All language subtitles for The Secret Life of the Berlin Wall BBC 720p EN SUB_Subtitles01.ENG

CARNIVAL MUSIC

CHEERING

APPLAUSE

This is a story about the people
who lived behind the Berlin Wall.

There are many reasons
for building walls.

In a circus maybe, walls are
there to stop unwanted people
from breaking in.

THEY CONTINUE CHANTING

GLASS SHATTERING

This building was once the
headquarters of the Secret Police.

They built a wall
to stop people breaking out.

And their reasons were
recorded on these pieces of paper...

..six million of them.

Inside a circus nothing much
changes from one year to another.

But outside,

in Germany, it's been a
completely different story.

AIR RAID SIREN WAILS

Berlin, 1945.

For those who'd survived,
it was a time for returning.

A chance for life
to get back to normal.

When we came back to Berlin we knew

it wouldn't be a country
of milk and honey.

There was no fear
really to come back.

For me it meant
coming to a country where I grew up.

It was eight years since
Alfred's parents had sent him
away to safety in England.

And now he was coming home.

But for a Jewish boy returning to
Germany what did "coming home" mean?

NEWSREEL:
'The problem now is future peace.

'That is your job in Germany.'

'Germany today appears to be beaten.

'Hitler, out.

'Swastikas, gone.

'Concentration camps, empty.

'You'll see ruins,
you'll see flowers.

'You'll see some mighty
pretty scenery.

'Nice country, Germany.

'Tender people, the Germans.

'And very sweet music indeed.

'Don't let it fool you.

'You are in enemy country.

'Be alert. Suspicious of everyone.

'Take no chances.

'You are up against something
more than tourist scenery.

'You are up against German history.

'It isn't good.

'This book was written
chapter by chapter. Not by one man.

'Not by one fuehrer.

'It was written by the German people.

'The tender, repentant,
sorry German people

'carried the torch of their culture
to Austria,

'Czechoslovakia,

'Poland,

'France,

'England,

'Russia,

'Greece...'

'..and the United States of America.

'Measure the cost in money.

'There isn't that much money.

'Measure the cost in lives.

'We can only guess at that figure.

'Some day the German people might be
cured of their disease

'but they must prove
that they have been cured

'beyond the shadow of a doubt

'before they ever again
are allowed to take their
place among respectable nations.'

And these are all the family papers?

Mmm...

Sorry.

If you look for something...

..special.

I give it up for the moment.
I had the letter,

I'm sorry I can't find it
at the moment.

I'm sure I'll find it again.

But that would be
too late for you, then.

And they told me in that letter

"Unfortunately we have
bad news for you,

"the information says that your
parents were deported to the East

"in 1942

"and we are sure you realise

"what this message means for you".

You knew from an early age,

everything that...

Germany can do to Jewish people.
Yes.

This I knew.

That's a terrifying thing
to know about Germany.

It definitely is.

And it never went out of my brain.

Hitler gone. Cities gone.

Homes gone.

Circuses were amongst the first
things to rise out of the ashes.

An escape from the harsh reality
of the world outside

and they were quicker and easier
to re build than the cities.

The streets weren't German any more.

They belonged to the Russians,
Americans, British, French.

And as they divided
the city into zones,

each of the armies prescribed its
own cure for the German "disease".

In the Western zones the remedy
was liberal democracy.

In the East, controlled by the
Russians, it was something else.

HE LAUGHS

The historian of the German Circus

records that the Circus Probst
was founded in 1945

in the Soviet zone by Rudolf Probst.

Probst was described as an intense
character, always up for trouble.

In 1945, where did you get
the camels from? And bears?

So you got them from them zoo
and then trained them?

So, how did you get
food for the animals?

It is 1951.

Young socialists from around
the world travel to East Berlin
for the Great Peace Festival.

I felt an obligation to help,
to build up a new Germany.

What's the alternative?

What do we do with
these millions of Germans?

Put them all into prison?

The alternative

was to create a new mental attitude

in their heads.

Without dreams...

..people cannot live.

This was the new Germany

and these were the new Germans.

Socialist, egalitarian, antifascist.

The German Democratic Republic.

Rising from the ruins
to consign Western imperialism

to the dustbin of history.

HE LAUGHS

LION GROWLS

NEWSREEL: 'East Berlin is the centre
of communist power on German soil.'

'Zones of occupation become
zones of influence and control
in East Germany.'

