Khrushchev said that having Berlin was like being able to squeeze the testicles of the West whenever he felt like it. Frederick Taylor
[Erich] Honecker was deeply resistant to change ... He lived increasingly in a world of fantasy. Professor James Kronin
Nothing would ever have happened in East Germany, nothing would ever have happened in most of Eastern Europe, if it hadn’t have been for the arrival of one man and that was Gorbachev. This was the first man who said we are not going to send in the tanks. Peter Millar, Reuters correspondent Berlin
This is the famous meeting of the tanks at Checkpoint Charlie which took place in October 1961 ... These were tanks which were armed and ready to shoot. And it could easily have escalated into a battle. John Kornblum
8th November 1989: Berlin: 4.20 p.m. Checkpoint Charlie. Days that Shook the World s1e5: Romonov Dynasty & Berlin Wall, BBC 2003
Over 200 have died trying to cross from the communist East. ibid.
Of the Cold War spy stories two days stand out: the shooting down of America’s top-secret U2 spy plane and the day the Soviet Union and the USA traded spies on the Glienicke bridge in Berlin. Days that Shook the World s2e10: Cold War Spies
Here in Berlin, one cannot help being aware that you are the hub around which turns the wheel of history ... If ever there were a people who should be constantly sensitive to their destiny, the people of Berlin, East and West, should be they. Martin Luther King
The greatest cultural extravaganza that one could imagine. David Bowie
When the Berlin Wall came down the Americans cried ‘Victory’ and walked off the field. Paul Keating
This operation took place in Cold War Berlin ... After sixty years the CIA has finally declassified its files ... The secret construction of a five-hundred-metre spy tunnel. Spies Beneath Berlin, Quest 2015
The British were also partners in this tunnel ... The year is 1952: West Berlin is an island in a communist sea. East and West are squaring up over the barbed wire. Berlin had become a city of spies. ibid.
The Soviets already know what they are up to. ibid.
An astonishing crime riveted an entire country. He [Kallet Alvarazi] waged a war of nerves with the police. His gang scored millions in cash and jewellery. Masterminds s3e7: The Berlin Heist, truTV 2005
Sixteen people are being held hostage itself by four masked men. ibid.
Hundreds of safe deposit boxes are housed in a basement vault. ibid.
He [Kallet] is going to build a tunnel. ibid.
The people of Berlin are living with the effects of the debauched regime. Suffering is on a terrible scale. Most are close to starving. And all are living in constant danger. Hitler’s Circle of Evil s1e10: Meltdown, 2018
Armed protesters took to the streets of Berlin … A huge mob descended on the Reichstag. World War I: The Final Hours, BBC 2018
Reagan didn’t get the Berlin wall torn down by apologising to commies. Lilyhammer s2e3: Fiddler’s Green, Netflix 2013
In the heart of Berlin children play innocently over what was once Adolf Hitler’s death tomb. It was here in the Fuhrer-bunker on April 30th 1945 that Hitler made the final preparation for his suicide. Outside in a devastating final assault on the heart of the Third Reich, the Russian army closed in on the Fuhrer. Hitler’s death brought to an end his dream of a thousand-year Reich: it lasted only twelve years but changed the world. History’s Most Hated s1e4: Hitler & Stalin
In April 1945 Soviet director Uuli Raizman makes a film about the so-called end of the Third Reich. He has 38 Red Army cameramen at his disposal … The title of the film: Berlin … Over two million people are still living in Berlin … Soon only only diaries and memories, files and pictures, ashes and dust, will tell the tales of their city. Berlin 1945: Diary of a Metropolis I, BBC 2020
Half of Europe has surrendered and it’s [Berlin] basking in the glory of its successes. But in less than four years the tide will have turned. Adolf Hitler will have survived an assassination attempt. Allied troops will be ready to storm the country and take the city. The war will return to its source: Berlin. And there will be little left of the city. ibid.
