@Young Pappy North-West Germany was infact british occupation zone, but only little Bremen was american. As i said, because the american troops needed a harbor at the north sea. I'm from Bremen and all the american sailors left their footprint in our culture.
@Young Pappy no Bremen and Bremerhaven were US Zone because the US demanded a port. Elvis Presley famously landed in Bremerhaven for his military service. But around these two cities everything was british zone indeed.
3:11 "These people were now Russians" - not exactly, most of "these people" were expelled or killed. Likewise for 4:07 "These Germans were now living in Poland" - no, "these Germans" were living in Refugee camps in the four occupied zones by millions.
Yes, one of my grandmas and one of my grandpas were expelled from what was now Czechoslovakia. They lost everything and basically only had what they could carry. On top of that they were not welcome were they seeked refuge. Even though they were Germans
My German family was living in Poland up until the 80ies and many other Germans did too. They got the Polish citizenship and their language was surpressed, but in private among the Germans they still spoke it. The Germans were kind of spied on a little bit, though it was never as effective as in Eastern Germany. Because the normal Polish people themselves hated being in the Russian influence they did not collaborate as easily with the secret police as people did with the Stasi. Also the Poles are a bit anarchic and don't trust even their own governments. We had excellent relations to all neighbors in the house. Eventually the Germans married to Poles and that's how I was born. Because I was born in Poland, I am seen there as Polish, even though we finally moved to Germany in the mid 80ies (mainly because Poland declared war status and the times were also economically challenging). But because the German system works with blood relation, and I had German relatives I am easily a German here. Because I moved as a 10 yo kid I see myself as more German, but that is rather based on life experience and not on a patriotic feeling.
My father was born and raised in the German province of Posen, now „Poznań“ in Poland; never got back in his lifetime. And just for relational numbers: In 2015 Germany accepted roughly 1 million Syrian and other refugees and some people said it was too much. In the month after WW II, 1945 and 1946, about 12 million refugees and displaced persons flooded west Germany and had to be housed in huge refugee camps for years. The reason: most of the German cities (160) had been destroyed by allied air raids, so called carpet bombing, and there was virtually no living space left for no one. 10 million residents of those bombed cities and towns had fled into the country side. The additional 12 million German refugees were mostly old people, women and children (the husbands, fathers,sons, and brothers dead as soldiers, POW, or not yet returned from the front). Since railroads and any public transportation had broken down after Germany’s surrender they walked by foot hundreds of miles in endless refugee tracks, fleeing the red army and Polish retaliation. Their homeland was - had been - East Prussia - which is now the Russian „Kaliningrad“ - and what is now west Poland, like my father‘s homeland Posen. In a huge effort and under immense costs and sharing living space and scarce food (everyone was starving) west Germans integrated those easterners (no one wanted to stay in the new east Germany under communist rule) into their society.
I am old enough to remember...it wasn't a one day even, it was more week of tension and then this incredible feeling of relief that everything went well.
I was 16 and watched from Switzerland. It was so powerful even here. In Europe we grew up with the constant fear of a WW3. As young idealistc and political interested people we felt so much hope for peace around the world. And then the US needed a new villain to get the military industrial complex going. We watched step by step how Muslims and Iraq became that. It was so disheartening.
it was a crazy time with traveling into west-germany by waiting 8 hours in a overfillled train on the inner german border :D for the people of west germany is wasnt that great change but for us in easty germany it was like WHOOOOOOWWWW
I come from the northern east of Italy, near the border to what then became Ex-Jugoslavia (I remember the war that happened there with fear) and we had since before these events friends from West Germany, recounting their experiences to us about it. I was between 5 and 6 yo when this happened and I remember my parents crying in joy while the tv was playing videos about the fall of the wall. I was of course too young to remember all the political struggles to get to the reunification, but I clearly remember families celebrating after not having seen each others for years or even decades!
Actually it was communist east Germany that was walled in. People were not allowed to travel to any western country and not only lacked good jobs but the most basic items like bananas for example or they werent allowed to listen to the Beatles or Elvis etc. because they represented the west. My grandmothers family had to flee from the lost German area that later became Poland. The family was torn apart by the wall and my grandmother and her one sister lived in the west and two of her other sisters in the east. They never saw each others again and my grandmother unfortunatly died a few month before the wall came down.
About the German national anthem: IT's just forbidden to sing the first stanza on official events. If you have a privat party with your friend at home, you're free to sing it all day, if you want. ;) There are multible reasons, why the third stanza was chosen as our national anthem: 1.The first stanza was taken out off context by the Nazis so it had a really bitter aftertaste. 2.The lyrics incuded locations that weren't part of Germany anymore, so it would be geographicly incorrect. 3.The way of how Germany viewed itself had changed a lot and "Unity and justice and freedom" reflected the idea of the modern Germany better than "Germany over everything in the world". 4. The second stanza is LITTERALLY about women and wine, which doesn't really sound serious enough to be a national anthem xD
Das ist falsch. Die ersten beiden Strophen sind nicht Teil der Nationalhymne, aber es ist nicht verboten, sie zu singen. Bei offiziellen Anlässen wird natürlich die Nationalhymne gesungen, und da gehören die ersten beiden Strophen eben nicht zu.
@@disobedientdolphin Das stimmt so nicht ganz. Offiziell per Verfassung oder Gesetz festgelegt ist überhaupt keine Nationalhymne. Das Lied der Deutschen in seiner Gesamtheit ist mehr aus Gewohnheitsrecht die deutsche Nationalhymne. Zu offiziellen Anlässen wird aus den oben genannten Gründen aber nur die dritte Strophe gesungen. Das war eigentlich schon immer die gängige Praxis in der BRD. Allerdings ist nur die dritte Strophe vor Verunglimpfung geschützt (§90 StGB). Mit den ersten beiden kann man Schindluder treiben wie man will.
@@disobedientdolphin Lies meinen Kommentar nochmal genau durch. Ich habe nicht geschrieben, dass die beiden anderen Strophen zur Nationalhymne gehören oder generell verboten sind. Nur eben, dass sie nicht bei offiziellen Veranstaltungen gesungen werden, aus den Gründen, die ich oben aufgezählt habe. Wobei ich zugeben muss, dass "auf offiziellen Events verboten" auch etwas salopp ausgedrückt war, aber in dem Fall reichten meine Englischkenntnisse einfach nicht aus, um die genauen Tatbestände gem. des StGB aufzudröseln, deswegen habe ich es mehr oder weniger "abgekürzt" :) Ach und @MrLusankya *Klugscheißermodus on* es ist §90a Abs. 1 Nr. 2 StGB nicht §90, in dem geht's um den lieben Frank Walter *Klugscheißermodus off* :P
@lucian of rain and rainbows That's what I meant, when I said "out of context". The original meaning behind the "Song of Germany" was a reference to the Rhine crisis between France and Germany in 1840. The french goverment wanted the Rhine to becoma a "natural border" between France and Germany, which resulted in a rise of nationalism in many German states who rejected to give up german territory. The first stanza was, like you figured right, about estimating the unity of the Germany as a whole higher than the german princes of every single german state, the second stanza about defending Germany against enemies and the last about the wish for popular sovereignty :)
Zwei Antworten unter diesem Kommentar waren einfach unnötig, da diese in deinem Kommentar bereits erklärt wurden. Er hat ja geschrieben, dass die erste und zweite Strophe nicht verboten ist aber auf offiziellen Anlässen, aufgrund der Schändung durch die Nazis und der Kontextlosigkeit zum heutigen Deutschland, die dritte Strophe gesungen wird. Und beim anderen Kommentar wurde erklärt, was die erste Strophe genau meinte, obwohl bereits erwähnt wurde, dass die erste Strophe durch die Nazis aus dem Kontext gezogen wurde. Well played TH-cam-User. :D
Actually the first two parts were never a part of Germany's (Federal Republic of Germany) anthem. The song is very historical. It was written before Germany really existed and had the intention to unify all the tiny princedoms in the area of Germany to a German national state. When a new German state was founded after WW2, they needed an anthem for it and decided to take only the third part of the "Lied der Deutschen" ("Song of the Germans"), because the first two didn't fit in terms of content. As far as I know, it's not forbidden by law to sing the first two parts, but they are just not part of the anthem and even if they were never intended to do, they sound like they support the ideology of the Nazis.
@@vincentpey3929 The Nazis used the first part of the "Deutschlandlied" ("Deutschland, Deutschland über alles...") and then transitioned into the now forbidden "Horst-Wessel-Lied" ("Die Fahne hoch! ..."). The "Deutschlandlied" is actually legal in its entirety, it existed long before the Nazis and was used as the anthem of the Weimar Republic. But the anthem of the Federal Republic is only using the third part to avoid Nazi connections and implied territorial claims of the first ("Von der Maas bis an die Memel, Von der Etsch bis an den Belt"). The second part is only ommited because it doesn't really fit as an anthem, praising german women, loyalty, wine and singing.
My Mom is from East-Germany and my Dad is from West-Germany. If the wall wouldn't have fallen, I wouldn't be here today. It's crazy. It's also really interesting to hear about both sides of the story and how differently East and West were. Till today there are slight differences between people who grew up in the East or the West. I love listening to my Dad and my Mom talking about their lifestyles back in the day.
The eastern territories that were given to polamd and russia, weren't inhabited by people, that then became polnish/russian. The germans in these regions were expulsed, or had already fled to the west and instead settled by polnish people, who in return were expulsed from the former eastern territories of poland, that were annexed by the soviet union to replace some of the housing, that had been destroyed in the war. There are no people in these regions, that are descendants of germans who lived there before the war. If so, they moved there in recent years.
There is still a sizeable German minority in Silesia. But right, during the Cold War it was possible to "remigrate" into West Germany, and a lof of those who did not flee already in WWII and the two years after that did it that way over the years. Note that also by 1871-1918 there were already sizable numbers of Polish with then German citizenship lived in that areas, and many of them migrated into the Ruhr-Area and assimilated over the years. But still here in that area, Polish names are very common. The German - Polish "boarders" have been an issue over centuries, and I hope that the agreement of 1990 settles it for a very long peaceful coexistence in a Euoean Union with open boarders.
6:50 It's more like this: Chicago is split into East and West Chicago. West Chicago is considered part of the capitalist USA. The entire rest of the Midwest is communist, and the remaining part of the US is capitalist. In 1961 the Midwest government, encouraged by communist Quebec, closes off the border between the Midwest and the rest of the USA. Because Chicago is considered to be part of the capitalist US, people in East Chicago and the rest of the Midwest want to have jobs in the richer West Chicago, so the Midwest government builds a wall entirely around it. People can now only travel between capitalist USA and West Chicago by air or by three heavily controlled highway routes (or by trains run by the communist Midwest state transportation institution). People in West Chicago are really scared, because it would be very easy for them to be overrun, despite the token presence of Western Allied troops. ... Long story short, the communist Midwest as well as Quebec and the entire communist world really struggles by the time of the 80s, and by a mistake the Chicago Wall is opened (after months of peaceful protests in the Midwest, which are technically illegal). After that, the floodgates are open and on October 3, 1990, the Midwest is basically acquired by the capitalist USA, for a "reunified USA".
The 1. and 2. stanzas of the german national anthem are not forbidden, they are just not officially part of the current german anthem anymore, since they elevate Germany above the rest of the world, which is the opposite of the german constitution since everybody is equal. To that, many think that Hitler created that anthem but that is wrong, because it was created before Hitler was even born (1863).
