As an impecunious student, Eastern Bloc airlines, particularly Interflug and Lot, opened up the wider world to me. As another non-German speaker, I much appreciate such accessible information about the DDR
As a student I flew from Schonefeld - East Berlin to Baghdad via Damascus in 1971. We travelled to west Berlin from London by train, then a bus across the wall from a secret rendevous. The flight in the Il-18 was comfortable with generous service from friendly crew. Surprisingly good memories. Airport seem relaxed and easy going
Hur-hur..."secret" rendezvous 🤣. Just as well you had the security clearance to have access to the information or you'd have missed the flight 🤔👍. Seriously though, did you walk through a checkpoint onto the bus, or was it a charter from Interflug with a "trusted" Stasi bus driver which came into West Berlin to pick you up from the "secret location" (🤣) 👍+1
I flew Interflug from London Gatwick to Dresden in December 1989 and back in January 1990. The flights were good and the service excellent. The food was very fresh and meals were prepared on the plane. It was a most interesting experience.
I have an Interflug in-flight magazine from 1990. In the presentation of the fleet, it is mentioned that several Boeing B737-500s are planned to be put into service, primarily in a lease system.
At the end of its operations, Interflug began modernizing its fleet by buying Western jets. Before it was shut down, the airline managed to get an Airbus A310 which after the fell of the Berlin Wall, the plane was acquired by the Luftwaffe as VIP transport carrying the Chancellor
@@Kuricang31 Yes, I know, in 1988, the three own A310s entered the fleet. Thus, there was a short period of time when it was still possible to buy a relatively cheap flight ticket to Cuba from the COMECON or CMEA countries with a Schönefeld transfer on board a Western type.
Thank goodness they didn't trade as InterFlug for much longer than that, then! 😳 I would *never* want to see an InterFlug engineer put through the living hell of having to maintain a Boeing aircraft... 😉
@@NiklasVWWVhe falsely claimed that the german panzer museum sold a Tiger I to a collector and replaced the exhibit with a 1:1 replica. From what I recall, the museum had in fact loaned the Tiger from the collector and had to return it. I think u can do a quick search of something like "mark felton false claims" and it should come up.
@@NiklasVWWVHe claimed that Avro Lancasters, black ones, were ready to fly from the island of Tinian as backups for the atomic bombing missions of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, just in case something went wrong with the B-29. Greg's Airplanes and Automobiles did an over a 30 minute video detailing why that claim is bogus, and unlike Mark, he actually cites sources. A lot of them, in fact. th-cam.com/video/gKB-oqdoduw/w-d-xo.htmlsi=IgdGBKawlsdqWsiK
I remember once standing at a bus stop in East Berlin in 1983 and there was a railway bridge over the street with a big advert for Interflug on it. I asked myself how many of the people standing around me could ever hope to get onto one of those flights.
I have been eagerly awaiting this episode on Interflug. It was very interesting and enjoyable. Thank you for taking the time to put this together. The last time I was in Berlin I was amazed to find an old Interflug sign still being displayed in the village of Glasow. I was heading for Waßmannsdorf Station and came across the Kleingartenverein Interflug. Amazing what old East German remnants you come across when you least expect it!
The GDR's provincial cities had flights to Soviet and Eastern European cities and vacation resorts. Dresden and Leipzig had flights by Interflug, Bulgarian, Hungarian and Soviet airlines. Erfurt had Interflug and Soviet Aeroflot. In the summer there could be 18 flights a day between Bulgaria and the GDR.
An excellent video, Olaf. They get better and better. It's not easy to communicate a lot of technical information without it seeming dry, but your lively presentation skills and really excellent graphics mean there is no danger of that here.
Mein Fluglehrer war ein ehemaliger Interflug-Captain. Einige haben aus kleinen Agrar-Flugplätzen Landeplätze für Hobbyflieger gemacht, andere sind Fluglehrer geworden. Vielen Dank für den guten Bericht!
Back in the late 70's I flew Interflug from Berlin to Vienna on a Tu-134. Very interesting from the moment a bus picked us up from a street corner in West Berlin to Schonenfeld Airport. Going thru immigration at the airport was kinda scary. You stepped in after a metal door opened (then closed), showed your documents to the border patrol officer and then another door opened to the departure area. It was filled and a lot of black people (African) in there also. The GDR had a lot of missions/training in the African continent at that time. There were a couple of border police with machine guns as we approched the aircraft so kinda scary. Found my seat and then a flight attendent placed a large suitcase in the the seat next to me and tied it down with the seatbelt. Interesting about not having a trolley on board as the flight attendent carried food boxes stacked on top of one another. Barely could see his face. All in all it was a good flight including one passenger accidently spilling his beer on a russian lady behind him. One thing though, I never saw a smile on anyones face from the police to the ticket counter to the flight attendents. Thank you for another great video.
@@DirtyRocha My only day in DDR East Berlin was in April 82, aged 21, with a German language student friend: Checkpoint Charlie (25 Ostmark for 25 DM each). Walk to Alexanderplatz, passing badly damaged historical architecture, then S-Bahn straight to Köpenick on a whim (we'd studied "Der Hauptmann Von Köpenick" at university). Just opposite Köpenick station was a big Kermes so we spent all our Ostmark eating Bratwurst and drinking beer all day, buying rounds for the FDJ girls. Bloody marvellous day 👍👍. Back to Checkpoint Charlie totally drunk just after sundown. We were well behaved but not as scared as in the morning. I exchanged a few letters with the prettiest girl but realised it might be harming her family, as all post would be read in both directions. 🤔
@@andrewrobinson2565 Seems you had a much better time, as for me I was about 8 years old, we flew Mexico-Havana-Berlin and then back, the experience we had with the VoPo's was mainly at Schönefeld, where those pesky passport controls seemed to be endless...... wouldn't be surprised if they even dared to asked the color of our underwear.....*sigh*
I was a kid, but, I vaguely remember Shonefeld airport as dark and grey. That's all I remember. I don't remember restaurants or coffee bars. It was also empty airport.