'They know that one free nation after
another has been swallowed up by
the red rulers of the Kremlin.

'The record in Europe
alone is shameful.'

The 1950s.

People called Berlin
the waiting room of history.

Two world wars had begun here.

Now Berliners
were waiting for the next one.

In the meantime,
a shadow war had already started.

Berlin turned into a city of spies,

informers, double agents,
interrogators, kidnappers.

Drawn to the only place
along the entire Iron Curtain

where it was still possible
cross freely to and fro.

The KGB, the CIA and MI6
all refined their trade in Berlin.

And the stakes were high.

Lives were lost.

Thousands disappeared
into the shadows.

So, were you a spy?

Wolfgang Kockrow was arrested by the
Stasi, East Germany's secret police,

in 1959.

He was accused of spying
for the Americans.

You're trying to change society.

You're on the side of history

but there are losers here.

And the losers are treated
very badly.

Did you know that?
Yes, of course I know that

but tell me is there one country
in the world

where you haven't got this problem?

Look, for instance, in United Sates,
one of the real free countries.

But what happened
in 1952, '53, '54, '55,

in the McCarthy era?

Thousands had to appear
before the tribunal.

Some were punished,
some were sent to prison,

others were chucked out of their job
and couldn't work any more.

So, you have these problems
in any society.

Communists of the period
were talking about...

They would say things like,
"You can't make an omelette without
breaking eggs" was the phrase.

Do you believe that?

Wolfgang's revenge
would have to wait.

The outcome of the struggle
for Berlin

was about to be played out
on a much larger stage.

The Russians launch Sputnik, the
first man-made satellite in space.

'The free world has been upstaged
by the Russian bear.'

The Russians lose no time
in exploiting their advantage.

In speech after speech,
the Russian premier, Khrushchev,

makes demands that would
force the Allies of Berlin.

Khrushchev tours America.

He jokes with Nixon about communism
leaving the West far behind.

But behind the smiles,
a steady drift towards war.

'On display in Moscow,
the wreckage of pilot Francis Power's

'U-2 reconnaissance plane charging
America with deliberate aggression.

'Mr K was laying groundwork
for a clash in which the actual issue

'would be his demands
on West Berlin.'

'This telephone is a trigger,

'this instrument will send jet planes
into the air within 15 minutes

'armed with nuclear bombs.'

'Key questions centre around
Berlin and the chances of war.'

And as the weapons of now
are so annihilating

that we happen to live
in the most dangerous time

in the history of the human race.

Khrushchev orders the construction
of the world's biggest H-bomb.

In Germany, refugees from the East
are flooding into West Berlin.

20,000 in May alone, more in June.

'If there is a dangerous crisis
in Berlin, and there is,

'it is because of threats

'against the deep commitment
of Western powers.'

'The intercontinental ballistic
missiles destined for a target
within our borders.'

In Vienna they talk peace.

But elsewhere both sides
are making plans for nuclear war.

It would be a mistake for others
to look upon Berlin

because of its location
as a tempting target.

The United States is there,

the United Kingdom
and France are there,

the pledge of NATO is there

and the people of Berlin are there.

It is as secure in that sense
as the rest of us

but we cannot separate
its safety from our own.

We do not want to fight

but we have fought before.

When Berliners went to bed
on Saturday night

there was a Berlin Crisis.

When they woke on Sunday morning...

there was the Berlin Wall.

The human stories brought
protests from the West.

But, the West had kept
West Berlin,

and it was understood that a wall
might be better than a war.

The wall ended the exodus of
refugees that had threatened the
existence of the East German state.

But it was a desperate measure.

And like many
desperate measures in politics,

it seemed a little insane.

So, you party members built the wall

because you wanted more time to build
your socialist utopia?

This is one of the reasons, yes.

And for the next few years,
things became better.

CHILDREN CHEER

MUSIC: "Hier Lebst Du"
by Frank Schobel

# ..Hier kommen die Sonne
und Regen zustand

# Hier lernst du die Sprache

# Hier kennst du dich aus

# Hier lebst du

# Hier bist du zu Haus

# Hier tanzt du im Herbstwind

# Das Bund... #

And for most,

what the mirror showed was a people

who were leading
perfectly normal lives.

In offices and factories,
work went on.

People built houses,

bought cars,

had children,

Amused themselves.

Lived their lives.

