We had a Polish substitute teacher in my highschool history class, and she really tried to drill into us how terrible Communism was for her family growing up behind the Iron Curtain. She was probably the realest teacher I ever had in high school.
I had a sub that was from Czechoslovakia, I believe I could be mistaken but some former Slavic nation, and he told his story about him and his wife escaping when the genocides started and how they had to get fake passports and lived in Germany illegally for a long while before they were able to legally become citizens. It was an incredible and interesting story and I’m glad I got to here it and while he didn’t say his opinion on communism I was able to piece it together at the start.
My complex analysis professor was from Poland and told us stories about life growing up under communism. His sense of humor was perhaps the darkest I've ever seen as a result of some of the things he lived through. He was a really great professor and I was truly sad when he passed away.
more teachers who arent willing to actually explain properly how similar russias economy was to americas? the only difference between the usa and russia is that russia is far more authoritarian than the usa is both countries were ran by the ruling class both countries believed in private property both countries starve their citizens and ignore the fact its happening while making excuses but never fixing it both countries claim to know what the people want but never actually do any of it last I checked both democrats and republicans want socialist aspects in the economy but due to shitty 1950 propos and piss poor education because the government doesnt want to tell the truth because the USA has to be this shining example of how "great" capitalism is versus any other economies that even though the usa believes in freedom for all they certainly love toppling other countries governments simply for the desire of forced economic trade IE imperialism none of this will ever happen that teacher was simply suffering under the same shit capitalism does but under a government that lied about their ideology and never did anything remotely marxist related @@sabastiangipson8163
I know a U.S. Army officer whose family escaped through the eastern european satellite nations. He has shared some dark stories in passing he witnessed as a child. When his family made it to America he was impressed by the military's multicultural integration and enlisted as a resident. Once he earned his citizenship and degree he commissioned as an officer. At a certain publicly funded university he encountered the local chapter of communist party student members protesting capitalism who took offense at him and others in their uniforms while on campus. The undergrads in designer and name brand clothing told him he knew nothing of "real communism" when he took offense at their misguided efforts. That rage in his eyes as a group of us pulled him away from the "kids" never leaves my memory.
"Stealing a tank and trying to drive it through the wall" The person who did that was Wolfgang Engels, who later became a teacher in West Germany. I know that, because I was a pupil in his class around 2000. He told us the story first-hand, even showed some photographs from later that day. It wasn't really a "tank", but an armored personnel carrier. He was a member of the East German army at the time, so he had relatively easy access to one. There were some secret locations where the wall was built less sturdy on purpose, so that in the case of war with the West, East German tanks could easily drive through the wall at those locations. These locations were known to him and he tried to take advantage of that knowledge to escape to the West. Amazingly, on his way there, he stopped several times and asked people if they wanted to come along. However, the vehicle was less powerful than a real tank, so it got stuck in the wall. He tried to climb out through the rubble and got shot two times by the border guards, but was then pulled into a West German pub by some incredibly brave bystanders on the other side of the wall. He even recalled that one guy had offered his belt as a tourniquet to stop the bleeding from a gunshot wound on his hand and the guy subsequently trying to stop his pants from dropping all the time until the ambulance arrived.
@josepheberle1656 Thanks for your kind words. I'm very glad to have met Mr. Engels. At the time, being an arrogant teenager, I didn't really like him as a teacher or cared much for his story, but I regret that today.
As a 16-year-old German, I traveled to the GDR for a few days in 1983, paid for by the Konrad Adenauer Foundation. We (school class) took the bus to the border. We saw the watchtowers, fences, anti-tank barriers, etc., all facing inwards, like a huge prison. It was an experience that stayed with me to this day.
There's at least one positive chapter of Berlin Wall: its rabbits. Yes, rabbits were trapped in the death zone and thanks to no threats (except when guards were bored enough to start shooting at them) they could reproduce to impressive numbers.
I was 15 in 1989 and remember watching Swedish TV, and suddenly the show I was watching was interrupted by this special news bulletin from Berlin with the announcement of free travel and they showed the enormous masses wanting to leave East Germany. I really liked what I saw.
I was 16 in High School when this happened. While for most in America, this event did not directly affect them, for me it was a "Canon Event". My High School had a foreign exchange program with a West German high school in Bonn and I happened to ask out one of those exchange students exactly two weeks before the Wall came down. In the course of 3 or 4 days our relationship went from me teaching her everything about American culture (including American football) to us sitting glued to the TV in her Host Family's living room as we both watched her country being transformed before our eyes. Ninety-seven percent of Americans had no idea what a big deal this was, I certainly did. Klara would return home to a new country at the end of the school year and I would go on to serve in the US Navy in the early Nineties where I'd meet one of her East German cousins during WestPac 94 and we would share some stories and some beers. Words cannot describe how living through that with her was like, The Germans (and the Japanese) have both become worthy friends over the years (most of my time was spent stationed in Japan).
One of my favorite memories from middle school was my History teacher who had an actual piece of the Berlin wall and came to show it to us one year. Seeing something so significant historically from ten years before I was even born was pretty dope.
10:10 What he's describing and showing in the picture (such as in regards to the sand pits) actually is how the border between East Germany and West Germany was, in the actual middle line between the two countries. Not like how the fortifications around West Berlin were, wall & all. Also yes, West Berlin was properly West Germany.
@@minimaster0328 West Germany was part of the Eastern Bloc the whole time. No wonder they were so quick to integrate the Eastern military equipment after reunification
History facinates me. Especially being a lock technician. A friend of mine from Turkmenistan, sent me a soviet era dual custody padlock, no clue what it was locking up, but my word that sucker weighs close to 9lbs... a padlock. I absolutely love it. Ive been trying to figure out how to restore it, because it was in use all these years until i got it last year, and doesn't seem to disassemble without damaging it. Which I'd rather leave it in my collection rather than hurting it. Have the two sets of original keys with it as well, which is impressive.
I don't know if he'd see or respond to it, but you might be able to shoot LockPickingLawyer a private message or reply to one of his comments and see if he could help you out. He's basically the "Lock God" of TH-cam, like Ian McCollum from Forgotten Weapons is considered "Gun Jesus", etc. (H&K even made an image of Ian Mccollum as Jesus in front of the rising sun, holding an HK416 in one hand and the book he wrote about French rifles in the other.) LPL even has a few videos picking Soviet locks including a dual key control/custody padlock I believe, I know he'll sometimes dismantle a lock to show how the interior works unless it's rare or historically significant in some way, so he may or may not have the info you want. If the issue is just that it's rusted, the only advice I'd have is use some CLP on it and after waiting for the lubricating oil to penetrate and set, gently scrub with a non-mettalic bristle as you don't want to be *too* abrasive and scratch the metal while removing gunk and rust, a copper brush while metal is still soft enough it might be usable as that's what gun cleaning kits generally use for areas with no finish like bluing or parkerization to damage (A new toothbrush could work, if you don't have a gun cleaning kit or something with brushes specifically for this). And despite what anyone says, no, WD-40 is *Not* a CLP. Get the real stuff, while it "seems" to work at first, eventually WD-40 dries out into an awful gummy mess gunking up whatever you used it on even more. (WD-40 is still good, just needs to be used for what it's actually designed for. Removing grease, oil, and water from something, it is *Not* a lasting lubricant). If everything I've said is useless for what you need, then I apologize for wasting your time.
There are multiple German movies about the Ballon escape. Like „Mit dem Wind nach Westen“. It’s a long time since I have seen it, but if I remember correctly, there were actually no shots fired. The East German border guards were basically so confused about the ballon, that they had to first phone their superiors in the middle of the night, and that took so long, that the ballon was already across the border in west Germany. And you can’t shoot a hot air ballon down, in another country‘s air space, that would have been a international incident.
The most history accurate movie is “Balloon” by Micheal Bully-Herbig. He even worked together with the Wetzel Family that had built the Balloon. Funny is that Michael Bully-Herbig usually makes Comedy movies.
I was 21 years old and in the US Army in Gelnhausen Germany when the wall fell. You knew this was a historical moment and the world seemed to have nowhere to go but to a better future. Later we learned better.
Highly debatable that a invasion force could be moved across Soviet territory to secretly attack out of west Berlin. Walling in a city is a offensive action not a defense.
I mean... it doesn't have to be an army. Just a bunch of guys trained in the arts of war, with a proper plan to take down the goverment via subterfuge, causing a riot/uprising and guerilla tactics. I'm not supporting the USSR's reason. I'm just saying that the fact that it WAS accepted makes the reason sounds, you know, reasonable enough to allow it to happens. The Fat Electrician did a video about the limping lady, who basically became the founder of the CIA, and she started by being a spy that built up an intelligence network in WW2, by herself, give or take a few locals.
