1961: Berlin Germany. Tanks and
soldiers are in the streets. The nation's divided. And the Wall
is being built to separate people, separate families, separate friends. What happens when a country and
its capital city are cut in half? Today, Germany is a leading
member of the European Union, and its capital city is a popular tourist destination. The story of a divided Berlin, and the
Soviet occupation of East Germany begins with the fall of Berlin and Hitler's
National Socialist German Workers Party. It happened at the end of WWII, a global war that was the
deadliest conflict in human history. Dr. Rainer Zitelmann is a German author,
historian, and sociologist. He lives in Berlin. Germany became the location
of a large-scale Cold War experiment. The country was divided into two parts. Two very different economic and political
systems developed side by side. The victorious armies divided Germany into four zones. The three zones occupied by the United
States, Great Britain, and France unified, and became what was called West Germany. While the zone occupied by the
Soviet Union became East Germany. East Germany called itself the
German Democratic Republic. West Germany called itself the
Federal Republic of Germany, and it was a democratic, parliamentary republic. The capital city, Berlin, was inside East Germany. Berlin was also divided into East and West by a border that wound its way
down streets and canals and through neighborhoods,
parks, sidewalks, and fields. Wolfgang Zawatski is a caretaker at
the East German Apartment Museum. [Speaking in German] The early days after WWII were
a struggle for all Germans. So much of the country was destroyed,
and the economy was a total disaster. In West Germany, almost one-quarter
of all housing lay in ruins. [Speaking in German] A lot of East Germans, like entrepreneurs, managers, farmers, creative people, young professionals,
moved from the Soviet-controlled East towards the freedom of the West, and
they called it the "Brain Drain." They were moving from a
state-run system in the East to what they hoped would be
a better life in the West, but not everyone was
on the same page. Even after the failure of
Hitler's National Socialism, many West Germans weren't convinced
that capitalism would be any better. But, by a narrow margin, West German
voters supported Ludwig Erhard's plan for an economic system
like the United States. He hoped that this would
expand the economy and lead to more wealth and
prosperity for everyone. West Berlin, and the rest of
West Germany, was a democracy with a free-market economy. East Berlin and all of
East Germany was socialist and had a planned economy. In a market economy, entrepreneurs
decide what is produced and in the end,
it's the consumer's choice. On the other hand,
in a planned economy, politicians and civil servants determine
what is produced according to their plan. The market economy in West Germany resulted in higher prices, at first. But it also created a flood of consumer goods, which were less expensive than in the East. And shortages in the East were common. Christine and Manfred Schreiber
grew up in East Germany, and were married there in 1979. [Speaking in German] Products that were
difficult to produce or imported were
hard to find. When shops got
bananas or oranges, people had to wait
in a long line, but a lot of them had
to leave empty-handed. [Speaking in German] Some things were
just hard to get. If you could buy something
that people wanted, you could trade it for
something that you needed. Some people think that
a few master planners can determine what
the people want instead of leaving it up to millions
of consumers and entrepreneurs. These lines were created
by this kind of thinking. For the next twelve years, the West German economy
grew at a fast pace. Shops were filled with
a wide variety of goods, housing improved, and the
standard of living increased. But, not in the East.
Things weren't going well. People didn't want to follow the
government planners, so they had to be forced. How were they forced? The East German government created a large state security
agency called the Stasi. Dr. Hubertus Knabe is
a German historian. "So the Stasi was
the main instrument of controlling the society
in East Germany." [Speaking in German] "So, your friends, your colleagues
at work, they worked for the Stasi." [Speaking in German] "My case, for example, I was living in the West. I smuggled forbidden
books to the East. My best friend, he was a
priest in East Germany. And I did it together with him. It came out that he was the informer
and he told everything to the Stasi." Despite firm government control, people were
still allowed to travel to West Berlin, and although it was illegal
to watch Western T.V., most East Germans could
tune it in at home. [Speaking in German] They watched "Democracy In Action," commercials for refrigerators that
were almost impossible to buy, and a lifestyle that
they would never have. These day-to-day problems
motivated more and more young, educated, and talented
people to move to the West. Companies were also leaving, taking
managers and skilled workers with them. The Brain Drain continued. By 1961, more than two and a half
million people had left East Germany, including nearly
one million workers. It's really important to remember: Almost
everyone moved from the East to the West, and almost no one moved
from the West to the East. And fifty percent of all these
refugees were under the age of 25. The East German government
felt that it had to do something. So, what did they do? In August 1961,
they built the Wall. The East German government
called it the Anti-Fascist Wall, to keep Western fascists out. But in truth, it was a wall
to keep East Germans in. A wall to keep people out has
soldiers with guns pointed out. But the Berlin Wall has
soldiers with guns pointed in. [Speaking in German] And so, people could no longer
move from East to West Berlin. [Speaking in German] Many people tried to
escape from the East. One famous defector was an
East German border guard who threw down his rifle and jumped across the barbed
wire to safety in the West. By the 1980s, the Berlin Wall was 100 miles long and surrounded West Berlin. It was topped with watchtowers
