The Great Escape beneath the Berlin wall (1964)

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  • เผยแพร่เมื่อ 29 ต.ค. 2024
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ความคิดเห็น • 1.4K

  • @stalkerentertainment3671
    @stalkerentertainment3671 2 ปีที่แล้ว +2401

    The crazy thing was that each escape attempt helped in adapting the wall to hinder any future escape attempts but really there were so many other escape stories, some really bold...

    • @andershargrave7246
      @andershargrave7246 2 ปีที่แล้ว +31

      I kinda enjoy the fact that this wall was even created. Something that Germany really needed at that time

    • @wilhelm2462
      @wilhelm2462 2 ปีที่แล้ว +149

      @@andershargrave7246 for what was that needed? It was simply a prison because too many people escaped that shithole.

    • @pvt.potato1943
      @pvt.potato1943 2 ปีที่แล้ว +103

      One time a dude stole a tank and drove it through the wall

    • @RealSaboTabby
      @RealSaboTabby 2 ปีที่แล้ว +102

      @@wilhelm2462 Don't pay much attention to them they're just a Russian troll

    • @caiminmills2667
      @caiminmills2667 2 ปีที่แล้ว +74

      @@pvt.potato1943 I believe one guy from Hungary or Austria flew a makeshift plane over the iron curtain and is living in Utah today

  • @kevinmackay5233
    @kevinmackay5233 2 ปีที่แล้ว +2306

    WOW! Shoutout to the team at Simple History for pumping out the content continuously over the last few weeks!! We really appreciated the hard work you all put in! Cheers!

    • @Ttegegg
      @Ttegegg 2 ปีที่แล้ว +74

      From the people who used to make these for books. Do they still sell them?

    • @Simplehistory
      @Simplehistory  2 ปีที่แล้ว +224

      thanks!

    • @Simplehistory
      @Simplehistory  2 ปีที่แล้ว +171

      @@Ttegegg yes on amazon

    • @West_Coast_Mainline
      @West_Coast_Mainline 2 ปีที่แล้ว +13

      @@Simplehistory hi

    • @Tamnd605
      @Tamnd605 2 ปีที่แล้ว +9

      @@Simplehistory dang 40 seconds ago

  • @youngmasterzhi
    @youngmasterzhi 2 ปีที่แล้ว +2872

    You should do a 1961 story of how an East German train engineer literally crashed his locomotive straight through the Berlin Wall, along with his family and 16 other strangers who were in for the ride

    • @terminal8531
      @terminal8531 2 ปีที่แล้ว +325

      Well German engineering is the best in the world.

    • @DrHydra47
      @DrHydra47 2 ปีที่แล้ว +88

      1961 was the year it was first built maybe he didnt know about it?

    • @eddharriselmedulan6187
      @eddharriselmedulan6187 2 ปีที่แล้ว +17

      That's a good idea

    • @lifefordummies
      @lifefordummies 2 ปีที่แล้ว +57

      There qss also a guy who armored a school bus and escaped woth his family

    • @pfw4568
      @pfw4568 2 ปีที่แล้ว +49

      @@DrHydra47 Wherever you were in germany at that time, you definitly knew about the wall as soon as they started building it.

  • @GuhTheBruh
    @GuhTheBruh 2 ปีที่แล้ว +1731

    "Freedom has many difficulties and democracy is not perfect, but we have never had to put a
    wall up to keep our people in, to prevent them from leaving us…"
    -John F. Kennedy"

    • @mypdf
      @mypdf 2 ปีที่แล้ว +125

      @@qqqalo That is s build to prevent people from entering, not from leaving

    • @andyfriederichsen
      @andyfriederichsen 2 ปีที่แล้ว +50

      @@qqqalo Have you seen the gangs and cartels that are in Mexico?

    • @Ttegegg
      @Ttegegg 2 ปีที่แล้ว +31

      @@mypdf and also probably not the best way to spend money. Probably better ways to mitigate immigrations then just big walls

    • @cageybee7221
      @cageybee7221 2 ปีที่แล้ว +19

      try to leave. go ahead, try. the wall is financial, thousands of dollars, i've been trying to leave for years.

    • @joelmaynard5590
      @joelmaynard5590 2 ปีที่แล้ว

      @@qqqalo The same wall that was dismantled?

  • @Duke_of_Lorraine
    @Duke_of_Lorraine 2 ปีที่แล้ว +476

    Another succesful escape : a man rented a fancy car, somehow got an uniform of an important Soviet officer, had an accomplice serving as his chauffeur, and just passed Checkpoint Charlie, no one dared asking for his papers on the eastern side.

    • @bkan373
      @bkan373 2 ปีที่แล้ว +10

      fake lmfao

    • @naansoos798
      @naansoos798 2 ปีที่แล้ว +40

      *Meet the Spy*

    • @deviousN
      @deviousN 2 ปีที่แล้ว +20

      @@naansoos798 *I am ze spy*

    • @charleswest6372
      @charleswest6372 2 ปีที่แล้ว +3

      A real hero.