@@zacksilverstone7642 USSR only had the longest border in the world to safeguard. West Germany was already the worst point to covertly enter. It's basically a brisk walk from Finland to Saint Petersburg.
Yeah, I'm at 15:49 and that marks 3 times before the halfway point of the video that Terry prefaced "but it was actually said by the Soviets that it was a defensive action to prevent invasion." What a weird stance to take, but it's mostly harmless the rest of the video.
I was stationed with the US Air Force in Western Germany in 1974 and a friend and I visited Berlin and because we were in uniform the East Germans and Russians couldn't keep us out. We went through at Checkpoint Charlie.
If anyone has any doubts of how bad communism is they should actually talk to someone from a communist country. North Korean Cuban Older Eastern European Venezuelan Its wierd that not many people were flocking to these countries but instead they flock to the west.
In the spirit of intellectual honestly it should be noted that people were leaving capitalist countries (mostly the US) to go to the USSR, Nazi Germany, and Fascist Italy during the Great Depression in the 1930s. The Communists usually tossed them into prison on arrival.
Nearly all People that I know who lived in East Germany, have said to me that they liked it there, but that they didn't like the political Party (SED). There were a ton of people who didn't want to reunite with West Germany, they rather wanted to b their own state but with a functioning Democracy.
I guess it's worth mentioning that while Glasnost and Perestroika led to reforms in the Soviet Union, the regime in the GDR was mostly a run by hardliners, who denied those new freedoms to their people.
Yeah bull@~?£. The East-Germans were taking orders from Moscow still. It was the renouncing of the Brezhnev Doctrine that did it. Although they continued to suppress movements within the soviet union. So much for openness.
I was often expected to watch the 6pm news with my parents when this happened, so it wasn't a special occasion, but I knew enough of history to at least realize this was something different. It wasn't until later that I grasped how horrible the wall had been, but I knew this was the dismantling of a key icon of the other half of the Cold War.
I was all of six years old when the wall came down. I have very few memories that far back, but most definitely remember it - my parents were so excited and someone explained to me as well as my six-year-old brain could understand what was going on. My dad had lived in West Germany for about two years a few years before I was born and I remember him talking about how happy many of the people he'd met would be about it.
I was 12 when the wall fell. My family and I were just watching the news think wow. Just wow. I am surprised that he didn’t mention Regan’s famous “Tear down this wall!” speech. I saw an anniversary documentary about the speech with the writer. The state department wanted to avoid mentioning that wall. When the speech writer went to West Berlin prior to the speech, he went to dinner with a West Berlin family. When he asked about the wall, the family cut loose with a lot of negative emotions about the wall. Regan looked over an early the speech write wrote with “Tear down this wall!” and loved it. Regan went with it and was one of his best speeches.
Ronald Wilson Reagan did not write that line, it was Peter Mark Robinson who wrote it. Reagan however overruled the many opponents and decided on the explosive language. Rightly so.
I remember people escaping East Germany by tunnels and also by hiding inside cars that had been modified to hide them. One picture I remember showed a person who made the trip concealed inside the fender of a car. It was amazing the ingenuity shown. There were also the pictures of people shot dead trying to go over the wall.
Don’t know if you know the lore but he’s currently pursuing his Masters in History. He’s also now a regular host on the Unsubscribe Podcast. Viewer discretion on that podcast FYI.
I came into the comments just to point this out and say he is having arguments on the regular with the children in class who do not think communism is bad. Perhaps a teacher told him to tone it down with the children so he is venting here. I'm loving it can't wait to see what subject they piss him off about next.
As a bitter fun fact. Look at old pictures of the wall segments in place and note the direction in which they were placed. Which way? Yes, they are directional due to the L-shape to lock a vehicle in place if it tries to break through.
I loved learning about the different escape. Attempts that East Germans did to try to get to West Germany. Because this is actually a period I don't know that much about.
Let's not forget Alexander Solzhenitsyn's Gulag Archipelago was published years before the Chernobyl disaster, starting the downfall of the to the pro-communism sentiment among intellectuals in western academia. Some of them sought relief in maoism before figuring out it was an even worse scenario...
It always surprises me to think that tunnels are feasible at all for situations like this. It takes an army of people probably hundreds or thousands of man hours to make something remotely usable, and only one snitch or mistake in communication to get found out and have the whole thing shut down instantly (and anyone who approached the entrance to the tunnel apprehended, maybe?). I imagine the best methods of escape would be, of course, the ones nobody heard about and nobody knows about to this day. If they're secret enough to be unknown to this day, they were probably secret enough to work back then. I'm expecting that outside help was instrumental in a lot of escape attempts, so long as communication was possible.
Considering you needed to have a pass to even be *near* the border (and those were only given to people who lived in villages nearby. Some villages were simply disbanded because they were too close), a tunnel would have needed to be very very long. And stable enough not to collapse, even when the border patrol drove their vehicles overhead. So yeah, tunnels were pretty much not feasible for the border. Within Berlin, where the off-limits area was narrower, it may have been possible, but you'd have a way harder time to tunnel underneath/around the foundations of buildings, not to mention transporting out all the dirt you dug up without rousing suspicions.
I actually got to interview two people who escaped the GDR, Gunther Wetzel (The one who fled with the Hot air Balloon) and one Winfried Rosenkranz (Tried to flee with a train. These two have fascinating stories to tell. Mr. Rosenkranz even said “the GDR wasn't a bad state if you didn't value free speech” and as a matter of fact a lot of people who lived in East Germany would agree with what he is saying. Mr. Terry the history of East Germany is interesting, it is a history about people who like living in their Country but hate the Regime. It's also a history about a Population that got screwed over in the reunion of the two Countries. I am myself from the part of Germany that was part of East Germany and my Parent grew up in the GDR, so if there are any questions I would be happy to answer them.
Love your reactions to the Fat Electrian. I was an AW in the USN( P-3 Orion), and if you ever want to know what’s up with ASW in the Navy, I can tell you a little bit. Most of what I know is top secret. Matter of fact I can’t tell you shit. I’m sorry for even bringing it up.
The funny thing is that the American Anthropological Association effectively agreed with the USSR because these "Western" ideas of human rights were "unfair" for non-Western cultures and that the West, with its history of colonialism, was too "problematic" to be setting up a moral code. They presented a set of "considerations" that basically boiled down to the last one. "Standards and values are relative to the culture from which they derive so that any attempt to formulate postulates that grow out of the beliefs or moral codes of one culture must to that extent detract from the applicability of any Declaration of Human Rights to mankind as a whole." In other words, they said there's no such thing as universal human rights and how dare you say otherwise.
@@Herb...StateChamps "Mental," but yeah. Pretty typical of academics of the time (and now). There's a *reason* my dad didn't pursue a career as a college professor despite most people saying how good he'd be at it.
What the allieds did to Germany at the end of world war I directly led to world war II not only did we have to beat them but we had to humiliate them and make them pay us back. The treaty of Versailles was very heavy-handed against the Germans and the German people paid the price for that war for a long time, including the total collapse of their economy
The British warned about this and didn't want Germany to have to pay reparations such as what the French and Americans pushed for. The British tried to warn of the dangers posed by going so hard on them and the consequences such as hyperinflation and political instability, but France and the US outvoted them and pushed through the Treaty.
I remember seeing on TV how Pink Floyd did a live concert of the entire "The Wall" album at the Berlin Wall that culminated in people smashing the (pre-demortared) wall down behind the band while everyone screamed "Tear Down The Wall!" Another thing I remember from those days was the major shopping mall I lived near in Upstate NY suddenly having a "Commie Memorabilia Store!" You could go in and buy T-shirts that had an empty vodka bottle with a banner flying over it saying "The Party's Over," and Red Army jackets and pins. In one bargain bin, you could buy pairs of Red Army officer and NCO shoulder boards from a 1-stripe Lance Corporal all the way up to a 3-star colonel! (Yes, Russian colonels have 3 stars on their shoulders. Not "full birds")
Berlin was part of western Germany. However, people living in Berlin could not be drawn to the western military service. When I got my invitation to join the german army in 1980, there was that sentence on the letter that said: "Do not forward this letter to Berlin". That is also the reason that Berlin was full of young alternative men in the the 1960s and 70s.
11:40 West Berlin was part of west Germany, but it had some special rules, for instance, people in West Berlin did not vote for west German government. A good comparison would be, like Puerto Rico is part of the US.
I am in my early 40s do not remember the wall coming down but remember my sister who is 8 years older than me pointing to the TV the night that Gorbachev was I believe giving a speech about the soviet union ending almost yelling at me that I had to remember every translated word so I could tell my kids one day. It could have been the the wall coming down though too I don't remember what it was about. I just remember going what is on his head.
