Berlin: Capital of Spies (207)

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

Ian Sanders

History, Documentary, Society & Culture

4.8 • 865 Ratings

🗓️ 6 November 2021

⏱️ 54 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

For almost half a century, the hottest front in the Cold War was right across Berlin. From summer 1945 until 1990, spying was part of everyday life in both East and West Berlin. I speak with historian Bernd von Kostka of the Allied Museum in Berlin-Dahlem who has co-authored with Sven Felix Kellerhoff the book Capital of Spies: Intelligence agencies in Berlin during the Cold War recently published by Casemate. The book describes the spectacular successes and failures of the various secret services based in the city and in this episode we will concentrate on one of the chapters detailing the work of the various Allied listening stations. Buy "Capital of Spies" and support the podcast here UK Listeners https://amzn.to/3mFb3jK US Listeners https://amzn.to/3waLwSL This podcast relies on listener support to enable me to continue to capture these incredible stories and make them available for free. You can support my work and help to preserve Cold War history via one off or monthly donations Just go to https://coldwarconversations.com/donate/for more details. Do join our Facebook discussion group where the cold war conversation continues between episodes. Just search Cold War Conversations on Facebook. I am delighted and honoured to welcome back Bernd von Kostka to our Cold War conversation… There’s further information here. https://coldwarconversations.com/episode207/ Thank you very much for listening. It is really appreciated – goodbye. 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 discussion on Berlin's role in the Cold War 2:42 Historical significance of Teufelsberg in Berlin 9:14 Listening stations in Berlin: Marienfelde and Templehof 16:28 Collaboration between the Western powers in Berlin 20:47 Technology and operations at Teufelsberg 27:47 Infiltration of Field Station Berlin by Soviet and East German agents 38:32 US counterintelligence's awareness of spy activities 43:33 Exposure and fate of the spies post-arrest 47:59 Fate of Teufelsberg after the Wall opened 50:07 Sponsor: Promotion for Bernd's book "Capital of Spies" 51:57 Closing remarks and promotion for the Cold War Conversations store Table of contents 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.
0:06.0	Western Secret Services remained pretty tight-lipped about their listing activities in West Berlin.
0:13.0	And information about their espionage work on the Toilfelsberg and the other spots
0:18.5	can be obtained mostly from the open Starzies files,
0:24.5	which is pretty ironic.
0:28.0	This is Cold War Conversations.
0:32.8	Thanks to Patreon Jim Black for our intro today.
0:37.1	If you're new here, you've come to the right place to listen to first-hand Cold War history accounts.
0:42.8	Do make sure you follow us in your podcast app so that you don't miss out on future episodes.
0:48.9	For almost half a century, the hottest front in the Cold War was right across Berlin. From summer
0:55.9	1945 until 1990, spying was part of everyday life in both East and West Berlin. I speak with
1:05.2	historian Berndt von Kosker of the Allied Museum in Berlin-Darlem, who was co-authored with Sven Felix
1:12.9	Kellehoff, the book Capital of Spies, Intelligence agencies in Berlin during the Cold War,
1:19.7	recently published by Casemate. The book describes the spectacular successes and failures
1:26.2	of the various secret services based in the city
1:28.9	and in this episode we will concentrate on one of the chapters detailing the work of the various
1:35.3	allied listening stations including the famous Toifelsberg.
1:40.7	Now you probably fast forward or you skip this bit,
1:44.9	but the podcast does rely on your support to enable me
1:49.3	to continue to capture these incredible stories
1:52.7	and make them available for free.
1:56.3	You can support my work and help to preserve Cold War history
	...

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