A Day in East Berlin: Life Behind the Iron Curtain (1989) 

If you enjoyed this extended footage of life inside East Berlin, we think you'll enjoy this rare and uncut footage of life in North Korea, filmed in May 1995: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-l2RDcXpIYBM.html

This is an important historical document. Thank you very much for digitizing and uploading this for the world to see.

I went to Berlin in 1992 with my cousin, and while the Wall had been mostly removed, you could definitely tell the difference between east and west.

Those cars from other Iron Curtain countries. Polski Fiat, Poland 🇵🇱 Škoda, Czechoslovakia Lada, Soviet Union Gaz, Soviet Union AZLK, Soviet Union Trabant, East Germany Wartburg, East Germany Yugo, Yugoslavia Dacia, Romania 🇷🇴 Buses built by Ikarus of Hungary 🇭🇺 Trucks from IFA, Kamaz, MAZ.

One of the best visual archiv from East Berlin. Quality is really impressive and scene of the ordinary life without any comments are very nice too. Thank you so much for sharing 👍

I lived in West Germany at the time and I don't think anyone in my friendgroup expected the wall to come down, we had lived with it our whole lives at that point and it was normal. I will always remember the euphoria. We were driving on the Autobahn heading to Vienna in September of 1989 when Hungary opened its borders and allowed East Germans on holiday to drive through to Austria. All of a sudden there was a wave of the tiny East German Trabi cars coming the other way honking with people hanging outside the car windows and we couldn't believe what was happening. Thousands were simply "going around" the wall once the Eastern bloc disintegrated and that increased the pressure on the regime to open the wall.

My wife and I were in E and W Berlin that summer and saw not a sign of unrest. I was stationed at Ramstein AFB in W Germany and loved to travel to Berlin with all the history and big city attractions.

This is an amazing piece of history. Thank you for uploading it.

Must be difficult to find your own Trabant when it is parked by the curb😁

Thank you so much for downloading this.I am an American who grew up with a fascination of the eastern block countries. I visited Romania for the first 2003. 20 years later, I have been to Romania over 40 times as I now chair a foundation that works with the largest private orphanage in Romania. It was footage like this that I saw as a kid that inspired me to learn more about this part of the world. YOu are doing a valuable service by putting this on RU-vid..Thanks again!

Great video. I was there at the same time in East Berlin but took few photos, yet alone a video! This brings back vivid memories. Thanks.

Many thanks for the upload. Fascinating. And a great range of mullets on show!

I went to a restaurant in that round globe tower in East Berlin and I could see East and West Berlin. The tower would spin 360 in slow motion. It was called the Sphere towering 1,207 feet.

It’s so interesting for me to see the WW11 bunker at 6:33, on Reinhardtstraße. I’ve stayed near there a number of times and have always found it to be a fascinating structure. To see it here, back in the DDR times with the other surrounding buildings is great, thanks.

I remember those days being grey rather than in colours 🤔. Amazing footage. Thank you for sharing!

A world without ads on every spot? Without billboards and stupid flashy signs saying “BUY THIS!”.

Great video of East Berlin right before the wall came down. I'll be visiting Berlin this November and am interested in seeing the eastern parts of the city.

Thank you for the wonderful video

Like it was filmed yesterday, fantastic, wish I'd seen it for real. I've been since, Berlin is a cool city.

I was in West Berlin 1981-1983. I went to East Berlin, the west and east was like day and night an interesting experience.

Would be good if there was a modern visual of the same locations to see the changes. What is striking of the 1989 footage is the absence of 'commercial' signage, ads!

ايام مذهلة كان والدي يعمل دورة تدريبية في شركة الرافعات العملاقه لجمهورية المانيا الشرقية ، قمنا بزيارته في صيف 1989 كان عمري انذاك 13 سنة كنت لا اعرف كلمة واحدة بالامانية لكن كنت الهو وامرح مع الشباب والشابات الالمانيات كنا نلعب كرة القدم كل يوم ،كانت ايام جميلة جدا مازلت احتفض بكل الصور ، شكرا جمهورية المانيا الشرقية على كل شيء ، الان انا اعيش في فرنسا المجتمع الرأسمالي المستهلك حيات بلا ذوق.