Mr. Terry if you reaaallllyyy want to know how he feels about communism he recently had a rant on the unsubscribe podcast about it. It is hilarious. Ill find a url and ill time stamp it in reply to this when i find it
Some clarifications from a german guy who lives right next to the old east/west border: 11:25 West-Berlin was a district of the Bundesrepublik in form of an exclave, very similar to how todays Kaliningrad works 22:50 One thing that is always overlooked, but cannot be ignored, is that the soviet propaganda wasnt even that effective, it was the Stasi that did the heavy lifting. The only real threat that the regime faced was enough unhappy people getting together, so they made the Stasi to devide them. Imagine one day someone comes to you and says you either spy for us on everyone you know or we make you, your family, even your little children disappear. 25:00 Even Karl Marx himself said that true communism is only possible in a world without corruption, he always saw it as a theoratical experiment, nothing more.
In the absence of corruption, communism remains morally questionable and fundamentally incongruous with human nature. Each individual possesses unique goals and aspirations, highlighting the inherent diversity among us. Consequently, the only way to suppress this diversity is through coercion and imposition.
There are two media moments I remember from my childhood, and that is the fall of the Berlin Wall. The other one I remember is watching the Challenger launch live. They wheeled the TV in and we all watched it live, and then I remember the utter silence as they wheeled the TV out of my home room. That shit was crazy,
Look, We dont ever get thrown in there with "Dr.'s and Lawyers". So, when i heard Him state "Engineer" in his list, right after You gave 'Yours'... lol-)
I'm a boomer so I grew up learning duck and cover and then Vietnam to look forward to. Seeing the wall go down just amazed me and then how fast it all crumbled.
I've always had a huge fascination with the Cold War era. Maybe it's because the wall coming down was the first big historical event I can remember taking place. I was six years old and too young to really know its significance, but it was all the grown-ups could talk about. it was getting mentioned all on TV. It was on the news every night, with Peter Jennings reporting from some Eastern European capital city or another in a sharp looking trenchcoat like he's a secret agent or something-- you know that's how he felt! 😁 Or maybe it was just the mystique of the "second world" all walled off from the one we lived in. I'm grateful to have been born on the side of the Iron Curtain that I was, but that makes you curious as hell about it. The fact that I compared Peter Jennings reporting from Budapest to a secret agent tells you what an interesting subject it can be. Whatever it is, I eat this stuff right up.
4:40 the line was not drawn arbitrary. It was drawn between German states. East Germany got 5 states + east Berlin, and west Germany got 10 states + West Berlin. Besides Berlin, there was no cut state.
Perhaps not arbitrary, but imagine if Kansas and Missouri were suddenly different countries along with each Kansas City. An example closer to where I live is Fargo, North Dakota and Moorhead, Minnesota. The two cities are right across the Red River from each other and so intertwined that most people just refer to them collectively as Fargo-Moorhead. A lot of people live in Moorhead because of Minnesota's tax rebate for renters and work in Fargo because of North Dakota's *very* business-friendly policies. If North Dakota and Minnesota were suddenly forced into different countries, it'd *feel* somewhat arbitrary to locals.
"there was no cut state" Not really, that's wrong. The German states - and especially not in this perticular shape - did not exist prior to the split. Technically the split took place, then the German states were drawn. Yes, it was somewhat based on historical German states, but not entirely, especially in border regions. So they were arbitrary split in many occations. For example: 3 cities and their surrounding lands in southern lower saxony always was part of thuringia. But due to the choices made by the victorious nations, they became part of the west and part of another state, that wasn't historically accurate. A new drawn line, that split them.
@@dnocturn84 same with the occupation zones: Northrhine-Westphalia was never before a state or something like "one" state. But it was part of the british occupation zone and they drawn the borders of their military administration districts. Later they gave political (civilian) power back to german administration in their different zones and joint some zones to States. NRW was formed from the (historic) Rhineland (northern part of prussian owned "region Rhineland") and the former Palantine (western part). Some years later the former dukedom of Lippe could vote Lower-Saxony or Northrhine-Westphalia (the little white flower in the lower middle section of the coat of arms of Northrhine Westphalia) and selected later.
@@DSP16569 I guess you mixed things up a bit: The western part of former Palatinate ended up in Rheinland-Pfalz, not in NRW (The eastern part, Oberpfalz, became part of Bavaria). Original NRW was Rhineland + Westphalia before Lippe joined.
I was nine years old going on ten when the Berlin Wall came down. I remember sitting on the floor watching it on the evening news while the adults were talking and excited around me. I didn't understand it at the time. I didn't understand what the big deal was at the time that it happened. It wasn't until I was in high school that I began to understand the importance of it. I'm STILL learning more/new-to-me parts of this even now (I'm currently 45).
This is probably my favorite video you've ever covered. Partly becasue of how often your brow furrows when you hear Nic make excellent points as to why Communism is horrible, 🤣and how often you've given apologist statements in favor of Communism in other videos. You even had to remove Communism from the title before posting it. 🤣
As per the Potsdam conference West Berlin was not part of either East or West Germany, but in reality West Germany considered it part of their territory. But as a result of West Berlin technically being a separate allied-controlled entity, West Berlin residents didn't have to serve in the army and West Berlin's mayor was called 'governing mayor', because neither the West German government nor the East German government had any jurisdiction in WB.
This was something that I commented on Fat Electrician's video, but you might be able to shed better light. When I was a freshman in college I was told about an early human group [I can't remember where it was] but they had a system very similar to modern day communism but it worked until the group was wiped out by either a sickness/famine or bloodshed.
It's important to not confuse communes with communism. Marx based communism (the stateless kind) on eastern European farm communes, something that's basically a system of small subsistence farming communities with no government over them. I can't speak to their resilience when met with diseases and crop failures, but ultimately they don't have any defense against a government deciding they're on the king's land. Idealist communism is a modern society based on the commune model, so honestly there can't be a historical example.
@@Merennulli I mean, yeah, but there hasn't ever been a pure capitalist society before either. The US got close though, but yeah not 100% capitalism. I vaguely recall reading somewhere that it is almost impossible to a nation to exist off of a pure systems that doesn't borrow ideas from others.
@@PolymurExcel I am confused where purity came into this. The video already called that out that neither system has any pure examples. But communism has a defining distinction from socialism and a defining distinction from communes that means it fundamentally can't have existed historically. You could hypothetically have either as pure, but there is no mechanism for creating either as pure. And nobody actually wants pure capitalism. We like having certain public services even if we don't all agree on which ones should be funded.
@@Merennulli Eastern-Europe before the German jew was like Russian or do you mean slavic? If so the collectivisation that any communist power attempted failed but the capitalist initiatives, land-to-tiller, was invariably successful.
The entirety of Berlin was a city state, for the entire cold war. The eastern side very quickly assimilated with the rest of the DDR and the distinction between the two became basically dead letters. They even (illegally) moved their capital there, which is why you had the palace of the republic there and whatnot. West Berlin always had a separate government from West Germany, though the distinction was largely administrative. They probably had their own laws though. Also, while there were two Germanys, they both technically claimed the entirety of Germany as their territory, which made some things easier from a paperwork standpoint.
I remember this fairly well - to a point. I was 15 at the time, and the first I knew of the wall coming down was my german born mother shrieking as the 6 o'clock news started. I was in the midst of my homework, but came running downstairs to find mum pointing at the telly, crying. It took a couple of minutes to work out what was going on, and I spent the rest of the evening flicking between the 3 TV channels that were covering the news live, and comforting Mum. Mum had a celebratory drink, and I was allowed a beer as well. One drink turned into two, then three, then four, then things got a little fuzzy as the celebratory drinking (and the lack of dinner) set in to a celebratory full session... Going to school the next day with a 4-alarm hangover was... Not fun. Thankfully, once my teachers found out why I was kinda green and likely to yark at the faintest provocation, they were very understanding - to the extent that the deputy head drove me home mid-morning, having decided it was probably for the best after a couple of technicolor yawns occurred in my Chemistry lesson (which set off a couple of my classmates into joining in). I did get a politely worded request the following Monday, that I shouldn't turn up to school in such a state ever again, but I didn't actually get into any trouble with the school (which I thought was a bonus).
I’m so happy y’all got to experience that memory of pure love and joy at being free. America is bad at spending money but sometimes. Like the German air lift. We through our money in the right direction and I’m so glad they never left Germany is one of our best Allie’s today
I was in 9th grade when the wall fell. A little while later my dad toured Germany and Russia with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. Missed my 15th birthday. He traded a tape for a Russian Officers belt. I still have that belt. My kids think it's awesome. Then a few months after that. My oldest sister gets stationed in Germany for Desert Storm. She brought back a piece of the Wall. Crazy times for a while.
can you imagine being one of the east german guards, not briefed on anything, just seeing a mob of thousands coming up, and saying the government has effective immediatly allowed them to travel, and you knowing nothing, standing there, at your post, thinking, what the fuck do i do?
