The Fall of the Berlin Wall (PART 1) - East Germany opens the gates (BBC News 9th November 1989 )
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- Опубликовано: 23 авг 2024
- On 9 November 1989, East Germany's Communist rulers gave permission for its gates to be opened after hundreds of people converged on crossing points of the border that separated Western from Eastern Germany.
This iconic day symbolised the end of both the "Berlin Wall" and the Cold War which, for nearly three decades, had kept East and West Berliners apart.
Amongst the journalists who were in Berlin that night, was the BBC's Brian Hanrahan and his witness to these momentous events are recorded here.
Brian Hanrahan sadly died in December 2010 and the news is read by Jill Dando who was tragically murdered at her home in London in June 1999. The other newsreader is Laurie Mayer.
I still come back to this and watch this footage whenever I am having a bad day... Seriously nothing makes me happier then everyone together again after the fall of the Berlin Wall
Me too!
@eren mori ok boomer
eren mori What are you talking about?
@@Roperfield Fool
@@johntomlinson6849 And you might perhaps be the clown? Nice to meet you
For me as a German who was born after the 9 of November 1989 it is so touching to watch this. I grew up near the old border in "west" germany but I went to school in "east" germany. I just can't imagine how happy the people must be at this day. Just a great day in history.
I'm an American. My dad was US military and stationed in Germany in 1989 while I was in college. I visited that Christmas as I always did. We went to Berlin that New Year's Eve while I was visiting and I cannot tell you how happy I was to see you guys do this. It was such an amazing thing to see. Honestly, one of the most favorite memories I have. I was 21 at the time. We were at Checkpoint Charlie and were chipping away at the wall with Germans and many other people. I still have the chunks of the Wall in my possession now.
@@vonpickles3622 That's really awesome! I wasn't even born when the Berlin wall fall (I'm just 21 now) but my uncle witnessed it. By the way, he also was 21 back then :D
He lived in East Berlin and also saw David Hasselhoff live singing "Looking for Freedom" at the New Year evening. For him it was the most emotional experience in his life because it wasn't just the celebration of a new year, moreover, it was the celebration of the reunification of east and west Germany.
I was 13, and I went with my aunt to Berlin from Sweden in the spring of 1990. I got a piece of the wall that I still have.
A few years later I went to St Petersburg with my parents and everyone was so poor. 50 cl of vodka was cheaper than a 33 cl can of Fanta. Grown men stood and gazed at Mickey mouse jeans in a glass cabinet etc. It was unreal. 5 people just to buy something; stamps, verification, prepayment, receipt and verification. It was insane.
How people in the west are waiting and greeting their brothers on the other side is something that makes me shed a tear every time
@I'm Nobody well, luckily she hurt her ankle and not something worse.
My granny is somewhere in this she had blacky brown hair at the time
Now, Korea.
Agree
+Nu Mgr I wish to see Korea re-united within my lifetime.
+Nu Mgr Don't want Korea unity, don't want to open the wall...North Korea is disgusting..from Seoul
Jaemoon Park The conditions they live in are disgusting, not the people.
The world has to fight united against those child-kidnapping juche-aseholes.
The fall of the Berlin Wall, and the subsequent collapse of the USSR, was an astonishing time for anyone who'd grown up with decades of unending Cold War conditions.
Look forward to see North and South Korea unite someday!
Yes that would be awesome I'm kinda bumbled out I was born in the late 90's and didn't get to see this wonderful event unfold but I look forward to see the reunification of the Koreas in my lifetime....cheers from California :)
:) your wish came true
Celeste :P ?
What is R/whooosh a sort of there is a little progress in Korea
liam postema unite means become one
I heard someone say:
"The first peaceful revolution that actually changed a country forever."
Yes. Made in Germany. Quality work.
Greetings from Kassel.😁👍
One of the brightest day of my life. My mother's family were East German, it was a relief to know they were free at last.
I can just imagine how good it must've felt to pass that checkpoint
My dad was talking to me about this earlier as we watched news coverage of the 25th anniversary celebrations in Germany. I was only four months old when the wall fell, but my dad said he'd put me to bed, my mum was at work, so he was sat alone downstairs watching the coverage of the wall falling here in the UK. He said there was a clip of German (I can't remember if he said it was East or West) news coverage, and while the newsreader was talking, someone else came in to the studio and just placed a piece of the wall on the desk in front of him. He said the newsreader started crying.
