Transit West Berlin | Across the Iron Curtain in the 1980s

Part of my Cold War series: is a sort of "Battlefield Tour".. by using present day and archival footage, also British Army Information films. In this video I'm going to reconstruct of the experience of using the Transit West Berlin Corridor across the Inner German Border and the Berlin Wall from the BDR to West Berlin during of the last years of The Cold War (1987-1989) before the Soviet union collapse of 1991.

Soviet Union and East German nostalgia for veterans, education for millenials... Europe really was like this once!!

The West Berlin Transit Corridor was the only authorised route the Soviet and East German Authorities permitted for Allied Military and vetted West German to citizens travel between West Germany and West Berlin during The Cold War and Division of Germany. It was a nerve racking experience passing through a the Communist Totalitarian state of East Germany, and for military travellers, being on your own travelling through "enemy territory"

The journey starts off in Helmstedt in Lower Saxony, with a visit to 246 Provost Company Royal Military Police, AutoBahn Control Detachment. Entering East Germany via Allied Checkpoint Alpha near helmstedt, then across the fearsome Inner German Border Death Strip. It covers the actions at the DDR/Soviet Border station at Marienborn. The threats encountered from The Stasi and the DDR VolksPolizei.

Finally arriving at Allied Checkpoint Bravo at Dreilinden in Berlin, with its famous WW2 Soviet War Memorial (Panzerdenkmal)

Chapters:

3:40 Helmstedt
4:29 RMP ACD Visit
5:16 Soviet Contacts Security Brief
8:20 Checkpoint Alpha
14:50 The DDR Marienborn Border Station
22:43 The Stasi / VoPo
29:41 Checkpoint Bravo

#coldwar #soviet #berlinwall

[aussie]

I traveled in August 1988, as a young 18-year-old backpacker from Australia, from Frankfurt to Berlin by overnight train. As I arrived at the East German border, the guards came on the train and told me to move to another carriage that would continue to Berlin. My memory was that they were really rude and always shouting. I stayed at the youth hostel in Berlin and made the trip through Checkpoint Charlie for the day into East Berlin with a group of travelers from the hostel. Like everyone else, I was ripped off at the border by having to exchange West German Deutsche Marks for East German Deutsch Marks at a 1:1 exchange rate, which everyone knew was a joke. I have many memories of the trip into East Berlin, but one thing that has stuck in my mind was all the posters showing the glorious Soviet Army leaving Afghanistan and how they were victorious. West Berlin was so weird, with 'the wall' blocking many streets. I remember The Reichstag still being a burnt-out shell left after the end of the war, the Soviet memorial near the Brandenburg Gates being cordoned off by the police with guard dogs, and many VW transit vans parked near the wall with police in riot gear in the back. I did spend a good hour chatting with an MP from the British Army near one of the observation posts that you could look over the wall. Thank you for your video. Just thought I would like to share my memories.

[RAFSQNLDR]

Great video - thank you. I served at RAF Gutersloh from 80-84 and drove once along the military corridor. I did drive through ‘C’ and remember the ‘Do not speak to any East German police/military and if if looks like you are to, you are to get back into your car, lock it and demand the presence of a Soviet Officer’ briefing at the West Berlin Olympic Stadium. I was searching for a parking slot in the East and found one by an ornate building. Having unloaded 2 push chairs, 2 kids and a wife, I see a DDR Policeman making a beeline for us. I had 2 options: throw bodies and push chairs into the car, OR see what he wanted. I chose the latter! He saluted, I returned, and he politely told me I had parked in the slot reserved for judges at the court house but if I could be quick there was an open slot the other side of the building. I often chuckle what would had happened if I had taken the first and official option. We would have sat there for hours waiting for a Soviet Officer and he would have relayed the Policeman’s message with the add on that that slot was now no longer available. Keep it up.

[frankovielkrach]

Great video. Remembering the travels with my parents from West Germany to "the zone" in the 80's because of family visits. The 2-3 hours border control at Helmstedt/Marienborn, the harassments of the "Vopos" on their wreched autobahn, the permanent smell of 2-stroke motors and brown coal and the bizarre feeling of being in a country where nearly everything looks grey and blurred.

