A 22 year old Briton working in East Germany (170)

Cold War Conversations - "vivid & compelling" The NY Times

Ian Sanders

History, Documentary, Society & Culture

4.8 • 865 Ratings

🗓️ 27 March 2021

⏱️ 64 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

We speak with Chris Summers who as a 22 year old was sent by his employers to East Germany in a Ford Escort to install British factory machinery. He provides us with interesting insights into life in the provinces of the GDR. Long term listeners of the podcast will recognise one of Chris’s colleagues was Tim, husband of Antje who was our guest in episode 82 “A Cold War Romance” available here https://coldwarconversations.com/episode82/ Chris was also sent to Poland, the Soviet Union, Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia where he tells what he saw and experienced in the latter half of the 1980s. If you can spare it I’m asking listeners to contribute at least $3 USD per month to help keep us on the air (larger amounts are welcome too) plus you can get a sought after CWC coaster as a monthly financial supporter of the podcast and you bask in the warm glow of knowing you helping preserve Cold War history. Just go to https://coldwarconversations.com/donate/ I am delighted to welcome Chris Summers to our Cold War conversation… There’s further information on this episode in our show notes, which can also be found as a link in your podcast app here. https://coldwarconversations.com/episode170/ If you can’t wait for next week’s episode do visit our Facebook discussion group where guests and listeners continue the Cold War Conversation. Just search Cold War Conversations in Facebook. Thank you very much for listening. It is really appreciated Radio GDR If you are interested in East Germany we can highly recommend our friends over at Radio GDR. Support the project! https://coldwarconversations.com/donate/ Follow us on Twitter https://twitter.com/ColdWarPod Facebook https://www.facebook.com/groups/coldwarpod/ Instagram https://www.instagram.com/coldwarconversations/ Youtube https://youtube.com/@ColdWarConversations 0:00 Introduction and toast anecdote 0:50 Interview with Chris Summers about his work with Detexamat in East Germany 15:39 Experiencing nightlife in East Germany 20:26 Independent tourism during the Cold War 26:31 Installing equipment and training locals in East Germany 38:59 Chris Summers' work experiences in Poland and Russia 45:57 Experiences in Soviet factories and Georgian culture 49:09 Unique experiences and restrictions in the Soviet Union 54:45 Chris Summers' work in Czechoslovakia 56:33 Tim's wedding and Ancher's arrival in the UK 59:36 Wrap up and donation information Chapters powered by PodcastAI✨ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to Cold War Conversations, the home of real stories of the Cold War.
0:05.8	He made the toast, and that's Ravia. We all took a drink, and Rich and I took it.
0:08.9	That's quite nice, actually. Put the glass down, and he just looked at us.
0:12.3	And in Russian, he said, when you're in Georgia, you drink to the bottom of the glass.
0:19.3	This is Cold War Conversations.
0:24.6	Massive Soviet military forces have invaded the small, non-aligned, sovereign nation of Afghanistan.
0:33.9	Mr. Gorbachev tear down this wall.
0:42.7	6.9.8.8.3.
0:49.4	And I'm here to host this final program from the German Democratic Republic for you.
0:55.8	Welcome to Cold War Conversations. If you're new here, you've come to the right place to listen to first-hand Cold War history accounts.
1:04.6	Do make sure you subscribe in your podcast app so that you don't miss out on future episodes.
1:10.5	We speak with Chris Summers, who as a 20-year-old, was sent by his employers to East
1:16.6	Germany in a Ford escort to install British factory machinery.
1:21.9	He provides us with interesting insights into life in the provinces of the GDR.
1:28.0	Long-term listeners of the podcast will recognize one of Chris's colleagues was Tim,
1:33.8	husband of Ancher, who was our guest in episode 82, a Cold War romance.
1:40.9	Chris was also sent to Poland, the Soviet Union, Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia, where he tells us what he saw and experienced in the latter half of the 1980s.
1:52.7	Now, if you can spare it, I'm asking listeners to contribute at least three US dollars per month to help keep us on the air, although larger amounts are welcome to.
2:03.6	You get a sought-after Cold War Conversations drinks coaster as a monthly financial supporter,
2:09.8	and you bask in the warm glow of knowing that you are helping preserve Cold War history.
2:15.5	Just go to Cold Warconversations.com
2:18.2	slash donate for further information.
	...

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