Yeah. The original meaning of "Germany, Germany over everything" (the very first lyrics in the first part) wasn't "Germany's better than everyone else and we want to invade and own everything" but "Let's put the name "Germany" over this clusterf*ck of a "Holy Roman Empire" with dozens of different pretty much independent kingdoms and whatnot".
@@sascha_maxine Ich meine, wenn man der Welt ne Hymne bei z.B. den Olympischen Spielen oder bei Staatsbesuchen präsentiert, in der gesungen wird wie schön Deutsche Frauen und Deutscher Wein sind, macht man sich etwas lächerlich 😂. Also da bleibe ich auch lieber bei der 3. Strophe bleiben, wo man über die glorreiche Zukunft für unser Deutsches Vaterland singt.
@@stadom3 so an sich schon, aber warum wird die genauso behandelt wie die erste Strophe? Ich meine die ist vllt etwas komisch aber es geht nun wirklich schlimmer Ich würde gerne ein bisschen über die eine oder andere deutsche Frau singen😂 Kappa Wir hätten einfach die DDR Hymne nehmen sollen, die war viel geiler
@@HexenkoeniginVonAngmar And this poem (the lyrics of the german anthem) was written after Napoleon messed up everything and the writer of the poem (August Heinrich Hoffmann von Fallersleben, in british exile) saw that Napoleons army has a easy task to invade one german "mini" kingdom (and Duchy) after another. In his mind only a strong united german state would be able to survive - and not being a playball for the other surrounding nations anymore - and therefore a united germany should be the highest priority for all german politicans and rulers. This it was he mentioned with Germany (as a united state) above all (other priorities). The melody of the current german anthem is from the Austrian-Kaiserlied composed 1796/97 by Joseph Haydn for the austrian Emperor.
I won’t forget this. I don’t remember why I turned on the tv, yet I did and couldn’t believe what happened. I ran to my parents and practically yelled that the wall fell and wanted them to come downstairs. They “just” said “We know” and smiled. So did my grandparents and my grandfather also had a smile on his face. He always said that this was bound to fail. Sometimes I wonder how everybody knew that and I almost missed it. On the other hand it all made sense and through all that time we never lost contact to friends from eastern Germany. People were fed up with with the “see-saw” of repression and fought for freedom. They won! It was dangerous but that couldn’t keep them to literally break that wall to pieces. The only thing that truly bothered us was that unbelievably shameless people not only tried to sell just about everything and that those who trusted them could be fooled and some found themselves drowning in bills. A swarm of human locusts ripped them off. So we tried to intervene and help wherever we could. Some tried to sell fruits to overwhelmed people for a ridiculously high price… bananas that already turned brown for up to 5 DM, for instance. Those criminals were rotten to the core. And I won’t change my opinion. I might be naïve but equipped with fairness and I intend to keep it that way. I consider myself grateful- so do my friends. Sometimes in life should be reserved for celebrations and happiness.
On the night the Berlin wall fell, my father would wake my sister and me up. I was 6 or 7, she was 2 years younger. He got us to the living room, the TV was on. And there it was... News of the wall being torn down, people crying tears of joy, partying hard, hugging each other. I'll never forget my fathers words: "You may not understand it right now, but you witness history." Still gets me emotional...
In fact the US was scared all the time, that russia would just get tanks over the border and start the 3rd world war. So germany at that time was a huge stage for the cold war.
Love to see how interested and curious you are about Germany, its culture and history. As in other countries there are good things and bad as well. But you manage to keep that open mind. It's really refreshing to see your unbiased point of view or just reaction to even little accomplishments of the German history and especially development in the last 70 years. Best regards from (former Eastern 😉) Germany
I was very young when the wall fell but I remeber it as clear as if it was yesterday. People screaming and crying. Rolling their televisions outside to watch the first to 20th repeat of the news together. They just NEEDED to hear it again and again to belive it was really happening. It was way after midnight, all children were still awake, when the first family members from the east arrived. Many of them had not seen their families for 40 years and got to meet their grandparents/grandchildren for the first time or see their long lost sons and aughter again. All neighbors were celebrating together, drinking, eating bbq and salads and waiting for the people to arrive and preparing guest rooms, even when they themselves were not awaiting any lost members of their family. The joy and happiness and the emotions of this day are so real in my memory. It was the most emotional day and night I have ever had. Including my wedding. It was nothing compared to this nation wide joy and rejoicing. Germans normally don't speak to strangers but this day nobody was a stranger, everybody told everyone the good news and nobody got tired of hearing about the wonder that happened. Germany is reunited!
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I don't get why people think this was such a long time ago. I'm in my mid 30s and I remember the reunification quite vividly. The whole thing s something that is part of peoples lives. People living and working in germany right now have been influenced by it. And to some degree, it is still an ongoing process.
If you are interested to learn more about the German Reunification, there is a very good documentary about it, partly with original documents from Tv-News and Interviews with contemporary witnesses, partly replayed by actors. I don't know if it is available via streaming from the US, but there is a Double-DVD-Pack. It is called "Deutschlandspiel" by Guido Knopp, and it has two parts ("Auf der Straße" (On the Streets) and "Eilig Vaterland" (Hastily Fatherland)). I found it very interesting, when we watched it at university for I didn't know that f.ex. Conduleza Rice was part of the US-Ambassador-Group to negotiate about the Reunification.
I live in germany and it's so weird to remember that it was before only 30 years. my mom and dad lived in a time with 2 Germanys and that's weird to think about it.
Right? My family were guest workers that came over during the 70's and stayed so my grandparents lived and my dad was born in a time when there were two Germany's. The topic came up once in passing and I swear there was a gleam in my dad's eye when he talked about how the wall fell.
The parliament spontaneously broke into song with the lyrics of the official national anthem, as its FIRST word is "Einigkeit", unity, followed by "Recht", (ones) rights/justice und Freiheit, freedom, the words people were shouting, jubilantly, in the streets, at the same time .
My parents each time tell me how it was when they heard about the wall coming down. They still exactly know what they did and where they were. Btw: The American stereotypes resulted from the USA controling Bavaria after the war. And yes: That is (one) of the reasons why the European Union is so important. It assured the peace.
13:53 The Axis powers were no longer a concept after World War II, where they consisted primarily of Germany, Italy, Japan and some minor countries such as Hungary and Romania. After World War II, it was no longer "Allies vs. Axis" but (eventually) "NATO" (and not just USA) vs. "Warsaw Pact" (and not just the Soviet Union.
Pice of important Russian history for all the ppl at home: 21:36 during the napoleon war/war of 1812, the French have taken Moscow BUT the Russians pulled a mad move, and burned. Down. The city. Just to the ground. And while napoleon was losing soldiers to greed, hunger and cold, he started making his way back to France. And at this moment the Russians came out of hiding and hinted him out of the country like a shepard dog. Also just more stuff on war of 1812: The winter also played a huge role in helping the Russians, Napoleon was really not prepared. The Moscow fire has some thick "IF I'M NOT GETTING IT, NOBODY WILL!" energy tbh
the most amazing thing about the fall of the wall was that the protests were peaceful. in a documentary, a russian soldier stated that they would have been forced to intervene had a eastern berliner done something like throwing a single stone. but the protests were peaceful and non-violent, so the russian commander told his soldiers to turn around and go back to bed
13:32 yes, in Berlin there were literally meters away from one another divided by a non existent line inbetween with sovjet tanks on one side and us tanks on the other just one order away from opening fire on each other.
J st from the Intro alone I can see. Your German has gotten so much better over the last months.I personally was able to understand you well ,which is something I have never seen an Anglo Saxon or American do (except on TV perhaps)
Oh, the UK used to have a "commonwealth"...countries all over the world they colonized. The US used to be one of them btw, as was Canada, Australia, India, a huge chunk of Africa, just to mention the most important. But over time, more and more countries decided to become independent from the UK. Remember Ghandi? That's what he mostly was about, to free India from British control. By the time reunification happened, the UK was just this tiny island in Europe...not that the Brits have understood this yet.
Also, west germany formally accepted the Oder-Neiße border with poland (the modern day border) in the 1970s under chancellor Willy Brandt. The territories to the east of that were never part of considerations for a reunified Germany. That Kohl wanted these territories is simply incorrect.
Nah they sung the third stanca which translates to: unity, justice and freedom for the German fatherland. Let's all strive for these goals like brothers in our hearts and through our deeds. Unity and justice and freedom are the foundations for happyness. Unity and justice and freedom for our German fatherland". It's very seldomn anyone sings the national athem ever. The only time I ever sang it was at sports national championships. So this was a unique moment when paliament stood up and sung the anthem.
British singer Sting actually wrote a song called "Russians" in 1985. The song was based on his knowledge of the cold war through russian TV. One of his friends actually hacked himself into a satellite signal so they could watch it. Through the TV Sting could see pictures of the cold war (and the russian version of Sesame Street). The song was released in June 1985 on Stings first solo album called The Dream of the Blue Turtles.
8:21 the national anthem of Germany ist only the third strophe of the "Lied der Deutschen" from the autor Heinrich Hoffmann von Fallersleben (1798-1874) he wrote the poetry 1841 in Helgoland, because of the territorial claims from France on the Rheinland 1840. The first two strophes are forbidden since the World War 2, because of the territories which was be called in it (...von der Maas bis an die Memel.../= two rivers in west and east of Europe) and the "Deutschland, Deutschland über alles" (Germany over all) The melody of the anthem ist the "Kaiserhymne" from Joseph Haydn, composed 1796/1797
So as nobody wrote it (I think so): Russia (Soviet Union actually) was in the Warsaw pact not the Axis... The Axis was the pact between Nazi-Germany, Italy, Japan and the rest of the members who joined later on during WW2
15:14 All throughout the Cold War (you're mixing in Word War II a couple of times, that ended in 1945) there was no peace treaty with Germany. The peace treaty finally came in 1990, after unification.
Which is why Dr. Kohl (with a PhD in history) held out on the Eastern territories as a bargaigning chip. He KNEW he wouldnt get them back, even though their annexation by Stalin was blatantly illegal under international law, as was the expulsion of Germans from Sudetenland etc. But he used these claims to get other concessions (like not paying serious war reparations for WW2, beyond what had already been paid) in turn.
17:48 No, the early "EU" was forged through coal and economy agreements beforehand. A part of it was West-Germany. The EU concept was fully fledged out right around the time of the reunification, though.
The videos they show there from opening the gates that day are all from Berlin. That year i became 15 yo and the weeks after were crazy in Berlin. My Stepdad is from east-Germany and had now the first time after nearly 10 years to cross over to the eastside... Very emotional times... still til today
When it comes to reunification parties, we don't say "Jägermeister!" - we say "I've been looking for freedom...!" and there are leather jackets with lightbulb on them involved...
I was 12 years old as it happened. It was so huge, i was a child but felt how big this stuff is... day by day .... the energy from the adults : my Mom saw as they build the Berlin wall, it splitted her family... and in November 1989 the people run for their liberty and will never forget how my Mom explained me what is going on. The whole family sat in front of the TV and we knew „This will be important history and will change so much“.
the eastern German state was actual HEAVILY dependent on the west economy. A lot of eastern german products were sold to western germany and the german states were the global needle-ear to export and import things from and to the eastern block behind the official lines, like (technical illegal) coffee sales of STATES from western companies, like nestle.