    • @radajradaj
      @radajradaj 6 หลายเดือนก่อน

      *spy gaming*

  • @bogustoast22none25
    @bogustoast22none25 2 ปีที่แล้ว +774

    Love how at the end they just replay their tunnel drawings with no sound, so all you get to feel are seconds of eerie silence to what was explained as minute, just to get a sense of how it was.

    • @eerie5964
      @eerie5964 2 ปีที่แล้ว +85

      No it was get to 10 minutes on the video to get an extra ad

    • @bogustoast22none25
      @bogustoast22none25 2 ปีที่แล้ว +24

      Ah. Still though, eerie

    • @candowe4926
      @candowe4926 2 ปีที่แล้ว +26

      @@eerie5964 TH-cam made it 8 minutes a while back, and also it’s 9 minutes and 59 seconds

    • @comradekenobi6908
      @comradekenobi6908 2 ปีที่แล้ว +2

      @@eerie5964 capitalism

    • @tonypeppermint5329
      @tonypeppermint5329 2 ปีที่แล้ว +4

      @@eerie5964 One second off.

  • @openthinker6562
    @openthinker6562 2 ปีที่แล้ว +240

    “Democracy isn’t perfect, but we have never had to build a wall to keep our people in.”
    John F. Kennedy, shortly after the wall was built.

    • @firefly9838
      @firefly9838 2 ปีที่แล้ว +6

      Kennedy is in my top 3 favorite presidents

    • @bkan373
      @bkan373 2 ปีที่แล้ว

      not only copied but gringo bs, open thinker says, the one totally lied by the media

    • @ps92809
      @ps92809 2 ปีที่แล้ว +3

      @@bkan373 gringo bs lol

    • @bkan373
      @bkan373 2 ปีที่แล้ว

      @@ps92809 tf does that mean

    • @ps92809
      @ps92809 2 ปีที่แล้ว +2

      @@bkan373 idk but its funny

  • @Nint-km7kd
    @Nint-km7kd 2 ปีที่แล้ว +132

    I remembered stories of our history teacher from when she attended school. In the 70's when she was a kid, the teachers back then told her that the wall in Berlin was there to stay strong for possibly centuries and wouldn't collapse.

    • @ashleyhoggle8784
      @ashleyhoggle8784 2 ปีที่แล้ว

      Show many anymore

    • @ashleyhoggle8784
      @ashleyhoggle8784 2 ปีที่แล้ว

      Your name is killing me

    • @ashleyhoggle8784
      @ashleyhoggle8784 2 ปีที่แล้ว

      🇧🇪🇨🇷🇸🇷🇨🇭🇺🇸🇬🇧

    • @kishascape
      @kishascape 2 ปีที่แล้ว +2

      Well she was right, pieces of it are still around in places. Unfortunately the Soviet Union wasn’t as strong and made all of that irrelevant.

    • @chetpomeroy1399
      @chetpomeroy1399 2 ปีที่แล้ว +1

      @@kishascape Well, at the time the Wall came down, the Soviet Union was teetering on collapse. But at time of the Wall's construction, it was a *formidable* potential adversary, even throughout the 1970's, as I remember.

  • @NeoDragonCount
    @NeoDragonCount 2 ปีที่แล้ว +159

    Can't say this enough; I love Simple History and I watch, and re-watch, their videos all the time! Learned about stuff they never covered in history class!

  • @wojszach4443
    @wojszach4443 2 ปีที่แล้ว +477

    For some mysterious reasons communistic countries have more guns on border facing inwards rather than outwards, anyone knows why?

    • @cageybee7221
      @cageybee7221 2 ปีที่แล้ว +20

      you just watched a video where armed men dug a tunnel under the wall, and you still ask that?

    • @HuyTran-dy3vt
      @HuyTran-dy3vt 2 ปีที่แล้ว +140

      @@cageybee7221 he was being sarcastic

    • @ericsuarez834
      @ericsuarez834 2 ปีที่แล้ว +6

      What communist countries you know? Here in the USA we got lots of immigrants escaping their capitalist countries every day

    • @wojszach4443
      @wojszach4443 2 ปีที่แล้ว +14

      @@cageybee7221 there is a little thing called rethoric question, you ask question for which answear is obvious

    • @wojszach4443
      @wojszach4443 2 ปีที่แล้ว +46

      @@ericsuarez834 entire Warsaw pact, West Taiwan aligned countries, whatever Pol Pot Mugabi or Castro did, there is a lot of evidence to prove how communism is inhumane

  • @timg2088
    @timg2088 2 ปีที่แล้ว +502

    Excellent!
    Some of the most dramatic pictures I have ever seen are from East Germans running across the border into West Germany and to FREEDOM, before the Berlin wall was built. Some escaping over the wall before it was completed and some great pics of those who had just escaped. Now staring back across the border at the guards who just tried to kill them just a few seconds before.
    The famous pic of an East German guard shedding his weapon and his gear as he flees across the border into freedom and into West Germany is my favorite. Staring back across the border at your (now former) co-workers is priceless.
    The courage the West German border guards displayed in protecting those who ran across the border is often overlooked.