When I was a US naval officer in the 1980s, I went into the Soviet Zone of Berlin. The contrast was stark and very depressing. I walked in with a UK RN officer to “see the sights,” felt a sigh of relief going back to West Berlin through Checkpoint Charlie.

Brilliant video!! Thanks for sharing. Went to Berlin in 1985 as a 14-year old kid (school trip). This video kinda makes up for the photos I wish I'd taken. I only took a few by the wall. One question: Do you know where the buildings being erected at 20:35 are / were situated?

Wow, great stuff, thanks!

Bellissimo video. Grazie

I traveled from West Berlin via checkpoint to East Berlin as a Chinese student in April 1986. Being forced to fill out so many forms as a kid from a socialist country when entering western countries, I was so delighted that I just had to wave my China passport, warmly welcomed by East Germany's border officials (girls) and walked into East Berlin. I saw American kids sitting in a separate room filling out forms, I felt so revenged. Haha .... However this feeling was very short lived, as I walked down the commercial-less street, I was approached by young men asking me to exchange west german marks..... sad. What a memorable trip! LONG LIVE GERMANY.

So great to get a tour of the East German streetscape barely a month after the Wall fell. Would be great to re-drive the same streets to record the differences over 34+ years make.

I was a soldier stationed in west Berlin with the 502 airborne in 1982 . I love to watch these old films. Thanks

THIS IS FAR MORE HONOURABLE THAN WHAT GERMANY HAS DEGRADED INTO!

totally amazing to be able to see this- a slice in time

Ich habe das erlebt, es war komisch, wenn man die Grenze zwischen den politischen Systemen passiert hat, war es als ob man ins Badezimmer geht, die Türe aufmacht und dann,... in einer ganz anderen Welt landet.

Wow Thank you for Sharing

The Trabbies, the concrete, the terrible food, the Stasi, the empty shops. Such memories.

This clip creates a somewhat distorted picture of GDR reality. In the early postwar period up through the Détente Era things were much more rigiid. By 1989 Gorbachev was long since in power in the USSR, and things had started changing in the entire eastern bloc. The haircuts and "fashions" of the people shown here to a large extent mirror that which one saw in West Germany (where I've lived continuously since 1977). Still, it's interesting to see the automobiles (the automotive industry in the eastern bloc countries was by that time far behind western Europe and Japan) and prefab construction techniques (which today may seem a little primitive, but which were not entirely devoid of sound and efficient civil engineering and fitout principles... those prefab apartment blocks, while primitive, are often qualitatively superior to what one sees in U.S. public housing).

The following month, GDR citizens took to the streets and the Monday demonstrations began. My friends and I held our own demonstration against the state in Frankfurt Oder. Until a truck full of cops came and beat us apart. Some were arrested. That night, state power had won. But 2 months later, the people of the GDR triumphed. On November 9th the Wall fell. The next day I stood on the wall in front of the Brandenburg Gate.

this was the peak of human civilization.

Nice Video . Thanks

Egal wer sich hier wieder aufregen könnte, die Stadt, dass Land war damals sicher und ordentlich. Abgesehen das ich damals noch gerne in Berlin war. Heute meide ich diese Stadt.

wunderschöne Aufnahmen

Fantastic blast from the past😊

Thank you for posting this very interesting and unique documentary. Was it part of a special DDR or ITN program? Because the man with the children on the playground later appears in the making of a Plattenbau appartement. So i assume it must have been approved by the DDR officials? I wonder what became of the future of this man and it’s family after the fall of the Wall. Can you tell anything about that? Greatings from the Netherlands, in may 1988 i was in Berlin with my schoolclass and privileged to visit Berlin every year since 1995. Always wonderfull to meet real Berliners, East and West, and talk about the days back then.

The quality of this film is superb. I was in West Berlin 1988-90 & visited East Berlin more than once. I witnessed the collapse of the regime too

I visited the DDR in the early 1980s, the contrast with the west was astounding. Thanks for sharing this film.

The first scene with the change of the GDR-soldiers were not filmed at the German Wall. This "event" happened in front of the New Guard (dt. Neue Wache) on the street Under the Linden, ca. 1 km to the German Border at the Brandenburg Gate.