‘What will the next year bring? We are fearful of 1945.’ ibid. home film footage
‘The capital of the Reich was attacked by 40 fast bombers: they crossed the city in loose formation: 12 dead, 23 injured, 1,324 homeless.’ ibid. news
‘Most of them were Ukrainians and they must have been terribly mistreated. Screams rang out again and again. People living nearby ignored them, that is when the screams of tortured were heard, they all closed their windows on command.’ ibid. diary
‘Every day in the dark room I see the portraits of young people who barely adult are dressed in military uniforms. Most of them won’t live to see the end of the war.’ ibid.
‘Today the wheel has turned full circle; Berliners are undergoing the ordeal to which they unprotestingly committed the cities of Europe.’ ibid. UK news
‘I’m lying in a small bunker at the Ministry of Propaganda waiting to be deployed. I fell awkward among the old party comrades, who disgust me that many of them are drunk.’ Suddenly, the radio blares with military marches and we hear Goebbel’s speech on Hitler’s birthday.’ Berlin 1945: Diary of a Metropolis II, Dieter aged 17, BBC 2020
‘Years back they screamed, Heil! Now they hate the man who calls himself their Fuhrer. They hate him, fear him. They suffer deprivation and death for him. But they have neither the strength nor the courage to free themselves from his demonic possession.’ ibid. diary, 48
‘Rather a Russian on the belly than an American bomb on the head.’ ibid.
One event stands out above all others: what happened on November 9th 1989 was one of the great great days of modern human existence. The fall of the Berlin Wall. The Fall of the Berlin Wall with John Simpson, BBC 2021
Germany was split into two countries, east and west, a legacy of the Second World War that had left the continent divided. ibid.
The images of thousands of formally imprisoned peoples streaming through the checkpoints as once trigger-happy border guards stood idly by were beamed around the world. ibid.
Berlin: Russian Sector Begins In 50 Meters. You Are Now Leaving The British Sector. Breakaway 1955 starring Tom Conway & Michael Balfour & Honor Blackman & Bruce Seton & Brian Worth & Freddie Mills & Alexander Gauge & John Horsley & Paddy Webster & John Coliocos & Arthur Lowe et al, director Henry Cass, drives past sign
Before the Nazis came to power there had been 160,000 Jews living in Berlin. They were an integral part of this cosmopolitan city. By 1942, 500 a week were being picked up by the Gestapo and sent from here to their deaths at Auschwitz. Secret History s7e2: The Hidden Jews of Berlin, Channel 4 1999
‘But we have never had to put a wall up to stop people leaving us.’ West Berlin 26 June 1963: Kennedy VIII: A Legacy (June 1963 - November 1963), Kennedy
Two years after the rise of the Berlin Wall, President John F Kennedy visited Germany to address the citizens of West Berlin. ibid.
‘We’ll never have another day like this one as long as we live.’ ibid. Kennedy to speechwriter
It was clear to us that in this country, under these conditions, it was impossible for us to live. Turning Point: The Bomb and the Cold War VI: Empire is Untenable, Joachim Neumann, East German dissident
East Germany: [Erich] Honecker is a hard-liner who’s horrified by Gorbachev’s reforms. He believed in the iron fist. ibid. Mary Sarotte
We are the people! We are the people! ibid. demonstrations
What people heard were, Permission to cross the border. ibid. Sarotte
He [senior border guard] got angrier and angrier at being left in the lurch. ibid.
The gates in the wall are wide open. ibid. Friedrichs TV news
I always knew my day of reckoning would come but I never thought I’d burn the city down with me. Dogs of Berlin I: VIP, opening riot scene, Netflix 2018
The victim isn’t anybody. That’s all I can say for now. ibid. Kurt to young rozzers
I owe some money to some bad people. Seventeen thousand. ibid. Kurt to Sabine
Our first murder and we are fucking up big time! ibid. young rozzers
With the refugee crisis, tension in the city has never been higher. Dogs of Berlin II: Team, lady head rozzer
Grimmer with his neo-Nazi connections investigating the murder of a famous Turk? The press will have a field day. ibid.
Anything at all that points to the brotherhood. ibid. investigative duo of Kurt & Neo-Nazis to naive rozzer
You know the punishment: if the money is not back by Sunday, there will be ball-busting. ibid. gang to Ulf
I didn’t want to believe it but Kurt was right. You are evil. ibid. Paula to Eva