That is amazing. Thank you for sharing.
Oh wow.... a piece of the wall? Just straight up like that? I wonder if they still keep it somewhere in the studio
The part where the guards have to move away from where they are standing, and watch the people celebrate from afar is just amazing to watch.
"Die mauer ist weg" - surprising how history was made by a simple Freudian slip on live TV by an East German Politburo member announcing the lifting of travel restrictions and then this ...
The border guards deserve immense credit for not turning this into something more sinister.
That year was the best Christmas ever...
The wall coming down was the gift for the eastern Germany.
I remember when the wall went up in August 1961. I never thought I would live to see the day when it came down. I thought the communists would hang on no matter what happened, and would kill anyone trying to take it down. An amazing night.
Well the power of people can achieve amazing things.
💕💕💕
Same here, I was a fifteen years old youth when the barrier then the wall , to see that abomination fall was jubilation itself..
Beautiful people who deserve to have a free country. It is beautiful to watch them just being happy. They celebrate but they also remain really calm.
4:43 guy on the right got slapped across the face
He dropped his beer as a resukt
I remember watching this as a kid and crying - look at the beauty of people taking power. Thank you for posting.
It is still so touching to watch this historic moment after so many years. Happy for the people of German. Bless from Canada.
Born in 1999 ,and my mother was born in Germany in 77 and moved away when she was 10 years old (grandfather was in the air force at that time) but I love the fact of this history being made. I researched and researched on this earlier and I just had to see the videos of the wall being brought down..seeing these reactions of the German people being so happy together at peace and holding hands from oppression has brought tears to my eyes and joy to my heart. If only this could be the result of racism against any person with the form of melanin in them... I think the whole world would be at peace again.
I remember reading somewhere that when the Berlin Wall was opened, East Germans went to West German markets to buy bananas, because in their side they couldnt get fresh fruit. The conglomeration to buy them was so big that even today, when a German sees a lot of people somewhere he says "Are they selling bananas or what?"
I wasn't even alive but I find my eyes getting all watery everytime I see this :)
videos like this are what makes RUclips so cool
It was Schaboswki, as one of the very few, who admitted their moral guilt in the GDR.
He did not try to capitalize on his role in history, but met it with humility.
He said, "As a former follower and protagonist of this worldview, I feel guilt and shame at the thought of those killed at the Wall. I ask the relatives of the victims for forgiveness."
Once again thanks so much for your welcome and intelligent contribution.
Thankyou Rob, so wonderful to see, l have tears as l did when it was broadcast live years ago. Many Thanks.
I knew that when I videoed this on the VHS years ago, that someone would appreciate it !!
I remeber the night that the Berlin Wall came down! I had come back from my local bar, turned on the TV and watched these historic moments with disbelieve.
My wife is German, so I knew what this meant to German people.
It was absolutely great!
I'm English and i feel sorry for the Germans that there country had been divided like that, imagine having your country split in two and not been allowed easy access to your friends and family on the other side? I'm guessing they weren't treated too well or they, wouldn't have been that desperate to all break free to west Germany, i was born in 1995 so didn't know a lot about this until recent years when i educated myself about this but congrats :)
***** It's fine :) I use to dislike German people because during school your told about all the terrible things they did to people and instead of blaming it on Hitler it tends to be passed across as the whole of the German people, anyway since I'm English I technically come from you guys haha!
I just thought id start checking out about the event because when you think about how recent it was quite historically important, plus i was checking out all this Vladimir Putin crap and seeing about the fall of Russia and communism, sometimes I think we should have just declared on Russia instantly after along with German.American and other countries support and pushed them back but god knows what could have happened.
I've been to London once since its the opposite side of the country to me, and i personally disliked it, went for a football game at wembley and there were a lot of horrible areas, but I'm sure if you go to the right parts it's lovely, if you do ever come again do your research I'm sure there are even nicer places.
The only German person I hate is Merkel! and all the eu cronies, just making the eu worse and worse the longer its kept running, massive money wastage ect ect.