    • @nonoman3246
      @nonoman3246 2 ปีที่แล้ว +18

      Imagine this happened in korea, history repeats itself

    • @bkan373
      @bkan373 2 ปีที่แล้ว +1

      ah yes, freedom, it isnt like in the west the nazis were on the gobernment ay

    • @hughmungus1767
      @hughmungus1767 2 ปีที่แล้ว +3

      One of the things I remember best about my trip to East and West Berlin in 1983 was all the crosses on the West Berlin side of the Wall commemorating the East Germans who had been killed by their own countrymen while attempting to cross the Wall to freedom. Some of those crosses contained the names of the people who had died and the date they had been killed but many contained only the dates and the German word "Unbekannt" (Unknown). So many people killed and nothing but the date of their deaths was known, even years later because the East Germans had (presumably) refused to identify them even though they must have eventually figured out who had tried to flee. When I returned to a unified Berlin in 1991, I was pleased to see that many of the formerly unknown victims had finally been identified, (presumably) because the East German regime was gone and researchers could determine who had been killed in those incidents. Finally, *most* of the dead had been identified. I'll never forget seeing the proof that people will literally risk their lives to be free because freedom is not just an abstract idea to some people: it is something that some people need to make their lives worth living. I hope I show the same courage and determination if I ever feel I have to flee my country.

  • @friendlyman_
    @friendlyman_ 2 ปีที่แล้ว +84

    Went to Berlin and got a tour around the Stasi prison there from someone who tried to cross the Berlin wall. Absolutely crazy tactics they used to break people, like driving for 3 hours aimlessly so you didn't know you were still near Berlin, no windows to look out of to tell the time of day or where you were, soundproof 'silent rooms' where they basically tried to drive you mad. If anyone is interested, it was the 'Berlin-Hohenschonhausen' memorial and it's well worth the tour if you can get it.

    • @wojszach4443
      @wojszach4443 2 ปีที่แล้ว +5

      then read on Cheka, they made Gestapo look like amateours

    • @lukassssi
      @lukassssi 2 ปีที่แล้ว

      they not gonna drive you around today with this oil prices

  • @brucebelvin2058
    @brucebelvin2058 2 ปีที่แล้ว +91

    West Berliner: "You smell like scheisse. Did you just escape through tunnel 57?"
    Escapee: "No I was practicing for the Tokyo Olympics. I'm a pole vaulter."

  • @RDSyafriyar
    @RDSyafriyar 2 ปีที่แล้ว +41

    "To understand is hard. Once one understands, action is easy." - Sun Yat-sen

  • @garrisonnichols807
    @garrisonnichols807 2 ปีที่แล้ว +30

    Ronald Reagan was told by some of his entourage not to mention the wall when he went to the American sector in Berlin. He was at a restaurant and asked a waitress about her feelings about the Berlin wall. She told him a story about escaping years ago and how most of her family was still trapped behind on the other side where she hadn't seen them since. The rest is history.

  • @mryeeter8175
    @mryeeter8175 2 ปีที่แล้ว +51

    *This is a certified Berlin classic.*

  • @BloodlMagic
    @BloodlMagic 2 ปีที่แล้ว +93

    *the folks at Simple History:* "have you heard of this historic event? Well let us tell you a lesser known part of it!" And that's what makes this channel one of my favorites.

  • @drivenbyrage5710
    @drivenbyrage5710 2 ปีที่แล้ว +52

    My mother escaped from East Germany around the same time. She never liked to talk about it. My guess is she went through some terrible things as a teenage girl before she finally got out. Now, I wonder if she was one of the ones who used the tunnels to escape. She is 85 with dementia now. I guess I'll never know.

    • @kishascape
      @kishascape 2 ปีที่แล้ว +2

      You never know. People tend to let things out in dementia.

    • @petersuozzo1227
      @petersuozzo1227 9 หลายเดือนก่อน

      @@markolysynchuk5264well, your permission had to be printed on an official form, completed in triplicate. ;-)

  • @thecheebra7655
    @thecheebra7655 2 ปีที่แล้ว +245

    Have you done the story of the family who escaped east germany with a hot air balloon? It's probably the most creative way someone escaped east germany.

    • @davidsaville5239
      @davidsaville5239 2 ปีที่แล้ว +9

      There was a film made about it

    • @pfw4568
      @pfw4568 2 ปีที่แล้ว +30

      Or the three brothers which all escaped by different means. One swam, one shot a rope across the border from one house over to the other and the third being rescued by the other two by plane. The two brothers even drew a red star under the plane to confuse the east german guards by thinking, those were soviet planes. It all worked out. One of the brothers filmed their rescue action by plane and you can watch the whole thing

    • @DerBoss888
      @DerBoss888 2 ปีที่แล้ว +5

      I had a teacher that was a relative of the people that escaped

    • @DerBoss888
      @DerBoss888 2 ปีที่แล้ว +1

      With the air balloon

    • @anomaly395
      @anomaly395 2 ปีที่แล้ว +3

      @@pfw4568 Link?