He's completely right. Have you ever heard of a single person risking their life to escape America? Most just get on a plane and leave (With the obvious exception of people who are wanted by law enforcement)
most dont actually just leave because they cant how many people do you think want to leave america but cant because its not economically/finnancially feasible for them most americans live paycheck to paycheck 62 percent of americans are living paycheck to paycheck over 205 million americans cannot leave america let alone their state
I was around 17 when Berlin wall fell. I can't explain how amazing it was to witness live. I was raised with the iron wall, as an American. Everything dark, shadowy, horrible was on the other side of that wall. Everything evil was termed communist.
When it comes down to it, you're the only one who can. Truly decide your own value your worth and you do it with your actions and what you do in your life When you stand a pediatric heart surgeon next to a crackhead who robs gas stations, the value of those two people will change depending on the situation, but they are both valuable. They're both equally as human but one of them is going to be a lot more useful to the world than the other most likely
The 80s were fucking scarey for those of us growing up during that era. As much as I support the current environmental movements, those that didn't grow up in the 80s don't have the same perspective. Back then it was "If we don't sort out this shit the world is going to be radioactive". Nowdays its "If we don't sort this shit out the world is going to make us and the current ecosystem redundant and start over"
unfortunately capitalism puts greed and products over people and land we produce and waste much more than we need to purely because it costs too much to not waste and we want more money so we produce more than whats needed
There were two separate borders between East and West Germany during the cold War. The first one that was referenced in this video was the Inner German border which separated East and West Germany. It ran from the Baltic Sea to Czechoslovakia for a total length of 858 miles and was considered one of the most heavily fortified borders in the world. The Berlin wall was a separate border wall that would surround West Berlin and stretch about 110 miles.
Can we appreciate that the german economy was not US capitalism but a special kind of a social capitalsm with enourmous power to unions in every factory and the well established social healthcare and pension system invented by Otto von Bismarck decades ago which is very different to the american system.
10:20 He didn't mean Berlin - he meant Germany. The border around West Berlin had the famous wall, but there was also what was called the "inner German border" which is where you had the fences, and the razor wire, and the dogs, and the towers, and the sand pits.
@MrTerry I'm not sure if this has been pointed out yet, but the Berlin Wall was constructed just under a decade after Stalinism had ended. Nikita Khrushchev was the leader at the time.
I was a sophomore in high school when the wall came down. If memory serves, Poland getting their independence via I think a union strike, you could see the cracks in the iron curtain, but ya weren't exactly sure it would happen. Everything seemed to just happen organically though. Not sure if CNN existed at this point but I believe ABC news was the only US news organization in Berlin at the time and I remember watching it on ABC news and Night Line just astonished and amazed. People crying and celebrating their freedom after decades of oppression. To this day, probably one of the most amazing events I've ever seen in my life as the world literally changed in one night.
@MrTerry I love your videos and I like your reactions to the fat electrician, I know he does us soldiers/ heros but I'd like for both of yous to look at "mad jack" he is a British soldier and I think both of you would love his story
It's a Falasy that embassies become the land or soil of the nation the represent. They don't. Its still the territory of the nation where it is but the building itself has diplomatic status. That said the US does have 'territory' within the UK. The Queen donated land to the American people, a few acres, in the field next to where Magna carta was signed in the 1200s and had built on the land the JFK memorial amd gardens. And as the Queen gifted it to America it made it effectively American soil and territory within UK borders. Whereas the US embassy isn't US soil.
I'd also say the soviets probably used the red and white civil war, and bloshivek coup attempts as other reasons to defend against different ideologies.
You should check out the movie Bornholmer Straße. It's a German comedy film about the fall of the Berlin wall from the point of view of the guards. The whole thing is on youtube, but you need to turn on subtitles for the translation.
In 1989, my school gifted me an Atlas, because it was no longer accurate. I still have it. And so many borders have been redrawn since. As have countries been renamed. I keep it as a reminder of what was.
I'm going to help socialists/communists with their argument. While at the same time pointing out how it fails. Communism/socialism can work. When it's very small, limited, and with people on the same page. Like among a group of friends, immediate colleagues, or a family. Once you get out of those parameters. The system begins to fall apart. From individual needs, to corruption, and abuse. It just won't work when it gets to town, city, state, and national levels.
but for some reason these same needs wont topple the system when its smaller? what makes size matter in regards to these issues brought up if they can be dealt with in a smaller community they can be dealt with in a larger one too "From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs" the states job is to be able to provide for its citizens and this can and does happen in our current economy and even more so in an economy that prioritizes individual economic needs WHEN those needs are actually listened to heres a fun fact every communist dicatorship to have ever existed was ran by the wealthy NOT the working class corruption occurs de to desire for more power and more wealth/control this is the result of capitalism drive for people to out compete others corruption is a feature in capitalism as is abuse and individual needs are rarely ever met whether its (vet healthcare, civilian healthcare, drug epidemics, social welfare, etc) in socialism/communism its a bug the fact is you dont need to throw us a bone because not even you understand what the fuck your talking about every communistic party has been capitalist in some way shape or form and hasnt even followed any of the peoples needs or desires every major dictator has used the promise of worker rights to gain power but has never actually given a shit instead coopting versions of national socialism (socialism but for the rich and specific people) for those that line the pockets of those in charge its litterally far right capitalism and far right social affairs
@@amberharmsen2497 there’s so much freedom built into capitalism we get to decide where we send most of our money. The government doesn’t have the right to take our money at gun point. Capitalism pulls more people out of poverty then socialism or communism
What would be your idea to cross the Berlin Wall? 🤔
Epic pole vault over it, or an insanely large slingshot
dig under it
fly above it, swimm around it, travel to hungary amd trick the system etc.
My family came from Poland and shit yeah we saw that on TV I was 4 but my grandpa was happy he could visit his family soon in Poland
stay in east germany tbh
We had a Polish substitute teacher in my highschool history class, and she really tried to drill into us how terrible Communism was for her family growing up behind the Iron Curtain. She was probably the realest teacher I ever had in high school.
We need more teachers like her.
I had a sub that was from Czechoslovakia, I believe I could be mistaken but some former Slavic nation, and he told his story about him and his wife escaping when the genocides started and how they had to get fake passports and lived in Germany illegally for a long while before they were able to legally become citizens. It was an incredible and interesting story and I’m glad I got to here it and while he didn’t say his opinion on communism I was able to piece it together at the start.
My complex analysis professor was from Poland and told us stories about life growing up under communism. His sense of humor was perhaps the darkest I've ever seen as a result of some of the things he lived through. He was a really great professor and I was truly sad when he passed away.
more teachers who arent willing to actually explain properly how similar russias economy was to americas?
the only difference between the usa and russia is that russia is far more authoritarian than the usa is
both countries were ran by the ruling class
both countries believed in private property
both countries starve their citizens and ignore the fact its happening while making excuses but never fixing it
both countries claim to know what the people want but never actually do any of it
last I checked both democrats and republicans want socialist aspects in the economy but due to shitty 1950 propos and piss poor education because the government doesnt want to tell the truth because the USA has to be this shining example of how "great" capitalism is versus any other economies that even though the usa believes in freedom for all they certainly love toppling other countries governments simply for the desire of forced economic trade IE imperialism
none of this will ever happen
that teacher was simply suffering under the same shit capitalism does but under a government that lied about their ideology and never did anything remotely marxist related @@sabastiangipson8163
I know a U.S. Army officer whose family escaped through the eastern european satellite nations. He has shared some dark stories in passing he witnessed as a child. When his family made it to America he was impressed by the military's multicultural integration and enlisted as a resident. Once he earned his citizenship and degree he commissioned as an officer. At a certain publicly funded university he encountered the local chapter of communist party student members protesting capitalism who took offense at him and others in their uniforms while on campus. The undergrads in designer and name brand clothing told him he knew nothing of "real communism" when he took offense at their misguided efforts. That rage in his eyes as a group of us pulled him away from the "kids" never leaves my memory.
"Stealing a tank and trying to drive it through the wall" The person who did that was Wolfgang Engels, who later became a teacher in West Germany. I know that, because I was a pupil in his class around 2000. He told us the story first-hand, even showed some photographs from later that day.
