The West Berlin village surrounded by the Berlin Wall (220)

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

Ian Sanders

History, Documentary, Society & Culture

4.8 • 865 Ratings

🗓️ 5 February 2022

⏱️ 71 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

When the Cold War split Berlin in half, between East and West, one neighbourhood was trapped in the middle and became a symbol of Cold War tensions. For more than twenty years, the hamlet of Steinstücken was caught in a tug-of-war between the Americans, the Soviets and the East Germans. Steinstücken officially belonged to the U.S. Occupation Sector of Berlin. But, it was located outside the city boundaries, completely surrounded by East German territory. No West Berlin-owned roads or trails connected it to the city. It was a de facto Western island in a Communist sea. We speak with Cold War veteran Don Smith the author of Steinstuecken: A Little Pocket of Freedom, a photo and fact-packed book which describes the challenges America faced in occupied Berlin and the personal stories of the citizens of Steinstücken who faced East German soldiers on a daily basis. Buy the book here and support the podcast UK listeners https://amzn.to/3Aux9dW US listeners https://amzn.to/3r47PZi Don’s web site http://steinpocket.com/ Now if you think there is a vast army of research assistants, audio engineers and producers putting together this podcast you’d be wrong. This podcast relies on your support to enable me to continue to capture these incredible stories and make them available to everyone for free. If you’d like to help to preserve Cold War history and enable me to continue to produce this podcast you can 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 to welcome Don Smith to our Cold War conversation… There’s further information including videos here. https://coldwarconversations.com/episode220/ 0:00 Introduction and background of Steinstücken 5:21 History and life in Steinstücken during the Cold War 14:03 The unique nature of German farming and how Steinstücken got its name 16:10 East Germany's attempt to annex Steinstücken and America's response 20:47 The political dynamics in Steinstücken during the Cold War 30:25 Impact of the Berlin Wall on Steinstücken 38:17 The refugee situation and U.S. military operations in Steinstücken 45:37 Economic and societal implications in Steinstücken and the 4 power agreement 1:01:15 Post Cold War integration of Steinstücken into West Berlin 1:07:04 Podcast patrons and invitation to join the Facebook group 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

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0:00.0	Welcome to Cold War Conversations, the home of real stories of the Cold War.
0:05.9	One day the tour guide said, I'm going to take it to something that's pretty unique.
0:09.3	And so we got on the tour bus and we're driving through Berlin and all of a sudden we turn and go down this,
0:15.2	what looks like a typical German country road, except it was lined on both sides by the Berlin Wall.
0:25.5	This is Cold War Conversations.
0:31.5	If you're new here, you've come to the right place to listen to firsthand Cold War
0:36.5	history accounts. Do make sure you follow
0:39.3	us in your podcast app so that you don't miss out on future episodes. When the Cold War split
0:46.0	Berlin in half between East and West, one neighbourhood was trapped in the middle and became a symbol
0:51.7	of Cold War tensions. For more than 20 years, the hamlet of Steinstuchen was caught in a tug of war between the Americans,
1:00.0	the Soviets and the East Germans.
1:03.0	Steinstuchen officially belonged to the US occupation sector of Berlin, but it was located outside
1:09.0	the city boundaries, completely surrounded by East
1:12.6	German territory. No West Berlin owned roads or trails connected it to the city. It was a de facto
1:20.6	western island in a communist sea. We speak with Cold War veteran Don Smith, the author of
1:27.4	Steinstuchen, A Little Pocket of Freedom,
1:29.9	which is a photo and fact-packed book which describes the challenges America facing occupied Berlin
1:36.6	and the personal stories of the citizens of Steinshucken who faced East German soldiers on a daily basis.
1:44.8	There's links to buy the book in the episode notes.
1:50.8	Now, if you think there's a vast army of research assistants, audio engineers and producers putting together this podcast, you'd be wrong.
2:00.8	This podcast relies on your support to enable me to continue to capture these incredible stories
2:07.6	and make them available to everyone for free.
	...

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