Back on topic, apparently the ally side was looked after really well and people were free to do whatever they wanted, the French,English and American territories were rebuilt with the plan of reunification when they believed it was suitable to, but the communist side was a mess, and they shot people who tried to cross which is really quite sad
oh ye I know the French territory treat you worse than the British and Americans who treat the German people quite well, but the point I'm getting to is that no matter how bad it was in the French territory it was a million times better than been locked up in that communist hell hole :)
You are a disgrace, Matthew.
you are an idiot. Jdr
I hope that this can be replicated with the two Korea’s, that would definitely be a sight to see in our lifetime.
3:44 "this is american television"
lol
🤣
What an extraordinary year 1989 was for Eastern Europe...
Yeah the fall of Communism.
Europe had been finally free.
30 years ago today, Germany was reunited. May it never be divided again.
the guy at 4:43 is not happy
Lol that was so rude
I went from West to East Berlin twice in the years before the fall of the wall. The first time the border guards were frosty and intimidating, but a few months the wall went, they were all smiles. Next time I went to Berlin the wall had gone and I (mistakenly) drove through the Brandenburg gate, which wasn't open to cars, only buses! Great memories. I found a 2 hour ITV broadcast I taped the Sunday after the wall fell of the party which was still going on. Perhaps I'll put some of it on RUclips.
Why did u go to East Berlin, man?
@@Travis1.979 I suppose I was very much a tourist when I went to Berlin, but with an interest in world affairs. I wanted at least to get a taste of what East Germany was like and so crossed at Checkpoint Charlie like so many others did. However I did it alone and tried for a day to immerse myself in the place, less interested in the sights than in doing what ordinary people did, going to the Konsum department store and eating in the public canteen, wandering around the apartment blocks and seeing how every entrance had political notices and details of the person whom I assumed, rightly or wrongly, to be a kind of party organiser. After West Berlin it did seem very drab, but the apparent normality of the place did strike me. I knew little of course of the darker realities which existed such as the Stasi and the legions of informants, though I suspected the apparently official monitors whose names were displayed at the entrances to the apartment buildings were there for social control as much as for reporting plumbing problems. I repeated the exercise, again on my own, a few years later, wandering around a park which existed on both sides of the wall, unaware that it would soon be joined up again. The border fascinated me even as it depressed me to think of families split in two and of course the people who had died trying to cross it. Watching the wall being breached was definitely one of the most memorable days of my life, and I still have a couple of videos I recorded from live television at the time. It hasn't always gone smoothly but I have the greatest admission for all today's Germans who have managed to make reunification more successful than many thought likely.
Good idea ! Thats why I recorded this for posterity ! Of course, 20+ years ago I had no idea that anything like "RUclips" would exist !
I'm shit faced watching this at 5 am and all I can do is smile from ear to ear
This makes me emotional. People just want to be free. Never forget this.
Thanks so much for saving and sharing this. It is of course actually BBC Breakfast News on the following day, 10 November 1989. I'm still trying to find the BBC 9 O'Clock News from the previous evening, which would have been just a couple of hours after the press conference in which the opening of the Wall was announced.
Rob, your videos are amazing. Thanks for preserving this monumental historical event :)
I had been on business in Poland for a week so of course there was no news. As I flew back to London that evening I fell asleep for the first hour. When I woke up I looked out of the window and saw a big meandering orange stripe, city lights on one side pitch dark on the other miles below me. It took a bit of time to properly wake up and work out what I was seeing. It was the first time I had ever seen the wall, even from 10,000m.
On reaching London I drove home to eat and catch up on the news. I was greeted by what you see on this
video !
I had no idea what was going on below me as we flew over.
Wow what a story ! Everyone has their own tale to tell - I have had similar personal stories about 9-11
I really really wanted to see this moment. To see the wall come down, or even be there in Berlin when it came down.
This day always fills me with such emotion. And today thinking how these people on the film might be now.
@Joshuadrooney - thanks for your comment. I knew I recorded this stuff 20 odd years ago for a reason ! Its nice to share !
At 4:44 does the guard hit the man in the cre trenchcoat with glasses?
