentary Movies - Topic, history documentary, kgb (government agency), russian spies, 2017 documentary, real, soviet union, cold war, central intelligence agency (cia) (government agency), central intelligence agency, Full length Documentaries, secret service

Id: q05rMyTzMrM

Length: 51min 46sec (3106 seconds)

Published: Sun Oct 14 2018