[Pudel_Happy]

Thank you for the trip down memory lane. I was assigned to US Forces Berlin from early ’88-summer ’92. I drove this route and passed through these checkpoints often. One of the highlights of my time in Berlin was traveling on your duty train – much better than ours. I still have a bottle “Royal Corps of Transportation” wine I purchased on the train. Good times. I returned to Berlin in 2017 for a short visit. So much has changed. Will always be among my favorite cities.

[redstickrant]

In the summer of 1983 I travelled to West Berlin by train. While we were sitting at the station in our train car waiting for our passports to be stamped, this young DDR Border Guard in a dark green uniform trimmed in silver, helmet, and an MPIKM on his shoulder, stood on the siding looking in our window. I asked my travel companion, “Gee I wonder what he’s thinking?” An older German woman sitting across from me said, in English, “He wishes he was you.” That moment changed my life. Freedom vs. totalitarian wasn’t abstract anymore. ‘1984’ was real.

[sunrae]

Grew up at the Berlin Wall on GDR Side on the Outskirts of Berlin. The French Sector was on the other Side. Thanks for sharing your perspective to a English speaking audience. I am sometimes worry People forget that it was a high military death machine and not just a "wall" with some colorful paintings, especially from the other side. In Berlin you actually could get really close at some points to the wall from GDR side. My Grandfather always feared the Stasi is coming immediately if we walk the today's famous East Side Gallery Sidewalk at Ostbahnhof. Nobody was walking close to the Wall even thought technical allowed.

[pascalanglard]

I was a french soldier in west berlin on 1986 and had the chance to drive to west germany by this corridor. This video gives a great idea of the civilisation shock you felt during this single journey . Bravo.

[AuroraBoarder]

Amazing! To think I walked through Checkpoint Charlie - by myself! - back in the summer of 1982. I was touring Europe with ISE, and after our tour of West Berlin, no one wanted to check out the eastern part of the city. I realized this was the chance of a lifetime, and I was NOT passing it up!

Gives me chills...

[teddynielsen]

That was a tense video. I actually felt a sense of relief when we got to checkpoint Bravo. I can imagine some drivers needing a drink when they got to Berlin or regretting that they didn’t fly instead. I’m glad my train trip to Berlin in August 1990 after the fall of the wall was much different. My mom and I flew from my hometown of New York to Frankfurt every summer from the seventies to the nineties to visit my Oma (grandma) who lived in a city near Frankfurt called Aschaffenburg. When I visited Berlin in 1990 with my parents, uncle and cousin, a small section of the wall was still standing. Thanks for posting the video.

[petrpavelka]

As I grown up on the other side (Czechoslovakia) video like this takes me back to this strange age which I do not want to undergo anymore. I remember in my childhood to dream upon a W. German's toys catalogue. I knew it was not possible to get this toys, much better then I had, and I did understand it as something normal. Something fair. Because my teacher explained me that the toys are for our enemy only.
Unfortunately it was not just a nightmare, ....

[dereinzigeweg]

I went to West Berlin via Transit from West Germany as a child. It was a summer vacation with my parents in July of 1987.

It took a while to pass the border into East Germany.
I remember the summer temperatures, the blue sky and the windscreen covered in smashed insects. The lightheaded magic mood you're in when the adventure just started. And occasionally seeing villages along the Transit-Autobahn. They were in bad shape.
I was nine years old at the time, sitting in the back of the Ford Sierra my father bought the year before. I was told that the people of East Germany had to wait for many years until they got their Trabbi, the tiny old-fashioned cars I was now seeing all over the place.

After a while, we took a break and stopped at a rest area along the Autobahn. My mother gave me a can of coke, the first sip felt great in the summer heat.
That was the moment when I noticed another family, not very far away from us. They had a Trabbi and the two children of about my age were staring at me, with the Coke in my hand.

I grew up in the reality of a divided country, it was kind of normal to me, because to me, it had always been that way.
As I was told beforehand, it was strictly forbidden to talk to East Germans as that could get us and even more them, into big trouble, maybe even prison.