  • @peterhuehn6137
    @peterhuehn6137 2 ปีที่แล้ว +60

    My dad and his family escaped East Germany in 1961. My grandfather told the guard that they were going into the west to go to the zoo and would be back by sun down and they were let through.

    • @kishascape
      @kishascape 2 ปีที่แล้ว +1

      Yes there were checkpoints and people were frequently allowed in to visit family and out for shopping.

    • @Rayitolaser569
      @Rayitolaser569 2 ปีที่แล้ว

      Lmaooo

  • @rishav_killerx6011
    @rishav_killerx6011 2 ปีที่แล้ว +223

    Incredible story, didn't knew this also happened during cold war, Loved it ❤️❤️

    • @Ttegegg
      @Ttegegg 2 ปีที่แล้ว +1

      History is very weird

    • @Christopher-rw2bp
      @Christopher-rw2bp 2 ปีที่แล้ว

      @@Ttegegg how so?

    • @suntzu4545
      @suntzu4545 2 ปีที่แล้ว +2

      @@Christopher-rw2bp emu war

    • @suntzu4545
      @suntzu4545 2 ปีที่แล้ว

      @@Christopher-rw2bp A place in england getting flooded by booze

    • @suntzu4545
      @suntzu4545 2 ปีที่แล้ว

      @@Christopher-rw2bp And also the funny dancing plague

  • @fazefarcry
    @fazefarcry 2 ปีที่แล้ว +31

    1:29 if your want to ignore the FUBAR sponsor, here’s where the show actually starts

    • @predetor911
      @predetor911 2 ปีที่แล้ว +2

      Thank you

    • @OffGridInvestor
      @OffGridInvestor 2 ปีที่แล้ว +1

      Everyone is pumping raid these days

    • @FREEDOM80085
      @FREEDOM80085 2 ปีที่แล้ว

      What is fubar

    • @FREEDOM80085
      @FREEDOM80085 2 ปีที่แล้ว

      What is fubar

    • @predetor911
      @predetor911 2 ปีที่แล้ว

      @@FREEDOM80085 it's fucked up beyond all recognition.

  • @pokefan-ix7sh
    @pokefan-ix7sh 2 ปีที่แล้ว +34

    Tunnel 57 was a tunnel under the Berlin Wall that on the 3rd and 4th October 1964 was the location of a mass escape by 57 East Berlin citizens. Student and future astronaut Reinhard Furrer was among the West German escape helpers who assisted the East Berliners in escaping. During the escape, East German border guards came upon the scene. A West German escape helper, Christian Zobel, opened fire, the bullet piercing the lung of young East German guard Egon Schultz, who was then fatally wounded by friendly fire from another guard. This friendly fire was kept secret by the GDR government.
    Commemorative plaque on the house at Strelitzer Strasse 55, in Berlin Mitte
    A memorial plaque on the site today commemorates both the successful escape, and Schultz's death as a victim of the Berlin Wall.

  • @sankyu3950
    @sankyu3950 2 ปีที่แล้ว +135

    When you have max walls in your townhall but your enemie spams miners instead

    • @looinrims
      @looinrims 2 ปีที่แล้ว +11

      Rushes town hall just to make max level walls:

  • @brandonchappell8545
    @brandonchappell8545 2 ปีที่แล้ว +20

    Video starts at 1:27

    • @kv-2156
      @kv-2156 2 ปีที่แล้ว +1

      Thank you

    • @pepsi-cola2791
      @pepsi-cola2791 2 ปีที่แล้ว +1

      Ridiculously long sponsor

    • @brandonchappell8545
      @brandonchappell8545 2 ปีที่แล้ว

      @@pepsi-cola2791 every time! I don't mind ads because I get it, it's what you got to do but these are just too much

  • @helloimskip
    @helloimskip 2 ปีที่แล้ว +63

    Since we're talking about Tunnel 57. Please make more animated stories of people attempting many ways to escape the Eastern Bloc. Like the Czech Hijacking.

  • @shaneleskinen2111
    @shaneleskinen2111 2 ปีที่แล้ว +17

    Glorious. The ingenuity of the imprisoned and cornered never ceases to amaze.

  • @CliffCardi
    @CliffCardi 2 ปีที่แล้ว +29

    Did you hear of the 2 Germans who in 1986, built their own windsurfing boards to escape to Denmark via the Baltic Sea?

  • @harrietharlow9929
    @harrietharlow9929 2 ปีที่แล้ว +7

    I had family in East Berlin. My aunt went through stuff in the closing days of WWII that were just horrendous. I remember visiting East Berlin in 1960 and 1972. You wouldn't believe how much rubble was there 15 years after the war had ended and that rubble was still there in 1973. Compared to West Berlin, it was a dismal place. I still remember crossing at checkpoint Charlie clearly--and that has been half a century now.
    I cried with happiness as I watched the Wall being torn down on TV. My uncle didn't live to see that (my aunt died in 1961 or 1962 and my uncle died in 1988), but I know how happy they would have been to see that.

