Escaping in a Cadillac

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The Wall is becoming harder to cross by the day. Despite all the risks involved, there are still people who are desperate to flee to the West and people willing to help them escape.

Burkhart Veigel, a medicine student at the time, has worked as an escape helper since 1961. Together with other helpers, he enables 650 people to get from East to West, making him one of the most successful helpers. As well as digging tunnels, he also converts cars into escape vehicles. The most well-known: the converted Cadillac, which allowed many people to escape, hidden behind the dashboard.

locations

Berlin-West, Checkpoint Dreilinden

showtime
5

latitude
52.415482

longitude
13.197062

date

June 15, 1965
A boat trip with a fatal outcome

Forty-two-year-old West Berliner Hermann Döbler sets out on a boat trip and is shot when he accidentally crosses into GDR territory. His boat enters GDR waters on Teltow Canal near Dreilinden border crossing point. After firing warning shots from their watchtower, the GDR border guards aim directly at Hermann and his companion – even though they have already turned around their boat. Hermann Döbler dies. Large numbers of Berliners attend his funeral a few days later. In 1993 the guard who fired the fatal shots was convicted of manslaughter and attempted manslaughter and sentenced to six years in prison. His superior, who had issued the order to fire, was sentenced to two years on probation.

Border, Politics, West, East

01:36
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May 18, 1965
The Queen visits Berlin

On Ascension Day, Queen Elizabeth II spends a few hours in West Berlin. More than a million people line the streets to cheer on the British monarch. She is greeted with the same enthusisam as US President John F. Kennedy two years previously. Elizabeth II reviews a parade of British troops on the Olympic Stadium's Mayfield and passes by Pariser Platz and the Soviet War Memorial on Strasse des 17. Juni. At the end of her visit she signs the city's Golden Book at Schöneberg Town Hall.

Everyday Life, Politics, West

00:53
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April 07, 1965
Controversial session of the Bundestag in West Berlin

The Bundestag holds session in West Berlin, causing huge disruptions to transit traffic and threatening gestures from the Soviets. They do not view West Berlin as part of the Federal Republic. Soviet jets fly low over the city, disturbing the session. The GDR prohibits the members of the Bundestag from passing through its territory and temporarily suspends all transit traffic, claiming the autobahn is needed for military manoeuvres. Drivers are forced to wait in queues for 20 hours. The members of the Bundestag travel to West Berlin by plane and the session is held in the Kongresshalle conference venue in Tiergarten, which today houses the Haus der Kulturen der Welt. The Western allies lodge an objection with the West German Federal Government and veto future sessions of the Bundestag in West Berlin. In the 1971 Berlin Four Power Agreement, the Western allies pledge to allow no further plenary sessions of the Bundestag in Berlin. It will be another 25 years before German MPs hold session there again – after the fall of the Wall.

Politics, West, East

00:56
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April 06, 1965
Louis Armstrong in East Berlin

The guest performance of the year in East Berlin: legendary jazz musician Louis Armstrong performs at the Friedrichstadtpalast. Armstrong does not comment on the political situation, saying that he is interested in his audiences and not in the Wall.

Culture, East

00:46
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April 02, 1965
The Europa-Center opens

The grand opening of the Europa-Center on Breitscheidplatz. A new landmark for West Berlin, located next to the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church. Towering 86 metres, the "showcase of the golden West" was the tallest building in the city back then. Today it is a listed building. Karl Heinz Pepper oversaw construction of the complex. Before the Second World War, the site was home to the Romanische Café, a legendary meeting place for writers, painters and theatre actors.

Everyday Life, West

00:25
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1965
Studio at the Barbed Wire

West Berlin's authorities mount illuminated display boards on the GSW housing association high-rise near the Wall in an attempt to provide East Berliners with news from the West. The Studio at the Barbed Wire was launched by the Berlin Senate in 1961 in cooperation with the American sector's radio station, RIAS Berlin: their goal is to provide information and news across the Wall in response to the propaganda blaring out of the GDR's speaker vans. This sparks a conflict dubbed the "speaker war", which does not end until October 1965. Wolfgang Göbel was responsible for designing the display boards on the GSW housing association high-rise back then.

Border, Contemporary Witnesses, Politics, West, East

01:54
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1965
Beatlemania and the Rolling Stones

Young people are crazy about the Beatles and not just because of their music - much to the bemusement of many older Berliners. The Rolling Stones give a legendary concert in the West Berlin venue, the Waldbühne. The fans leave a trail of destruction in their wake. East Berlin quickly uses the incident in its propaganda war against the West, classifying beat music as a decadent, Western influence and banning numerous bands.

Culture, West, East

01:47
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1966
Animal airlift

Foot-and-mouth disease is raging across the Federal Republic. As a result, East Berlin has banned the transportation of animals through the GDR, meaning they must be flown in to the city.

