Life as a Cold War East German teenager

    Welcome to episode 20  of Cold War Conversations. Today we’re talking to Anke Holst was born in the GDR during the 1970s in Rostock. Anke has returned to Rostock after many years abroad and now provides tours of GDR sites in Rostock. Our conversation highlights how different life was in the provinces of … Read more

Sabine – A Cold War East German Childhood

Welcome to Episode 15 of Cold War Conversations. Today we speak to Sabine who was 13 when the Wall opened. We hear about her childhood in East Germany and gain great insight into life at the time, the pressures on her family and her first steps into West Berlin. I found Sabine’s story very personal … Read more

The Last Days of Checkpoint Charlie

Welcome to Episode 13 of Cold War Conversations. I have always been intrigued by a video posted on Youtube filmed in the 1980s by a then young US army soldier documenting his first days in Berlin for his family back at home. Now I never dreamed that I would find, let alone talk to that … Read more

My Stasi file is as thick as a phone book

Welcome to Episode 12 of Cold War Conversations. Today’s guest is someone I’ve been trying to speak to for some time as his story is a particularly fascinating one. We’re chatting with Mark Reeder a musician and music producer who has been involved in the Berlin and international music scene since 1978, starting as Factory Records … Read more

The 1953 East German Uprising with Dr Richard Millington

Welcome you to episode 6 of Cold War Conversations where we talk to about the relatively little known Uprising of 1953 in East Germany. A lot of focus is on the fall of the Berlin Wall, but it can be argued that the Uprising of 1953 sowed the seeds for the eventual demise of the … Read more

The Strange World of Football in Cold War East Germany with Craig McCracken

<Welcome to Episode 3 of Cold War Conversations where we hear about the strange world of football in East Germany and even if you are not interested in football it’s a fascinating chat. Craig McCracken runs the website, Beyondthelastman.com, described as 20th century football writing and nostalgia in a skilled and cultured groove. One of … Read more

Cold War fiction – East German crime author David Young

In Episode 7 we welcome award-winning author David Young who has written the Stasi Child – Karin Müller series of crime thrillers set in East Germany in the mid 1970s. The series begins in 1975 with Stasi Child, David’s critically-acclaimed debut which was an official Top Twenty paperback bestseller in The Bookseller, won the CWA … Read more

Cold War Berlin and Signals Intelligence

  Welcome to Episode 2 of Cold War Conversations where we start with a fascinating eyewitness account of Berlin during the Cold War. Michael  lived in Berlin as a child of US Airforce personnel in the 1960s and 70s and then subsequently joined the US Airforce himself and worked in Signals Intelligence during the 1980s. … Read more