But there were others...

those who saw something else
in the mirror.

The wall claimed its first victim
nine days after it went up.

Many more soon followed.

This was Peter Fechter. Killed,
when the wall was just a year old.

By then, 23 people had died,
most of them young.

Fechter was 18.

In 1964,
after five-and-a-half years in jail,

Wolfgang Kockrow was released
and deported to the West.

Soon after his arrival
in West Berlin,

Wolfgang joined a group of students

building a new tunnel
under the wall.

It took six months to build.

So now I am here
in a place where we built a tunnel.

From there, west through street,

through to Delitzsch Strasse.

Digging from West to East,
the tunnel run for 147 metres.

Over three nights in October 1964,

57 people escaped

before it was discovered
by East German border guards.

The tunnel was the most successful
ever built under the wall.

The truth was,
the wall was the victor.

It got bigger.

More sophisticated.

More efficient.

The wall was here to stay.

And so were the people
behind the wall.

# Hier raucht dir dein Meer

# Hier lernst die zu fragen

# Wohin und woher

# Hier sind deine Freunde

# Tagein und tagaus

# Hier lebst du

# Hier bist du zu Haus. #

What was more important?

That depended on what you
wanted to see in the mirror.

At the Bornholmer Hutte did you see
a perfectly normal pub?

Or did you
see the wall down the road?

The border guards who drank here?

Or the odd Stasi officer
who dropped in?

The wall was only the most obvious
manifestation of state control.

Amongst the people living their
perfectly normal lives,

the Stasi were everywhere.

Watching...

..controlling.

The GDR embarked
upon its golden years.

There was growth in the economy,

a new prosperity.

And amongst the political classes
there was a new boastfulness

as they looked down on Europe's
fifth-largest economy.

It was an unexpected moment for a
loyal citizen to escape to the West.

Ellen and son were smuggled
across the border to West Germany
hidden in the boot of a car.

It was being described as
communism's first consumer society.

The highest standard of
living in the Eastern bloc.

But the little girl
who had wanted to be a clown still
saw something else in the mirror.

Inside the circus,
Rudolph Probst was the law.

But outside the circus, the law
was in the hands of the Stasi.

Do you think you had
informers in the circus?

Did you know them?

Twice the Stasi closed down
Circus Probst.

And twice when he got out of jail,
Rudolph Probst built it up again.

And the show went on.

High quality.

HE CHUCKLES

Sascha Anderson.

A bit of a poet,
a bit of a chameleon

and by common consent

the most influential figure
in the Berlin underground.

Prenzlauer Berg was Berlin's
answer to Greenwich Village,

a Bohemian outpost...

..just down the road
from Stasi headquarters.

So, you refuse to
talk to me about GDR?

Well, before the '80s,

the Stasi had ballooned into
a monstrous organization.

Per head of the population,

the Stasi was 12 times
more numerous than the Gestapo.

35 times bigger than the KGB.

And even this did not
take into account

a highly developed system
of informers.

The Stasi kept files
on six million people.

125 miles of files.

Stasi surveillance
existed in a world of signs.

Its eye was drawn to any
deviance from the norm.

The Stasi policed the border
between what was permitted

and what was forbidden.

Little wonder then that,
as time went by,

they began to see
enemies everywhere.

Sascha, how did you decide
that you wanted to be a spy?

The world was changing.

'I, Ronald Reagan, do solemnly swear
that I will faithfully execute

'the office of President
of the United States.'

A new president in the White House.

A new master in the Kremlin.

NEWSREEL: 'The Soviet Union
has a new leader, Mikhail Gorbachev.'

In East Berlin, the
good days are long gone.

A subsidized dream
that no-one could afford.

Western tourists queued
for a glimpse of the evil empire...

..and the thrill of watching
a country running on empty.

This was Leipzig.

And like the rest of the country,
it was falling apart.

When they said, "We want you
to be a spy", you said, "yes".

Is that what happened?

Did Sascha Anderson inform on you?

Ja...

Ja.

Were you a good spy?

Argh, das ist...

HE LAUGHS

Did you think that if you

offended or crossed
your Stasi comrades

that they may find a way
of putting you in prison?

What is the punishment for traitors
who only betray their friends?

The Stasi knew a lot about Rainer.

They knew he was at the centre of
an opposition network in Leipzig,

he'd been arrested several times,

and he hadn't responded
to discipline.