Yeah
+ElectroGamer2003 my "step-father" (not legal) was tortured because "Republikflucht", which was a crime in GDR. Republikflucht can be translated as "Fleeing from Republic" easy with my bad English. He gets a monthly and a once a year cash which even is untouchable for debt, in "Höhenschönhausen" (very very east, I was once there and I think I will not go there in the next 20 years again, but I could be there in 40 min or so...), they tortured people, he thought he was the winner, because he did not work, they tortured him because in socialism everyone HAS to work, no matter if needed or not, but after 3 days they left him since they saw they would have to hurt him that bad, that was even against Stasi standards to beat someone so heavy up or so, he has one "stigma" but at the arm in t-shirt range, only t-shirts with complete free arms would allow to see it in public (the GDR follower of Gestapo was Stasi, they had ten thousands of "IM", civilians which were giving tips, not few cases where the woman was spying the man and the man the woman, and they did not know that until the fall of GDR when most of the papers were opened and later access to the people who were spied was allowed, some peoples saw than that more than 1 family member was spying him, I mean they really had tons of such "IM"-information, no chance to destroy it in a short time without laying large fire or so), the GDR was a terrible 1/5 of German population state which was indoctrinated from 1945 by Stalin/Soviets and before by Hitler.....
KilonBerlin
It seems like the East Germans tried to be the best communist party. The Russians were probably amazed. Germans try to be the best always
@@chrisj197438 Well, not so much, lets say the more educated left the East and that was the reason for the wall, in the 12 months before the wall was being build it was a record amount (from 1960 until the first construction) of people which left and among them especially the educated and skilled persons...I don't know if Eastern European did help out with educated people, but there was a Vietnamese area and there are much more vietnamese/asians in this place in east-berlin or have been over 10 years ago...of course only Ho-Chi-Minh's Vietnam until they won the 30-years lasting war in 1975, maybe they helped out with something? Cuba has very good doctors, but not the medicine/cash for equipment...also Cuba helped to train soldiers (among them kids) in Angola... a big "friendship" helping out each other -.- they had their large building, in the 2000's very much asian people were selling cigarettes imported from Kaliningrad...
Its a beer IMHO in the video if I look now, the beer size could be a 0,33L bottle of brown glass beer, Schultheiss or Kindl... for me it looks like a beer and the soldier hit the bottle very hard? Yea sometimes I have to watch it, only 10 minutes time left and I watch it now again :D
Thank you Gorbatjov! You made this possible.
You can never suppress people for long. It's human nature to be free.
this is the first major event I remember and understood - was only 8 years old and even at that age these were such powerful images!!
me too, was 9 years old back then, remember very well.
The looks on the border guards faces are priceless
I am so glad I have a piece of the wall. I was 25 when this happened. Happy time!😀
I have a piece too - I was 38 at the time!
RIP Berlin Wall 13/8/61-9/11/89
Yes, the Berlin Wall fell on 9/11 (European date format)
0:47 That man's sideburns command respect.
🤣🤣🤣 lol those sideburns were something SERIOUS. It made wolverine look bad
Imagine experiencing this
If I was an east berliner my first thoughts would be
Me: ight imi get WASSSTEED YEEEAAAAHHH REUNITED!!!!!!!
Having been to Berlin I can honestly say the one memory that will be burnt into my mind is the East Side Gallery. Very powerful images.
My father was there, he lived in the west and helped welcome his eastern friends, when I asked about it he says that all Germans there agreed on the following: "Germans never cried as much as that night, never laughed as much as that night and never drank as much beer as that night!"
Great words from your Dad !!
What a kind act by the police.
It makes me SO happy to see this. People were amazed by the idea of being reunited with old friends and also family. I'm from Argentina and i was born in 1996 so i had to study and learn about all this chaos. Congrats Germany! Y aguante Alemania locoooo ;D !!
It is interesting the fall of the Berlin Wall went so smooth was also because of the June Fourth incident that happened in Beijing earlier that year.
My grandad was there for a meeting. Such an experience!
4:45 that guy gets punched by the guard
the guy in the white, looks like he's taking pictures.
@@beaverpitt yea? not like a beer?!
@@KilonBerlin i agree
@shakysyxx
Well I was privilaged to watch this happening live and to record it - I recorded it at the time because for all of us who cared it was very emotional. Glad it touched you !
4:41 Look at the guy with the white overcoat holding the bottle of beer; you can see the guard slap the drink out of his hand!
Being a disgrace to communism is a good thing. How anyone can possibly still believe in an ideology that so obviously doesn't work and caused so much death, suffering and agony is beyond me.
You remember when you wrote this comment 9 years ago? You probably had no idea it would get even worse in a decade, but then here we are.
Some moments in history are so great.
And I'll be there in Berlin this year to celebrate the 30 year of the fall!!
