On 10 February 1962, the American pilot Francis Gary Powers and the Soviet agent Rudolf Abel passed each other on the white line in the middle of the Glienicke Bridge, the first of three spy exchanges there. I tell the story from the tunnel that the Americans and British dug from Rudow to tap Soviet military telephone lines, and why the KGB already knew about it. The tunnel was found in April 1956, and the bridge saw two more exchanges in 1985 and 1986. Take bus 316 from S Wannsee to Glienicker Brücke and stand by the metal band on the footpath that marks the old border.

Chapters:
0:00 Digging the tunnel
6:44 George Blake and the discovery
10:55 Where to see the tunnel
14:09 The bridge and the 1962 swap
16:57 Later swaps and today

Sources:
https://www.deutsches-spionagemuseum.de/2017/02/10/die-agentenbruecke
https://www.bundesarchiv.de/themen-entdecken/online-entdecken/themenbeitraege/kabelkrimi-im-kalten-krieg/
https://www.cia.gov/legacy/museum/exhibit/the-berlin-tunnel
https://www.alliiertenmuseum.de/en/ausstellung/special-exhibition-the-berlin-espionage-tunnel/
https://www.bpb.de/kurz-knapp/hintergrund-aktuell/220518/1986-letzter-agentenaustausch-auf-der-glienicker-bruecke/
https://www.berlin.de/landesdenkmalamt/welterbe/schloesser-und-gaerten-von-potsdam-und-berlin/glienicker-bruecke-654422.php
https://www.berlin.de/ba-treptow-koepenick/ueber-den-bezirk/ortsteile/altglienicke/artikel.449252.php
https://www.bvg.de/de/verbindungen/linienuebersicht/316

Narrated with an AI voice. The short breaks are read in Yusuf's own cloned voice. More at walkofberlin.com

On 24 June 1948 the Soviet Union closed the land and water routes into West Berlin, and the Western powers answered by flying food, coal and medicine into the city. I tell how the airlift worked, from the first planes at Tempelhof to the record Easter Saturday of 1949, and where the sources disagree on the numbers. Along the way it is also the story of one pilot who dropped sweets to children on the approach to Tempelhof. Stand at Platz der Luftbrücke in front of the old Tempelhof airport and count the three ribs of the monument, which stand for the three air corridors.

Chapters:
0:00 The blockade
4:24 Three airfields
8:32 Candy from the sky
11:57 Record day
16:00 The monument

Sources:
https://www.bpb.de/kurz-knapp/lexika/das-junge-politik-lexikon/319929/berliner-blockade-luftbruecke/
https://www.dhm.de/archiv/ausstellungen/berliner-blockade/raum3.html
https://www.berlin.de/en/attractions-and-sights/4859718-3104052-berlin-airlift-monument.en.html
https://www.berlin.de/ba-tempelhof-schoeneberg/ueber-den-bezirk/gedenken/artikel.1688741.php
https://www.thf-berlin.de/en/history-of-location/symbol-of-freedom/airlift
https://www.berlin.de/landesdenkmalamt/denkmale/denkmale-der-alliierten/grossbritannien/spandau/royal-air-force-gatow-raf-gatow-648000.php
https://www.fes.de/news/75-jahre-berliner-luftbruecke-eine-spurensuche-im-archiv-der-sozialen-demokratie
https://www.visitberlin.de/de/blog/berliner-luftbruecke-schokolade-fallschirmchen

Narrated with an AI voice. The short breaks are read in Yusuf's own cloned voice. More at walkofberlin.com

On the night of 13 August 1961 the Wall began to go up, and in October the dispute over papers at Checkpoint Charlie turned into a standoff between American and Soviet tanks on Friedrichstraße. I tell it through the American diplomat who refused to identify himself at the line, and the sixteen hours that followed, from the late afternoon of 27 October to the morning of 28 October 1961. The tanks left the street, but the crossing still has a reconstructed guardhouse, a sign and a double row of paving stones that marks where the Wall ran. Stand at the corner of Friedrichstraße and Zimmerstraße, then go to Clayallee 135 to see the original guardhouse at the Allied Museum.

Chapters:
0:00 The rights behind the crossing
2:59 Stopped at the line
6:54 Tanks on Friedrichstraße
10:30 How the standoff ended
13:38 The crossing today

Sources:
https://www.stiftung-berliner-mauer.de/en/node/223
https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1961-63v14/d196
https://www.bpb.de/themen/zeit-kulturgeschichte/deutschland-chronik/131560/13-august-1961/
https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/en/sites/184076/checkpoint-charlie
https://wwsf.deutsche-kinemathek.de/index.php/Detail/Object/Show/object_id/1115
https://www.alliiertenmuseum.de/en/
https://www.mauermuseum.de/

Narrated with an AI voice. The short breaks are read in Yusuf's own cloned voice. More at walkofberlin.com

On 16 October 1906 a shoemaker named Wilhelm Voigt, dressed in a secondhand captain's uniform, led a squad of soldiers into the Köpenick town hall, arrested the mayor and seized the town treasury. I tell how a man with no papers came to that afternoon, what the courts and the Kaiser made of him, and why Germany still laughs at the story. The episode is also about how a uniform can make ordinary people obey, and the town hall still has an exhibition on his life. To stand where it happened, go to Alt-Köpenick 21 and read the plaque to the right of the main entrance.

Chapters:
0:00 The man with no papers
4:23 The captain's day
7:50 Ten days of freedom
11:19 The pardon and the fame
14:30 The afterlife

Sources:
https://www.deutsche-biographie.de/11862766X.html
https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hauptmann_von_K%C3%B6penick
https://www.lto.de/recht/hintergruende/h/rechtsgeschichte-historischer-kassenraub-hauptmann-von-koepenick
https://www.berlin.de/museum-treptow-koepenick/gedenkorte/artikel.801627.php
https://www.berlin.de/museum-treptow-koepenick/museen/hauptmannausstellung
https://www.berlin.de/ba-treptow-koepenick/aktuelles/veranstaltungen/120-jahre-koepenickiade-koepenick-feiert-geschichte-1715913.php
https://www.tagesspiegel.de/berlin/hauptmann-von-kopenick-wird-kein-kulturerbe-3999544.html

Narrated with an AI voice. The short breaks are read in Yusuf's own cloned voice. More at walkofberlin.com

On 13 August 1961, when the Wall began to go up, three U-Bahn and S-Bahn lines kept running under East Berlin, and their trains passed the stations in the East without stopping. I tell the story of those ghost stations, of a U-Bahn driver who braked past guarded platforms, and of the tunnels people dug under the border. The stations reopened between November 1989 and March 1992, and Potsdamer Platz came last. Start at Nordbahnhof in Mitte, where an exhibition on those stations sits on the mezzanine above a platform the trains still stop at.

Chapters:
0:00 The train that did not stop
4:17 Under Bernauer Straße
8:20 Friedrichstraße
11:15 The dark stations
13:31 Reopening

Sources:
https://taz.de/vereinigungsgedanken-teil-7/!537856/
https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/en/victims/180610/schultz-egon
https://www.orte-des-erinnerns.de/igof_memorials/ausstellung-grenz-und-geisterbahnhoefe-im-geteilten-berlin/
https://www.visitberlin.de/de/node/75015
https://www.hdg.de/en/traenenpalast/permanent-exhibition/
https://www.berlin.de/museum/3186698-2926344-traenenpalast.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghost_station

Narrated with an AI voice. The short breaks are read in Yusuf's own cloned voice. More at walkofberlin.com