Not everybody speaks german in germany, we do have our "national minorities" (the danish minority, the sorbians, the saterfriesian speakers, the friesian speakers, the low german speakers, the jenish speakers, the sinti speakers,...), although, these are usually not particularly large groups of language groups.
They are singing the 3rd stanza of the "Lied der Deutschen". Since it was accepted as National Anthem in West Germany by the 1st Federal President, Theodor Heuss, it was made clear that only the 3rd stanza should be sang. In 1990 the Federal President Richard von Weizsäcker then again made it clear that only the 3rd stanza is part of the German National Anthem.
The wall was also built over night basically so families were split over night and couldn’t see eachother again even though they were neighbours before
Actually there were almost no Germans left in Kaliningrad after the war. The Germans left their home in the last days of the war and became Germanies first wave of refugees. You need to understand that from the 16th century on, german settlers were populating many areas in eastern Europe (Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Romania, Ukraine and Russia) were they lived together with slavic and jewish people. Prague for example was a third german, a third czech and a third jewish. So after the germans left, the dialects of East Prussia and other eastern german tribes died out. You can hear the east prussian dialect in a funny clip of Peter Frankenfeld presenting the weather on an old map: th-cam.com/video/k7a6ak8QggY/w-d-xo.html. The polish people also had to leave their eastern part and were deported to old german areas while russians settled in the eastern part of Poland. Germans which did not flee to Germany were deported to Kazakhstan, Usbekistan and Kyrgyzctan. They came back to Germany after living for 200 years abroad in 1980. Like my grandma, and she still spoke decent german.
Good video, but sadly doesn't even mention Genscher, who was the German Foreign minister during that period. He was already instrumental in the time leading up to the fall of the wall, for example when he managed to get permission for a bunch of east Germans who had camped out in the prague embassy to travel to West Germany, and he did most of the negotiations to get the allied states to agree to reunification. Kohl mostly did the big speeches. The EU is way older than that. It started out directly after WWII as the so called "Coal and Steel" union between a handful of countries (France, Germany, Italy, Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxemburg), with the idea that countries which have close trade ties which each other would start wars with each other. That develiped later into the EC, the European Community (with more and more members joining) and finally the EU. It is important to know that a lot of counties in the EU had already pegged their currency to the very stong Germany Mark long before the Euro became an official thing. And that the Germans were REALLY not happy to lose their German Mark, since is symbolises the economic success Germany had after WWII.
Yes and no. The EEC (etc) was a much loser confederation. The EU as such is a further step, uniting the EC, Coal and Steel union and Euratom under one roof and adding more competencies to this new Union. Not to mention the many new member states that got added ...
As to the stanzas of the German National Anthem, here is a translated excerpt from the German WIkipedia: "After World War II, the Allies did not ban the German song, but public singing was prohibited in the American Zone. Federal Chancellor Konrad Adenauer [1949 - 1963] campaigned for it to be reintroduced; at state events only the third verse should be sung. Federal President Theodor Heuss [1949 -1959] set aside his concerns and agreed to Adenauer's desire in an exchange of letters. Their successors, Federal President Richard von Weizsäcker [1984 - 1994] and Federal Chancellor Helmut Kohl [1982 - 1998], stated in an exchange of letters in 1991 that the third stanza was the National Anthem." And the West German parliament sang the THIRD stanza at the time.
I am totally astonished about your videos and your interest in Germany and it´s history, culture and so on. I´m from Germany, as you would guess, maybe we can have a little chat one day or another about Germany, But for now I wish you a happy new year 2021!
The third stanza of the "Lied der deutschen" is the anthem of germany. The first two stanzas are completely legal to sing in germany. Even thou they are not part of the anthem
@James Bray I recommend the Netflix dokumentation Rohwedder Einigkeit und Mord und Freiheit. The dokumentation is about Rohwedder and what happend to east germany
At my hometown Fürth there wer three big US military bases and a US airfield. 1995 the left Fürth. The only thing which remeber us of the americans are the casinos, a mall, a huge park located were on of the bases were and KFC :)
It was not only Kohl who was working on the union, but your foreign minister Genscher played an verry, verry important part. Genscher is a legend in germany.
#Warning, long post. Bavaria, parts of Baden-Wurtemberg, Hessia were the US zone after WW2, yes. Berlin (West) was walled off from the rest of East Germany. Then there was also the inner-German border, a nearly two mile wide strip that was prohibited for ANY East German to enter, unless they lived in one of the towns directly on the border. Or you were a border patrol guard. This inner-German border was covered by multiple fences, automatic self-firing gun sentry points, mine strips, barbed wire, and patrol routes covered by viscous guard dogs, as well as multi-man guard patrols. The multi-man guard patrols were usually set up so that there was always a political officer who was part of the patrol group, to keep an eye on the possible soldiers trying to cross the border and flee the country. The blockade of West Berlin by the Soviets was essentially overcome by the air lift of the UK, USA, and France, supported as much as possible by Western Germany. Soon after the blockade was lifted three basic highway transfer corridors, as well as two major train lines that connected West Berlin to West Germany through the territory of East Germany were set up. These corridors were under serious scrutiny by the East German border patrol. If you traveled by road you had NO right to leave the highways to enter East Germany proper. You were only allowed to stop at designated rest stops of the SED party where you could by ludicrously overpriced gasoline to fill up your car. If your car broke down in East Germany on the highway it was highly possible that you'd spend at least a night in police custody because they believed you had staged your breakdown to take possible refugees on board. If you were on a train, the trains usually didn't stop on East German territory and they did not take on passengers in East Germany. If for ANY reason the trains had to stop on East German the next stop the train would be boarded by border patrol troops to check EVERYONE's passports, to determine if any East German had snuck onto the train. Crossing the inner-German border on roads was a harrowing experience, as EVERY car passing the borders was searched to The MAX. I mean, you had to fold over the rear passenger seats and had to remove ANYTHING large enough to possible hide even a child. The underside of your car was searched with mirrors, your gas tank was checked by a probe to show if it was the original size (and not downsized to have storage space for an escapee), and all of those shenanigans. THAT'S what the reality of East German paranoia was when it came to keeping their own people inside their borders. This state of affairs remained in effect for more than 20 years. Border patrol hassles for all westerners trying to enter East Germany, and again returning back to their home countries. After a period of seriously ancient Soviet party leaders (Chrushzhev, Brezhnev, Andropow, Chernenko) who were absolute hard-liners, came a younger Gorbachev, the leader with Perestroika and Glasnost, the basic opening and reinstating of talks with the west, and slow democratization of the Soviet Union. He was also the leader who denied the East German government ANY military support should the East German population revolt. This had been the state of affairs in Czechoslovakia, Poland, Hungary for the last four decades. Suddenly, the Soviet Leader changed this, did not support military actions to suppress counter-revolutionaries, especially when they were reported by everyone to be peaceful to the extreme. The Soviets had been bled dry economically by four decades of nuclear and conventional arms races, an unsuccessful invasion of Afghanistan (another topic in and of itsself), and continously suppressing counter-revolutionaries in their satelite states. They were on the brink of economic collapse. Their HUGE armies sucked up an insane amount of their GDP. But their even more insane amount of territory also required such a huge army to keep it under control, as essentially, any borders with a non-soviet state had to be as massively guarded as the inner-German border. They had no choice but to fund these huge armies, or start hemorraging satelite states. Nuclear disarmament treaties had resulted in the first approachment of East and West after four decades of hard-liners facing off, essentially over the inner-German border. In 1980 the state of Poland was still a very autocratic socialist country, but with a strong national workers union, that had strong political leaders as well. The Solidarnosc (solidarity) was the political arm of essentially, the single union that held control over many workers in Poland. It's leader Lech Walesa was strongly opposed to violence, and tried to install, slowly, more or less peacefully, and quietly, democratic principles. Over the years Lech Walesa essentially became the leader of the true workers' party in Poland due to his influence in the Solidarnosc. So when the Solidarnosc started localized strikes in 1986, that grew into general strikes that lasted on and off until 1989, the satelite states of the Soviet Union were already under economic attack from within. Poland essentially held free democratic elections in June of 1989, which Lech Walesa's political arm of the Solidarnosc won by a landslide. This was essentially the end of socialism in Poland, and the first signs of the dissolution of the Soviet Union and its satelite states. This was a dangerous move, as previously the Soviet Union had bloodily suppressed such democratic movements. But nothing happened. Gorbachev was true to his word of Perestroika and Glasnost, opening and democratization. Then came the summer of 1989, when Hungary, the 'socialist brother state' close to East Germany, emboldened by the Polish democratic vote, and the peaceful political changes, opened their borders to Austria for anyone. Traveling to 'socialist brother states' was much easier for East Germans. So thousands, if not ten thousands of East Germans started to pack their things, applied for a holiday visa to Hungary, traveled through Czechoslovakia, entered Hungary, and crossed the border to Austria. Austria was part of the netural block of nations at the time which tried to have amiable relations with both sides, but still had strong leanings towards the western democracies (it being a democracy itsself). Which meant the refugees from East Germany had crossed the Iron Curtain that separated western democratic nations from socialist eastern block nations. Often they simply walked across the border in the middle of the night because they were afraid it was a trick by the Stasi, the East German secret service, to see if they were 'Vaterlandsverräter', 'traitors of the home country' by fleeing East Germany. That was a real point of accusation in East German courts, and could lead to many years of harsh imprisonment. Every single day, East Germany was haemorraging a steady trickle of population through Hungary. Yet the East German politicians had massive problems arguing that Hungary was doing something wrong, ie letting people through their borders, as Hungary was still considered a 'socialist brother nation'. It was calculated that East Germany would slowly loose as much as half its population in one or two years if this state of affairs continued. When the East Germans began their Monday Marches in many East German towns and cities, the pressure grew on the East German government, to such a point that the long time socialist leader of the SED, Erich Honecker, effectively lost control of his country. Soon hundreds of thousands of people met every Monday, marching peacefully on the streets of many cities, singing, talking, carrying candles, but remaining absolutely peaceful even in view of Stasi aggressors trying to promote violence, so that the police would have had a red flag to intervene and disperse these marches. Some days some of the Marches were dispersed, but there were far too many of them for the state to disperse all of them. Come next Monday, the people were back on the streets again. This led to such a state of constant pressure on the SED party leaders that they started to switch multiple of their ministers around, sometimes nearly weekly. One of those was Günther Schabowski. He was the one who made the erroneous statement that the SED had decided to open the borders, effective immediately. The rest is history. The UK had lost many of its colonies during WW2 and shortly afterwards with the emancipation and declarations of independence (as in India). With it came an economic stagnation as the riches that had kept the British Empire afloat during the 19th century turned into mere drips, and finally stopped all together. The UK had lived so long on cheap labor and cheap imported raw materials, and exporting finished goods that their industries simply could not hope to compete with a free market that forced them to buy raw materials at the same prices as everyone else. When the now independent nations stopped this bleeding out of their riches by selling to other nations, the UK industries were hit hard. That's at least ONE of the reasons why the UK in the late 1980's was a mere shadow of it's former glory. Add to that continuous union and general strikes, a political landscape that was at each other's throats over the most ridiculous things, and Thatcher's austerity program, the UK was certainly not in its prime at that time. So the UK effectively had little to no say in the final reunification of Germany,
James Bray Man lernt bei uns im Geschichtsunterricht, welche Länder in Deutschland wo stationiert waren und auch viel über den Kalten Krieg, aber wie schwierig es für Kohl was die Wiedervereinigung durchzusetzen und die ganzen politischen Verhandlungen zu führen, dass wusste ich nicht!