Very interesting . When I came to live in Paris in 1987 the Interflug office was on the Champs Elysées . I used to visit it just to collect the flight schedules , as was my won't back then .
Your videos are getting more and more professional and interesting! I flew an Interflug TU134 from Frankfurt operating for LH It was in 1990. Inteflug aircraft started operating FRA-LEJ Leipzig with a Lufthansa flight number after the Wall came down. I asked for "Bacardi and Coke" I got a black coffee. I was at the front. Walking down to the back - the noise of those rear-mounted turbine engines....wow!
West Berliners using that GDR bus to Schönefeld were not very well received in West Berlin. People didn't tell anyone that they used it. Part of the problem in Berlin was that only flag carriers of the allies were allowed to land and take off in Berlin. So flying to somewhere from West Berlin always meant an expensive flight by Air France, British Airways or PanAm to Paris, London or Frankfurt - and from there the usual flight then. That added cost. In Schönefeld those Western tourists with western currency were put into special high class bars and waiting areas to pull even more Western currency and to prevent communication with normal GDR residents.
Add on: KLM was one of the few Western flag carriers (Netherlands) to land directly at Schönefeld. The terminal area for this flight to Amsterdam was secured like a prison. There were also Interflug flights to Sweden in the same area of the terminal. Sweden had some treaties and sold Volvos to high earners and the government in GDR. Cubana was also an exotic vacation flight to Cuba for Apparatschiks.
Though plenty did it, it was so cheap. DDR got a lot of hard currency that way. I got my ticket from the travel agent on US base. I was allowed to because I was out of the army when I flew
Several of Interflug’s TU-134 aircraft were sold to Vietnam Airlines after liquidation. Vietnam Airlines flew them until a major crash in Phnom Penh involving a TU-134 occurred in 1997, prompting the airline to ground and eventually retire its Soviet fleet in favor of Western-built equipment.
Every once in a while the TH-cam algorithm finds me an interesting new channel. Today it was this one! Looking forward to working through some of your earlier videos.
Ah, the memories. As a kid in the first half of the '60s, I flew on IL-18-s several times from Budapest to London (and the other way) ... not Inteflug of course, Malév. Much later, in the second half of the '80-s I had to make several work trips from Hungary to West-Berlin. To save money, my institute had me flying Interflug from Budapest to Schönefeld and take the shuttle bus from there to West Berlin. (I don't remember where the stop was. I tried asking Chat-GPT, but it didn't know either). This was actually fast and convenient with minimal checks to get on the bus.
What a wonderful video! I still remember these airplanes when I was in the GDR in 1986 and 1990. The MiG's and Su's of the LSK/LV and the beautiful aircraft of Interflug. And the smell... And the WW2 Autobahns. And...
Thank you for giving us a window into the details of the DDR. The country was always so fascinating for me and just becomes more of a fascination as it slowly recedes into the past.
fantastic video! Thank you for making this, Interflug is such a fascinating company, I have seen many advertising posters for them that were beautiful! Thank you
Olaf, thank you so much for this channel. I’m an American who shares your fascination with the DDR. I was lucky enough to visit the country in June 1989. (Detail: I went there by train from Amsterdam to West Berlin and transfered to the U-Bahn and arrived into East Berlin at Friedrichstraße.) Ever since when I return to that part of Germany I am always seeking sites to visit like you have profiled. It is delightful we can all find each other here!
This is only slightly connected to your video, but I think possibly interesting. When I was a student in Moscow in the late 1960s and later in the 1970s, I found myself a number of times in both the old and later the new Sheremetyevo airports, where I was struck by a particularly emetic way of announcing flight arrrivals and departures from certain countries. Flights to and from the GDR (both Interflug and Aeroflot) were always called “Friendship Flights”, e.g. - ‘Announcing the arrival of Interflug flight 123 Friendship Flight from Berlin…’. Flights to and from Cuba also received similar treatment in that the words Isle of Freedom (Остров свободы) was obligatorily included in the announcement. As with all things Soviet, it was simple enough to know the opposite was true.
In 2007, I flew in and out of Sheremetyevo on Lufthansa, and not much appeared to have changed. My journal at the time reads: "I arrived back at the Sheremetyevo airport early for my return, which wiped away the patina of bling-bling New Russia and brought one right back to CCCP Russia. I had a lunch at a restaurant decorated with signs advertising “hard liguor [sic] and cigarettes” where the menu included a full page of the cigarette selections longer than the available food. I ordered a tomato juice, and they brought out a glass of what appeared to be the result of two tomatoes placed in a Waring blender, which instantly separated into a two-toned science experiment. Yum. Everyone knows that they put terrible things in hot dogs and hamburgers worldwide, but the cheeseburger I ordered was one where you could taste all of them, even after slaking it with a gravy boat of ketchup clearly dating from the Yeltsin regime. The duty-free shop had something called “Kalashnikov Vodka” that came in a life-sized glass AK-47. I passed." I wonder what it’s like now.
