Tales of a West German football fan in the Soviet bloc (219)

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

Ian Sanders

History, Documentary, Society & Culture

4.8 • 865 Ratings

🗓️ 29 January 2022

⏱️ 37 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

You will remember Karl-Heinz from our episode 218 where he talked about being a signaller on the West German destroyer "Hamburg" in the late 70s. Today we follow his post navy life as a travelling supporter of football club HSV Hamburg where he followed them all over the Soviet bloc talks about watching them play Dynamo Berlin the Stasi side and drinking with Liverpool, Newcastle and Hamburg legend Kevin Keegan in a hotel bar in Tiblisi. And his Cold War encounters don’t stop there. While working in Chile he met General Pinochet, the military dictator of Chile from 1973 to 1990 and living across the street from Margot Honecker the wife of East German leader Erich Honecker who was also an influential member of that country's Communist regime until 1989. If you have listened this far, I know you are enjoying the podcasts so I’m asking for one-off or monthly donations to support my work and enable me to continue producing the podcast. If you become a monthly supporter via Patreon, you will get the sought after CWC coaster as a thank you, audio and other extras as well as basking in the warm glow of knowing you are helping to preserve Cold War history. Just go to https://coldwarconversations.com/donate/ If a financial contribution is not your cup of tea, then you can still help us by leaving written reviews wherever you listen to us as well as sharing us on social media. It really helps us get new guests on the show. 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. I am delighted to welcome Karl-Heinz to our Cold War conversation… There’s further information on this episode here including videos here . https://coldwarconversations.com/episode219/ 0:00 Introduction to the episode and Karl Heinz's experiences with the KGB 2:02 Request for donations and support for the podcast 4:01 Karl Heinz's recollections of visits to East Berlin and encounters with fans 9:44 Karl Heinz's trip to Tbilisi, Georgia for a football match and interactions with locals 17:32 Encounter with potential KGB agents and misunderstandings with locals 20:38 Karl Heinz's football game experiences in East Berlin 24:57 Karl Heinz's experience in Chile during the time of Pinochet and meeting with Pinochet 30:16 Meeting with Margaret Honecker and her continued belief in the communist cause 32:04 Acknowledgement of patrons and their contributions Table of contents powered by PodcastAI✨ 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 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Welcome to Cold War Conversations, the home of real stories of the Cold War.
0:05.9	So there was nobody on the streets at the time.
0:08.2	We said, you know what, don't we pull down some red flags and take them home as souvenirs.
0:12.5	Try to climb up those poles to pull down the flags.
0:15.7	And all of us all of a sudden the car pulls up next to us.
0:17.9	There's two guys in the car.
0:19.3	Oh, he said, this is KGB.
0:25.3	This is Cold War Conversations. If you're new here, you've come to the right place to listen to first-hand
0:33.5	Cold War history accounts. Do make sure you follow us in your podcast app
0:38.4	so that you don't miss out on future episodes.
0:41.6	You will remember Carl Heinz from our episode
0:45.1	where we talked about him being a signaller
0:47.2	on the West German destroyer Hamburg in the late 1970s.
0:52.0	Today we follow his post-Navy life as a travelling supporter of football club
0:56.9	HSV Hamburg where he followed them all over the Soviet block and talks about watching them
1:02.5	play Dinamo Berlin, Starseyside and drinking with Liverpool and Hamburg legend Kevin
1:08.4	Keegan in a hotel bar in Tbilisi.
1:12.1	And his Cold War encounters don't stop there.
1:14.8	Whilst working in Chile, he met General Pinochet, the military dictator of Chile from
1:21.0	1973 to 1990, as well as living across the street from Margot Honica, the wife of East German leader Eric Honica,
1:29.7	as well as being an influential member of that country's communist regime until 1989.
1:36.2	If you have listened this far, I know that you are enjoying the podcast,
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Ian Sanders, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Ian Sanders and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.