  • @theuralictribes5689
    @theuralictribes5689 2 ปีที่แล้ว +33

    Fun fact:
    The irony is that there was someone who mentioned an idea of rebuilding the Berlin wall except this time it won't be called the Berlin Wall nor it will split Germany in half.
    Fun Fact 2:
    The Berlin Wall was guarded my Czechoslovak Wolfdogs specifically mix bred to become active guard dogs.

  • @hughmungus1767
    @hughmungus1767 2 ปีที่แล้ว +15

    Some years ago, I saw a documentary about some of the attempts to escape East Germany. One unsuccessful attempt that was described really moved me. A young East German couple discovered that they were expecting their first child. Although they had grown up in East Germany and could (grudgingly) tolerate it, they felt passionately that they could not subject their unborn child to that life and started trying to find a way to get across the Wall, which by this time was very highly developed. They had an idea that it might be possible to sneak through a specific forested area and then get over the Wall so they went to this area just to look over the possibilities and risks, not to actually escape on that particular night. As they walked through the forest, the border guards somehow detected them and without a word of warning, opening fire with live ammunition. The man threw his pregnant wife to the ground and lay over her to try to protect her but, sadly, she was already dead. The border guards arrested him and threw him in prison for five years just for being in a restricted area without a pass (you couldn't go closer than 5 km to the Wall unless you had a pass). I was absolutely infuriated - and remain that way to this day - to learn that they actually forced him to pay for the bullets that were used to kill his wife and unborn child. That's how utterly cold-hearted the East German regime was!

    • @striker1689
      @striker1689 2 ปีที่แล้ว

      That's just history...

  • @edwardkasimir8016
    @edwardkasimir8016 2 ปีที่แล้ว +36

    this video begins at 1:27

    • @anonmouse1481
      @anonmouse1481 2 ปีที่แล้ว +2

      Doing the Lord's work.

  • @daniellebcooper7160
    @daniellebcooper7160 2 ปีที่แล้ว +50

    Another great video, thank you. It makes me appreciate living in western society, and wanting to defend it even more.

    • @darius9333
      @darius9333 2 ปีที่แล้ว

      Eastern has its good part.

  • @valuedhumanoid6574
    @valuedhumanoid6574 2 ปีที่แล้ว +3

    I had to travel to Germany on business two years after the wall came down. At one point I had to travel to Magdeburg, which is former East Germany. Going across the old border is like driving back in time. You just can't imagine how much damage the USSR did to that beautiful landscape. Just looking at the roads you can see the huge difference. You go from high tech autobahn that the German's have no peer to old beat up concrete that has not been repaired for years. Every building in town was the same greyish/brownish concrete square shaped block. No color. Cobblestone streets, dirt alleys, no lighting outdoors, just bleak. It didn't help that I was there in the dead of winter. It was midnight dark until 9am, then dark, overcast sky, then dark by 4pm. For 4 weeks I never saw the sun. When I flew out of Hanover, the plane broke thru the solid cloud cover to pure, unblocked sunlight. It was the most intense feeling of joy I have ever felt. I just cannot describe it. I am sure that the country has been restored by now, but back then it was two different worlds. Seeing the old 1960's era Trabant cars and the Russian Vaz Ladas and their smoky 2 stroke engines tooling around in the 90's was also a mind blowing thing

    • @koenven7012
      @koenven7012 2 ปีที่แล้ว

      It has improved, but there still are differences between the two regions.

  • @brandtc.7991
    @brandtc.7991 2 ปีที่แล้ว +11

    Seriously, one of the best channels on TH-cam! You show and teach our history so well and keep it in a way to honor our past.

  • @jones7590
    @jones7590 2 ปีที่แล้ว +44

    My father (no volunteer) was in the Egon-Schulz-Companie (named after this "hero").
    The high-ranking officers praised Egon Schulz for his will to die for the system and so on.
    Later all found out what really was the truth, but some already whispered about it.
    Always a interesting time when he speaks about his years there.
    To the political side: many ex-SED-Members integrated themselves in the now existing political party "Die Linke".
    It´s sad to see young people vote for parties in which are many criminals that supported the shooting from innocent germans or still support communism.
    A "denacification" just for communism should have took place.

    • @hkiller57
      @hkiller57 2 ปีที่แล้ว +3

      plenty of exgestapo and other nazis got rolled into the west german police and political parties as well, its not just former soviets with that problem

    • @jones7590
      @jones7590 2 ปีที่แล้ว +4

      @@hkiller57 ah great whataboutism about a problem that everybody in Germany knew about.
      Im pointing it out because nobody talks about the "Mauermörder" which are the people behind the shooting of innocent people, torture and interogation.

    • @hkiller57
      @hkiller57 2 ปีที่แล้ว

      @@jones7590 ah look at you pretending that the crimes of the stasi arent just as well known or talked about

  • @compatriot852
    @compatriot852 2 ปีที่แล้ว +35

    The amount of unique ways people managed escaped from the Soviet Union are endless and I feel you could easily make hundreds of videos on it.

    • @hughmungus1767
      @hughmungus1767 2 ปีที่แล้ว +2

      The Haus am Checkpoint Charlie ("House at Checkpoint Charlie") museum in Berlin, which I believe still operates, contains a wonderful collection of information about the many clever ways East Germans used to escape to the West. I highly recommend it.