The A310s are interesting, that deal was mostly done by Franz Josef Strauss a passionate pilot, bavarian governor (so it's a good match that they named the new Munich airport to his honor) and chairman of the Airbus Corporation but also controversial, he was an anticommunist and had a bunch of corruption scandals. They needed this long-haul airplane for a flight route to Havanna on Cuba, before that they used IL-62s but these couldn't do that nonstop and they had to refuel in Gander, Newfoundland and on that occasion, the passengers could leave the plane and some didn't return, the Interflug A310 got an additional 7200-litre tank so they were able to fly the direct route to Havanna, but they also used it for Beijing and Singapore. The pilots got training (which was a little difficult because the planes they were flying until then had flight decks with 3-5 men, pilot, first officer, flight engineer, navigator and radio operator) but maintenance was scheduled to be done by Lufthansa Technik and they plumbed parts of the electronics. However these three were delivered between June and October 1989, just months/weeks before the peaceful revolution, in May 1991 the Air Force took them over and used these for government services, the last one got just recently retired in September 2021 - it doesn't get scrapped but is planned to be converted into a restaurant in the Serengeti Park.
Another excellent video; thank you! I appreciate your research and accuracy. As a fan of airline history and aviation, especially Eastern Europe, I have always been a fan of Interflug. In the early 1970s, I wrote to them requesting a timetable and other information. I received a wonderful envelope filled with brochures and even a lapel pin with the Interflug logo. Interestingly, the envelope had been opened by someone en route. I still wonder on which side of the Atlantic that occured!
Travelled in 1986 with Interflug from Amsterdam via Berlin to Istanbul. Amazed by the high frequency of flight between Istanbul and Berlin. Interflug made a lot of money by bringing refugees from the middle east to east Berlin, who wanted to go to West Berlin.
4:58 - Great shades of Elvis, that tailoring. The flight attendants' uniforms look OK, but what even are those trousers? They're not flares, but at the same time, somehow they're not _not_ flares. The gentleman fourth from the right, in particular, is a good 10 centimeters shorter than his pants were expecting him to be.
I flew from Singapore to Berlin with a refueling-stop in Dubai on an IL-62M. Then on a TU-134 to Copenhagen. This was back in May 1989, great flights and memories!
During the 1980s, Interflug had a good reputation compared to Soviet, Polish or Romanian airlines. I spent a lot of time traveling during the 1980s, and it was always an option to use Interflug. The main problem was to go to and return from Berlin and having to travel from West-Berlin to Schönefeld and back. I think the airline also improved over time. As a "proletarian airline" they didn't have first class or business class 😉
Thank you for another brilliant video. I don't speak German so my access to content about the DDR is limited. For this reason I especially appreciate your content.
I used to watch East Germany (DEFA?) made TV series (film) about their pilots and flight attendants in the 1980s on Mongolian TV. Handsome actors and beautiful actresses' play roles about problems of their lives and jobs, romance between them, flying to Cuba etc. I wish I knew the name of the TV series.
that is the best Chanel about GDR so far. I watched all videos a several times. Beside I visited Berlin multiple times, thanks to your Videos I found more interesting things to see according to Cold War. Thanks and keep going!
Interesting and informative, almost impeccable English and excellent German pronunciation. I had many experiences in the GDR but never flew on Interflug.
Well done!👍 Thank you so much. As I started my enthusiasm hobby of civil aviation INTERFLUG was my precious spot in East Berlin! Hours and hours I viewed the traffic in SXF (Flughafen Berlin Schönefeld). In 1978 I flew IL-18 first time. It was a bumpy flight but all further flight has gone smooth. The seats are simple but more comfy than some eco-seats nowadays. I flew Tu-134A and IL-62M as well and loved it! The destroying of INTERFLUG and certainly of BERLIN have political reasons and a decision to clear the market in my opinion. How could it be easier for other airlines to take slots and rights in other counties and airports for less money and awaiting millions of passengers. The people of the GDR wanted too visit the world soon after unification…. The books you recommended are interesting for sure! Thank you one more and good luck for your channel! All the best! Joerg
I assume it was economics. Businesspeople make decisions based on Business reasons, even though Lufthansa was government owned. Clear the market Im sure. Plus the govt didnt see need to or could afford overhead of extra personnel and old non IAEA sanctioned equipment. Yes too bad. Maybe it could've been s low cost alternate branch .
A very enlightening and well informed video on Interflug, are you planning to do a video on the Deutsche Reichsbahn (East German Railways) at all? I think it would be a very interesting one. Keep up the good work😊
Thanks for the insightful Interflug overview! The Baade 152/Pirna 014 (the DDR jet aircraft and engine that never made it to mass production after USSR intervention) story is fascinating and so directly linked to Erich Apel's frustrations (as an engineer who became the key economic reformer in the early 60s) that it could be a video all on its own.
"You can't be a real country unless you have a beer and an airline - it helps if you have some kind of football team, or some nuclear weapons, but in the very least you need a beer" - Frank Zappa
It's visible on the map at 12:36 but not mentioned that Schoenefeld Airport was built just outside Berlin's city limits so it could serve as Interflug's hub. The original Four-Power Agreements dictated that only the Allied nations' flag carriers could fly to or from Berlin, those being Pan Am, British (European) Airways, Air France and Aeroflot. That technically remained in force until reunification.
Gatow, Tegel and Templehof were to be replaced by an international airport outside Berlin, I think an expnded Schoenefeld. There have been major problems with this project, good subject for another presentation.
Hello and thank you for your amazing content! Will there be a video about kampfgruppen der arbeiterklasse? It's a very interesting organisation and it's curious how it functioned
Love your Channel mate, one of my favourite TH-cam channels, I've always found the GDR fascinating and it's great to see the layers peeled back for a look at "everyday" things, just like this. Keep up the stellar work mate!
Anyone here that worked for Interflug or a GDR travel agency? I'm interested in how the ticketing and reservation systems worked, what the various fare basis/categories were etc.