Important and informative video

6:53 So this odd construction really did exist : Robur lorry with a half cabin half tarpaulin back. I have a rare 1/87 scale plastic miniature of this vehicle though constructed on an IFA W50 lorry.

The change in demeanor of the gentleman in the suit and tie when he realizes he is being filmed is much more pronounced than you'd expect. Perhaps the consequence of a surveillance society - or maybe he is a 'somebody' in the GDR.

I was in the DDR after the wall came down - everything looked dilapidated compared with West Germany. They sure liked their mullets, but I guess we did in the West too 😉

Meine Kindheit....DANKE!❤❤❤

Was there in 1985 and in Budapest in 1989 when East Germans could go to the West via the border between Hungary and Austria. Very memorable times...

Honestly amazing watching the car travel down Karl-Liebknecht-Str. and seeing so much that is similar to today. Seems they switched some of the fish shops straight from DDR era state owned ones to Nordsee! Also the mural on the building to the right at 11:13 is still there if I recall.

Wonder what that guy smoking the cigar was feeling when he realized that camera was still there. He seemed quite a character. Wonder what he did for work

ein absolut wichtiges und tolles Zeitdokument.

Respect for this video from Serbia. I remember as a child all these cars. It was like in a past life, thanking Gorbachev, whom my Serbs do not like for many reasons.

The kid with the thumb in his mouth waiting for the slide at 13:15 is Stasi

Awesome. A time travel... I would have taken 3 hours of this

you even recorded how a WBS 70 panel apartment is built

Great picture quality from early 3CCD BetacamSP camcorder. :o)

Excellent video! I happened to be in East Berlin on that same exact day!

Many more of these high quality Betacam SP originals should be published so that we can all enjoy these increasingly historic images. But even better deinterlace and upscale. Quality can be even better.

When life had a value system and we all knew what we were getting and what was expected of us to keep society harmonious and on the move.

Gab es dann keinen Camera Stabilizer?

26:15 what flooring is this?

Wow, Berlin looks different back then. Unter den Linden is totally different.

Two years in Berlin with the British Army 77 -79. Best two years of my service and got to see this guard mount. The east was likeva back water compared to the west and where I lived the wall in parts didn't exist except for the fence. Thats where I saw my first bendy bus through the fence.

Excellent.

Try watching this while progressing along Google Street View's panoramas of the same streets. The middle part is pretty easy to follow along with, with the tower and other landmarks. A lot has been torn down, but a lot remains, and has been spruced up. The lack of advertising and unrelenting drabness of the GDR is surreal.

Audio is not real. I had a Trabant and it was not possible to hear something different from engine sound while I was driving it.

to be honest, its exactly how my grandfather said it, you might have cheap and depressing buildings in east berlin, but they tried to make the most of it and because of that, people are way nicer because they want to get away from that thought of the city being depressing, and they go outside wayyyyy more often to socialize, even in that time where there were little things to do in the house but watch tv

Someone please tell me what the space needle tower was. And anyone who can tell me about oderberger strasse? Was it in East Berlin? A major street? What does oderberger mean?

Anyone knows name of border crossing/street at 5:02?

Watching those kids play, probably around my age today with parents probably the same age as mine now. I hope they are all well and enjoying life. Their parents would have known nothing but the GDR. For the kids itd be a very faint memory. Two generations seperated by two epochs of Germanys history (and if you throw their grandparents in, just wow)

Das sind qualitativ wirklich hochwertige Aufnahmen.

GDR ( DDR,East-germany) was a good State but it wasn't so perfect. But the people don't poor, the have work, homes ( flats) nobody sleeps under brigdes /out , enough food, not hungry people. A lot of people today in Germany there are going to the "Tafel" for food. The people don't be afraid for the next day. The school system was perfect . The people life in harmony together not so brutal.