The Wall was actually built by east Germany and the people from east Germany werent allowed to leave east Germany and visit/migrate to west Germany by the east german government :)
I know I am late, but you might want to review "Der Dritte Weltkrieg" (World War III - 1998, Film) for a realistic setting of what a lot of people feared during those times in the late 80's/early 90's. The Cold war was at another peak after 'Abel Archer' in 1983, and Germany, while being kinda insignificant in size, was at the center of the duel of the USSR and the USA rubbin theire Asses in each others face. German Unification basicaly endet the cold war, as one of the mayor disagreements between the USSR and the USA just... well, stoped being a thing. (Subsequent dissolution of the USSR also played a major role, tho.)
21:20 Correct me if I am wrong but wasn't Moscow captured by German forces? And pretty much the only reason the Soviet Union was able to defend themselves was because Hitler insisted on taking Stalingrad?
It is true that from the original 3 parts of the national anthem only the 3 part is now the national anthem. The 1 and 2 is not more part of it. It is not forbidden or illegal we just don't do it and they are officially cut out.
Late to this, but an acquaintance of my grandfather had lived in Berlin that time. They built the Wall through his land and separated him from his own family on the other side. (If I remember correctly it was like a farm and he was out working and when he came back home, they had built that part of the wall over night and wouldn't allow him to cross to get inside his own house...) I just know that he was separated from his family over night by the wall, but the details are a bit foggy as it was some time ago I heard this story. My Family and his were still in contact vial letters (if I remember correctly)
Im at 10:27 atm, and I thought, of course we dont all look the same, why should we. Why should it be like somebody told you it would be. I ve got the feeling there are to many ppl out there, who dont even questioning what they ve just listened. Thats shocking for me.
Um ... claiming that Germany is like the US in that respect is still BS. Germany is the land of the Germans. Yes, we had a few waves of immigrants over time, but outside maybe Berlin and a few other big cities, our ethnical make up isnt anywhere near as diverse as the US. We are still >80% German, >10% other Europeans who dont look much different, a bunch of Turks and then a couple percentage points "diverse". Plus a million Syrian refugees expected to mostly go back when the civil war there ends ... And thats a good thing, too. Not everyone has to copy the US and Canada melting pots, or else we'll just get one big bowl of brown goo. I'd much rather enjoy (after the lockdown) having a Thai Thailand, a Japanese Japan and a African Kenia to visit, than one global monoculture where everyone buys from the same Burger chains .... Foreign spices: great. Melting pot: nah.
Helmut Kohl never REALLY wanted back the polish and Russian parts He was forced to ask for it because of inner politics because the lobby groups of the people who where forced to leave this parts of the country had much power because they are voters and had a very loud lobby. But Kohl instead used these regions as an poker chip to give it up so that reunification will happen under better conditions.
Hitler and Stalin divided Poland between them in 2 parts and attacked it in 1939. This treaty was broken by Hitler 1941 by Hitler with the attack on the sovjet union. This was called „Hitler-Stalin-Pakt“.
Although the german anthem today only consists of the third stanza it's not correct that the first two are forbidden. It's just seen as inappropriate to sing them.
"...but they all speak German" Meeeh, I've been to a few diferent placed where I as a native speaker could barely understand a single word people were saying, sometimes nothing. High German is the official language but some dialects are so thick you'd be lucky to understand anything even as a native German.
@@Bassalicious Maybe, if Austria had not lost Königgrätz due to worse rifles, we southerners could have made Oberdeutsch the standard and now could complain about all these Prussians having such a stupid dialect ...
The most dangerous moment between USA and USSR in the Cold War is usually considered to be the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1961, together with the shooting down of some American spy planes in the 1960s, that's probably what you think of. Germany was however suspected to be the first major battlefield in case of WWIII, that's why everybody had troops there, including nuclear bombs (in fact, some American ones are still in Rhineland-Palatinate). It was usually assumed that the massive Soviet army would steamroll down to the Rhine river, where US, British, French and German troops would be able to hold their advance. Realistically though, NATO expected both Germanies to be nuked into oblivion in that case. To this day, you will see some Autobahn sections which were secretly build to double as emergency military air strips in that case. There was one famous standoff in Berlin however, before the wall was constructed. On so-called Checkpoint Charlie between the American and Soviet part of Berlin, it came as far as tanks staring into each other's barrels.
"The Wall" was only built in Berlin dividing the town into Eastberlin controlled by the Soviets,, the Capital of the GDR and Berlin (West) controlled by the US, Britain and France. The border between East- and Westgermany was a lot longer and perhaps even more devastating for everyone. This was the "Iron Curtain" cutting Not only Germany in half but the whole of Europe.
in terms of Berlin it goes a bit deeper than your Illinois/Chicago example. Imagine there would be a wall build up in the street you are living in and you were forbidden to meet with the friends/family members on the over side of the street or the street next to it. It wasn't only about the economic advantages it was literally dividing families and friends. If you haven't watched the movie "Bridge of Spies" yet you can see a bit about the beginnings of the Berlin Wall in there. The Wall came down on 09.11.1989 but the unification happened 03.10.1990 (thats why we have the unification day in October instead of November)
Funfact: Stalin was the first one who offered a reunion in 1952. But Adenauer and the allies blocked it, because they feared it's a rejection by the soviets. The cold war could not longer be stopped.
Outside and inside of the wall depends on perspective I guess. As the people in the East were the ones basically imprisoned in their country, I would tend to say they were the ones trapped inside. Their government told them the wall would protect them from people entering the country, when in reality it was imprisoning them in the country. If you're talking about Berlin, West Berlin was basically like an enclosed capitalist island inside the GDR. People were free to fly or drive to and from West Germany and West Berlin though.
6:00 Hey bro!.... I think you messed it up completely! 😂 😂😂 West-Germany was an economic powerhouse, East-Germany was a maximum security prison and West-Germans could travel to the east in order to visit their imprisoned family members and friends aka inmates. It was VERY difficult for East-Germans to travel to the west; one family member had to stay in East-Germany as a kind of deposit so those East-German citizens had a reason to come back. 😉 East-Germans did not work in West-Germany! 😂 And if they tried to escape from East-Germany there was a risk to get shot at the border! If they did not get shot but were arrested they got into solitary confinement in that max-security prison and their family in East-Germany would get into trouble as well. They all served their life-in-prison-sentence in East-Germany! 8:00 Those people in parliament sang our anthem, the third stanza! And the first one is not forbidden at all. It's just not our anthem. 😉 And about those areas that belong to Poland and Russia today.... those had been ancient German lands populated by millions of Germans who had been kicked out by force; they had been displaced right after WW-II!
James your like the polar opposite of what the German stereotype of Americans (bit ignorant and uneducated about other countries history etc) 😅 nice work! We should all aspire to learn about other countries in depth, also before we travel there
The european union began in 1951 when France, Italy, Belgium, Netherlands and Luxembourg together with West Germany signed the Treaty of Paris, creating the European Coal and Steel Community. Which would grow into the European Union we know today. (source: Wikipedia) I think the history of the EU is very interesting as well! :) They first started the European Coal and Steel Union to ensure peace. Because the coal and steel are needed to create weapons.
In the east they had communism, that means everybody should value equal, so the parliament owns nearly everything including businesses wich were actually build and owned by a person or family. Economically they had a system called "Planwirtschaft".
I was 10 years back then. A simple but good explaination in the video. Thinking back the feeling then was ok... but growing up in a cold war also seemed ok. Nowadays I would be more scared livin in such a cold war and it was a big thing when it ended... the whole story and the results are a very huge story. But for you I would recommend to watch some history clips of the divided Berlin before visiting Berlin. The more you know the stronger the citys impact will be
i think no one of the younger ones can imagine how the border control of the DDR worked. I will give you an explanation. Maybe before re reunion you drive from hannover to West berlin. First, you reached the westgerman control point at Helmstedt. Than you pass the sign of the DDR, hammer and compass. 10meters high in the middle of the road. In this moment, you cross the border between west germany and the DDR. 100meter after the border the road split up to the control point Marienborn. here you had to wait..and wait..and wait. First you show your Passport (not the personal document,the passport for traveling around the world!). the first controller (member of the "grenztruppen der DDR" border troup) catch your passport and take it in a room. you cant see what happend in this room! than you have to drive very slowly to the next control point. here another controller look in your car. forbidden are west german newspapers, magazines and so on. You drive to the third control point. There you get your passport (during the controll your passport would transport by a type of treadmill) back with a stamp and a visa paper. Than you can drive over the Autobahn (pay by the West germans) to the next control point Berlin Dreilinden. Here the same control. And here you must give back the visa, you get in Marienborn. If you throw away this paper you get massiv angry.and must pay a penalty, in Deutsche Mark,not in Mark der DDR, the currency of the DDR.On the way from Marienborn to Berlin it was not allowed to hold offside the Autobahn, stop for a longer time, meet citizens of the DDR, and especially leave the Autobahn and drive into towns of the DDR. In this case, you can be sure, the next two nights you are in a DDR prison.
yes, americans were stationed in bavaria. that's by the way also why americans think all germans wear lederhosen
Bavaria and Hesse
An interesting fact: Americans were also stationed in Bremen (northern Germany) so they can have a port at the north sea.
@Young Pappy North-West Germany was infact british occupation zone, but only little Bremen was american. As i said, because the american troops needed a harbor at the north sea. I'm from Bremen and all the american sailors left their footprint in our culture.
@Young Pappy no Bremen and Bremerhaven were US Zone because the US demanded a port. Elvis Presley famously landed in Bremerhaven for his military service. But around these two cities everything was british zone indeed.
the army still has many points where they are stationed in Germany
3:11 "These people were now Russians" - not exactly, most of "these people" were expelled or killed.
Likewise for 4:07 "These Germans were now living in Poland" - no, "these Germans" were living in Refugee camps in the four occupied zones by millions.
Yes, one of my grandmas and one of my grandpas were expelled from what was now Czechoslovakia. They lost everything and basically only had what they could carry. On top of that they were not welcome were they seeked refuge. Even though they were Germans
My German family was living in Poland up until the 80ies and many other Germans did too. They got the Polish citizenship and their language was surpressed, but in private among the Germans they still spoke it. The Germans were kind of spied on a little bit, though it was never as effective as in Eastern Germany. Because the normal Polish people themselves hated being in the Russian influence they did not collaborate as easily with the secret police as people did with the Stasi. Also the Poles are a bit anarchic and don't trust even their own governments. We had excellent relations to all neighbors in the house. Eventually the Germans married to Poles and that's how I was born. Because I was born in Poland, I am seen there as Polish, even though we finally moved to Germany in the mid 80ies (mainly because Poland declared war status and the times were also economically challenging). But because the German system works with blood relation, and I had German relatives I am easily a German here. Because I moved as a 10 yo kid I see myself as more German, but that is rather based on life experience and not on a patriotic feeling.