Perhaps you'll find some information in the comments section of videos about East Germans who escaped the GDR by booking trips to other socialist countries. I think most of them have English subtitles. Just prepare yourself mentally for some of the vile comments left by former MfS bots.
An interesting information: For the Turkish workers (Gastarbeiter) in West Germany Berlin, East Germany Berlin - Istanbul Flights started Interflug (in the 1980s). Turkey was a Capitalist Nato Member Country, for East Germany.
One of the biggest problems in the airline industry as a whole is aircraft types and spares. I witnessed an Il-69 sit on the ramp at Dulles airport for 3 weeks before the parts showed up for repairs. That's 21 days of parking fees .. older Soviet airframes were generally not welcomed at major US airports especially busy ones like LAX of NYC
Great video as always ❤. You make learning about the GDR compelling and interesting. Mind if I ask, were you born in the GDR? If I had to guess your age I’d say you were probably around 10 years old when the wall fell. I’d love to know. Have a great day!
great video! I'm surprised you didn't mention the "super, realistic" (hoest, hoest, nietus) 'Treddpunkt Flughafen :) - great show (if you can find it), especially if you love the old, Soviet, airplanes. Funny how in the into to the show it shows how busy and happy the airport was - flights were always full (in the show), lots of young people - always flying to Cuba or Vietnam - and, of course, always some sort of problem that was solved on the ground, lol - fun to watch. International cast, from what I can tell (I have a huge suspision that the foriegners were overdubbed in perect German) - anyway, for this American who loves the history of the DDR, LOVES aviation (old Soviet places, especially!) and heel toevalig wonde 4 jaar in nederland (Hoogeveen), this channel is great! Keep it up! de groeNten uit Virginia, USA! :)
Thanks for mentioning this. 'Treffpunkt Flughafen' was indeed a popular television show in the GDR. East Germans could follow the actors flying around the world, which they were not allowed to themselves.
@@spidyman8853 One day it may well be the same. The wealthy get to have the privilege of flying, whilst the plebs get to use virtual reality to 'visit' countries.
7:40 It actually needs a roof, not paint and brushes. I am just appalled at historic airplanes parked outside and decaying in horrendous conditions, not just here, but around the world.
Interflug Flight 742 must have been so horrific for its passengers. It is refreshing to see that the Ilyushin IL-62 was able to safely transport its passengers and also to see how many in the video comments have such positive remarks about the airline and the aircraft.
I’m very surprised you didn’t cover Interflug “Lady Agnes” Ilyushin Il-62. It was one of the most dramatic landings at Stölln/Rhinow on grass. There is a video on TH-cam of this landing and several of my family are in it. The pilot, Heinz-Dieter Kallbach, landed the plane on October 23, 1989. The grass strip was extremely short. My cousin said his father told him some people expected a crash. The plane is now a museum. It was a thrill for me to visit the the plane near my mothers home village
VERY good video :) as usual from this channel :) most information about subjects that this channel talks about is in germany, and its greta to get this videos in English..
As an impecunious student, Eastern Bloc airlines, particularly Interflug and Lot, opened up the wider world to me. As another non-German speaker, I much appreciate such accessible information about the DDR
As a student I flew from Schonefeld - East Berlin to Baghdad via Damascus in 1971. We travelled to west Berlin from London by train, then a bus across the wall from a secret rendevous. The flight in the Il-18 was comfortable with generous service from friendly crew. Surprisingly good memories. Airport seem relaxed and easy going
The ZOB was a secret? And yes SXF (now BER) was relaxed because it was empty!
What an incredible experience ❤
@@erik_griswold
Yes, I do remember that it was empty Shonefeld
Hur-hur..."secret" rendezvous 🤣. Just as well you had the security clearance to have access to the information or you'd have missed the flight 🤔👍.
Seriously though, did you walk through a checkpoint onto the bus, or was it a charter from Interflug with a "trusted" Stasi bus driver which came into West Berlin to pick you up from the "secret location" (🤣) 👍+1
Can you remember what you had for dinner on the plane?
I flew Interflug from London Gatwick to Dresden in December 1989 and back in January 1990. The flights were good and the service excellent. The food was very fresh and meals were prepared on the plane. It was a most interesting experience.
I have an Interflug in-flight magazine from 1990. In the presentation of the fleet, it is mentioned that several Boeing B737-500s are planned to be put into service, primarily in a lease system.
At the end of its operations, Interflug began modernizing its fleet by buying Western jets. Before it was shut down, the airline managed to get an Airbus A310 which after the fell of the Berlin Wall, the plane was acquired by the Luftwaffe as VIP transport carrying the Chancellor
@@Kuricang31 Yes, I know, in 1988, the three own A310s entered the fleet. Thus, there was a short period of time when it was still possible to buy a relatively cheap flight ticket to Cuba from the COMECON or CMEA countries with a Schönefeld transfer on board a Western type.
Thank goodness they didn't trade as InterFlug for much longer than that, then! 😳
I would *never* want to see an InterFlug engineer put through the living hell of having to maintain a Boeing aircraft... 😉
The Mark Felton of East Germany, haha. Very good channel! I was born in GdR in 1978.
Poor comparison, Felton talks a lot of fake history bs, this guy is for real with his info.
@@Crabby303please name some false things Felton has said?
@@NiklasVWWVhe falsely claimed that the german panzer museum sold a Tiger I to a collector and replaced the exhibit with a 1:1 replica. From what I recall, the museum had in fact loaned the Tiger from the collector and had to return it. I think u can do a quick search of something like "mark felton false claims" and it should come up.