  • @Wil_Dasovich
    @Wil_Dasovich 2 ปีที่แล้ว +15

    This was a good one!

  • @MrTheHillfolk
    @MrTheHillfolk 2 ปีที่แล้ว +8

    Went to Berlin in 2005.
    Going from the east side back to the west was like the wizard of oz where it goes from black and white to color.
    The east still had alot of catching up on culture.
    Houses on the east were all drab and gray and the west side had wild colors like yellow and red houses with expression.

  • @jeeferw7770
    @jeeferw7770 2 ปีที่แล้ว +23

    My respect to all those college students 👏 , they are true heroes for all those people who safely crossed the border.

  • @Gunslinger_VR
    @Gunslinger_VR 2 ปีที่แล้ว +8

    My grandfather served at the Berlin wall (1960 - 1963) (US 🇺🇸)

  • @mrgrinderman8861
    @mrgrinderman8861 2 ปีที่แล้ว +14

    Always happy to hear stories about the Berlin wall!

  • @PhysicstIsaac
    @PhysicstIsaac 2 ปีที่แล้ว +12

    Excellent, Father has provided us with more new content again, it's getting better everyday.

  • @direwolf8257
    @direwolf8257 2 ปีที่แล้ว +9

    Loving the increase in quality and rate of these vids!

  • @iowa_lot_to_travel9471
    @iowa_lot_to_travel9471 2 ปีที่แล้ว +6

    The illustration of the SKS is great in every episode
    TV Sergeant Schultz: i know nothing Nothing
    Real life Sergeant Schultz: shot by friendly fire

    • @OffGridInvestor
      @OffGridInvestor 2 ปีที่แล้ว +1

      East German schultz couldn't get Dutch chocolate

  • @DudeStone
    @DudeStone 2 ปีที่แล้ว +13

    Amazing video of history and the graphics department stepping it up a bit overall one of the best of your work

  • @johndoogan3712
    @johndoogan3712 2 ปีที่แล้ว +16

    There's a really good 😊 story about the cyclist 🚴 who built a huge hot air balloon 🎈and flew with his family out of Czechoslovakia to land in Austria 🇦🇹. The basket was reinforced underneath by a thick steel plate to protect them from ground fire and carried four large propane cylinders feeding a home built burner, the balloon 🎈had to lift almost a ton in weight including his bicycle. A mig was tasked to find them which lost them when they flew into cloud ☁️. They found that the burner had to remain lit constantly to prevent the balloon from descending. During its 15 mile flight it reached an altitude of 15,000 feet to finally land in countryside when a policeman 👮 who watched the balloon's descent came to investigate.
    They became Austrian residents and worked to pay 💰 off the import charges for one ☝️ balloon 🎈.
    I read an article many years ago in the Reader's digest about this story and I write this from memory.
    Please do a video about this story.

  • @derickpoteet7502
    @derickpoteet7502 2 ปีที่แล้ว +9

    Holy crap, hearing this guy say "Raid shadow legends" might be my favorite single voice line I've heard in ages lmao

  • @revolution8863
    @revolution8863 2 ปีที่แล้ว +16

    This would make for a very interesting movie!
    Simple History always makes incredible and the best history content! 👍

    • @OffGridInvestor
      @OffGridInvestor 2 ปีที่แล้ว

      There's PILES of ones like this that happened with east Germany

  • @nateallen2714
    @nateallen2714 2 ปีที่แล้ว +3

    My German teacher I’m high school had a piece of the Berlin Wall. She went there on a school trip when the wall was being taken down.

  • @prinz5816
    @prinz5816 2 ปีที่แล้ว +21

    Great video! Could we maybe see some napoleonic videos aswell? Love your channel and your content. Keep producing gold.

    • @wesleyy2502
      @wesleyy2502 2 ปีที่แล้ว +1

      Epic History has great video's on the napoleonic wars if you haven't seen them. I highly recommend them

    • @charlie8344
      @charlie8344 2 ปีที่แล้ว

      @@wesleyy2502 those videos are from 2 years ago, and their still nice

    • @wesleyy2502
      @wesleyy2502 2 ปีที่แล้ว

      @@charlie8344 Yep great animations on battles and great narration.

  • @AXIAM79
    @AXIAM79 2 ปีที่แล้ว +4

    I remember from a documentary years ago that the owner just gave the key to the students and told them along the lines of "whatever happens, I don't know you and I wasn't aware of this"

  • @Lnwf-ts9tb
    @Lnwf-ts9tb 2 ปีที่แล้ว +5

    I just watched The Tunnel in my German class. It was pretty good. The movie is in all German with English subtitles and showed other attempts to cross over recorded in history, like a bus ramming through the wall. I suggest giving the movie a watch if you know German or want to read subtitles the entire time

  • @romerickhidalgo7298
    @romerickhidalgo7298 2 ปีที่แล้ว +1

    I appreciate this youtube channel....learn a lot.....and thank u for pushing more content this past few years

  • @weetytoaster1835
    @weetytoaster1835 2 ปีที่แล้ว +13

    BRUH!!!! My friend on discord makes it seem like the Soviets were innocent and didn’t do any fucked up things 3:50. Please make more videos exposing what things the Soviets dead

  • @KollexYT
    @KollexYT ปีที่แล้ว +2

    WOO!
    The escapees won the fight against the boarder guards!!

