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GDR border guards shoot man during boat trip in Teltow Canal On 15 June 1965, Hermann Döbler (42) and his companion Elke Märtens (21) are discovered by two border guards during a boat trip on the [...]

How music overcomes the wall In 1987, on the Whitsun weekend in West Berlin, rock superstars such as David Bowie and Genesis joined hands to celebrate the 750th anniversary when they performed at [...]

44 years ago: GDR manages to win group against FRG On 22 June 1974, the professional football teams from East and West Germany met for the only time, and that at the World Cup in West Germany. [...]

How a feast paved the way to freedom On 19 August 1989, a joint picnic of Austrian and Hungarian citizens was to take place in the Sopron border area. The reason for this joint picnic was the [...]

The East German opposition was fed by various sources; among the opposition members were also those who wanted to leave the country and no longer considered the GDR capable of reform. They [...]

Why the nuclear catastrophe failed to materialise Because of the Potsdam Conference, Berlin was divided into four sectors (Soviet Union, France, Great Britain and USA). Thus, as a result of [...]

From the very beginning, the GDR’s border fortifications on the outskirts of West Berlin had a great influence on the flora and fauna. Due to its large forests, West Berlin, which was [...]

The era of wall art began in 1976 when the GDR border troops started to build a new wall of concrete segments on the west side. These were around 3.60 m high and mostly painted white. Of course, [...]

During the years of the Berlin Wall, air traffic to West Berlin ran via three fixed air corridors. Hamburg (northwest), Bückeburg (west) and Frankfurt (southwest).   German planes were not [...]

For the members of the diplomatic corps in the GDR, life was completely different from that of the citizens of East or West Berlin. Ambassadors, embassy counsellors, embassy secretaries and [...]

Many people thought of a city in the style of medieval Nuremberg with a city wall. A city in which one constantly comes up against the wall. Nothing could be more wrong. West Berlin had an area [...]

After decades of division, Berliners in East and West were fed up with the Wall. Therefore, in 1989, there was little interest in preserving pieces. Wall-snatchers and companies on official [...]

The district of Steinstücken was created in 1787 when farmers from Stolpe acquired land outside their village boundaries. A small settlement developed there in the 19th century. Stolpe was [...]

Where there is a comrade, there is the party (SED). Where there are 20 comrades, there is an Intershop. – a common staircase joke from GDR times. But, what actually was an Intershop? [...]

The German-German air border was far more massive than just air. Many successful attempts took place “under” the border, numerous tunnels were dug, and if they were not betrayed or [...]

Long before the Wall was built in 1961, clandestine tunnels had been built under the border strip. Smugglers used houses located on the border to create routes without customs checks by breaking [...]

Translation of the speech by US President John F. Kennedy in front of the Schöneberg Town Hall on 26 June 1963 Kennedy in Berlin “My fellow Berliners, I am proud to come to your city today [...]

It is tragic that with the Wall, a brutal instrument of oppression became Berlin’s best-known international symbol. Although the Wall is now decades of bygone history, the city will [...]

DEUTSCHE WELLE: When the Wall Fell – From Division to Unity It is one of the most significant events of the last century: due to the peaceful and courageous pressure of the people, the [...]

After the borders of the Soviet zone were initially guarded only by the Red Army, a paramilitary police unit was set up for this task on 1 December 1946. Initially simply called the Border [...]

22 December 1976: ARD television correspondent Lothar Loewe is expelled from the GDR “for serious violation of the legal system”. In a report for the “Tagesschau”, Loewe [...]

23 December 1918: Helmut Schmidt was born 100 years ago today. As German Chancellor, he was committed to the NATO Dual Decision in 1979, whereby negotiations were offered to the Warsaw Pact. At [...]

20 December 1986:  A self-built glider was to take the passionate hang-glider pilot from Fahrland to West Berlin, six kilometres away. The escape plan fails: The 37-year-old is arrested and [...]

125 years ago today, Mao Zedong was (https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mao_Zedong) was born. He allegedly gave GDR head of state Walter Ulbricht the idea of building a wall through Berlin… at [...]

30 December 1983: The Deutsche Reichsbahn and the West Berlin Senate agree on the takeover of the S-Bahn in the West Berlin urban area by the Senate. Since 1945, the light rail system ran on the [...]

On 21 December 1972, 46 years ago today, Michael Kohl and Egon Bahr signed the Basic Treaty between the two German states.  According to the Hallstein Doctrine of 1955 [...]

From January 1983, the GDR border troops start building new observation towers on the Berlin Wall. The new type is square (4.2 × 4.2 m). It was assembled from prefabricated concrete elements. [...]

On 1 December 1955, the border police took over securing the entire state border of the GDR to the west and east.  Only the border to West Berlin was subject to the  still solely to the Soviet [...]

It was typical for the GDR leadership to try to connect the population and the authorities. Thus, on 25 September 1952, the People’s Police Volunteers organisation was created. The members [...]

German Television Broadcasting One of the most important weapons in the propaganda struggle of the systems of East and West was without doubt television. The first public television broadcasts [...]

In recent decades, the cosmopolitan city of Berlin has become one of the world’s top locations for art and culture. Swinging London or the Big Apple were yesterday, today the metropolis of [...]

The communist youth organisation FDJ was not a new creation of the GDR. An FDJ had already been founded in 1936 by communists in exile in Paris.  had been founded. In Czechoslovakia, other [...]

Over there, that was the respective other Germany for the citizens of West and East Germany. In the West, many people reacted with annoyance when they heard criticism of the political and social [...]

For a long time, the state health system in the GDR was considered exemplary, because every sick or injured person had the right to be treated free of charge, and the state managed to provide [...]

Since 1925, there was a central pioneer camp of the Soviet youth organisation Vladimir Ilyich Lenin near the town of Hursuf. It was initially founded as the “All-Union Recreation Camp for [...]

The end of the Second World War was for many years also the end of German aviation. The civil airline Lufthansa disappeared from the skies. In 1953, the Aktiengesellschaft für Luftverkehrsbedarf [...]

In the GDR, young people were always supposed to be well-behaved, socialist, clean and loyal to the line. And for a long time the GDR leadership succeeded in maintaining this image. But there [...]

For the state leadership of the German Democratic Republic, Christmas was a problem in the real existing socialism, the Christian holidays did not really fit into their ideology of an atheistic [...]

Few cities with over a million inhabitants have such a well-developed local transport network as Berlin. Almost every tourist destination can be reached quickly by train or bus. Of course, [...]

2019 marks the 30th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. Reason enough for Berlin and the Federal Government to plan a multitude of celebrations, exhibitions and events. Between 4 and 10 [...]

Ja, ja, ja, das ist die Berliner Luft, Luft, Luft so mit ihrem holden Duft, Duft, Duft wo nur selten was verpufft, pufft, pufft in dem Duft, Duft, Duft dieser Luft, Luft, Luft Das macht die [...]

The state of Prussia ended its existence in 1945. Formally, however, it continued to exist until its formal dissolution by Allied Control Council Law No. 46 of 25 February 1947.  It says:  „The [...]

Russians have lived in Berlin since the 18th century. Their numbers increased enormously in the 20th century; the Russian Revolution brought thousands of White Russian refugees to the city. The [...]

Humanity has a short memory. It helps people not to live in permanent fear. And the longer it has been since the last case, the less aware we are of the risk. Epidemics are nothing new, Corona is [...]