@@NiklasVWWVHe claimed that Avro Lancasters, black ones, were ready to fly from the island of Tinian as backups for the atomic bombing missions of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, just in case something went wrong with the B-29. Greg's Airplanes and Automobiles did an over a 30 minute video detailing why that claim is bogus, and unlike Mark, he actually cites sources. A lot of them, in fact. th-cam.com/video/gKB-oqdoduw/w-d-xo.htmlsi=IgdGBKawlsdqWsiK
LOL! But Mark Felton blinks, right?
Love the channel. I feel like GDR is both the most overlooked and in many ways one of the most interesting eastern block countries
That title probably goes to communist Bulgaria
GDR overlooked? Next to the USSR, its probably the most covered eastern bloc country. I dont mind though, I find the GDR very interesting.
I remember once standing at a bus stop in East Berlin in 1983 and there was a railway bridge over the street with a big advert for Interflug on it. I asked myself how many of the people standing around me could ever hope to get onto one of those flights.
As long as it was within East Bloc I thought Lots of vacations to Bulgaria I would assume.
@@clarencearnold2137 Who the hell wants to go to Bulgaria except for some cold war history etc?
@@michaelcraig9449 During the cold war, cities in the Bulgarian coast were one of the few tourist spots Warsaw pact citizens could afford
I have been eagerly awaiting this episode on Interflug. It was very interesting and enjoyable. Thank you for taking the time to put this together.
The last time I was in Berlin I was amazed to find an old Interflug sign still being displayed in the village of Glasow. I was heading for Waßmannsdorf Station and came across the Kleingartenverein Interflug. Amazing what old East German remnants you come across when you least expect it!
The GDR's provincial cities had flights to Soviet and Eastern European cities and vacation resorts. Dresden and Leipzig had flights by Interflug, Bulgarian, Hungarian and Soviet airlines. Erfurt had Interflug and Soviet Aeroflot.
In the summer there could be 18 flights a day between Bulgaria and the GDR.
An excellent video, Olaf. They get better and better. It's not easy to communicate a lot of technical information without it seeming dry, but your lively presentation skills and really excellent graphics mean there is no danger of that here.
Mein Fluglehrer war ein ehemaliger Interflug-Captain. Einige haben aus kleinen Agrar-Flugplätzen Landeplätze für Hobbyflieger gemacht, andere sind Fluglehrer geworden. Vielen Dank für den guten Bericht!
Back in the late 70's I flew Interflug from Berlin to Vienna on a Tu-134. Very interesting from the moment a bus picked us up from a street corner in West Berlin to Schonenfeld Airport. Going thru immigration at the airport was kinda scary. You stepped in after a metal door opened (then closed), showed your documents to the border patrol officer and then another door opened to the departure area. It was filled and a lot of black people (African) in there also. The GDR had a lot of missions/training in the African continent at that time.
There were a couple of border police with machine guns as we approched the aircraft so kinda scary. Found my seat and then a flight attendent placed a large suitcase in the the seat next to me and tied it down with the seatbelt. Interesting about not having a trolley on board as the flight attendent carried food boxes stacked on top of one another. Barely could see his face. All in all it was a good flight including one passenger accidently spilling his beer on a russian lady behind him. One thing though, I never saw a smile on anyones face from the police to the ticket counter to the flight attendents.
Thank you for another great video.
May I ask which Checkpoint did you exit West Berlin from? Amazing experience!
Same heree, the VoPo's were not exactly known for their friendly stance.
@@DirtyRocha My only day in DDR East Berlin was in April 82, aged 21, with a German language student friend: Checkpoint Charlie (25 Ostmark for 25 DM each). Walk to Alexanderplatz, passing badly damaged historical architecture, then S-Bahn straight to Köpenick on a whim (we'd studied "Der Hauptmann Von Köpenick" at university).
Just opposite Köpenick station was a big Kermes so we spent all our Ostmark eating Bratwurst and drinking beer all day, buying rounds for the FDJ girls.
Bloody marvellous day 👍👍. Back to Checkpoint Charlie totally drunk just after sundown. We were well behaved but not as scared as in the morning.
I exchanged a few letters with the prettiest girl but realised it might be harming her family, as all post would be read in both directions. 🤔
@@andrewrobinson2565 Seems you had a much better time, as for me I was about 8 years old, we flew Mexico-Havana-Berlin and then back, the experience we had with the VoPo's was mainly at Schönefeld, where those pesky passport controls seemed to be endless...... wouldn't be surprised if they even dared to asked the color of our underwear.....*sigh*
I was a kid, but, I vaguely remember Shonefeld airport as dark and grey. That's all I remember.
I don't remember restaurants or coffee bars. It was also empty airport.
I do remember they had a small shop in Stockholm, Vasagatan. What I don’t remember is anyone being there. These days, the entire building is a hotel.
Very interesting . When I came to live in Paris in 1987 the Interflug office was on the Champs Elysées . I used to visit it just to collect the flight schedules , as was my won't back then .
Sure the Stasi had pictures or video of you!
Your videos are getting more and more professional and interesting!
I flew an Interflug TU134 from Frankfurt operating for LH
It was in 1990. Inteflug aircraft started operating FRA-LEJ Leipzig with a Lufthansa flight number after the Wall came down. I asked for "Bacardi and Coke" I got a black coffee.
I was at the front. Walking down to the back - the noise of those rear-mounted turbine engines....wow!
West Berliners using that GDR bus to Schönefeld were not very well received in West Berlin. People didn't tell anyone that they used it.
Part of the problem in Berlin was that only flag carriers of the allies were allowed to land and take off in Berlin. So flying to somewhere from West Berlin always meant an expensive flight by Air France, British Airways or PanAm to Paris, London or Frankfurt - and from there the usual flight then. That added cost.
