The Wall & Cold War
A city cut in two — the airlift, the rising of the Wall in 1961, Checkpoint Charlie, the death strip, and life on both sides of the divide.
Part of Berlin
17 moments in this segment.
- — The 1953 Uprising. June 1953 — East German workers rise against the regime; Soviet tanks crush the revolt in the streets.
- — Karl-Marx-Allee. The monumental "wedding-cake" socialist boulevard of East Berlin — Stalinist grandeur in tile and stone.
- — The Stasi headquarters. The vast Normannenstraße complex of the GDR secret police — now a museum of total surveillance.
- — Checkpoint Charlie. The Allied crossing point where, in October 1961, American and Soviet tanks faced off muzzle to muzzle.
- — The Wall goes up. August 13, 1961 — overnight the GDR seals the border with barbed wire and concrete, dividing families for 28 years.
- — Leap into Freedom. The famous photograph of GDR border guard Conrad Schumann vaulting the barbed wire in 1961.
- — The Bridge of Spies. The Glienicke Bridge between Berlin and Potsdam, where East and West exchanged captured spies.
- — The death of Peter Fechter. In 1962 the 18-year-old is shot trying to flee and left to bleed in the death strip — a symbol of the Wall's cruelty.
- — Ich bin ein Berliner. June 1963 — JFK at the Schöneberg city hall declares his solidarity with the encircled city.
- — The escape tunnels. Daring tunnels dug beneath the Wall — Tunnel 57 brought dozens of East Berliners to freedom in 1964.
- — The Trabant. The smoky little two-stroke car of the GDR — beloved, mocked, and an icon of life behind the Wall.
- — The death strip. The no-man's-land of the inner border — watchtowers, tripwires, and the guards ordered to shoot.
- — The Palast der Republik. The bronze-glass GDR parliament-and-leisure palace on the old palace site — "Erich's Lamp Shop", later demolished.
- — Bowie sings to East Berlin. In 1987 Bowie plays by the Wall; East Berliners gather on the far side to listen — a crack in the regime.
- — Tear down this wall. June 1987 — Reagan at the Brandenburg Gate challenges Gorbachev to open the Wall.
- — The Berlin Airlift. 1948–49 — when the Soviets blockade West Berlin, the Allies fly in coal and food; the "Candy Bombers" drop sweets to children.
- — The tank standoff. October 1961 — US and Soviet tanks face off at Checkpoint Charlie, the Cold War at flashpoint.
