East Berlin's RISKIEST Escape Route: Cold War Ghost Stations Explained

You spoke English with such a thick german accent

Russian leadership brainwashing machine and sadism lead to Berlin split. Such a terrible thing. This video and others from the communist era horrors must be surfaced

My granddad did this, with the S-Bahn

Hol euch einen Synchronsprecher... Das Video fällt schon in die typische Storytelling Geschichte mit Animationen, dann macht es doch wenigstens richtig. Die Synchronstimme mit dem Akzent macht es echt unerträglich das Video anzuschauen.

Why doing this instead of maintaîning subway ?

Don't take risk.

Obviously if no fire ever broke out it wasn’t that dangerous at all.

You like adventure in the night

Nothing better then a German narrating about German events in English, in the natural German accent. Keep it up, and actually that's the charm of your videos, is your German-accent narration, with absolute native German pronunciation!

Dein Englisch hört sich leider so schlecht an, dass ich trotz des guten Inhaltes das Video kaum genießen kann. Tut mir leid.

Funny that one station in the DDR sector was left open. What purpose would that serve if the trains didn't stop there?

Communism is cancer.

Scary bark

There are now guided tours for tourists showing you the tunnels and various exits that were used to escape East Berlin. Right at the very beginning, when Berlin was divided, the railway staff still had keys to open doors where they could get out to the West and so they took their families with them. But of course once that had happened the Stasi quickly closed off all of the exits. Before the War, escape tunnels linked to the U-bahn stations were already in place and were still in existence after the War. You can visit them today.

Don't worry about your strong accent - it was perfectly understandable from a British English speaker's perspective, and thank you for making this very interesting video. I've read a lot about East Germany and the Stasi, but there's something additional in a quality documentary video that you cannot get from just text.

Dass diese Böttinger sich traut mit ihrem undemokratischen Weltbild die Flagge eines demokratischen Staates am Revere zu tragen- mir kommt das Kotzen- in Israel funktionieren 4. Gewalt und Judicative immer noch- hier arbeitet diese System....für einen Staatssender der dem nordkoreanischen Regime gefallen könnte.....die ist so dermaßen anmassend! Die soll sich schämen! Die beschmutzt die Flagge des Landes meiner Freunde- einfach zum sich Übergeben

When I was 17 I made a trip to Germany to follow my familie roots, East Berlin was also a part of it, did not have a problem to cross to the east and it gave me a good lesson in life.. something I will never forget.

what game is used for footage?

I arrived in Germany on 23 December 1961, just a few months AFTER the horrendous Mauer was erected, to serve in the U.S. Army there for two years. I felt totally ashamed after the U.S. Army in Berlin decided not to intervene to save the life of Peter Fechter, who was seeking freedom in the West. How gratified I was in late 1989 when the Berlin Wall WENT DOWN! I have since visited Berlin twice, and it was truly wonderful to travel throughout ALL of Berlin and throughout all of eastern Germany, a beautiful place (e.g., Dresden, Görlitz)! The DDR regime was a horrendous disgrace in the history of humankind. It suppressed all human rights. I cannot understand why a sense of "Ostalgie" exists among some former East Germans, who seek a return to "the land of Trabis and the Stasi!" Maybe they would live happier lives in, say, North Korea or Cuba!

My father escaped by train. Brought no luggages. Apart from wearing several pants and several pullover. Dont really know how excatly he escaped.

The Ghost stations were really creepy and the feelings too. I often thought about the east german people which lived some meters above. That was grazy.

Great job Lukas, both your speaking voice and English are amazing.

There is, nor was a station called Schmidtstraße. It was Heinrich-Heine-Str. Station with closed exit to Schmidtstr. From 1928-1960 this station was called Neander Str. Station.

Nice it helped me confirm linking to kryptos. (U,O underground). U line From or to Alexander plats, to Rosa Luxemburg. Though they will be referencing some spy thing that happened for the WW2 layer. Thank you for sharing the video.

What evil monsters ran that regime.

living in communist romania we had this idea that the RDG and pehaps Yougoslavia were the best communist countries - ok, the least bad ones - to live in. escaping to or just travelling was very difficult as the govt would not deliver a passport. some citizens deemed less at risk of fleeing would sometimes obtain a passport but only to travel to the other comunist countries. many of these did not return to romania, demanded asylum, their belongings in romania have been confiscated. the good news is if they had children, these could reach their parent after a few months or years. everyone wanted to leave the communist country, the west was a dream. we don't know how many people were shot for trying to cross the borders, it is believed to be into the tens of thousands over the years. the number did increase towards the end of the regime with 1989 having the most escape attemps - one of which being the infamous Nadia Comaneci who escaped from Romania just one month before Ceausescu was shot. Ceausescu was enraged about her. those captured alive during these escapes - the ones who did talk after 1990, have been beaten for weeks. the political police was like raging dogs. the irony is, those who managed to reach the west didn'y fare better. coming from a communist country into the competitive capitalist world must have been a new, unexpected life long trauma for many. none was really prepared or had any kind of experience for the western job market. imagine the struggle.

Ubahn station Gneisenaustrasse if someone on here knows the strasses right near the ubahn station we are a prior military family who lived in the neighborhood just blocks from that ubahn station we are seeking the name of the strasse we lived on in winter 1975. Our landlord owned a liquor store on the 1st floor we lived on the 2nd floor out strasse started with the letter (i). Thanks

nothing wrong with your voice overs

I found your German accented English excellent and much easier to listen to than some of the dreadful American accents we are forced to listen to.

dufte

Never again is now.

Зачем немцы так рисковали чтобы попасть в закрытый анклав? Ведь гораздо проще попасть в ФРГ за пределами Берлина, например из Чехословакии.

You're voice overs are great! Don't change a thing

Imagine there would be a city called West Pyongyang with South Korean people living in a city like Seoul in the middle of North Korea. That Berlin division thing was crazy as hell.

DO NOT APOLOGISE for your voice. NO issues at all. Your commentary is brilliant, fascinating and compelling.

Welcome to the palace of tears

I know your accent is not artificial, but its fitting, especially when the subject is the country the narrator comes from. Gives it a feel of authenticity.

There is nothing wrong with your voice, your accent or your English. This video is perfect as it is, so don't change. It is great having a German guy narrating this subject. Fascinating and perfect in every way.

No one mentioned this but this also happened in China. The train between Hong Kong's Kowloon station to Guangzhou city has been going since 1908, and people between Hong Kong and China have been traveling freely until 1950. Due to large amount of people pouring into Hong Kong from Communist newly occupied China, the Chinese government closed the border from their end. The train that went to China also had to be stop at the border for the next 30 years.

Great video. The Berlin subway has a long history. In May 1945, after Hitler and Goebbels killed themselves, the remaining staff were finally free to flee the Fuehrerbunker. With Russian troops everywhere in the city, they escaped at night and went through the subway tunnels. But eventually, they had to come up, and that's where many met their end.

All memory holed now by our Western media.

I traveled to Berlin a lot before the Wall fell. I took the U-Bahn and regularly passed through the ghost stations. They were dimly lit, the platforms were fenced off and manned by GDR border guards who were armed. The passengers would stare at them and they'd stare back. As I transited through the ghost stations, I often thought to myself...what a screwed up system the East Germans built. BTW, your voice overs are really good, nothing to apologize for.

I visited Berlin for my first visit in 1987 and remember the u ban journies there then.

....Ich hätte so gerne mal den Inhalt verstanden, was gesagt wurde,- stattdessen dieses Stammel- Englisch....