In Schönefeld those Western tourists with western currency were put into special high class bars and waiting areas to pull even more Western currency and to prevent communication with normal GDR residents.
Add on: KLM was one of the few Western flag carriers (Netherlands) to land directly at Schönefeld. The terminal area for this flight to Amsterdam was secured like a prison. There were also Interflug flights to Sweden in the same area of the terminal. Sweden had some treaties and sold Volvos to high earners and the government in GDR. Cubana was also an exotic vacation flight to Cuba for Apparatschiks.
Though plenty did it, it was so cheap. DDR got a lot of hard currency that way. I got my ticket from the travel agent on US base. I was allowed to because I was out of the army when I flew
Several of Interflug’s TU-134 aircraft were sold to Vietnam Airlines after liquidation. Vietnam Airlines flew them until a major crash in Phnom Penh involving a TU-134 occurred in 1997, prompting the airline to ground and eventually retire its Soviet fleet in favor of Western-built equipment.
That's so sad. For years, I just assumed Lufthansa absorbed Interflug! I'm feel sad for the crews. Hope they were all taken care of.
Every once in a while the TH-cam algorithm finds me an interesting new channel. Today it was this one! Looking forward to working through some of your earlier videos.
Ah, the memories. As a kid in the first half of the '60s, I flew on IL-18-s several times from Budapest to London (and the other way) ... not Inteflug of course, Malév. Much later, in the second half of the '80-s I had to make several work trips from Hungary to West-Berlin. To save money, my institute had me flying Interflug from Budapest to Schönefeld and take the shuttle bus from there to West Berlin. (I don't remember where the stop was. I tried asking Chat-GPT, but it didn't know either). This was actually fast and convenient with minimal checks to get on the bus.
What a wonderful video! I still remember these airplanes when I was in the GDR in 1986 and 1990. The MiG's and Su's of the LSK/LV and the beautiful aircraft of Interflug. And the smell... And the WW2 Autobahns. And...
Thank you for giving us a window into the details of the DDR. The country was always so fascinating for me and just becomes more of a fascination as it slowly recedes into the past.
This channel is great, your work is highly appreciated!
As Interflug retired it’s fleet and stopped it’s operation, North Korea’s Air Koryo still used some Soviet fleets like IL-62
This channel is so damn good! Thanks!
fantastic video! Thank you for making this, Interflug is such a fascinating company, I have seen many advertising posters for them that were beautiful! Thank you
Olaf, thank you so much for this channel. I’m an American who shares your fascination with the DDR. I was lucky enough to visit the country in June 1989. (Detail: I went there by train from Amsterdam to West Berlin and transfered to the U-Bahn and arrived into East Berlin at Friedrichstraße.) Ever since when I return to that part of Germany I am always seeking sites to visit like you have profiled. It is delightful we can all find each other here!
This is only slightly connected to your video, but I think possibly interesting. When I was a student in Moscow in the late 1960s and later in the 1970s, I found myself a number of times in both the old and later the new Sheremetyevo airports, where I was struck by a particularly emetic way of announcing flight arrrivals and departures from certain countries. Flights to and from the GDR (both Interflug and Aeroflot) were always called “Friendship Flights”, e.g. - ‘Announcing the arrival of Interflug flight 123 Friendship Flight from Berlin…’. Flights to and from Cuba also received similar treatment in that the words Isle of Freedom (Остров свободы) was obligatorily included in the announcement. As with all things Soviet, it was simple enough to know the opposite was true.
In 2007, I flew in and out of Sheremetyevo on Lufthansa, and not much appeared to have changed. My journal at the time reads: "I arrived back at the Sheremetyevo airport early for my return, which wiped away the patina of bling-bling New Russia and brought one right back to CCCP Russia. I had a lunch at a restaurant decorated with signs advertising “hard liguor [sic] and cigarettes” where the menu included a full page of the cigarette selections longer than the available food. I ordered a tomato juice, and they brought out a glass of what appeared to be the result of two tomatoes placed in a Waring blender, which instantly separated into a two-toned science experiment. Yum. Everyone knows that they put terrible things in hot dogs and hamburgers worldwide, but the cheeseburger I ordered was one where you could taste all of them, even after slaking it with a gravy boat of ketchup clearly dating from the Yeltsin regime. The duty-free shop had something called “Kalashnikov Vodka” that came in a life-sized glass AK-47. I passed."
I wonder what it’s like now.
The A310s are interesting, that deal was mostly done by Franz Josef Strauss a passionate pilot, bavarian governor (so it's a good match that they named the new Munich airport to his honor) and chairman of the Airbus Corporation but also controversial, he was an anticommunist and had a bunch of corruption scandals.
They needed this long-haul airplane for a flight route to Havanna on Cuba, before that they used IL-62s but these couldn't do that nonstop and they had to refuel in Gander, Newfoundland and on that occasion, the passengers could leave the plane and some didn't return, the Interflug A310 got an additional 7200-litre tank so they were able to fly the direct route to Havanna, but they also used it for Beijing and Singapore.
The pilots got training (which was a little difficult because the planes they were flying until then had flight decks with 3-5 men, pilot, first officer, flight engineer, navigator and radio operator) but maintenance was scheduled to be done by Lufthansa Technik and they plumbed parts of the electronics.
However these three were delivered between June and October 1989, just months/weeks before the peaceful revolution, in May 1991 the Air Force took them over and used these for government services, the last one got just recently retired in September 2021 - it doesn't get scrapped but is planned to be converted into a restaurant in the Serengeti Park.
