Old Newscast: The Fall of the Berlin Wall, 1989 (Part 2)

Newscast

BBC

Politics, News

4.4 • 6.4K Ratings

🗓️ 5 May 2025

⏱️ 36 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

On this episode of Old Newscast, we look at the consequences for the world of the fall of the Berlin Wall.

Adam is joined by world affairs editor John Simpson, as well as historian and author of Beyond the Wall, Katja Hoyer.

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Newscast brings you daily analysis of the latest political news stories from the BBC.

It was presented by Adam Fleming. It was made by Chris Flynn with Jack Maclaren, Alix Pickles, and Kris Jalowiecki. The technical producer was Michael Regaard. The assistant editor is Chris Gray. The editor is Sam Bonham.

Transcript

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0:00.0	BBC Sounds, Music, Radio, Podcasts.
0:04.9	Hello, here is the second episode in our mini series of old newscast,
0:09.5	where we're looking at the fall of the Berlin Wall on the 9th of November, 1989,
0:14.9	which lots of newscasters wanted us to look at.
0:18.0	So in the last episode, we talked about what happened on the night.
0:21.6	We talked about the quite bizarre series of things that happened in the build-up to the collapse
0:27.6	of the wall. And we talked about the big Cold War and post-World War II history that actually
0:33.1	led to the wall being built in the first place. So, where have we got to?
0:37.9	People have streamed across the wall from East Berlin to West Berlin.
0:41.5	Their eyes have been opened.
0:42.7	What better way to mark the moment than a few months later,
0:45.5	David Hasselhoff, who was then a global megastar,
0:48.8	particularly in Germany, performing on the wall for New Year's Eve, 1989.
0:53.4	I've been looking for freedom. I've been looking for freedom.
0:57.3	I've been looking so long.
1:00.3	He is still actually quite big in Germany, you know.
1:02.6	Anyway, let's find out the big changes
1:04.4	that were coming Germany's way
1:05.8	after the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989
1:08.1	on this episode of old newscast.
1:10.9	Newscast from the BBC.
1:13.5	Mr Gorbachev tear down this wall.
	...

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