The fall of the Berlin Wall
Witness History
BBC
4.4 • 1.6K Ratings
🗓️ 25 October 2019
⏱️ 9 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
The border between communist East Germany and the West opened on November 9th 1989. It marked the beginning of the collapse of communism in Eastern Europe. Michaela Graichen spoke to two East Germans who believe they were the first people to cross from East to West on the night of November 9th.
(Photo: East Germans climbing onto the top of the Berlin Wall at the Brandenburg Gate after the opening of the East German border was announced in Berlin. November 9, 1989. Credit: REUTERS/Staff/Files)
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Choosing what to watch night after night the flicking through the endless |
| 0:06.8 | searching is a nightmare we want to help you on our brand new podcast off the |
| 0:11.8 | telly we share what we've been watching |
| 0:14.0 | Cladie Aide. |
| 0:16.0 | Load to games, loads of fun, loads of screaming. |
| 0:19.0 | Lovely. Off the telly with me Joanna Paige. |
| 0:21.0 | And me, Natalie Cassidy, so your evenings can be a little less |
| 0:24.9 | searching and a lot more auction listen on BBC sounds. You're listening to the Witness History Podcast from the BBC World Service. |
| 0:39.0 | All this week we've been looking back at events in Eastern Europe in 1989 that led to the fall of the Berlin Wall in November |
| 0:46.2 | of that year. The Wall had stood as a symbol of the Cold War for more than a quarter of |
| 0:50.8 | a century, dividing communist East Germany from capitalist West Germany. |
| 0:56.4 | Michaela Gration spoke to two friends who believed they were the first to cross from |
| 1:01.1 | east to West Berlin the night the crossing was opened. |
| 1:05.0 | They are Aaron Radomsky and Siegbert Shefke or Ziggi. |
| 1:09.0 | He's in a |
| 1:15.0 | sitting in a bar and we heard Gunter Schabowski on the radio and what we heard |
| 1:21.0 | was part of a big press conference. All we heard were the words East German |
| 1:26.3 | citizens are allowed to travel immediately. |
| 1:31.3 | Gunterschabovsky was a senior communist politician. He'd been giving a press conference |
| 1:36.3 | when suddenly he surprised everyone. |
| 1:38.9 | And this is a hobby we on the situation |
| 1:41.9 | lesson. Therefore we have decided to introduce new regulations today |
... |
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