Another excellent video; thank you! I appreciate your research and accuracy. As a fan of airline history and aviation, especially Eastern Europe, I have always been a fan of Interflug. In the early 1970s, I wrote to them requesting a timetable and other information. I received a wonderful envelope filled with brochures and even a lapel pin with the Interflug logo. Interestingly, the envelope had been opened by someone en route. I still wonder on which side of the Atlantic that occured!
Another great video. As always, thank you! The work and passion you put into every video are highly appreciated.
This is a great channel and thank you for the videos, I have learned a lot on something I was already interested in. Kind regards.
Great video! Thanks for your work
Travelled in 1986 with Interflug from Amsterdam via Berlin to Istanbul. Amazed by the high frequency of flight between Istanbul and Berlin. Interflug made a lot of money by bringing refugees from the middle east to east Berlin, who wanted to go to West Berlin.
4:58 - Great shades of Elvis, that tailoring. The flight attendants' uniforms look OK, but what even are those trousers? They're not flares, but at the same time, somehow they're not _not_ flares. The gentleman fourth from the right, in particular, is a good 10 centimeters shorter than his pants were expecting him to be.
I flew from Singapore to Berlin with a refueling-stop in Dubai on an IL-62M. Then on a TU-134 to Copenhagen. This was back in May 1989, great flights and memories!
During the 1980s, Interflug had a good reputation compared to Soviet, Polish or Romanian airlines. I spent a lot of time traveling during the 1980s, and it was always an option to use Interflug. The main problem was to go to and return from Berlin and having to travel from West-Berlin to Schönefeld and back. I think the airline also improved over time. As a "proletarian airline" they didn't have first class or business class 😉
Thank you for another brilliant video. I don't speak German so my access to content about the DDR is limited. For this reason I especially appreciate your content.
I used to watch East Germany (DEFA?) made TV series (film) about their pilots and flight attendants in the 1980s on Mongolian TV. Handsome actors and beautiful actresses' play roles about problems of their lives and jobs, romance between them, flying to Cuba etc. I wish I knew the name of the TV series.
You are 💯 right there must be preventative conservation
It's original german title was "Treffpunkt Flughafen" (= Airport Meeting Point), and the series has even an English language Wikipedia entry.
@@randuru thanks
Treffpunkt Flughafen (or in English, "Meeting place, Airport")
kewl, tnx for sharing!
Thank you for this of course.
that is the best Chanel about GDR so far. I watched all videos a several times. Beside I visited Berlin multiple times, thanks to your Videos I found more interesting things to see according to Cold War. Thanks and keep going!
where is the double like button... keep it up. love it
Starkes Video, Es war sehr Informativ, danke!
Interesting and informative, almost impeccable English and excellent German pronunciation. I had many experiences in the GDR but never flew on Interflug.
Love this channel!
Really enjoying this book you recommended! There's even a chapter about trains
Finished the book in less than a week, a great read. Thank you for the recommendation!
Well done!👍 Thank you so much. As I started my enthusiasm hobby of civil aviation INTERFLUG was my precious spot in East Berlin! Hours and hours I viewed the traffic in SXF (Flughafen Berlin Schönefeld). In 1978 I flew IL-18 first time. It was a bumpy flight but all further flight has gone smooth. The seats are simple but more comfy than some eco-seats nowadays. I flew Tu-134A and IL-62M as well and loved it!
The destroying of INTERFLUG and certainly of BERLIN have political reasons and a decision to clear the market in my opinion. How could it be easier for other airlines to take slots and rights in other counties and airports for less money and awaiting millions of passengers. The people of the GDR wanted too visit the world soon after unification….
The books you recommended are interesting for sure!
Thank you one more and good luck for your channel!
All the best!
Joerg
I assume it was economics. Businesspeople make decisions based on Business reasons, even though Lufthansa was government owned. Clear the market Im sure. Plus the govt didnt see need to or could afford overhead of extra personnel and old non IAEA sanctioned equipment. Yes too bad. Maybe it could've been s low cost alternate branch .
A very enlightening and well informed video on Interflug, are you planning to do a video on the Deutsche Reichsbahn (East German Railways) at all? I think it would be a very interesting one. Keep up the good work😊
Thanks! I have the Reichsbahn on the list of video ideas.
Wonderful! I LOVE this! Thank you!
What a fantastic channel. So many videos, all well researched and produced.
What a fascinating history - many thanks!
The Baade 152 has always intrigued me.
Thanks for the insightful Interflug overview!
The Baade 152/Pirna 014 (the DDR jet aircraft and engine that never made it to mass production after USSR intervention) story is fascinating and so directly linked to Erich Apel's frustrations (as an engineer who became the key economic reformer in the early 60s) that it could be a video all on its own.
Great channel. I grew up in a world where there were countries like East Germany. I learned about them at school. It's important to have a memory.
Thank you. I wish you had more info about routes flown and years flown. Again, this was interesting an I appreciate the work you did.
Your channel is great and the videos keep getting better. Thanks for sharing it with us!
"You can't be a real country unless you have a beer and an airline - it helps if you have some kind of football team, or some nuclear weapons, but in the very least you need a beer" - Frank Zappa
It's visible on the map at 12:36 but not mentioned that Schoenefeld Airport was built just outside Berlin's city limits so it could serve as Interflug's hub. The original Four-Power Agreements dictated that only the Allied nations' flag carriers could fly to or from Berlin, those being Pan Am, British (European) Airways, Air France and Aeroflot. That technically remained in force until reunification.
Gatow, Tegel and Templehof were to be replaced by an international airport outside Berlin, I think an expnded Schoenefeld. There have been major problems with this project, good subject for another presentation.
Very interesting, thank you.
Excellent. Thorough, informative and entertaining. Thanks.