Everyday Life, West

00:40
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1966
Deadbeats at the Church of Remembrance

Young people are lazing around the Church of Remembrance and getting Berliners hot under their collars. They have long hair and are known as deadbeats. These young people are trying out a new way of living that goes beyond merely working and consuming. Meinhard Schröder looks back at those times. He believes that a lot of born-and-bred West Berliners had forgotten how to think and a Wall had formed in their heads. Meinhard recalls one of the standard arguments back then: "Why don't you just go over to the East?"

Contemporary Witnesses, Everyday Life, West

01:44
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1966
Division of the evangelical synod

The evangelical church is fighting against moves to divide its diocese which still encompasses the whole of Berlin. In February 1966 Kurt Scharf is appointed as the new bishop. However, he cannot visit his East Berlin parishes, as he is refused access to East Berlin. Instead, he retains informal ties to Christians in the East. Meinhard Schröder, then a theology student, talks about his connections with Christians in the East.

Contemporary Witnesses, Politics, West, East

01:35
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location

1973
Escaping via transit routes

As a result of the 1971 Basic Treaty between the Federal Republic and the GDR, thorough vehicle checks on transit routes are few and far between. This turns the transit motorway into a loophole for would-be escapees. Anyone slipping into a car boot or a truck trailer has a good chance of getting to West Berlin unnoticed.

Border, Escaping, West, East

00:35
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1983
Death at a border crossing

Within the space of just a few weeks, two people die of heart failure during border checks as they drive the road between West Germany and West Berlin. One of them is 45-year-old Rudolf Burkert from Bremen, who is on his way to watch a boxing match in West Berlin with a friend. When he is stopped and questioned at Checkpoint Bravo, Burkert suffers a heart attack and dies.

Border, West, East

01:24
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1971
Telephone connections between East and West Berlin

Lengthy checks at border crossings are a source of great inconvenience to travellers, but there are also signs of reconciliation. After 19 years of radio silence, East and West Berliners are able to talk on the phone again. The “switchboard girl” manually connects callers, using pre-war technology. The exchange only has access to ten old telephone lines, providing just a tiny fraction of the service required.

Everyday Life, West, East

00:42
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1970
Four Power talks begin

Many Berliners have pinned their hopes on Willy Brandt, who has been Federal Chancellor since 1969. Will he help ease tensions between the two Germanies? After a ten-year hiatus, the Western allies and the Soviet Union go back to the negotiating table and begin the Four Power talks on Berlin. They aim to improve conditions for Berliners by securing permanent visiting arrangements and introducing new regulations for transit traffic. Klaus Schütz, SPD, was mayor of Berlin (West) and looks back at this period.

Contemporary Witnesses, Politics, West, East

02:07
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August 1970
Reopening of Dreilinden Customs Checkpoint

The border is being constantly expanded and has long been the most expensive structure in the East. Western border facilities are also no longer merely makeshift solutions: the newly reopened Dreilinden Checkpoint is a sluice gate to and from West Germany.

Border, West, East

00:37
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August 13, 1961
Inspecting trees in the border zone

During the days of the GDR, Georg Heinze was living in Kleinmachnow and working as a nature conservationist. He had a pass that allowed him to enter the border zone and assess the health of the trees there. But it wasn’t until October 1989 that he was allowed to go right up to the border fortifications. The border in Berlin ran for a total of 155 kilometres; the section stretching around the outer edge of West Berlin (separating the city from Brandenburg in East Germany) measured 112 kilometres. This film looks at how people living in Brandenburg experienced the Wall going up and what it was like to live in its shadow.

Border, Contemporary Witnesses, East

02:52
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June 15, 1965
A boat trip with a fatal outcome

Forty-two-year-old West Berliner Hermann Döbler sets out on a boat trip and is shot when he accidentally crosses into GDR territory. His boat enters GDR waters on Teltow Canal near Dreilinden border crossing point. After firing warning shots from their watchtower, the GDR border guards aim directly at Hermann and his companion – even though they have already turned around their boat. Hermann Döbler dies. Large numbers of Berliners attend his funeral a few days later. In 1993 the guard who fired the fatal shots was convicted of manslaughter and attempted manslaughter and sentenced to six years in prison. His superior, who had issued the order to fire, was sentenced to two years on probation.

Border, Politics, West, East

01:36
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- MD
1981
Daily life in the divided city

The Wall has been part of Berlin life for 20 years now. People on both sides have done their best to get used to it, and the death strip and hostile barriers on either side have become almost normal. In fact, a lot of people in the West no longer find the Wall much of a threat.

Border, Everyday Life, West, East

00:53
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February 27, 1975
Peter Lorenz kidnapped

In the run-up to the 1975 West Berlin elections, Peter Lorenz, a CDU politician standing for the second time as the party’s leading candidate for Mayor of Berlin, is kidnapped by a group called Bewegung Zweiter Juni. On 27 February 1975, three days before the election, the terrorists use a truck to block the road. Lorenz’s driver has to stop, and Lorenz is taken. The group say they will release him if six prisoners are freed and allowed to leave the country. The German government decides to agree to the kidnappers’ demands, and Lorenz is released on 4 March.

Politics, West

02:05
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