Those guards worlds were spinning that night
My grandmother was from Germany from Berlin precisely. She and her mother and sisters were crying of joy. You could Imagine how they felt. God Bless Germany and all our Beautiful European Nations, NEVER AGAIN SHOULD THEY BE A VICTIM OF COMMUNISM.
this is amazing. I wish I had been there to watch it. Ö
I love how he still says 'East Berlin' at the end.
Still one of the most amazing days in my life :-)
It's about 8 to 10 inches thick in most places but on the top is a tubular concrete cylinder to stop climbers. In the Brandenberger Tor area the wall was thicker, it really depended on the location.
RIP Helmut your bravery helped Germany reunite
How thick was the Berlin Wall for them to be all standing on it?
It’s like listening to my granny recall the night but in English
I have vague memories of seeing this on TV I was only about 7 years old.
Born in 91, this still moves me
Maybe.....because you were born in 91 🤔
I saw this live now go fuck off normie
thank you so much rob.
crazy how things in less than a hundred years can change...
Interesting to have lived through that time....although I am older than you of course ! Great that you can see this history on youtube ! Nice to have heard from you.
Never underestimate a man's determination to be free..
4:44 the soldier slapped the drink out of the guy in the white jacket's hand. (Either that, or that was an aggressive high five)
I won’t forget that day
Who else saw that cop or soldier knock that guy's beer out of his hand? LOL
Hi - thanks so much for your comment ! You must have wondered that was going on at the time. I don't know what your politics is but if you search for "Soviet (Russian) Communist party releases its grip on absolute power" - in google, you may find that video interesting too - I don't think I am allowed to send you the web address? I recorded these items on the news all that time ago for posterity ! Again, appreciate your comment.
Rob
4:44 why???
Please put it online mate :)
1:42 laughing so hard Lol
I have to hear this every day. I could cry xD
She thought 'just in case'...
Please don't think every german has such a strong accent😂
Damn the girl in minute 2:54 its a QT
Thanks David husselhof
Cant help but smile while watching this.
inspiration for the Scorpions song Winds of Change
"I want to have sexperience" kek
lol
0:45....There were no Czech's?
That was a time full of hope
See now what's left of it
Never forget: Hungary took out literally the first brick out of this wall :)
MÁV PFT Angyalföld They did!! People forget that.
How?
@@appleslover in 1989 September the Hungarian government decided to open the borders towards west to the GDR citizens. Therefore the refugees from GDR could find a way out to West-Germany and later on Czechoslovakia did the same.
Walter Ulbricht's East-Germany was certainly sentenced to fail as the riots started to emerge across the GDR and they had to ease the restrictions.
So nevertheless: we, proud Hungarians started to punch a great hole into the Wall and dismantled the iron curtain and allowed east germans to leave to western Europe. That was literally the first brick knocked out off the wall.
@ omg, that was quick, thank you for clarification
@@appleslover Gyula Horn was the minister for foreign affairs that time. It was a historical moment on 27th July 1989 when he cutted the barbed wire at the Hungarian-Austrian border with Alois Mock Austrian minister. So yeah: most germans consider him as the demolisher of the Berlin Wall. Even European politicians remember him that way.
Y’all here cause of school right
If your dates correct - BBC News 9th November 1989? Then this was also Jill Dando's birthday, She'd have been 28 in that clip.
30 years ago today.
Really glad to see these vids now 25 years later....really glad that on the year I was born, the madness and stupidity of divided Berlin, Germany and Europe and in many ways the Cold War itself came to its end...
Really shameful that now because of Putin's and Russian's actions, we are seeing people and nation being divided in Ukraine and steps being taken into a new Cold War =(.
Well those steps to a new cold war are also taken by the western nations. NATO countries wouldn't try to "force" (I know not the 100% correct word for our actions) eastern countries to join them, but they do so. The problem here is that Russia feels threatened by our actions, whereas we feel threatened by Russia's actions. It's kinda sad that both parties revile each other. In addtion, with the 2+4 contract the NATO promised that they won't try to aquire new members in eastern Europe. So, it should be out of question who actually the aggressor is.
I was stationed near Frankfurt Am Main when the wall fell. We started seeing the Trabant cars and we did notice that the East Germans dressed a little differently than the Western Germans. You could pick them out when visiting bars.
What is the name of this reporter with glasses?
The guard hi-fives at 4:44 😂