  • @nievelatino9691
    @nievelatino9691 2 ปีที่แล้ว +5

    So Germany was like Korea except being north vs south it was East vs West

  • @Beanbag777
    @Beanbag777 2 ปีที่แล้ว +1

    This Channel always entertains but once in a while it also stirs the heart deeply . Thank you

  • @tfrowlett8752
    @tfrowlett8752 2 ปีที่แล้ว +17

    Please can you do a video on either Wilhelm Voigt or Reginald Jones, though the latter caused the repainting of an entire submarine fleet.

  • @ianlarson517
    @ianlarson517 2 ปีที่แล้ว +2

    I was gifted a piece of the Berlin Wall that has some paint on it. It was from my friends mom who just happened to be there when it fell. She went on a spontaneous weekend trip to Berlin with some coworkers when it came down.

  • @NesquikYeeeaaah
    @NesquikYeeeaaah 2 ปีที่แล้ว +2

    Dude this is one of the most insane videos I've seen, keep it up

  • @T.Y.B.o.d.
    @T.Y.B.o.d. 6 หลายเดือนก่อน +1

    I loved this video. I watched it because it reminded me of the book A NIGHT DIVIDED.

  • @Burty_YT
    @Burty_YT 2 ปีที่แล้ว +12

    Can we all agree that when they upload our day is instantly better!😍

  • @deee1979
    @deee1979 8 หลายเดือนก่อน +2

    1:28 video starts.

  • @panosf.kennedy2253
    @panosf.kennedy2253 2 ปีที่แล้ว +6

    All free men, wherever they may live, are citizens of Berlin, and therefore, as a free man, I take pride in the words "Ich bin ein Berliner!

  • @twinslife1563ferev
    @twinslife1563ferev ปีที่แล้ว +1

    Tunnel 57. The fact it was built by college students RESPECT

  • @bruhism173
    @bruhism173 2 ปีที่แล้ว +8

    Can you cover the signing of the declaration of independence? Or the siege of fort McHenry where the men used their owns lives to hold up the American flag to not declare defeat? Keep up the good work

  • @grandmentos3956
    @grandmentos3956 2 ปีที่แล้ว +2

    Love seeing the animation improve while keeping the theme. Keep doin’ watcha doin’, great as always

  • @brianjschumer
    @brianjschumer 2 ปีที่แล้ว +4

    Do a story on the family of Cubans fleeing Cuba in a bathtub with a plastic tarp as a sail and old tires and garbage pails as floaties

  • @user-fk8tr5ev8q
    @user-fk8tr5ev8q 8 วันที่ผ่านมา +1

    1:27 to skip the ad

  • @davidarango4679
    @davidarango4679 2 ปีที่แล้ว +3

    There was also this one guy who snuk his girlfriend across the border inside his front passenger seat of his car. Since he made several trips over the border to see her, the border guards got used to seeing him. He carved out a space in the front seet for her to sit in. Once he got to the check point, the E. German border guards so used to seeing him didn't even notice the front passenger seat and let him on through.

  • @imteajsaimun4134
    @imteajsaimun4134 2 ปีที่แล้ว +1

    Start from 1:28

  • @LSTNSCRFN
    @LSTNSCRFN 2 ปีที่แล้ว +8

    Great video covering more East Berlin Escapes do one of the Hot Air Balloon that flew over east Berlin and landed in West Berlin

    • @wazzup233
      @wazzup233 2 ปีที่แล้ว +2

      And cue the tune of 99 Luft Balloons

  • @fuall6993
    @fuall6993 2 ปีที่แล้ว +1

    I like how they do a minute of silence at the end

  • @luigidisanpietro3720
    @luigidisanpietro3720 2 ปีที่แล้ว +3

    Me: Ohhh~ I want DeMocRaCy....
    Kim Jong Un: We have Democracy at home....
    *Democracy at home:*

    • @charlie8344
      @charlie8344 2 ปีที่แล้ว

      North Korea is basically a monarchy pretending to be communist

    • @luigidisanpietro3720
      @luigidisanpietro3720 2 ปีที่แล้ว

      @@charlie8344
      For some reason, they are also calling themselves as "Democratic People's Republic of Korea." Indeed...👁👄👁

  • @lukeansell6709
    @lukeansell6709 2 ปีที่แล้ว

    The music, sounds, animations and historical information is very well done in these videos, thank you.

  • @macariomatira3234
    @macariomatira3234 2 ปีที่แล้ว +5

    We Wish to feature about the Philippines under Martial Law from 1972 to 1981

  • @thomasmaxwell7239
    @thomasmaxwell7239 2 ปีที่แล้ว +10

    If communism and socialism is such a good thing, why are people willing to die to escape it? I simply don't understand the mindset of my fellow college students. Great video and very informative!