My father was born and raised in the German province of Posen, now „Poznań“ in Poland; never got back in his lifetime. And just for relational numbers: In 2015 Germany accepted roughly 1 million Syrian and other refugees and some people said it was too much. In the month after WW II, 1945 and 1946, about 12 million refugees and displaced persons flooded west Germany and had to be housed in huge refugee camps for years. The reason: most of the German cities (160) had been destroyed by allied air raids, so called carpet bombing, and there was virtually no living space left for no one. 10 million residents of those bombed cities and towns had fled into the country side.
The additional 12 million German refugees were mostly old people, women and children (the husbands, fathers,sons, and brothers dead as soldiers, POW, or not yet returned from the front). Since railroads and any public transportation had broken down after Germany’s surrender they walked by foot hundreds of miles in endless refugee tracks, fleeing the red army and Polish retaliation. Their homeland was - had been - East Prussia - which is now the Russian „Kaliningrad“ - and what is now west Poland, like my father‘s homeland Posen.
In a huge effort and under immense costs and sharing living space and scarce food (everyone was starving) west Germans integrated those easterners (no one wanted to stay in the new east Germany under communist rule) into their society.
My parents were able to see the Berlin Wall come down and Germany get reunited. Listening to them tell me about it is fascinating
I am old enough to remember...it wasn't a one day even, it was more week of tension and then this incredible feeling of relief that everything went well.
I was 16 and watched from Switzerland. It was so powerful even here. In Europe we grew up with the constant fear of a WW3.
As young idealistc and political interested people we felt so much hope for peace around the world. And then the US needed a new villain to get the military industrial complex going. We watched step by step how Muslims and Iraq became that. It was so disheartening.
it was a crazy time with traveling into west-germany by waiting 8 hours in a overfillled train on the inner german border :D
for the people of west germany is wasnt that great change but for us in easty germany it was like WHOOOOOOWWWW
I come from the northern east of Italy, near the border to what then became Ex-Jugoslavia (I remember the war that happened there with fear) and we had since before these events friends from West Germany, recounting their experiences to us about it. I was between 5 and 6 yo when this happened and I remember my parents crying in joy while the tv was playing videos about the fall of the wall. I was of course too young to remember all the political struggles to get to the reunification, but I clearly remember families celebrating after not having seen each others for years or even decades!
@@DramaQueenMalena oh, the joys of being a kid in the 80s, a teenager in the 90s, growing up in the naughties, very quickly, as it all turned to sh*t.
Actually it was communist east Germany that was walled in. People were not allowed to travel to any western country and not only lacked good jobs but the most basic items like bananas for example or they werent allowed to listen to the Beatles or Elvis etc. because they represented the west. My grandmothers family had to flee from the lost German area that later became Poland. The family was torn apart by the wall and my grandmother and her one sister lived in the west and two of her other sisters in the east. They never saw each others again and my grandmother unfortunatly died a few month before the wall came down.
About the German national anthem: IT's just forbidden to sing the first stanza on official events. If you have a privat party with your friend at home, you're free to sing it all day, if you want. ;)
There are multible reasons, why the third stanza was chosen as our national anthem:
1.The first stanza was taken out off context by the Nazis so it had a really bitter aftertaste.
2.The lyrics incuded locations that weren't part of Germany anymore, so it would be geographicly incorrect.
3.The way of how Germany viewed itself had changed a lot and "Unity and justice and freedom" reflected the idea of the modern Germany better than "Germany over everything in the world".
4. The second stanza is LITTERALLY about women and wine, which doesn't really sound serious enough to be a national anthem xD
Das ist falsch. Die ersten beiden Strophen sind nicht Teil der Nationalhymne, aber es ist nicht verboten, sie zu singen. Bei offiziellen Anlässen wird natürlich die Nationalhymne gesungen, und da gehören die ersten beiden Strophen eben nicht zu.
@@disobedientdolphin Das stimmt so nicht ganz. Offiziell per Verfassung oder Gesetz festgelegt ist überhaupt keine Nationalhymne. Das Lied der Deutschen in seiner Gesamtheit ist mehr aus Gewohnheitsrecht die deutsche Nationalhymne. Zu offiziellen Anlässen wird aus den oben genannten Gründen aber nur die dritte Strophe gesungen. Das war eigentlich schon immer die gängige Praxis in der BRD. Allerdings ist nur die dritte Strophe vor Verunglimpfung geschützt (§90 StGB). Mit den ersten beiden kann man Schindluder treiben wie man will.
@@disobedientdolphin Lies meinen Kommentar nochmal genau durch. Ich habe nicht geschrieben, dass die beiden anderen Strophen zur Nationalhymne gehören oder generell verboten sind. Nur eben, dass sie nicht bei offiziellen Veranstaltungen gesungen werden, aus den Gründen, die ich oben aufgezählt habe. Wobei ich zugeben muss, dass "auf offiziellen Events verboten" auch etwas salopp ausgedrückt war, aber in dem Fall reichten meine Englischkenntnisse einfach nicht aus, um die genauen Tatbestände gem. des StGB aufzudröseln, deswegen habe ich es mehr oder weniger "abgekürzt" :)
Ach und @MrLusankya *Klugscheißermodus on* es ist §90a Abs. 1 Nr. 2 StGB nicht §90, in dem geht's um den
lieben Frank Walter *Klugscheißermodus off* :P
@lucian of rain and rainbows That's what I meant, when I said "out of context". The original meaning behind the "Song of Germany" was a reference to the Rhine crisis between France and Germany in 1840. The french goverment wanted the Rhine to becoma a "natural border" between France and Germany, which resulted in a rise of nationalism in many German states who rejected to give up german territory. The first stanza was, like you figured right, about estimating the unity of the Germany as a whole higher than the german princes of every single german state, the second stanza about defending Germany against enemies and the last about the wish for popular sovereignty :)
Zwei Antworten unter diesem Kommentar waren einfach unnötig, da diese in deinem Kommentar bereits erklärt wurden. Er hat ja geschrieben, dass die erste und zweite Strophe nicht verboten ist aber auf offiziellen Anlässen, aufgrund der Schändung durch die Nazis und der Kontextlosigkeit zum heutigen Deutschland, die dritte Strophe gesungen wird. Und beim anderen Kommentar wurde erklärt, was die erste Strophe genau meinte, obwohl bereits erwähnt wurde, dass die erste Strophe durch die Nazis aus dem Kontext gezogen wurde. Well played TH-cam-User. :D
I'm not sure when the first two parts of our hymn were crossed out, but the one you're hearing from the guys in the parlament is the third.
Actually the first two parts were never a part of Germany's (Federal Republic of Germany) anthem. The song is very historical. It was written before Germany really existed and had the intention to unify all the tiny princedoms in the area of Germany to a German national state. When a new German state was founded after WW2, they needed an anthem for it and decided to take only the third part of the "Lied der Deutschen" ("Song of the Germans"), because the first two didn't fit in terms of content. As far as I know, it's not forbidden by law to sing the first two parts, but they are just not part of the anthem and even if they were never intended to do, they sound like they support the ideology of the Nazis.
@@sam_3012 you are allowed to sing the first and third ,the second isnt allowed because the nazis made it their anthem
@@vincentpey3929 The Nazis used the first part of the "Deutschlandlied" ("Deutschland, Deutschland über alles...") and then transitioned into the now forbidden "Horst-Wessel-Lied" ("Die Fahne hoch! ..."). The "Deutschlandlied" is actually legal in its entirety, it existed long before the Nazis and was used as the anthem of the Weimar Republic. But the anthem of the Federal Republic is only using the third part to avoid Nazi connections and implied territorial claims of the first ("Von der Maas bis an die Memel,
Von der Etsch bis an den Belt"). The second part is only ommited because it doesn't really fit as an anthem, praising german women, loyalty, wine and singing.
Well the first one sais "Germany,Germany over everything in the world" which is kind of Nazi
@@KingJupiter Its meaning changed.
My Mom is from East-Germany and my Dad is from West-Germany. If the wall wouldn't have fallen, I wouldn't be here today. It's crazy.
It's also really interesting to hear about both sides of the story and how differently East and West were. Till today there are slight differences between people who grew up in the East or the West.
I love listening to my Dad and my Mom talking about their lifestyles back in the day.
Ist bei mir genauso
The eastern territories that were given to polamd and russia, weren't inhabited by people, that then became polnish/russian. The germans in these regions were expulsed, or had already fled to the west and instead settled by polnish people, who in return were expulsed from the former eastern territories of poland, that were annexed by the soviet union to replace some of the housing, that had been destroyed in the war. There are no people in these regions, that are descendants of germans who lived there before the war. If so, they moved there in recent years.
there are a few leftover communities
Well, a few managed to stay, but in general, yeah....I mean, there is a reason why "Spätauswanderer" are a thing.
There is still a sizeable German minority in Silesia. But right, during the Cold War it was possible to "remigrate" into West Germany, and a lof of those who did not flee already in WWII and the two years after that did it that way over the years. Note that also by 1871-1918 there were already sizable numbers of Polish with then German citizenship lived in that areas, and many of them migrated into the Ruhr-Area and assimilated over the years. But still here in that area, Polish names are very common. The German - Polish "boarders" have been an issue over centuries, and I hope that the agreement of 1990 settles it for a very long peaceful coexistence in a Euoean Union with open boarders.
18:42 Over 60 declarations of independence from former colonies of Britain is what happened.
6:50 It's more like this: Chicago is split into East and West Chicago. West Chicago is considered part of the capitalist USA. The entire rest of the Midwest is communist, and the remaining part of the US is capitalist.
In 1961 the Midwest government, encouraged by communist Quebec, closes off the border between the Midwest and the rest of the USA. Because Chicago is considered to be part of the capitalist US, people in East Chicago and the rest of the Midwest want to have jobs in the richer West Chicago, so the Midwest government builds a wall entirely around it.
People can now only travel between capitalist USA and West Chicago by air or by three heavily controlled highway routes (or by trains run by the communist Midwest state transportation institution).
People in West Chicago are really scared, because it would be very easy for them to be overrun, despite the token presence of Western Allied troops.
...
Long story short, the communist Midwest as well as Quebec and the entire communist world really struggles by the time of the 80s, and by a mistake the Chicago Wall is opened (after months of peaceful protests in the Midwest, which are technically illegal). After that, the floodgates are open and on October 3, 1990, the Midwest is basically acquired by the capitalist USA, for a "reunified USA".
The 1. and 2. stanzas of the german national anthem are not forbidden, they are just not officially part of the current german anthem anymore, since they elevate Germany above the rest of the world, which is the opposite of the german constitution since everybody is equal. To that, many think that Hitler created that anthem but that is wrong, because it was created before Hitler was even born (1863).
Yeah. The original meaning of "Germany, Germany over everything" (the very first lyrics in the first part) wasn't "Germany's better than everyone else and we want to invade and own everything" but "Let's put the name "Germany" over this clusterf*ck of a "Holy Roman Empire" with dozens of different pretty much independent kingdoms and whatnot".
Why the second tho? Like it's german wine women singing etc. Nothing with nazis I'll never understand
@@sascha_maxine Ich meine, wenn man der Welt ne Hymne bei z.B. den Olympischen Spielen oder bei Staatsbesuchen präsentiert, in der gesungen wird wie schön Deutsche Frauen und Deutscher Wein sind, macht man sich etwas lächerlich 😂. Also da bleibe ich auch lieber bei der 3. Strophe bleiben, wo man über die glorreiche Zukunft für unser Deutsches Vaterland singt.