and armed guards. It was a piece
of West Germany, located in the middle
of East Germany. 262 people died while
trying to escape over the Wall to
freedom in West Berlin, where they could
then travel by plane or rail to the rest
of West Germany. Half of those killed
were 18-25 years old. They were shot, drowned,
or blown up by mines. As times went on, socialist East
Germany improved slightly, but continued to fall more and more
behind capitalist West Germany. The planners made their plans,
but they weren't working. Low prices on essentials were
subsidized by heavily taxing things like vacuum cleaners and
refrigerators as luxury items, making them unaffordable. So-called luxury items that
East Germans could buy were not up to West
German standards. Stereos, T.V.s, and cars were
nowhere near the same quality as those that you
could buy in the West. The Trabant is a perfect example. East Germany was famous for
making the worst cars in the world. The Trabant, or "Trabi" as it was
called, had a two-cycle engine and used a mixture of oil and gas,
just like an old lawnmower. We may find them funny, but the blue smoke that came out
of them was not funny at all but caused a lot of
environmental problems. An even bigger problem
was lignite coal. It's the dirtiest coal there
is, but Germany has a lot of it. In 1988, East Germans' unfiltered smokestacks polluted the atmosphere with ten times more particulate matter and ten times more sulfur dioxide per square kilometer than West Germany. It was very dusty, it was stinky,
and it was dangerous to live there. But it was not allowed to
speak about this problem. Nobody feels responsible. So if it goes out here, who cares. It's not my problem. It's owned by
the state, the state is responsible. A lot of people think that capitalism
is a bigger threat to the environment, but in fact, East Germany, the
country that abolished capitalism, had the highest per capita air pollution worldwide. [Speaking in German] Almost half of the major rivers in
East Germany became biologically dead. [Speaking in German] And nearly half of the residents couldn't get
clean drinking water out of their faucets. But drinking water wasn't the only
problem with East German housing. Look at this house. It looked like this. This East German government
continued the so-called rent freeze that was implemented by National
Socialists during Adolf Hitler's time. The result were low rents, which
sounds good on the one hand, but on the other hand, there was no money
for maintenance and modernization. Ten percent of all buildings
were completely uninhabitable. Forty percent of all apartment buildings
were classified as severely damaged, and many undamaged
apartments had other problems. [Speaking in German] In West Germany almost every
family had their own bathroom. Only two percent had to share
a toilet with their neighbors. But in the East, 27 percent had to
share a toilet with other tenants that was outside their own apartment. [Speaking in German] The East German government attempted
to solve the problem by constructing blocks of identical apartment buildings,
but they could not meet the demand. [Speaking in German] Tragically, the once beautiful villages
of East Germany were falling down. At least two hundred old town
centers were seriously endangered. And it's hard to believe, but even to get one of
these run-down apartments took years and years. But for most
people it took even longer to get a car. East Germans had to wait from 12 to 17
years for a new car to become available. [Speaking in German] To get a car more quickly, people could buy a
fifteen-year-old Trabi at the new car price. [Speaking in German] This black market was illegal, but the
East German government couldn't stop it. In the West, you could buy a
Volkswagen, a Mercedes, or a BMW, and drive it home that afternoon. When I was young, we
lived in the West, and our telephone looked
just like this one. And even our telephone
book looked like this. But it was much thicker. Why? Because in the West, 99
percent had a telephone, and in the East,
it was 16 percent. [Speaking in German] The East German leaders always promised to
overtake the West, but it never happened. There was economic stagnation, political
repression, and widespread dissatisfaction. The socialist planned
economy was failing. [Speaking in German] In 1987, President Ronald Reagan,
while visiting West Germany, delivered a message
to Mikhail Gorbachev, the leader of the Soviet Union's
Communist Party: "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this Wall." President Reagan gave East
Germany moral support, but Gorbachev didn't
tear down the Wall. The East Germans had
finally had enough. What were called the Monday
Protests began here in Leipzig. It was a start of a peaceful revolution. In October of 1989, between seventy- and a hundred-thousand
people protested in the streets. Their most famous chant
became: "We are the people." [Speaking in German] In 1989, a government spokesman announced that
East Germans could travel outside the country. That night, Germans from
both sides flocked to the Wall. Fearing violence, East German
guards opened the barriers. At the Brandenburg Gate, people chipped
away at the Wall with hammers and pickaxes. I remember exactly the night when I saw on T.V. that
the border was opened. And I'd always dreamed
about German reunification and now, this dream
seemed to become true. And I called my mother, and this was the only time in my
life when tears ran down my face for political reasons. On October 3, 1990, East Germany
and West Germany were reunited as one country. Today all that's left of the
Berlin Wall is this short section, that we keep as a reminder of this
terrible period of German history. This is the former East Germany. And it's very hard to say where
the old West Germany ends, and the new East Germany begins. Once the Wall was down, people were freer
to make their own choices, and once companies were no longer owned by
the state, but by private entrepreneurs, standards of living began to rise. It proves that increasing free-market
capitalist elements leads to more growth. This is not only good for
entrepreneurs or rich people, but it is also good for average people.
