The award-winning podcast preserving the stories of the Cold War before they are lost…subscribe for free. Produced by Ian Sanders FRHistS
Today is the 35th anniversary of the Berlin Wall and East German border opening in the autumn of 1989. Listen on Apple PodcastsListen on SpotifyListen on Amazon MusicListen on Podcast AddictBecome a Patron! In this riveting episode, I speak with Dietmar Schultke, a member of the Grenztruppen, the East German Border Guards and delve into … Read more
I’m working on an episode of people’s memories of the opening of the Berlin Wall on 9th November 1989. If you’d like to participate, please record your memories via the voice message feature below or record on your mobile phone and send me the file at ian “at” coldwarconversations.com. Thanks
It’s 1966 in Berlin and the city has now been divided for 5 years by an almost impenetrable wall erected by the communist German Democratic Republic. West German student Volker Heinz joins a group looking for ways to help would-be fugitives escape from East to West. Their search ends at Checkpoint Charlie, the most … Read more
Dave Phillips is a Yeoman Warder at the Tower of London. The Yeoman Warders have been guarding the Tower since Tudor times. Dave joined the British Army aged 16 into the Royal Irish Rangers. We hear of his early years in the Army in Northern Ireland and his posting to West Berlin. In West Berlin … Read more
From the moment East Germany was formed in 1949, many of its citizens chose to leave to start a new life in the West. By the mid-1950s, the trickle had turned into a flood as large numbers rejected Walter Ulbricht’s Communist paradise. His ‘Workers’ & Peasants’ State’ could not afford to lose the skills and … Read more
Richard Blevins enlisted aged 18 in the US Army in March of 1987. He completed Basic Training & Military Police School training in July of 1987 and was posted to West Berlin as a United States Military Policeman. He describes his selection for Berlin duty while at Rhine-Main AFB in Frankfurt and his first journey … Read more
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 Steinstuecken was caught in a tug-of-war between the Americans, the Soviets and the East Germans. Listen on Apple PodcastsListen on … Read more
The French Forces in Berlin were the units of the French Armed Forces stationed from 1945 until the end of the Cold War-era in West Berlin according to the agreements of the Yalta Conference and Potsdam Conference. The troops were the French counterparts to the United States’ Berlin Brigade and the United Kingdom’s Berlin Infantry … Read more
Listen on Apple PodcastsListen on SpotifyListen on Google Podcasts This is the 2nd part of our conversation with Major General Sir Robert Corbett, KCVO, CB who was the last Commandant of the British Sector in Berlin. We join as I ask what were the British Army’s plans in the event of a Warsaw Pact invasion … Read more
Listen on Apple PodcastsListen on SpotifyListen on Google Podcasts Major General Sir Robert Corbett, KCVO, CB was the last Commandant of the British Sector in Berlin. We start his story with the description of his first experience of Berlin as a young Army captain commanding a military train across East Germany into West Berlin just … Read more