@@stadom3 so an sich schon, aber warum wird die genauso behandelt wie die erste Strophe? Ich meine die ist vllt etwas komisch aber es geht nun wirklich schlimmer
Ich würde gerne ein bisschen über die eine oder andere deutsche Frau singen😂 Kappa
Wir hätten einfach die DDR Hymne nehmen sollen, die war viel geiler
@@HexenkoeniginVonAngmar And this poem (the lyrics of the german anthem) was written after Napoleon messed up everything and the writer of the poem (August Heinrich Hoffmann von Fallersleben, in british exile) saw that Napoleons army has a easy task to invade one german "mini" kingdom (and Duchy) after another. In his mind only a strong united german state would be able to survive - and not being a playball for the other surrounding nations anymore - and therefore a united germany should be the highest priority for all german politicans and rulers.
This it was he mentioned with Germany (as a united state) above all (other priorities).
The melody of the current german anthem is from the Austrian-Kaiserlied composed 1796/97 by Joseph Haydn for the austrian Emperor.
I won’t forget this. I don’t remember why I turned on the tv, yet I did and couldn’t believe what happened. I ran to my parents and practically yelled that the wall fell and wanted them to come downstairs. They “just” said “We know” and smiled. So did my grandparents and my grandfather also had a smile on his face. He always said that this was bound to fail. Sometimes I wonder how everybody knew that and I almost missed it. On the other hand it all made sense and through all that time we never lost contact to friends from eastern Germany. People were fed up with with the “see-saw” of repression and fought for freedom. They won! It was dangerous but that couldn’t keep them to literally break that wall to pieces. The only thing that truly bothered us was that unbelievably shameless people not only tried to sell just about everything and that those who trusted them could be fooled and some found themselves drowning in bills. A swarm of human locusts ripped them off. So we tried to intervene and help wherever we could. Some tried to sell fruits to overwhelmed people for a ridiculously high price… bananas that already turned brown for up to 5 DM, for instance. Those criminals were rotten to the core. And I won’t change my opinion. I might be naïve but equipped with fairness and I intend to keep it that way. I consider myself grateful- so do my friends. Sometimes in life should be reserved for celebrations and happiness.
The peoples who lived in the areas that were given to poland and russia where forced to leave this land, it were about 13 million
On the night the Berlin wall fell, my father would wake my sister and me up. I was 6 or 7, she was 2 years younger. He got us to the living room, the TV was on. And there it was... News of the wall being torn down, people crying tears of joy, partying hard, hugging each other. I'll never forget my fathers words: "You may not understand it right now, but you witness history." Still gets me emotional...
In fact the US was scared all the time, that russia would just get tanks over the border and start the 3rd world war. So germany at that time was a huge stage for the cold war.
I was 11 when the wall fell. I remember feeling so happy.
Love to see how interested and curious you are about Germany, its culture and history. As in other countries there are good things and bad as well. But you manage to keep that open mind. It's really refreshing to see your unbiased point of view or just reaction to even little accomplishments of the German history and especially development in the last 70 years.
Best regards from (former Eastern 😉) Germany
I was very young when the wall fell but I remeber it as clear as if it was yesterday. People screaming and crying. Rolling their televisions outside to watch the first to 20th repeat of the news together. They just NEEDED to hear it again and again to belive it was really happening. It was way after midnight, all children were still awake, when the first family members from the east arrived. Many of them had not seen their families for 40 years and got to meet their grandparents/grandchildren for the first time or see their long lost sons and aughter again. All neighbors were celebrating together, drinking, eating bbq and salads and waiting for the people to arrive and preparing guest rooms, even when they themselves were not awaiting any lost members of their family. The joy and happiness and the emotions of this day are so real in my memory. It was the most emotional day and night I have ever had. Including my wedding. It was nothing compared to this nation wide joy and rejoicing. Germans normally don't speak to strangers but this day nobody was a stranger, everybody told everyone the good news and nobody got tired of hearing about the wonder that happened. Germany is reunited!
I don't get why people think this was such a long time ago. I'm in my mid 30s and I remember the reunification quite vividly. The whole thing s something that is part of peoples lives. People living and working in germany right now have been influenced by it. And to some degree, it is still an ongoing process.
the members of parliament singing "Einigkeit und Recht und Freiheit" actually made me tear up. I wish we had that kind of unity today.
If you are interested to learn more about the German Reunification, there is a very good documentary about it, partly with original documents from Tv-News and Interviews with contemporary witnesses, partly replayed by actors. I don't know if it is available via streaming from the US, but there is a Double-DVD-Pack. It is called "Deutschlandspiel" by Guido Knopp, and it has two parts ("Auf der Straße" (On the Streets) and "Eilig Vaterland" (Hastily Fatherland)). I found it very interesting, when we watched it at university for I didn't know that f.ex. Conduleza Rice was part of the US-Ambassador-Group to negotiate about the Reunification.
...still recommend you watching Videos directly taken in the crowds of people on that day....i still cry every time i see it...
Unbedingt! 😉
Urgently! 💚
I live in germany and it's so weird to remember that it was before only 30 years. my mom and dad lived in a time with 2 Germanys and that's weird to think about it.
Right? My family were guest workers that came over during the 70's and stayed so my grandparents lived and my dad was born in a time when there were two Germany's. The topic came up once in passing and I swear there was a gleam in my dad's eye when he talked about how the wall fell.
The parliament spontaneously broke into song with the lyrics of the official national anthem, as its FIRST word is "Einigkeit", unity, followed by "Recht", (ones) rights/justice und Freiheit, freedom, the words people were shouting, jubilantly, in the streets, at the same time .
My parents each time tell me how it was when they heard about the wall coming down. They still exactly know what they did and where they were.
Btw: The American stereotypes resulted from the USA controling Bavaria after the war.
And yes: That is (one) of the reasons why the European Union is so important. It assured the peace.
13:53 The Axis powers were no longer a concept after World War II, where they consisted primarily of Germany, Italy, Japan and some minor countries such as Hungary and Romania.
After World War II, it was no longer "Allies vs. Axis" but (eventually) "NATO" (and not just USA) vs. "Warsaw Pact" (and not just the Soviet Union.
Youre definitely hustling with your videos man! Keep it up
Pice of important Russian history for all the ppl at home: 21:36 during the napoleon war/war of 1812, the French have taken Moscow BUT the Russians pulled a mad move, and burned. Down. The city. Just to the ground. And while napoleon was losing soldiers to greed, hunger and cold, he started making his way back to France. And at this moment the Russians came out of hiding and hinted him out of the country like a shepard dog.
Also just more stuff on war of 1812: The winter also played a huge role in helping the Russians, Napoleon was really not prepared.
The Moscow fire has some thick "IF I'M NOT GETTING IT, NOBODY WILL!" energy tbh
the most amazing thing about the fall of the wall was that the protests were peaceful. in a documentary, a russian soldier stated that they would have been forced to intervene had a eastern berliner done something like throwing a single stone. but the protests were peaceful and non-violent, so the russian commander told his soldiers to turn around and go back to bed
13:32 yes, in Berlin there were literally meters away from one another divided by a non existent line inbetween with sovjet tanks on one side and us tanks on the other just one order away from opening fire on each other.
J st from the Intro alone I can see. Your German has gotten so much better over the last months.I personally was able to understand you well ,which is something I have never seen an Anglo Saxon or American do (except on TV perhaps)
Oh, the UK used to have a "commonwealth"...countries all over the world they colonized. The US used to be one of them btw, as was Canada, Australia, India, a huge chunk of Africa, just to mention the most important. But over time, more and more countries decided to become independent from the UK. Remember Ghandi? That's what he mostly was about, to free India from British control.
By the time reunification happened, the UK was just this tiny island in Europe...not that the Brits have understood this yet.
Also, west germany formally accepted the Oder-Neiße border with poland (the modern day border) in the 1970s under chancellor Willy Brandt. The territories to the east of that were never part of considerations for a reunified Germany. That Kohl wanted these territories is simply incorrect.
It's inspiring to see u dig into all of it. Love it!
Nah they sung the third stanca which translates to: unity, justice and freedom for the German fatherland. Let's all strive for these goals like brothers in our hearts and through our deeds. Unity and justice and freedom are the foundations for happyness. Unity and justice and freedom for our German fatherland". It's very seldomn anyone sings the national athem ever. The only time I ever sang it was at sports national championships. So this was a unique moment when paliament stood up and sung the anthem.
British singer Sting actually wrote a song called "Russians" in 1985.
The song was based on his knowledge of the cold war through russian TV. One of his friends actually hacked himself into a satellite signal so they could watch it.
Through the TV Sting could see pictures of the cold war (and the russian version of Sesame Street).
The song was released in June 1985 on Stings first solo album called The Dream of the Blue Turtles.
Just found your channel. Its funny to hear how your german gets better the more recent the videos get. Pretty good!
8:21 the national anthem of Germany ist only the third strophe of the "Lied der Deutschen" from the autor Heinrich Hoffmann von Fallersleben (1798-1874) he wrote the poetry 1841 in Helgoland, because of the territorial claims from France on the Rheinland 1840.
The first two strophes are forbidden since the World War 2, because of the territories which was be called in it (...von der Maas bis an die Memel.../= two rivers in west and east of Europe) and the "Deutschland, Deutschland über alles" (Germany over all)
The melody of the anthem ist the "Kaiserhymne" from Joseph Haydn, composed 1796/1797
they are not forbidden. how about we stop spreading misinformation ?
No, EU was started in the 1950's. UK and Denmark joined in 1972.
So as nobody wrote it (I think so): Russia (Soviet Union actually) was in the Warsaw pact not the Axis... The Axis was the pact between Nazi-Germany, Italy, Japan and the rest of the members who joined later on during WW2
15:14 All throughout the Cold War (you're mixing in Word War II a couple of times, that ended in 1945) there was no peace treaty with Germany.
The peace treaty finally came in 1990, after unification.
Which is why Dr. Kohl (with a PhD in history) held out on the Eastern territories as a bargaigning chip. He KNEW he wouldnt get them back, even though their annexation by Stalin was blatantly illegal under international law, as was the expulsion of Germans from Sudetenland etc. But he used these claims to get other concessions (like not paying serious war reparations for WW2, beyond what had already been paid) in turn.
17:48 No, the early "EU" was forged through coal and economy agreements beforehand. A part of it was West-Germany. The EU concept was fully fledged out right around the time of the reunification, though.
The videos they show there from opening the gates that day are all from Berlin. That year i became 15 yo and the weeks after were crazy in Berlin. My Stepdad is from east-Germany and had now the first time after nearly 10 years to cross over to the eastside... Very emotional times... still til today
When it comes to reunification parties, we don't say "Jägermeister!" - we say "I've been looking for freedom...!" and there are leather jackets with lightbulb on them involved...
3:15 just look a map of the “holy Roman Empire“😂 even more mess.
I was 12 years old as it happened. It was so huge, i was a child but felt how big this stuff is... day by day .... the energy from the adults : my Mom saw as they build the Berlin wall, it splitted her family... and in November 1989 the people run for their liberty and will never forget how my Mom explained me what is going on. The whole family sat in front of the TV and we knew „This will be important history and will change so much“.