So in that moment, it was impossible to share my Coca-Cola with other kids as I was used to back home. That was the moment I realised the cruelty of this separation. It felt so unjust to drink that can before their eyes. I could do nothing but stare back at them. There was just summer air between us, but also an insurmountable wall.

I still wonder what became of them. I saw the Todezone (death zone) behind the Berlin Wall from a viewing platform that summer. The same wall that separated us kids.
Two years later people were dancing on the Wall, tears of joy were on the news. I joined their dance in front of our TV.

I forgot most of my childhood I guess, but among a few others, that Transit-moment sticks with me until today.
It reminds me of the importance of freedom and that communism was, is and always will be: A very bad idea.

[BorisZech]

7:13 "like utter dirt" - ouch. Thank you for this interesting video.

[willzz]

In 1987 I went to West Berlin by train as a 21 year old tourist, and crossed over on foot to East Berlin for a few hours. After the wall came down, in early 1990 I hitch-hiked across, got picked up by an East German teacher couple in a Trabant. Thanks for posting your video, it certainly brought back memories of a strange time.

[michaelmorley]

One of my uncles worked for the US National Security Agency and was stationed in Germany in the early 1960s, at a time when the very existence of the NSA was still a secret. Right before Christmas one year (1961?), he got on a train to visit a friend stationed at Helmstedt. Unfortunately, he fell asleep on the train and didn't wake up until he was several miles on the wrong side of the border. He got off the train at the next station and tried to buy a ticket back to Helmstedt, but got spotted by the VoPos and held for 12 hours before they let him go. He bluffed his way out by claiming to be a special education teacher in the U.S. dependent schools.

[chopsalat]

Born as a German in 1991 all of this was absolutely unimaginable for me. I simply can't wrap my head around the fact that my country was this deeply devided almost up until my birth. For a long time I couldn't understand the older generations talking about "die ossis" ("the eastern"=derogatory slang) in such a faul way. For me we are all the same, all from the same country. I thank you for your video as I now understand a bit more HOW devided my country was until not that long ago. Absolutely crazy for me but I understand a bit more now, how it could be that the eastern part of this country was so alien to my parents generation.

[gerhard]

In 1988, my mothers nephew and his wife come to us, in the Netherlands. Their children did not know it, so that they would not be telling it in their school. A week before they had to go home again, i asked if i could come with them. There was some talking between them and my parents and they said it would be possible. They arranged a passport, i still have it, and a visum. Then we went on the train towards the DDR. It was very interesting to go through that border area on the east side. I spend three weeks there with my family. We also went to a camping near Müritz. I the disco near my family's house, some youngsters could not believe a was from the west. I had no passport with me but then i talked some Dutch and then they believed me. On the way back in the train, where i had my own booked seat in a coupé, the border guards came in with mirrors on a stick to look under the seats and an other guards had a shepard dog with him. It was a very good holiday. We also went with a Trabant car to east Berlin and on my nephews MZ motorbike to Torgau, where the Sovjets and the Americans met in 1945. I also was in the DDR in 1977, 1983 and in July 1990. We always took bananas, metal car toys and fruit and panties to our family.

[AnonAnonAnon]

A fantastic video, brought back so many memories of being stationed there in the 1980s! Thanks. Loads of things happened to me whilst transiting, usually swapping crap with the Russian soldiers for their cap badges. One trip in a VW van whilst in uniform, me and my passenger noted a Russian HGV joining the autobahn in front, and sat in the back was a load of young Russian soldiers. They spotted us behind and immediately started giving us the finger and various angry hand gestures. My passenger had a copy of Escort magazine, and lifted it up, showed the front cover, then opened the middle to show the spread. The Russian went mad in the back gesturing us to throw it to them as we passed. As we passed we gave them the finger! Great times!

[james.black]

An incredible video. Really appreciate the depth of the recreation intertwined with the older VHS footage. Its one of those critical parts of the Cold War era but I don't ever recall it being covered quite to this depth anywhere else. 10/10

[dante_nl]

This is amazing! It's wonderful to hear the POV of someone who actually was there!

[Weirdeiolu]

Absolutely fascinating video. As someone born 10 years after the Iron Curtain fell, it's almost impossible to imagine such a brutally hard border cutting straight through the centre of Europe.