It wasn't really a "tank", but an armored personnel carrier. He was a member of the East German army at the time, so he had relatively easy access to one. There were some secret locations where the wall was built less sturdy on purpose, so that in the case of war with the West, East German tanks could easily drive through the wall at those locations. These locations were known to him and he tried to take advantage of that knowledge to escape to the West. Amazingly, on his way there, he stopped several times and asked people if they wanted to come along. However, the vehicle was less powerful than a real tank, so it got stuck in the wall. He tried to climb out through the rubble and got shot two times by the border guards, but was then pulled into a West German pub by some incredibly brave bystanders on the other side of the wall. He even recalled that one guy had offered his belt as a tourniquet to stop the bleeding from a gunshot wound on his hand and the guy subsequently trying to stop his pants from dropping all the time until the ambulance arrived.
That story needs to be a movie
This is an absurdly underrated comment, and an amazing story!! It would’ve been so surreal to hear that first hand 👌🏽💯
@josepheberle1656 Thanks for your kind words. I'm very glad to have met Mr. Engels. At the time, being an arrogant teenager, I didn't really like him as a teacher or cared much for his story, but I regret that today.
As a 16-year-old German, I traveled to the GDR for a few days in 1983, paid for by the Konrad Adenauer Foundation. We (school class) took the bus to the border. We saw the watchtowers, fences, anti-tank barriers, etc., all facing inwards, like a huge prison. It was an experience that stayed with me to this day.
The Berlin Wall is a fascinating facet that pretty much summed up the Cold War in steel and concrete.
There's at least one positive chapter of Berlin Wall: its rabbits.
Yes, rabbits were trapped in the death zone and thanks to no threats (except when guards were bored enough to start shooting at them) they could reproduce to impressive numbers.
Free food, lots of free food.
@@traphimawari7760 Just don't eat too many since their meat is pure iron If I am not mistaken...but hey free food.
@@technoraize2715 lean protein, if I remember correctly?
@@zacksilverstone7642 Yep
I was 15 in 1989 and remember watching Swedish TV, and suddenly the show I was watching was interrupted by this special news bulletin from Berlin with the announcement of free travel and they showed the enormous masses wanting to leave East Germany. I really liked what I saw.
I was 16 in High School when this happened. While for most in America, this event did not directly affect them, for me it was a "Canon Event". My High School had a foreign exchange program with a West German high school in Bonn and I happened to ask out one of those exchange students exactly two weeks before the Wall came down.
In the course of 3 or 4 days our relationship went from me teaching her everything about American culture (including American football) to us sitting glued to the TV in her Host Family's living room as we both watched her country being transformed before our eyes. Ninety-seven percent of Americans had no idea what a big deal this was, I certainly did.
Klara would return home to a new country at the end of the school year and I would go on to serve in the US Navy in the early Nineties where I'd meet one of her East German cousins during WestPac 94 and we would share some stories and some beers. Words cannot describe how living through that with her was like, The Germans (and the Japanese) have both become worthy friends over the years (most of my time was spent stationed in Japan).
@@species3167how long did it take you to make up that bs story?
@@leonardhpls6The world works in mysterious ways, don’t hate on their story just because your life hasn’t given you cool stories to tell.
@@leonardhpls6 Zero BS, sorry if you can't believe it.
One of my favorite memories from middle school was my History teacher who had an actual piece of the Berlin wall and came to show it to us one year. Seeing something so significant historically from ten years before I was even born was pretty dope.
Will never forget the day the "Anti-Fascist Protection Rampart" fell. Felt like a world party.
10:10 What he's describing and showing in the picture (such as in regards to the sand pits) actually is how the border between East Germany and West Germany was, in the actual middle line between the two countries. Not like how the fortifications around West Berlin were, wall & all. Also yes, West Berlin was properly West Germany.
nuh-uh.
west germany was owned by kazakhstan, acktually
@@minimaster0328 West Germany was part of the Eastern Bloc the whole time. No wonder they were so quick to integrate the Eastern military equipment after reunification
@@Scraps_Underscore I do hope you meant EAST Germany was part of the Warsaw Pact. West Germany was part of NATO.
@@RustyDust101 I was making a joke
History facinates me. Especially being a lock technician. A friend of mine from Turkmenistan, sent me a soviet era dual custody padlock, no clue what it was locking up, but my word that sucker weighs close to 9lbs... a padlock. I absolutely love it. Ive been trying to figure out how to restore it, because it was in use all these years until i got it last year, and doesn't seem to disassemble without damaging it. Which I'd rather leave it in my collection rather than hurting it. Have the two sets of original keys with it as well, which is impressive.
I don't know if he'd see or respond to it, but you might be able to shoot LockPickingLawyer a private message or reply to one of his comments and see if he could help you out.
He's basically the "Lock God" of TH-cam, like Ian McCollum from Forgotten Weapons is considered "Gun Jesus", etc. (H&K even made an image of Ian Mccollum as Jesus in front of the rising sun, holding an HK416 in one hand and the book he wrote about French rifles in the other.)
LPL even has a few videos picking Soviet locks including a dual key control/custody padlock I believe, I know he'll sometimes dismantle a lock to show how the interior works unless it's rare or historically significant in some way, so he may or may not have the info you want.
If the issue is just that it's rusted, the only advice I'd have is use some CLP on it and after waiting for the lubricating oil to penetrate and set, gently scrub with a non-mettalic bristle as you don't want to be *too* abrasive and scratch the metal while removing gunk and rust, a copper brush while metal is still soft enough it might be usable as that's what gun cleaning kits generally use for areas with no finish like bluing or parkerization to damage (A new toothbrush could work, if you don't have a gun cleaning kit or something with brushes specifically for this). And despite what anyone says, no, WD-40 is *Not* a CLP. Get the real stuff, while it "seems" to work at first, eventually WD-40 dries out into an awful gummy mess gunking up whatever you used it on even more. (WD-40 is still good, just needs to be used for what it's actually designed for. Removing grease, oil, and water from something, it is *Not* a lasting lubricant).
If everything I've said is useless for what you need, then I apologize for wasting your time.
There are multiple German movies about the Ballon escape. Like „Mit dem Wind nach Westen“. It’s a long time since I have seen it, but if I remember correctly, there were actually no shots fired. The East German border guards were basically so confused about the ballon, that they had to first phone their superiors in the middle of the night, and that took so long, that the ballon was already across the border in west Germany. And you can’t shoot a hot air ballon down, in another country‘s air space, that would have been a international incident.
The most history accurate movie is “Balloon” by Micheal Bully-Herbig. He even worked together with the Wetzel Family that had built the Balloon. Funny is that Michael Bully-Herbig usually makes Comedy movies.
My grandma got me to watch the Berlin wall fall. Still remember being completely confused about all these people dancing on top of this wall.
I was 21 years old and in the US Army in Gelnhausen Germany when the wall fell. You knew this was a historical moment and the world seemed to have nowhere to go but to a better future. Later we learned better.
😢
When I was in high school, my German teacher’s family had escaped from East Germany. She, as a child, had been hidden in a suitcase.
Fun fact. At night from space you can see the divide between east and West Berlin by the color of the lights.
Highly debatable that a invasion force could be moved across Soviet territory to secretly attack out of west Berlin. Walling in a city is a offensive action not a defense.
You are clearly right. The “we need the wall to keep the enemy out” is total bs.
I mean... it doesn't have to be an army. Just a bunch of guys trained in the arts of war, with a proper plan to take down the goverment via subterfuge, causing a riot/uprising and guerilla tactics.
I'm not supporting the USSR's reason. I'm just saying that the fact that it WAS accepted makes the reason sounds, you know, reasonable enough to allow it to happens.
The Fat Electrician did a video about the limping lady, who basically became the founder of the CIA, and she started by being a spy that built up an intelligence network in WW2, by herself, give or take a few locals.
@@zacksilverstone7642 USSR only had the longest border in the world to safeguard. West Germany was already the worst point to covertly enter. It's basically a brisk walk from Finland to Saint Petersburg.
@@zacksilverstone7642 also those doing reasonable things rairly sneak out at night for the element of surprise.
Yeah, I'm at 15:49 and that marks 3 times before the halfway point of the video that Terry prefaced "but it was actually said by the Soviets that it was a defensive action to prevent invasion." What a weird stance to take, but it's mostly harmless the rest of the video.
I was stationed with the US Air Force in Western Germany in 1974 and a friend and I visited Berlin and because we were in uniform the East Germans and Russians couldn't keep us out. We went through at Checkpoint Charlie.
If anyone has any doubts of how bad communism is they should actually talk to someone from a communist country.
North Korean
Cuban
Older Eastern European
Venezuelan
Its wierd that not many people were flocking to these countries but instead they flock to the west.
In the spirit of intellectual honestly it should be noted that people were leaving capitalist countries (mostly the US) to go to the USSR, Nazi Germany, and Fascist Italy during the Great Depression in the 1930s.
The Communists usually tossed them into prison on arrival.
wait, Venezuela is communist?