Hey, great video. I‘m not sure, in anyone already said that, but the members of parliament were singing the 3rd stanza.
the eastern German state was actual HEAVILY dependent on the west economy. A lot of eastern german products were sold to western germany and the german states were the global needle-ear to export and import things from and to the eastern block behind the official lines, like (technical illegal) coffee sales of STATES from western companies, like nestle.
Not everybody speaks german in germany, we do have our "national minorities" (the danish minority, the sorbians, the saterfriesian speakers, the friesian speakers, the low german speakers, the jenish speakers, the sinti speakers,...), although, these are usually not particularly large groups of language groups.
During the cold war germany was also the country where all the nuks were stationed from both the US and Russia
They are singing the 3rd stanza of the "Lied der Deutschen". Since it was accepted as National Anthem in West Germany by the 1st Federal President, Theodor Heuss, it was made clear that only the 3rd stanza should be sang. In 1990 the Federal President Richard von Weizsäcker then again made it clear that only the 3rd stanza is part of the German National Anthem.
The wall was also built over night basically so families were split over night and couldn’t see eachother again even though they were neighbours before
Wow, i really enjoy your videos! I think we could have some awesome conversations (and even some awesome beers :)
East Germany was the first bumper of the iron wall. I lived 10 miles away from the border
Actually there were almost no Germans left in Kaliningrad after the war. The Germans left their home in the last days of the war and became Germanies first wave of refugees. You need to understand that from the 16th century on, german settlers were populating many areas in eastern Europe (Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Romania, Ukraine and Russia) were they lived together with slavic and jewish people. Prague for example was a third german, a third czech and a third jewish. So after the germans left, the dialects of East Prussia and other eastern german tribes died out. You can hear the east prussian dialect in a funny clip of Peter Frankenfeld presenting the weather on an old map: th-cam.com/video/k7a6ak8QggY/w-d-xo.html.
The polish people also had to leave their eastern part and were deported to old german areas while russians settled in the eastern part of Poland. Germans which did not flee to Germany were deported to Kazakhstan, Usbekistan and Kyrgyzctan. They came back to Germany after living for 200 years abroad in 1980. Like my grandma, and she still spoke decent german.
Good video, but sadly doesn't even mention Genscher, who was the German Foreign minister during that period. He was already instrumental in the time leading up to the fall of the wall, for example when he managed to get permission for a bunch of east Germans who had camped out in the prague embassy to travel to West Germany, and he did most of the negotiations to get the allied states to agree to reunification. Kohl mostly did the big speeches.
The EU is way older than that. It started out directly after WWII as the so called "Coal and Steel" union between a handful of countries (France, Germany, Italy, Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxemburg), with the idea that countries which have close trade ties which each other would start wars with each other. That develiped later into the EC, the European Community (with more and more members joining) and finally the EU. It is important to know that a lot of counties in the EU had already pegged their currency to the very stong Germany Mark long before the Euro became an official thing. And that the Germans were REALLY not happy to lose their German Mark, since is symbolises the economic success Germany had after WWII.
Yes and no. The EEC (etc) was a much loser confederation. The EU as such is a further step, uniting the EC, Coal and Steel union and Euratom under one roof and adding more competencies to this new Union. Not to mention the many new member states that got added ...
Actually Moscow was burned down by tartars in 1238 and 1380,poles had occupied twice ,first time 1603 and 1611-13.
As to the stanzas of the German National Anthem, here is a translated excerpt from the German WIkipedia: "After World War II, the Allies did not ban the German song, but public singing was prohibited in the American Zone. Federal Chancellor Konrad Adenauer [1949 - 1963] campaigned for it to be reintroduced; at state events only the third verse should be sung. Federal President Theodor Heuss [1949 -1959] set aside his concerns and agreed to Adenauer's desire in an exchange of letters. Their successors, Federal President Richard von Weizsäcker [1984 - 1994] and Federal Chancellor Helmut Kohl [1982 - 1998], stated in an exchange of letters in 1991 that the third stanza was the National Anthem." And the West German parliament sang the THIRD stanza at the time.
I am totally astonished about your videos and your interest in Germany and it´s history, culture and so on. I´m from Germany, as you would guess, maybe we can have a little chat one day or another about Germany, But for now I wish you a happy new year 2021!
"Verbal Judo" is probably the best description of diplomacy that I ever heard.
Seeing the "breakup of Yugoslavia" i was like DO NOT go there please xD
The third stanza of the "Lied der deutschen" is the anthem of germany. The first two stanzas are completely legal to sing in germany. Even thou they are not part of the anthem
My grandma has a piece from the wall. some family members lived in east Germany and helped to destroyed the wall.
@James Bray
I recommend the Netflix dokumentation Rohwedder Einigkeit und Mord und Freiheit.
The dokumentation is about Rohwedder and what happend to east germany
At my hometown Fürth there wer three big US military bases and a US airfield. 1995 the left Fürth. The only thing which remeber us of the americans are the casinos, a mall, a huge park located were on of the bases were and KFC :)
It was not only Kohl who was working on the union, but your foreign minister Genscher played an verry, verry important part.
Genscher is a legend in germany.
#Warning, long post.
Bavaria, parts of Baden-Wurtemberg, Hessia were the US zone after WW2, yes.
Berlin (West) was walled off from the rest of East Germany. Then there was also the inner-German border, a nearly two mile wide strip that was prohibited for ANY East German to enter, unless they lived in one of the towns directly on the border. Or you were a border patrol guard. This inner-German border was covered by multiple fences, automatic self-firing gun sentry points, mine strips, barbed wire, and patrol routes covered by viscous guard dogs, as well as multi-man guard patrols. The multi-man guard patrols were usually set up so that there was always a political officer who was part of the patrol group, to keep an eye on the possible soldiers trying to cross the border and flee the country.
The blockade of West Berlin by the Soviets was essentially overcome by the air lift of the UK, USA, and France, supported as much as possible by Western Germany.
Soon after the blockade was lifted three basic highway transfer corridors, as well as two major train lines that connected West Berlin to West Germany through the territory of East Germany were set up.
These corridors were under serious scrutiny by the East German border patrol. If you traveled by road you had NO right to leave the highways to enter East Germany proper. You were only allowed to stop at designated rest stops of the SED party where you could by ludicrously overpriced gasoline to fill up your car. If your car broke down in East Germany on the highway it was highly possible that you'd spend at least a night in police custody because they believed you had staged your breakdown to take possible refugees on board.
If you were on a train, the trains usually didn't stop on East German territory and they did not take on passengers in East Germany. If for ANY reason the trains had to stop on East German the next stop the train would be boarded by border patrol troops to check EVERYONE's passports, to determine if any East German had snuck onto the train.
Crossing the inner-German border on roads was a harrowing experience, as EVERY car passing the borders was searched to The MAX. I mean, you had to fold over the rear passenger seats and had to remove ANYTHING large enough to possible hide even a child. The underside of your car was searched with mirrors, your gas tank was checked by a probe to show if it was the original size (and not downsized to have storage space for an escapee), and all of those shenanigans.
THAT'S what the reality of East German paranoia was when it came to keeping their own people inside their borders.
This state of affairs remained in effect for more than 20 years. Border patrol hassles for all westerners trying to enter East Germany, and again returning back to their home countries.
After a period of seriously ancient Soviet party leaders (Chrushzhev, Brezhnev, Andropow, Chernenko) who were absolute hard-liners, came a younger Gorbachev, the leader with Perestroika and Glasnost, the basic opening and reinstating of talks with the west, and slow democratization of the Soviet Union.
He was also the leader who denied the East German government ANY military support should the East German population revolt. This had been the state of affairs in Czechoslovakia, Poland, Hungary for the last four decades. Suddenly, the Soviet Leader changed this, did not support military actions to suppress counter-revolutionaries, especially when they were reported by everyone to be peaceful to the extreme.
The Soviets had been bled dry economically by four decades of nuclear and conventional arms races, an unsuccessful invasion of Afghanistan (another topic in and of itsself), and continously suppressing counter-revolutionaries in their satelite states. They were on the brink of economic collapse. Their HUGE armies sucked up an insane amount of their GDP. But their even more insane amount of territory also required such a huge army to keep it under control, as essentially, any borders with a non-soviet state had to be as massively guarded as the inner-German border.
They had no choice but to fund these huge armies, or start hemorraging satelite states. Nuclear disarmament treaties had resulted in the first approachment of East and West after four decades of hard-liners facing off, essentially over the inner-German border.
In 1980 the state of Poland was still a very autocratic socialist country, but with a strong national workers union, that had strong political leaders as well. The Solidarnosc (solidarity) was the political arm of essentially, the single union that held control over many workers in Poland. It's leader Lech Walesa was strongly opposed to violence, and tried to install, slowly, more or less peacefully, and quietly, democratic principles. Over the years Lech Walesa essentially became the leader of the true workers' party in Poland due to his influence in the Solidarnosc.
So when the Solidarnosc started localized strikes in 1986, that grew into general strikes that lasted on and off until 1989, the satelite states of the Soviet Union were already under economic attack from within.
Poland essentially held free democratic elections in June of 1989, which Lech Walesa's political arm of the Solidarnosc won by a landslide. This was essentially the end of socialism in Poland, and the first signs of the dissolution of the Soviet Union and its satelite states. This was a dangerous move, as previously the Soviet Union had bloodily suppressed such democratic movements. But nothing happened. Gorbachev was true to his word of Perestroika and Glasnost, opening and democratization.
Then came the summer of 1989, when Hungary, the 'socialist brother state' close to East Germany, emboldened by the Polish democratic vote, and the peaceful political changes, opened their borders to Austria for anyone. Traveling to 'socialist brother states' was much easier for East Germans.
So thousands, if not ten thousands of East Germans started to pack their things, applied for a holiday visa to Hungary, traveled through Czechoslovakia, entered Hungary, and crossed the border to Austria. Austria was part of the netural block of nations at the time which tried to have amiable relations with both sides, but still had strong leanings towards the western democracies (it being a democracy itsself). Which meant the refugees from East Germany had crossed the Iron Curtain that separated western democratic nations from socialist eastern block nations. Often they simply walked across the border in the middle of the night because they were afraid it was a trick by the Stasi, the East German secret service, to see if they were 'Vaterlandsverräter', 'traitors of the home country' by fleeing East Germany. That was a real point of accusation in East German courts, and could lead to many years of harsh imprisonment.
Every single day, East Germany was haemorraging a steady trickle of population through Hungary. Yet the East German politicians had massive problems arguing that Hungary was doing something wrong, ie letting people through their borders, as Hungary was still considered a 'socialist brother nation'. It was calculated that East Germany would slowly loose as much as half its population in one or two years if this state of affairs continued.
When the East Germans began their Monday Marches in many East German towns and cities, the pressure grew on the East German government, to such a point that the long time socialist leader of the SED, Erich Honecker, effectively lost control of his country. Soon hundreds of thousands of people met every Monday, marching peacefully on the streets of many cities, singing, talking, carrying candles, but remaining absolutely peaceful even in view of Stasi aggressors trying to promote violence, so that the police would have had a red flag to intervene and disperse these marches. Some days some of the Marches were dispersed, but there were far too many of them for the state to disperse all of them.
Come next Monday, the people were back on the streets again.
This led to such a state of constant pressure on the SED party leaders that they started to switch multiple of their ministers around, sometimes nearly weekly.
