Peter Lorenz kidnapped

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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.

locations

Quermatenweg/Ithweg, 14163 Berlin

showtime
12

latitude
52.452847

longitude
13.244276
Schenkendorfstraße 7 (Kellerverlies), 10965 Berlin

showtime
104

latitude
52.488892

longitude
13.392848

date

1975
Schöneberg's last cowshed

The last courtyard cowshed in Schöneberg, West Berlin, has to close. Berliners must say goodbye to the days when they could get farm-fresh milk just by walking down the street.

Everyday Life, West

00:40
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1975
Turkey comes to Kreuzberg

Numerous foreign workers from Southern Europe and Turkey come to West Berlin, attracted by the prospect of jobs and the extra pay that comes with living in the city. Many of them move into cheap flats in pre-war buildings in Kreuzberg. Eva Sarioglu talks about how the buildings were often in very poor condition. Over time, Kreuzberg becomes known as Little Istanbul and develops its own unique identity: “The air was different there,” says Eva.

Contemporary Witnesses, Everyday Life, West

01:31
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1975
Buying freedom

West Germany has been buying political prisoners out of the GDR since 1962. In 1975, GDR citizens file 16,000 applications for exit visas - more than ever before. The same year, West Germany breaks its own record by spending more than 100 million Deutsche marks on freeing detainees. Although the GDR has signed the Helsinki Final Act, it is still putting people on trial for political reasons. West Berlin lawyer Reymar von Wedel helps the prisoners on behalf of the protestant church.

Contemporary Witnesses, Politics, East

01:33
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November 01, 1974
Tegel Airport opens

A new, modern airport opens in West Berlin. Tegel is designed to take over from Tempelhof as West Berlin's “beachhead” to the Federal Republic. But in its first few months in operation, its modern jet bridges barely dock with a single aircraft. The allied airlines are reluctant to leave Tempelhof because of the high costs involved. Many West Berliners continue to fly from Schönefeld. Robert Grosch, the director of Tegel Airport at the time, describes the difficulties the airport faced in its first years in operation.

Contemporary Witnesses, Everyday Life, West, East

02:23
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October 07, 1974
The GDR's 25th anniversary

The GDR is turning 25. In October 1974, the Republic's birthday is marked in a fitting manner: a military parade through the centre of East Berlin. State-owned enterprises have exceeded their targets.

Politics, East

00:32
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May 11, 1975
Boy drowns in the Spree

Cetin Mert was born on 11 May 1970. He lives with his Turkish parents and two brothers in the West Berlin district of Kreuzberg. The day of his fifth birthday is a sunny one. Cetin goes outside to play with a ball, but ends up falling into the river Spree. Rescuers arrive quickly, but they aren’t allowed to intervene because they are from West Berlin and this stretch of the river is under GDR control. All they can do is watch as Cetin drowns. He is the youngest person to die at the Wall.

Border, West, East

01:35
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1975
Jacob the Liar competes at the Berlinale

This is the first year that filmmakers from East Berlin have participated in the Berlinale, West Berlin’s international film festival. Director Frank Beyer and writer Jurek Becker enter their film, Jacob the Liar, in the competition section.

Culture, West, East

00:44
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August 01, 1975
Helsinki Final Act

After two years of negotiations, 35 states gather in Helsinki to sign the Final Act of the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe. The GDR is among them. The act focuses on peaceful cooperation and, most importantly, obliges the signatories to respect human and civil rights. By signing the act, the countries commit to regard frontiers as inviolable, to settle disputes peacefully, to not intervene in the internal conflicts of other countries, and to respect human rights and fundamental freedoms. The Helsinki gathering is the first time that General Secretary Erich Honecker and Federal Chancellor Helmut Schmidt have met.

Politics, West, East

01:00
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1976
The Wall turns white

Work on the Wall never seems to end. Money keeps getting ploughed into what was already a very expensive structure. The fourth-generation Wall, as its latest incarnation is known, is designed to last longer and make it harder for people to escape. But the rows of gleaming white slabs turn out to have an unwanted side effect: they are the perfect blank canvas. Artists from all over the world come to unleash their creativity on the West Berlin side of the Wall.

Border, West, East

00:24
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January 17, 1976
Concorde lands in Tegel

Concorde, Air France’s supersonic airplane, travels from Paris to Berlin for the first time in 1976. Some 15,000 West Berliners brave the cold at Tegel airport to witness history in the making.

Everyday Life, West

00:43
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location

1972
The "get trim" campaign

West Berlin has been gripped by a "get trim" craze. Supported by the government, health insurance companies and business, the German Sports Association launches a campaign to combat a rise in circulatory disorders and help people lose weight.

Everyday Life, West

00:20
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1974
Everyday life for the allies

The families of the allied forces spend their day-to-day lives in their own residential areas in West Berlin, complete with schools and shops. The British even have their own train, which travels from Berlin to Hanover once a week.

Everyday Life, West

00:32
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1984
Drive-through opens

McDonald’s opens its first drive-through restaurant in Dahlem, West Berlin.

Everyday Life, West

00:40
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1970
Freeing of Andreas Baader

Berlin Free University has been badly affected by the student protests of recent years: slogans have been scrawled on the walls and facilities vandalised. The former troublemakers will not be charged – thanks to an amnesty for those who committed offences during the protests. But not everyone is interested in reconciliation. Left-wing radical Andreas Baader has been serving time in West Berlin since April 1970. He receives a high-profile visitor: the journalist Ulrike Meinhof claims to be planning to write a book with Baader. Lawyer Horst Mahler arranges a meeting for them at a location outside the prison to discuss the project. In fact, he and Ulrike are preparing to free Baader. After helping him escape, all three of them go underground, marking the birth of the Red Army Faction (RAF). Andreas Eschen, then a member of the Socialist Lawyer Collective, recalls these dramatic events.

Contemporary Witnesses, Politics, West

03:40
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1964
Skiing on Teufelsberg

In 1964 Teufelsberg - a hill rising up to 112 metres - is equipped with a ski lift and floodlights, creating Alpine-like conditions for skiers in the walled-in city. Berliners can take skiing courses free of charge. This urban winter sports location even features a ski jump. However, over the years, American agents working in the listening station on Teufelsberg claim that the skiers are disrupting their work. In 1999 the entire infrastructure is dismantled.

Everyday Life, Culture, West

01:55
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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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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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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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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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