Yoel and Mari is one of the channels who could definitely speak on the subject matter since they are from Cuba.
Nearly all People that I know who lived in East Germany, have said to me that they liked it there, but that they didn't like the political Party (SED). There were a ton of people who didn't want to reunite with West Germany, they rather wanted to b their own state but with a functioning Democracy.
@@hanspeter-xo4to The vast majority wanted re-unification. There were a few without but unity in any case meant the East gets subsidised to @~?£.
I guess it's worth mentioning that while Glasnost and Perestroika led to reforms in the Soviet Union, the regime in the GDR was mostly a run by hardliners, who denied those new freedoms to their people.
Yeah bull@~?£. The East-Germans were taking orders from Moscow still. It was the renouncing of the Brezhnev Doctrine that did it. Although they continued to suppress movements within the soviet union. So much for openness.
I was often expected to watch the 6pm news with my parents when this happened, so it wasn't a special occasion, but I knew enough of history to at least realize this was something different. It wasn't until later that I grasped how horrible the wall had been, but I knew this was the dismantling of a key icon of the other half of the Cold War.
I was all of six years old when the wall came down. I have very few memories that far back, but most definitely remember it - my parents were so excited and someone explained to me as well as my six-year-old brain could understand what was going on. My dad had lived in West Germany for about two years a few years before I was born and I remember him talking about how happy many of the people he'd met would be about it.
No you remember being told about it and hearing others recall story's. You don't remember it at all 😂
@@leonardhpls6 ...You must be bored.
@@leonardhpls6yeah you right, memory doesn’t start forming until the ripe age of 97
love your electrician react videos.its like getting 2 history lessons in one
I was 12 when the wall fell. My family and I were just watching the news think wow. Just wow. I am surprised that he didn’t mention Regan’s famous “Tear down this wall!” speech. I saw an anniversary documentary about the speech with the writer. The state department wanted to avoid mentioning that wall. When the speech writer went to West Berlin prior to the speech, he went to dinner with a West Berlin family. When he asked about the wall, the family cut loose with a lot of negative emotions about the wall. Regan looked over an early the speech write wrote with “Tear down this wall!” and loved it. Regan went with it and was one of his best speeches.
Ronald Wilson Reagan did not write that line, it was Peter Mark Robinson who wrote it. Reagan however overruled the many opponents and decided on the explosive language. Rightly so.
@@johnnotrealname8168 I never said Regan wrote it, just that he liked the line.
I actually forgot about your video (charity video) ft Fat electrician, I'm glad that you mentioned it, because I meant to watch it when I had time to.
I remember people escaping East Germany by tunnels and also by hiding inside cars that had been modified to hide them. One picture I remember showed a person who made the trip concealed inside the fender of a car. It was amazing the ingenuity shown. There were also the pictures of people shot dead trying to go over the wall.
Don’t know if you know the lore but he’s currently pursuing his Masters in History. He’s also now a regular host on the Unsubscribe Podcast. Viewer discretion on that podcast FYI.
I came into the comments just to point this out and say he is having arguments on the regular with the children in class who do not think communism is bad. Perhaps a teacher told him to tone it down with the children so he is venting here. I'm loving it can't wait to see what subject they piss him off about next.
As a bitter fun fact. Look at old pictures of the wall segments in place and note the direction in which they were placed.
Which way? Yes, they are directional due to the L-shape to lock a vehicle in place if it tries to break through.
I loved learning about the different escape. Attempts that East Germans did to try to get to West Germany. Because this is actually a period I don't know that much about.
Let's not forget Alexander Solzhenitsyn's Gulag Archipelago was published years before the Chernobyl disaster, starting the downfall of the to the pro-communism sentiment among intellectuals in western academia. Some of them sought relief in maoism before figuring out it was an even worse scenario...
But now of course the little stormtroopers insist the gulags were just summer camps
When I was I teen, I saw it go up. I’m thankful that I lived long enough to see it come down.
It always surprises me to think that tunnels are feasible at all for situations like this. It takes an army of people probably hundreds or thousands of man hours to make something remotely usable, and only one snitch or mistake in communication to get found out and have the whole thing shut down instantly (and anyone who approached the entrance to the tunnel apprehended, maybe?). I imagine the best methods of escape would be, of course, the ones nobody heard about and nobody knows about to this day. If they're secret enough to be unknown to this day, they were probably secret enough to work back then. I'm expecting that outside help was instrumental in a lot of escape attempts, so long as communication was possible.
Considering you needed to have a pass to even be *near* the border (and those were only given to people who lived in villages nearby. Some villages were simply disbanded because they were too close), a tunnel would have needed to be very very long. And stable enough not to collapse, even when the border patrol drove their vehicles overhead. So yeah, tunnels were pretty much not feasible for the border.
Within Berlin, where the off-limits area was narrower, it may have been possible, but you'd have a way harder time to tunnel underneath/around the foundations of buildings, not to mention transporting out all the dirt you dug up without rousing suspicions.
I actually got to interview two people who escaped the GDR, Gunther Wetzel (The one who fled with the Hot air Balloon) and one Winfried Rosenkranz (Tried to flee with a train. These two have fascinating stories to tell. Mr. Rosenkranz even said “the GDR wasn't a bad state if you didn't value free speech” and as a matter of fact a lot of people who lived in East Germany would agree with what he is saying.
Mr. Terry the history of East Germany is interesting, it is a history about people who like living in their Country but hate the Regime. It's also a history about a Population that got screwed over in the reunion of the two Countries.
I am myself from the part of Germany that was part of East Germany and my Parent grew up in the GDR, so if there are any questions I would be happy to answer them.
I’m a simple man. Mr Terry notification, I stop what I’m doing and get comfortable
Love your reactions to the Fat Electrian. I was an AW in the USN( P-3 Orion), and if you ever want to know what’s up with ASW in the Navy, I can tell you a little bit. Most of what I know is top secret. Matter of fact I can’t tell you shit. I’m sorry for even bringing it up.
The funny thing is that the American Anthropological Association effectively agreed with the USSR because these "Western" ideas of human rights were "unfair" for non-Western cultures and that the West, with its history of colonialism, was too "problematic" to be setting up a moral code. They presented a set of "considerations" that basically boiled down to the last one. "Standards and values are relative to the culture from which they derive so that any attempt to formulate postulates that grow out of the beliefs or moral codes of one culture must to that extent detract from the applicability of any Declaration of Human Rights to mankind as a whole."
In other words, they said there's no such thing as universal human rights and how dare you say otherwise.
Holy Olympics of metal gymnastics. 😂😂😂
@@Herb...StateChamps "Mental," but yeah. Pretty typical of academics of the time (and now). There's a *reason* my dad didn't pursue a career as a college professor despite most people saying how good he'd be at it.
You can still see the toll all this had on East Germany today.
What the allieds did to Germany at the end of world war I directly led to world war II not only did we have to beat them but we had to humiliate them and make them pay us back.
The treaty of Versailles was very heavy-handed against the Germans and the German people paid the price for that war for a long time, including the total collapse of their economy
So you’re saying the Germans didn’t like the consequences of their actions and wanted to fight about it….again.
@@calibrated692 Well their actions is a bit of a stretch.
The British warned about this and didn't want Germany to have to pay reparations such as what the French and Americans pushed for. The British tried to warn of the dangers posed by going so hard on them and the consequences such as hyperinflation and political instability, but France and the US outvoted them and pushed through the Treaty.
I remember seeing on TV how Pink Floyd did a live concert of the entire "The Wall" album at the Berlin Wall that culminated in people smashing the (pre-demortared) wall down behind the band while everyone screamed "Tear Down The Wall!"
Another thing I remember from those days was the major shopping mall I lived near in Upstate NY suddenly having a "Commie Memorabilia Store!" You could go in and buy T-shirts that had an empty vodka bottle with a banner flying over it saying "The Party's Over," and Red Army jackets and pins. In one bargain bin, you could buy pairs of Red Army officer and NCO shoulder boards from a 1-stripe Lance Corporal all the way up to a 3-star colonel! (Yes, Russian colonels have 3 stars on their shoulders. Not "full birds")
Berlin was part of western Germany. However, people living in Berlin could not be drawn to the western military service. When I got my invitation to join the german army in 1980, there was that sentence on the letter that said: "Do not forward this letter to Berlin". That is also the reason that Berlin was full of young alternative men in the the 1960s and 70s.
11:40 West Berlin was part of west Germany, but it had some special rules, for instance, people in West Berlin did not vote for west German government. A good comparison would be, like Puerto Rico is part of the US.