Great work as always, so grateful for channels like this 🤲
Hello and thank you for your amazing content! Will there be a video about kampfgruppen der arbeiterklasse? It's a very interesting organisation and it's curious how it functioned
Hi, I think that's a good idea. I will add it to the list.
Excellent research. Thank you!
Again a very detailed video, with lots of small and big things to know about the airline.Thanks from me ex Schiphol worker
a suggestion: could you do a video on the electronics industry in the DDR? This is one of my favourite channels, prost!
Thanks! This topic certainly is on my list.
Dank je Olaf, weer een geweldig verhaal.
I've spotted the English book on Interflug for sale at the automobile museum Mobilia in Finland.
The A310s were kept by the German Government and used for executive flights.
Love your Channel mate, one of my favourite TH-cam channels, I've always found the GDR fascinating and it's great to see the layers peeled back for a look at "everyday" things, just like this.
Keep up the stellar work mate!
Always remember the quite excellent Rotkäppchen Sekt on their flights. 🍾
Anyone here that worked for Interflug or a GDR travel agency? I'm interested in how the ticketing and reservation systems worked, what the various fare basis/categories were etc.
Perhaps you'll find some information in the comments section of videos about East Germans who escaped the GDR by booking trips to other socialist countries. I think most of them have English subtitles. Just prepare yourself mentally for some of the vile comments left by former MfS bots.
Really love your content. Keep up the good work👏👏👍
Great video, as always.
An interesting information: For the Turkish workers (Gastarbeiter) in West Germany Berlin, East Germany Berlin - Istanbul Flights started Interflug (in the 1980s). Turkey was a Capitalist Nato Member Country, for East Germany.
Another great video! Keep them coming, these are an instant click for me
One of the biggest problems in the airline industry as a whole is aircraft types and spares. I witnessed an Il-69 sit on the ramp at Dulles airport for 3 weeks before the parts showed up for repairs. That's 21 days of parking fees .. older Soviet airframes were generally not welcomed at major US airports especially busy ones like LAX of NYC
Er, there never was an aircraft called the IL-69.
@@AtheistOrphan Perhaps it was the Il-62 the poster meant. Remember, it's easy to make an error or two when typing out words to screen.
Il mio primo volo fu su un DC9 Alitalia, Milano Amsterdam...poi un TU134 Interflug, Amsterdam Berlino...avevo 17 anni...
This channel is absolutely superb. Excellent topics delivered well backed up with accurate research. 🙏 thanks.
Nice video. Informative and nicely presented. Thank you.
awesome content! Thank you so much!
Great video as always ❤. You make learning about the GDR compelling and interesting. Mind if I ask, were you born in the GDR? If I had to guess your age I’d say you were probably around 10 years old when the wall fell.
I’d love to know. Have a great day!
Restaurant Regenbogen & IL 62 in Leipzig are closed unfortunately.
Always great, informative, entertaining content…thanks!!!
nice trim my man keep up the good work
great video! I'm surprised you didn't mention the "super, realistic" (hoest, hoest, nietus) 'Treddpunkt Flughafen :) - great show (if you can find it), especially if you love the old, Soviet, airplanes. Funny how in the into to the show it shows how busy and happy the airport was - flights were always full (in the show), lots of young people - always flying to Cuba or Vietnam - and, of course, always some sort of problem that was solved on the ground, lol - fun to watch. International cast, from what I can tell (I have a huge suspision that the foriegners were overdubbed in perect German) - anyway, for this American who loves the history of the DDR, LOVES aviation (old Soviet places, especially!) and heel toevalig wonde 4 jaar in nederland (Hoogeveen), this channel is great! Keep it up! de groeNten uit Virginia, USA! :)
Thanks for mentioning this. 'Treffpunkt Flughafen' was indeed a popular television show in the GDR. East Germans could follow the actors flying around the world, which they were not allowed to themselves.
@@eastgermanyinvestigated
Yes, one thing about Socialist / communists society is you were not allowed to fly without Permission.
@@spidyman8853 One day it may well be the same. The wealthy get to have the privilege of flying, whilst the plebs get to use virtual reality to 'visit' countries.
Interesting vid. Thanks for posting.
7:40 It actually needs a roof, not paint and brushes. I am just appalled at historic airplanes parked outside and decaying in horrendous conditions, not just here, but around the world.
Interflug Flight 742 must have been so horrific for its passengers. It is refreshing to see that the Ilyushin IL-62 was able to safely transport its passengers and also to see how many in the video comments have such positive remarks about the airline and the aircraft.
Great video as always!
Fascinating as always! And I also have to say I love the intro and outro graphics@
I’m very surprised you didn’t cover Interflug “Lady Agnes” Ilyushin Il-62. It was one of the most dramatic landings at Stölln/Rhinow on grass. There is a video on TH-cam of this landing and several of my family are in it. The pilot, Heinz-Dieter Kallbach, landed the plane on October 23, 1989. The grass strip was extremely short. My cousin said his father told him some people expected a crash. The plane is now a museum. It was a thrill for me to visit the the plane near my mothers home village
Me encanta todo lo referido a la guerra fria, en especial Alemania del este. Gracias por mostrarnos como vivían! Saludos desde Argentina!
Absolutely fantastic channel. Thank you!
I remember the ‘exotic’ aircraft of Interflug at Nicosia airport in the late sixties - early seventies.
Excellent video, both entertaining and informative, many thanks.
This channel is booming pal! Up there with my favourite channels 😊
Again an interesting video, thanks
This is a fantastic channel
VERY good video :) as usual from this channel :) most information about subjects that this channel talks about is in germany, and its greta to get this videos in English..