This is fascinating, thanks for this. At this time, was it already possible to go to west berlin with passport or was it literally sealed of until the very end, i always wondered. The footage looks so fresh, must a very good camera, if it wasnt for the fashion and hairstyles id never say im watching a footage from a such a long time ago. I wonder what happened to those kids and how theyre doing. Those apartments and all that they were building, I wonder if they are still in use. East Berlin looks really impressive here. They really built it good during all those decades. But again, I think this whole division never should have happened in first place. it disrupted lives of many people, they should have left germany intact somehow, its still going go take a decade or so even more to all that to fizzle out. I wonder what todays people think, is the difference still there or is it going away finally

I wonder how many of those people thought it was the Stasi rolling around in a car with a vidcam.

12:04 how interesting, there's a Rover SD1 there. A rare sight in the DDR as it was still some 3 months before the wall would come down, well... borders opened up. And then at 17:06 again... A few small western cars I admit, but the Rover. Pity one can't see the number plate.

Any information as to what type of camera and film that was used?

I’ve often wondered why the Honour Guards use the SKS carbine as opposed to a Mosin Nagant or the SVT 40. The SKS wasn’t officially deployed in any Soviet conflicts.

Gotta say, I like the green and blue Trabis!

Opening scene - cool helmets that they pinched from the rebel alliance in the original Star Wars movie. So much for throwing off the Nazi past, with all that goose-stepping.

And soon enough... it was all gone.

The cars on the streets look like they’re all the same and we’re just parked there to give a certain impression ( parked too close together)

Hardly any advertising (I like that tbh).

INCREDIBLE

Italians have built a few buildings out of premade building materials in our city which are still around after 45 years or so. I see these East German builders are using the similar stuff. It is cheap and durable.

Даже гидроизоляцию клали в комнатах. В наших таких же типовых домах в 89-м строители просто клали деревянный пол поверх бетонных плит

First thing I noticed is parking issues.People look normal and happy very well taking care of. I was aspecting North Korea stile looks and famine.

Wie schön, hier nur echte, ethnisch deutsche Kinder auf dem Spielplatz zu sehen. Erinnerung an meine eigene Jugend.

There was no "other choice" of what being East German could be. Secure, conservative. All this when revolutionary socialist were remaking the age. Sandinistas, Angola and Mozambique, Cuba, Nothing could be more frightening to the East German bureaucratic state .. than revolutionaries.

Great video! Lots of Trabants, Wartburgs, Polskis! Some Ladas, Nivas, Skodas, and Passats! Very few Volvos, Warszawas, Volgas! Loved the Wartburg station wagons with their squarish bodies, ample cabin space, and rubber mudguards dangling! Most Western Europeans used to demonize Eastern European cars because of their mechanical unreliability and polluting combustion systems, but with all the permanent economical embargo from the West, it's a miracle that Eastern Europeans managed to produce cars! Stylewise though, some of their cars looked really nice like the Wartburg station wagons, the Ladas, and the Nivas! I grew up in Nicaragua during the ultra right wing Somoza regime and yet there were already East European cars in Nicaragua back in the 70's like the Skoda (Czechoslovakia), the Zastava (Yugoslavia), and the Aro (Romania). And then, after the Somoza regime fell, and the ultra left wing communist regime took over in the 80's, there were plenty of Ladas and Nivas which I totally fell in love with! Ironically though, 43 years later, just like the rest of the world, Asian cars have taken over and that's all you see everywhere, even in the Americas and Europe! So, Westerners used to complain so much about the unreliability of Easterners, and yet they allowed Asians to decimate their own car industry! That's why we all drive digital cars that are better at not polluting, but when they break, they can't be repaired at home because they're totally run by a computer system! To add insult to injury, they all look the same! That's why we all long for older cars because they might have pollute more, or fail at crashing, but had individual styles and components that made them look unique! Therefore, it would be nice to bring car individuality back but with XXI century requirements!

I find East Germany one of the more fascinating communist states. Being the only Western communist state, and the blend of Western culture with Eastern values at the time is very interesting!

Co ta za system zapisu? Jakość nagrania lepsza niż VHS.

My daughter married a German National whose family lived in East Germany. I would love to talk to them about their experiences but they don’t seem comfortable talking about it.

So familiar yet so unrecognisable

The Volksarmee were secretly all Devo fans.

Would be cool to watch a video of 2023, side by side, driving the exact same streets.

At about 12 minutes in there was a rover Sd1 and a ford granada and possibly a renault

Quand Berlin était encore allemand.