I am in my early 40s do not remember the wall coming down but remember my sister who is 8 years older than me pointing to the TV the night that Gorbachev was I believe giving a speech about the soviet union ending almost yelling at me that I had to remember every translated word so I could tell my kids one day. It could have been the the wall coming down though too I don't remember what it was about. I just remember going what is on his head.
Mr. Terry if you reaaallllyyy want to know how he feels about communism he recently had a rant on the unsubscribe podcast about it.
It is hilarious. Ill find a url and ill time stamp it in reply to this when i find it
Happy new year! been watching you for over a year now and its good content.
Some clarifications from a german guy who lives right next to the old east/west border:
11:25 West-Berlin was a district of the Bundesrepublik in form of an exclave, very similar to how todays Kaliningrad works
22:50 One thing that is always overlooked, but cannot be ignored, is that the soviet propaganda wasnt even that effective, it was the Stasi that did the heavy lifting.
The only real threat that the regime faced was enough unhappy people getting together, so they made the Stasi to devide them.
Imagine one day someone comes to you and says you either spy for us on everyone you know or we make you, your family, even your little children disappear.
25:00 Even Karl Marx himself said that true communism is only possible in a world without corruption, he always saw it as a theoratical experiment, nothing more.
In the absence of corruption, communism remains morally questionable and fundamentally incongruous with human nature. Each individual possesses unique goals and aspirations, highlighting the inherent diversity among us. Consequently, the only way to suppress this diversity is through coercion and imposition.
There are two media moments I remember from my childhood, and that is the fall of the Berlin Wall. The other one I remember is watching the Challenger launch live. They wheeled the TV in and we all watched it live, and then I remember the utter silence as they wheeled the TV out of my home room. That shit was crazy,
I could almost see MR. Terry walking into class with that shirt on.. lol
Look, We dont ever get thrown in there with "Dr.'s and Lawyers". So, when i heard Him state "Engineer" in his list, right after You gave 'Yours'... lol-)
3:02 quality pause timing here 😂. Made him look like he was mid-sneeze
I'm a boomer so I grew up learning duck and cover and then Vietnam to look forward to. Seeing the wall go down just amazed me and then how fast it all crumbled.
I've always had a huge fascination with the Cold War era. Maybe it's because the wall coming down was the first big historical event I can remember taking place.
I was six years old and too young to really know its significance, but it was all the grown-ups could talk about. it was getting mentioned all on TV. It was on the news every night, with Peter Jennings reporting from some Eastern European capital city or another in a sharp looking trenchcoat like he's a secret agent or something-- you know that's how he felt! 😁
Or maybe it was just the mystique of the "second world" all walled off from the one we lived in. I'm grateful to have been born on the side of the Iron Curtain that I was, but that makes you curious as hell about it. The fact that I compared Peter Jennings reporting from Budapest to a secret agent tells you what an interesting subject it can be.
Whatever it is, I eat this stuff right up.
4:40 the line was not drawn arbitrary. It was drawn between German states. East Germany got 5 states + east Berlin, and west Germany got 10 states + West Berlin. Besides Berlin, there was no cut state.
Perhaps not arbitrary, but imagine if Kansas and Missouri were suddenly different countries along with each Kansas City. An example closer to where I live is Fargo, North Dakota and Moorhead, Minnesota. The two cities are right across the Red River from each other and so intertwined that most people just refer to them collectively as Fargo-Moorhead. A lot of people live in Moorhead because of Minnesota's tax rebate for renters and work in Fargo because of North Dakota's *very* business-friendly policies. If North Dakota and Minnesota were suddenly forced into different countries, it'd *feel* somewhat arbitrary to locals.
Kind of, but your count only works when considering today's state borders. What's now 5 states used to be 7 districts in GDR terms.
"there was no cut state"
Not really, that's wrong. The German states - and especially not in this perticular shape - did not exist prior to the split. Technically the split took place, then the German states were drawn. Yes, it was somewhat based on historical German states, but not entirely, especially in border regions. So they were arbitrary split in many occations. For example: 3 cities and their surrounding lands in southern lower saxony always was part of thuringia. But due to the choices made by the victorious nations, they became part of the west and part of another state, that wasn't historically accurate. A new drawn line, that split them.
@@dnocturn84 same with the occupation zones: Northrhine-Westphalia was never before a state or something like "one" state.
But it was part of the british occupation zone and they drawn the borders of their military administration districts. Later they gave political (civilian) power back to german administration in their different zones and joint some zones to States.
NRW was formed from the (historic) Rhineland (northern part of prussian owned "region Rhineland") and the former Palantine (western part). Some years later the former dukedom of Lippe could vote Lower-Saxony or Northrhine-Westphalia (the little white flower in the lower middle section of the coat of arms of Northrhine Westphalia) and selected later.
@@DSP16569 I guess you mixed things up a bit: The western part of former Palatinate ended up in Rheinland-Pfalz, not in NRW (The eastern part, Oberpfalz, became part of Bavaria). Original NRW was Rhineland + Westphalia before Lippe joined.
I was nine years old going on ten when the Berlin Wall came down. I remember sitting on the floor watching it on the evening news while the adults were talking and excited around me.
I didn't understand it at the time. I didn't understand what the big deal was at the time that it happened. It wasn't until I was in high school that I began to understand the importance of it. I'm STILL learning more/new-to-me parts of this even now (I'm currently 45).
when hes talking about the sand pit areas he is talking the border between east and west germany the "iron curtain"
I still have a piece of the Berlin Wall to this Day. And your memory is not wrong, I remember being sat down to watch it too
This is probably my favorite video you've ever covered. Partly becasue of how often your brow furrows when you hear Nic make excellent points as to why Communism is horrible, 🤣and how often you've given apologist statements in favor of Communism in other videos. You even had to remove Communism from the title before posting it. 🤣
i would love to see a crossover with TFE and Mr. Terry
As per the Potsdam conference West Berlin was not part of either East or West Germany, but in reality West Germany considered it part of their territory. But as a result of West Berlin technically being a separate allied-controlled entity, West Berlin residents didn't have to serve in the army and West Berlin's mayor was called 'governing mayor', because neither the West German government nor the East German government had any jurisdiction in WB.
I watched itvin my 5th grade school classroom live on the news i remember they were pkaying the Ghostbusters theme song.
This was something that I commented on Fat Electrician's video, but you might be able to shed better light.
When I was a freshman in college I was told about an early human group [I can't remember where it was] but they had a system very similar to modern day communism but it worked until the group was wiped out by either a sickness/famine or bloodshed.
The native Americans seemed to do it for a while….we all know how that story ended.
It's important to not confuse communes with communism. Marx based communism (the stateless kind) on eastern European farm communes, something that's basically a system of small subsistence farming communities with no government over them. I can't speak to their resilience when met with diseases and crop failures, but ultimately they don't have any defense against a government deciding they're on the king's land.
Idealist communism is a modern society based on the commune model, so honestly there can't be a historical example.
@@Merennulli I mean, yeah, but there hasn't ever been a pure capitalist society before either. The US got close though, but yeah not 100% capitalism. I vaguely recall reading somewhere that it is almost impossible to a nation to exist off of a pure systems that doesn't borrow ideas from others.
@@PolymurExcel I am confused where purity came into this. The video already called that out that neither system has any pure examples. But communism has a defining distinction from socialism and a defining distinction from communes that means it fundamentally can't have existed historically.
You could hypothetically have either as pure, but there is no mechanism for creating either as pure. And nobody actually wants pure capitalism. We like having certain public services even if we don't all agree on which ones should be funded.
@@Merennulli Eastern-Europe before the German jew was like Russian or do you mean slavic? If so the collectivisation that any communist power attempted failed but the capitalist initiatives, land-to-tiller, was invariably successful.
I remember when the Berlin wall fell, or was taken down. The music and the messaging of the time were something to remember.
The entirety of Berlin was a city state, for the entire cold war. The eastern side very quickly assimilated with the rest of the DDR and the distinction between the two became basically dead letters. They even (illegally) moved their capital there, which is why you had the palace of the republic there and whatnot. West Berlin always had a separate government from West Germany, though the distinction was largely administrative. They probably had their own laws though. Also, while there were two Germanys, they both technically claimed the entirety of Germany as their territory, which made some things easier from a paperwork standpoint.
I remember this fairly well - to a point. I was 15 at the time, and the first I knew of the wall coming down was my german born mother shrieking as the 6 o'clock news started. I was in the midst of my homework, but came running downstairs to find mum pointing at the telly, crying. It took a couple of minutes to work out what was going on, and I spent the rest of the evening flicking between the 3 TV channels that were covering the news live, and comforting Mum. Mum had a celebratory drink, and I was allowed a beer as well. One drink turned into two, then three, then four, then things got a little fuzzy as the celebratory drinking (and the lack of dinner) set in to a celebratory full session...