One of those was Günther Schabowski.
He was the one who made the erroneous statement that the SED had decided to open the borders, effective immediately.
The rest is history.
The UK had lost many of its colonies during WW2 and shortly afterwards with the emancipation and declarations of independence (as in India). With it came an economic stagnation as the riches that had kept the British Empire afloat during the 19th century turned into mere drips, and finally stopped all together. The UK had lived so long on cheap labor and cheap imported raw materials, and exporting finished goods that their industries simply could not hope to compete with a free market that forced them to buy raw materials at the same prices as everyone else. When the now independent nations stopped this bleeding out of their riches by selling to other nations, the UK industries were hit hard. That's at least ONE of the reasons why the UK in the late 1980's was a mere shadow of it's former glory. Add to that continuous union and general strikes, a political landscape that was at each other's throats over the most ridiculous things, and Thatcher's austerity program, the UK was certainly not in its prime at that time. So the UK effectively had little to no say in the final reunification of Germany,
James Bray Man lernt bei uns im Geschichtsunterricht, welche Länder in Deutschland wo stationiert waren und auch viel über den Kalten Krieg, aber wie schwierig es für Kohl was die Wiedervereinigung durchzusetzen und die ganzen politischen Verhandlungen zu führen, dass wusste ich nicht!
The Wall was actually built by east Germany and the people from east Germany werent allowed to leave east Germany and visit/migrate to west Germany by the east german government :)
I know I am late, but you might want to review "Der Dritte Weltkrieg" (World War III - 1998, Film) for a realistic setting of what a lot of people feared during those times in the late 80's/early 90's. The Cold war was at another peak after 'Abel Archer' in 1983, and Germany, while being kinda insignificant in size, was at the center of the duel of the USSR and the USA rubbin theire Asses in each others face. German Unification basicaly endet the cold war, as one of the mayor disagreements between the USSR and the USA just... well, stoped being a thing. (Subsequent dissolution of the USSR also played a major role, tho.)
21:20 Correct me if I am wrong but wasn't Moscow captured by German forces? And pretty much the only reason the Soviet Union was able to defend themselves was because Hitler insisted on taking Stalingrad?
I was 9 when this happened. Remember that day still.
It is true that from the original 3 parts of the national anthem only the 3 part is now the national anthem. The 1 and 2 is not more part of it. It is not forbidden or illegal we just don't do it and they are officially cut out.
Late to this, but an acquaintance of my grandfather had lived in Berlin that time. They built the Wall through his land and separated him from his own family on the other side. (If I remember correctly it was like a farm and he was out working and when he came back home, they had built that part of the wall over night and wouldn't allow him to cross to get inside his own house...)
I just know that he was separated from his family over night by the wall, but the details are a bit foggy as it was some time ago I heard this story. My Family and his were still in contact vial letters (if I remember correctly)
Im at 10:27 atm, and I thought, of course we dont all look the same, why should we. Why should it be like somebody told you it would be. I ve got the feeling there are to many ppl out there, who dont even questioning what they ve just listened. Thats shocking for me.
Um ... claiming that Germany is like the US in that respect is still BS. Germany is the land of the Germans. Yes, we had a few waves of immigrants over time, but outside maybe Berlin and a few other big cities, our ethnical make up isnt anywhere near as diverse as the US. We are still >80% German, >10% other Europeans who dont look much different, a bunch of Turks and then a couple percentage points "diverse". Plus a million Syrian refugees expected to mostly go back when the civil war there ends ...
And thats a good thing, too. Not everyone has to copy the US and Canada melting pots, or else we'll just get one big bowl of brown goo. I'd much rather enjoy (after the lockdown) having a Thai Thailand, a Japanese Japan and a African Kenia to visit, than one global monoculture where everyone buys from the same Burger chains .... Foreign spices: great. Melting pot: nah.
Helmut Kohl never REALLY wanted back the polish and Russian parts
He was forced to ask for it because of inner politics because the lobby groups of the people who where forced to leave this parts of the country had much power because they are voters and had a very loud lobby.
But Kohl instead used these regions as an poker chip to give it up so that reunification will happen under better conditions.
Hitler and Stalin divided Poland between them in 2 parts and attacked it in 1939. This treaty was broken by Hitler 1941 by Hitler with the attack on the sovjet union. This was called „Hitler-Stalin-Pakt“.
Although the german anthem today only consists of the third stanza it's not correct that the first two are forbidden. It's just seen as inappropriate to sing them.
"...but they all speak German" Meeeh, I've been to a few diferent placed where I as a native speaker could barely understand a single word people were saying, sometimes nothing. High German is the official language but some dialects are so thick you'd be lucky to understand anything even as a native German.
You are allowed to name Bavaria here
@@TheBuddel Yeah, plus all the regional Plattdeutsch variations, Schwäbisch, etc.
@@Bassalicious Maybe, if Austria had not lost Königgrätz due to worse rifles, we southerners could have made Oberdeutsch the standard and now could complain about all these Prussians having such a stupid dialect ...
Nobody sang the first stanza in this video, bzw, you misheard.
The most dangerous moment between USA and USSR in the Cold War is usually considered to be the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1961, together with the shooting down of some American spy planes in the 1960s, that's probably what you think of.
Germany was however suspected to be the first major battlefield in case of WWIII, that's why everybody had troops there, including nuclear bombs (in fact, some American ones are still in Rhineland-Palatinate). It was usually assumed that the massive Soviet army would steamroll down to the Rhine river, where US, British, French and German troops would be able to hold their advance. Realistically though, NATO expected both Germanies to be nuked into oblivion in that case. To this day, you will see some Autobahn sections which were secretly build to double as emergency military air strips in that case.
There was one famous standoff in Berlin however, before the wall was constructed. On so-called Checkpoint Charlie between the American and Soviet part of Berlin, it came as far as tanks staring into each other's barrels.
Your analagy hits the point.The addition is that you got families reunited after decades of seperation.
Of course Bundestag sung the 3. stanza.btw,great channel,thanks!
"The Wall" was only built in Berlin dividing the town into Eastberlin controlled by the Soviets,, the Capital of the GDR and Berlin (West) controlled by the US, Britain and France. The border between East- and Westgermany was a lot longer and perhaps even more devastating for everyone. This was the "Iron Curtain" cutting Not only Germany in half but the whole of Europe.
in terms of Berlin it goes a bit deeper than your Illinois/Chicago example. Imagine there would be a wall build up in the street you are living in and you were forbidden to meet with the friends/family members on the over side of the street or the street next to it. It wasn't only about the economic advantages it was literally dividing families and friends. If you haven't watched the movie "Bridge of Spies" yet you can see a bit about the beginnings of the Berlin Wall in there. The Wall came down on 09.11.1989 but the unification happened 03.10.1990 (thats why we have the unification day in October instead of November)
Sir
thank you for beeing so interested in my country
moskau was almost overrun by napoleon, except he made the mistake to attack in the winter
He actually occupied Moscow, but they burnt it down, so he could not spend the winter threre, but had to withdraw into the hard Russian winter.
During my time in the Bundeswehr, the training goal was very clear. Delaying the attack from the east. We were never an attack army.
1991 - ,,Please, today, vote for Berlin!" (Wolfgang Schäuble)
1999 - Government returned to Berlin
Nice video again
Funfact: Stalin was the first one who offered a reunion in 1952. But Adenauer and the allies blocked it, because they feared it's a rejection by the soviets. The cold war could not longer be stopped.
Outside and inside of the wall depends on perspective I guess. As the people in the East were the ones basically imprisoned in their country, I would tend to say they were the ones trapped inside. Their government told them the wall would protect them from people entering the country, when in reality it was imprisoning them in the country. If you're talking about Berlin, West Berlin was basically like an enclosed capitalist island inside the GDR. People were free to fly or drive to and from West Germany and West Berlin though.
don't forget that people who tried to get OUT were shot or imprisoned so...yea nice "protection" :D
6:00 Hey bro!.... I think you messed it up completely! 😂 😂😂
West-Germany was an economic powerhouse, East-Germany was a maximum security prison and West-Germans could travel to the east in order to visit their imprisoned family members and friends aka inmates. It was VERY difficult for East-Germans to travel to the west; one family member had to stay in East-Germany as a kind of deposit so those East-German citizens had a reason to come back. 😉 East-Germans did not work in West-Germany! 😂
And if they tried to escape from East-Germany there was a risk to get shot at the border! If they did not get shot but were arrested they got into solitary confinement in that max-security prison and their family in East-Germany would get into trouble as well. They all served their life-in-prison-sentence in East-Germany!
8:00 Those people in parliament sang our anthem, the third stanza! And the first one is not forbidden at all. It's just not our anthem. 😉
And about those areas that belong to Poland and Russia today.... those had been ancient German lands populated by millions of Germans who had been kicked out by force; they had been displaced right after WW-II!
James your like the polar opposite of what the German stereotype of Americans (bit ignorant and uneducated about other countries history etc) 😅 nice work! We should all aspire to learn about other countries in depth, also before we travel there
The european union began in 1951 when France, Italy, Belgium, Netherlands and Luxembourg together with West Germany signed the Treaty of Paris, creating the European Coal and Steel Community. Which would grow into the European Union we know today. (source: Wikipedia)
I think the history of the EU is very interesting as well! :)
They first started the European Coal and Steel Union to ensure peace. Because the coal and steel are needed to create weapons.
In the east they had communism, that means everybody should value equal, so the parliament owns nearly everything including businesses wich were actually build and owned by a person or family. Economically they had a system called "Planwirtschaft".
Please react to German Citys like Frankfurt, Berlin, Hamburg in 4K Videos🙏🔥
There are still American troops station in Germany
I was 10 years back then. A simple but good explaination in the video. Thinking back the feeling then was ok... but growing up in a cold war also seemed ok. Nowadays I would be more scared livin in such a cold war and it was a big thing when it ended... the whole story and the results are a very huge story. But for you I would recommend to watch some history clips of the divided Berlin before visiting Berlin. The more you know the stronger the citys impact will be
i think no one of the younger ones can imagine how the border control of the DDR worked. I will give you an explanation. Maybe before re reunion you drive from hannover to West berlin. First, you reached the westgerman control point at Helmstedt. Than you pass the sign of the DDR, hammer and compass. 10meters high in the middle of the road. In this moment, you cross the border between west germany and the DDR. 100meter after the border the road split up to the control point Marienborn. here you had to wait..and wait..and wait. First you show your Passport (not the personal document,the passport for traveling around the world!). the first controller (member of the "grenztruppen der DDR" border troup) catch your passport and take it in a room. you cant see what happend in this room! than you have to drive very slowly to the next control point. here another controller look in your car. forbidden are west german newspapers, magazines and so on. You drive to the third control point. There you get your passport (during the controll your passport would transport by a type of treadmill) back with a stamp and a visa paper. Than you can drive over the Autobahn (pay by the West germans) to the next control point Berlin Dreilinden. Here the same control. And here you must give back the visa, you get in Marienborn. If you throw away this paper you get massiv angry.and must pay a penalty, in Deutsche Mark,not in Mark der DDR, the currency of the DDR.On the way from Marienborn to Berlin it was not allowed to hold offside the Autobahn, stop for a longer time, meet citizens of the DDR, and especially leave the Autobahn and drive into towns of the DDR. In this case, you can be sure, the next two nights you are in a DDR prison.