    • @masonpyle5929
      @masonpyle5929 2 ปีที่แล้ว +5

      “Because true communism/socialism hasn’t been tried”-Woke College Students. Hey I agree as an American college student I believe that since my fellow American college students love communism and Che Guevara, they are crazy. American colleges should allow students to go to Cuba for a semester. I actually want that since they will change their mind on Communism/socialism after seeing what it does to a country.

  • @bockqses
    @bockqses 2 ปีที่แล้ว +4

    There's a book about this, it's called "A Night Divided"

  • @curraheewolf
    @curraheewolf 2 ปีที่แล้ว +2

    I never knew that story. Thanks Simple History for sharing. 5 stars! *****

  • @highleaf1197
    @highleaf1197 2 ปีที่แล้ว +19

    Democracies are never perfect but we never had to build a wall to keep our people in

    • @peaveyst7
      @peaveyst7 2 ปีที่แล้ว +2

      but you have to bomb it into people

  • @Bcarr122391
    @Bcarr122391 2 ปีที่แล้ว +1

    Can I just take a moment to say: damn good sound design. I looked over my shoulder, thinking I heard two Asian ladies talking behind me - where a wall was. Then I realized it was the video. 🔥

  • @Lanceyboy03
    @Lanceyboy03 2 ปีที่แล้ว +3

    My dad told me a story about my Opa and Oma regarding the division of Germany after the Second World War. It wasn’t quite as impressive as this but I still found it very interesting.

  • @sebashtundakeng8683
    @sebashtundakeng8683 2 ปีที่แล้ว +1

    the story of the tunnel is a must watch

  • @arober9758
    @arober9758 2 ปีที่แล้ว +4

    Excellently neat job on this Cold War story fellows!!!🌍🌍🌍🌍🌍🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🥇🥇

  • @WHistory430
    @WHistory430 2 ปีที่แล้ว +2

    when I heard that Reinhard was on one of the Space Shuttle Challenger missions, I quickly Googled if he was on the one that exploded, luckily he wasn't.

  • @ModelAviationStation
    @ModelAviationStation 2 ปีที่แล้ว +3

    This would make a excellent movie.

  • @rocketman6478
    @rocketman6478 2 ปีที่แล้ว +1

    Anyone else noticed. In the amount of time it took to watch this video, a person would have been crawling their way to freedom. 10 minutes

  • @mrdojob
    @mrdojob 2 ปีที่แล้ว +5

    I love a happy ending like this. They accomplished everything they wanted to achieve, won in a shootout successfully killing an enemy and still managed to get away scot free.
    The killing hopefully made other guards lose some sleep for quite a while afterwards.

  • @RockyMountains0721
    @RockyMountains0721 5 หลายเดือนก่อน

    One of my favorite escape stories from East Berlin was the story of the two brothers who used a hot air balloon to cross over to the West. They flew their balloon over the wall at around 4:00 in the morning under the cloak of darkness. The brothers also knew that there were less border guards along the Berlin Wall at that hour of the early morning.

  • @naturetrails8357
    @naturetrails8357 2 ปีที่แล้ว +8

    Another example of great German engineering

  • @Pressed_For_Time
    @Pressed_For_Time 2 ปีที่แล้ว +1

    A 10 minute crawl to freedom. Incredible.

  • @CJ_1406
    @CJ_1406 2 ปีที่แล้ว +3

    East Berliners: If we can't get through and over, then we'll go under.

  • @FYMFTP
    @FYMFTP 2 ปีที่แล้ว +1

    The fact that the entire thing was funded by a magazine so they could get a story should really be an eye-opener.

  • @DIEGhostfish
    @DIEGhostfish 2 ปีที่แล้ว +5

    Something for Australians to keep an eye on.

    • @OffGridInvestor
      @OffGridInvestor 2 ปีที่แล้ว

      FOR WHAT? The so called covid concentration camps that NONE of us have heard about? We have unused government buildings that we use for whatever need arise. Most old prisons or military bases.

    • @DIEGhostfish
      @DIEGhostfish 2 ปีที่แล้ว +1

      @@OffGridInvestor The fact that your own media hide them isn't an excuse in the internet age. It won't work this time Hans.

  • @SaschaDBrickman
    @SaschaDBrickman 2 ปีที่แล้ว +1

    I'm from Germany thank you for making this Video

  • @macrotaste6585
    @macrotaste6585 2 ปีที่แล้ว +3

    Hey simple history, Native German speaker here. Great video to an important part of Germanys history.
    But I think you made a mistake "freie wahten" is incorrect it's "freie Wahlen"

  • @alnu8355
    @alnu8355 2 ปีที่แล้ว +2

    East Germany: Okay, you are now all communist!
    57 East Germans: A'ight I'm gonna head out.

  • @BinaryzeroNYC
    @BinaryzeroNYC 2 ปีที่แล้ว +6

    I honestly loved the end....you should have recorded dirt shuffling and shovel noises and than a siren and gunshots

  • @princessmarlena1359
    @princessmarlena1359 2 ปีที่แล้ว +1

    5:56 How I felt about moving out of California.