Going to school the next day with a 4-alarm hangover was... Not fun. Thankfully, once my teachers found out why I was kinda green and likely to yark at the faintest provocation, they were very understanding - to the extent that the deputy head drove me home mid-morning, having decided it was probably for the best after a couple of technicolor yawns occurred in my Chemistry lesson (which set off a couple of my classmates into joining in).
I did get a politely worded request the following Monday, that I shouldn't turn up to school in such a state ever again, but I didn't actually get into any trouble with the school (which I thought was a bonus).
I’m so happy y’all got to experience that memory of pure love and joy at being free. America is bad at spending money but sometimes. Like the German air lift. We through our money in the right direction and I’m so glad they never left Germany is one of our best Allie’s today
I actually own a piece of the berlin wall my mother was a banker in retirment homes and one her clients gifted it to me
I was in 9th grade when the wall fell. A little while later my dad toured Germany and Russia with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. Missed my 15th birthday. He traded a tape for a Russian Officers belt. I still have that belt. My kids think it's awesome. Then a few months after that. My oldest sister gets stationed in Germany for Desert Storm. She brought back a piece of the Wall. Crazy times for a while.
can you imagine being one of the east german guards, not briefed on anything, just seeing a mob of thousands coming up, and saying the government has effective immediatly allowed them to travel, and you knowing nothing, standing there, at your post, thinking, what the fuck do i do?
I was in elementary school when this happened but I didn't really know what it was about
He's completely right. Have you ever heard of a single person risking their life to escape America?
Most just get on a plane and leave
(With the obvious exception of people who are wanted by law enforcement)
Not even dude, they could literally just walk across the border and they won’t even bother you.
most dont actually just leave because they cant
how many people do you think want to leave america but cant because its not economically/finnancially feasible for them
most americans live paycheck to paycheck 62 percent of americans are living paycheck to paycheck
over 205 million americans cannot leave america let alone their state
“We got invaded by fascism.” Sounds familiar…
Don't you know this man doesn't miss with the facts yet 😆
I think I remember seeing an old movie about the balloon escape one.
I was young my grandmother put on the tv and we watched Peter Jennings.
Yes, East and West were split up into basically 2 different countries
I was around 17 when Berlin wall fell. I can't explain how amazing it was to witness live. I was raised with the iron wall, as an American. Everything dark, shadowy, horrible was on the other side of that wall. Everything evil was termed communist.
Just imagine if this happened today what the talking points would be
When it comes down to it, you're the only one who can. Truly decide your own value your worth and you do it with your actions and what you do in your life
When you stand a pediatric heart surgeon next to a crackhead who robs gas stations, the value of those two people will change depending on the situation, but they are both valuable. They're both equally as human
but one of them is going to be a lot more useful to the world than the other most likely
The 80s were fucking scarey for those of us growing up during that era.
As much as I support the current environmental movements, those that didn't grow up in the 80s don't have the same perspective. Back then it was "If we don't sort out this shit the world is going to be radioactive". Nowdays its "If we don't sort this shit out the world is going to make us and the current ecosystem redundant and start over"
unfortunately capitalism puts greed and products over people and land
we produce and waste much more than we need to purely because it costs too much to not waste
and we want more money so we produce more than whats needed
There were two separate borders between East and West Germany during the cold War. The first one that was referenced in this video was the Inner German border which separated East and West Germany. It ran from the Baltic Sea to Czechoslovakia for a total length of 858 miles and was considered one of the most heavily fortified borders in the world. The Berlin wall was a separate border wall that would surround West Berlin and stretch about 110 miles.
He mentions both actually.
Can we appreciate that the german economy was not US capitalism but a special kind of a social capitalsm with enourmous power to unions in every factory and the well established social healthcare and pension system invented by Otto von Bismarck decades ago which is very different to the american system.
mixed market economies are poggers especially if they are socially democratic in political ideology
No one brings up anymore the “democracies do not build walls” speech at the Berlin Wall anymore.
West Berlin seems to not be considered either side actually technically, from what I can gather, though in practical terms, yes it was West Germany.
10:20 He didn't mean Berlin - he meant Germany. The border around West Berlin had the famous wall, but there was also what was called the "inner German border" which is where you had the fences, and the razor wire, and the dogs, and the towers, and the sand pits.
There was a movie made about the Ballon escape, called night crossing.
14:57 they partially even did. As a scientist in the DDR you were very welcome and had a good life
My two favorite guys on YT talking dog crap about Communism, as they say, I'm hear for it!
Your awesome and happy new year
@MrTerry I'm not sure if this has been pointed out yet, but the Berlin Wall was constructed just under a decade after Stalinism had ended. Nikita Khrushchev was the leader at the time.
I was a sophomore in high school when the wall came down. If memory serves, Poland getting their independence via I think a union strike, you could see the cracks in the iron curtain, but ya weren't exactly sure it would happen. Everything seemed to just happen organically though. Not sure if CNN existed at this point but I believe ABC news was the only US news organization in Berlin at the time and I remember watching it on ABC news and Night Line just astonished and amazed. People crying and celebrating their freedom after decades of oppression. To this day, probably one of the most amazing events I've ever seen in my life as the world literally changed in one night.
You should react to the Fat Electrician War Horse and World War Tree
@MrTerry I love your videos and I like your reactions to the fat electrician, I know he does us soldiers/ heros but I'd like for both of yous to look at "mad jack" he is a British soldier and I think both of you would love his story
I am convinced this guy is the next bill nye for substitute history teachers lol
West Berlin was West Germany the same way that every embassy in the world is part of its home country and is sovereign land of their parent country.
Not true actually. Embassies are not sovereign land and West-Berlin was West-German land period.
It's a Falasy that embassies become the land or soil of the nation the represent. They don't. Its still the territory of the nation where it is but the building itself has diplomatic status.
That said the US does have 'territory' within the UK.
The Queen donated land to the American people, a few acres, in the field next to where Magna carta was signed in the 1200s and had built on the land the JFK memorial amd gardens. And as the Queen gifted it to America it made it effectively American soil and territory within UK borders. Whereas the US embassy isn't US soil.
I remember reading a weird book in grad school about a STASI agent who ended up becoming a porn star after the wall fell.
I'd also say the soviets probably used the red and white civil war, and bloshivek coup attempts as other reasons to defend against different ideologies.
You should check out the movie Bornholmer Straße. It's a German comedy film about the fall of the Berlin wall from the point of view of the guards. The whole thing is on youtube, but you need to turn on subtitles for the translation.
My grandma was actually in Germany when the wall fell.
She still thinks Communism is a good idea 🤦
In 1989, my school gifted me an Atlas, because it was no longer accurate. I still have it. And so many borders have been redrawn since. As have countries been renamed. I keep it as a reminder of what was.
The best Berlin Wall film is One, Two, Three (1961), it was being shot in Berlin when the wall was being erected I think.
I’m just here to see how Mr. Terry reacts to the Chubby Electron Guy just flat out talking shit on communism halfway through the video.
I'm going to help socialists/communists with their argument. While at the same time pointing out how it fails. Communism/socialism can work. When it's very small, limited, and with people on the same page. Like among a group of friends, immediate colleagues, or a family.
Once you get out of those parameters. The system begins to fall apart. From individual needs, to corruption, and abuse. It just won't work when it gets to town, city, state, and national levels.
Or buisnesses like esop buisnesses government always fucks things up
And the economic flow halts and it’ll be like how government agencies or schools have budgets that allocate the funds for them
but for some reason these same needs wont topple the system when its smaller?
what makes size matter in regards to these issues brought up if they can be dealt with in a smaller community they can be dealt with in a larger one too
"From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs"
the states job is to be able to provide for its citizens and this can and does happen in our current economy and even more so in an economy that prioritizes individual economic needs
WHEN those needs are actually listened to heres a fun fact every communist dicatorship to have ever existed was ran by the wealthy NOT the working class
corruption occurs de to desire for more power and more wealth/control
this is the result of capitalism drive for people to out compete others
corruption is a feature in capitalism as is abuse and individual needs are rarely ever met whether its (vet healthcare, civilian healthcare, drug epidemics, social welfare, etc) in socialism/communism its a bug
the fact is you dont need to throw us a bone because not even you understand what the fuck your talking about
every communistic party has been capitalist in some way shape or form and hasnt even followed any of the peoples needs or desires every major dictator has used the promise of worker rights to gain power but has never actually given a shit instead coopting versions of national socialism (socialism but for the rich and specific people) for those that line the pockets of those in charge
its litterally far right capitalism and far right social affairs
@@amberharmsen2497 there’s so much freedom built into capitalism we get to decide where we send most of our money. The government doesn’t have the right to take our money at gun point. Capitalism pulls more people out of poverty then socialism or communism