The Stasi had arrested
Thomas Rudolf, too.

His file described him as

"a symbolic figure in
Leipzig's growing opposition,

"talented, intelligent, confident,

"who believed himself

"well capable of
changing society in the GDR."

So, from 1988,

you and your friends were making
a conscious attempt

to overthrow the government?

In 1989,

not everyone was trying
to get out of East Germany.

Some were on their way back.

Alfred had been the GDR's chief
radio correspondent in Bonn.

He was coming home to retire.

And Ellen?

Ellen was just coming home.

We realised, of course, all the
time, that we were the second best

but our aim, at least till
the middle of the '80s,

was someday, perhaps in ten
or fifteen or twenty years,

we will be at least
on the same level.

Not all of Berlin
was like this, of course.

But this is a good reflection of
what the Stasi wrote in their own
reports of the morale of the people.

Chris Gueffroy.

He was the last person
to be shot at the wall.

The time had arrived to remember
the lessons of the past.

In 1953,

workers throughout East Germany
had risen up against the regime.

Russian tanks had dealt with them.

It was to become the pattern
in the Eastern Bloc.

Hungary in 1956.

Czechoslovakia in 1968.

First the protests, then the tanks,
then the silence.

And now, in Leipzig, they were
getting ready to protest again.

The protests grew out of prayer
meetings in the churches.

Here, the campaigners for peace,
for the environment,

for human rights
met every Monday night.

The churches were a safe haven.

But they did not escape the spies.

These pictures were
taken with Stasi cameras.

It had been thought
that with Gorbachev in power,

the age of the tanks was over.

Then came the news from China,

hundreds dead in Tiananmen Square.

The old story once again.

If you want to change the world,
you have to pay the price.

If you want to make an omelette,
you have to break the eggs.

OK, I'll ask you about
the Christian conscience.

But you may not like it.

You have this beard.

Like a revolutionary, 19th century
Russian revolutionary.

These revolutionary people
who believe that it's right

to put people's lives at risk
in order to get what they believe in.

How does this...

relate to your Christian conscience?

THEY CONTINUE CHANTING

In May, the Hungarians
take down the Iron Curtain.

Across the border and into Austria,
East Germans are finding
new routes of escape.

The traffic is all heading
in one direction, out.

'The high emotion, hysteria and panic
when East Germans fought Czech police

'to get in to
the West German embassy.'

In Berlin,

the German Democratic Republic

prepares to celebrate
its 40th Birthday.

WOMAN SCREAMS

In Leipzig,
the Monday demonstrations
had been getting bigger...

and so had the risk.

The Nikolaikirche, five o'clock.

Monday prayers.

It's been a day of rumours.

Tanks have been seen on
the roads into Leipzig.

Mothers have been told to pick up
their children early from school.

Hospitals have ordered extra blood.

Outside, troops stood
ready with loaded weapons.

And then at six o'clock,

the prayers ended.

70,000 people.

The troops stood down
and let them pass.

In the space of half an hour,

the regime had lost control
of the streets.

And so, in Leipzig,
things fell apart.

And in Berlin,
the centre did not hold for long.

The Politburo shuffled, manoeuvred.

It was all for nothing.

The thought of wasted lives
and wasted chances.

All the conviction we had thought

would create a real
new social set up,

this failure was the most hurting

experience in the life

I so far have experienced.

January 1990.

After the Berlin Wall, it was the
turn of the walls around the Stasi.

Now, for the first time,
in the Stasi files,

the people of the GDR could
read the stories of their lives.

A chance at last
to look into a different mirror.

Angela found out that in prison
her father had agreed to work
as an informer with the Stasi.

Sascha Anderson's collaboration with
the Stasi was exposed on television.

For a time, he was one of
the most reviled men in Germany.

Wolfgang discovered that all
the time he'd been in prison,
his brother had been an informer.

He never spoke to him again.

If you were a young man again,
with a young wife,

and you had a chance again
to build a socialist country,

to go once more for that dream...

..would you still take that decision
that you took all that time ago?

Yes. Definitely.

Perhaps it's easier to say now

because I realise I won't be
in a position to do it actually,

but believe me,
I haven't changed my fundamental...

..my fundamental

dream that...

there must be a way to come together

on a different basis than

the one we have lived through
in the last...

100 years.

So you'd do it again?

Yes.

Perhaps I'm a fool.

But...

..who knows?