And So The Cold War Began

June 27, 2022 By Hermann Observer in Hard Facts, History Tags: Berlin, Berlin Airlift, Cold War, German, Germans, Germany, West Berlin Leave a comment

The original one, I mean.

On June 26, 1948, the largest humanitarian operation in history began, later known as The Berlin Airlift, which prevented West Berlin from capitulating to the Soviet blockade.

When the wartime alliance between the Western Allies and the Soviet Union ended and friendly relations turned hostile, the question of whether the western occupation zones of Berlin would remain under Western Allied control or whether the city would be absorbed into Soviet-controlled East Germany led to the first crisis of the Cold War.

Berlin Tegel Airport Closing June 1, 2020

May 1, 2020 By Hermann Observer in Hard Facts, Heconomy, Helplessness, Hideology, History, Home Cooking, Hurt Feelings, Hysteria Tags: Airports, BER, Berlin Schönefeld, Berlin Tegel, Berlin-Brandenburg Airport, Cold War, Corona, Coronavirus, COVID-19, West Berlin Leave a comment

And Berlin Brandenburg Airport opens October 31, 2020. Let’s do the math.

So, Berlin is down to just one world-class horrible airport for like five months? Until the next world-class horrible one comes along, I mean? Sheesh. Although with all this Corona going on maybe nobody will even notice.

Personally, I will miss Tegel. Maybe because it was so small and in the middle of town like that. You could walk around the entire main terminal in five minutes. Adieu, Tegel. It was in what used to be called the French Sector, after all.

This comes as the airport has seen a huge drop in passenger numbers, with passengers currently amounting to 1% of normal amounts. The company running the airport is allegedly losing one million Euros per day, so closing the airport will save costs.

Nobody Had Any Intention Of Building A Wall

November 10, 2019 By Hermann Observer in Hard Facts, Helplessness, Hideology, Higher Education, History, Home Cooking, Hypocrisy Tags: Berlin, Berlin Wall, Communism, East Berlin, East Germany, German, Germans, Germany, SED, Socialism, Walter Ulbricht, West Berlin Leave a comment

Right. And nobody had any intention of tearing it down twenty-eight years later either.

But, you know, stuff happens.

In his lack of preparation, he mistakenly insinuated that the checkpoints in the Berlin Wall — which up until then were guarded by soldiers with orders to shoot anyone trying to cross — were now open. They weren’t, but that announcement was all East Berliners needed to storm the wall and demand they be allowed to cross into West Berlin. After that, the wall became obsolete, and soon fell.

German Of The Day: Disneyfizierung

November 5, 2019 By Hermann Observer in Heconomy, Helplessness, History, Home Cooking, Humor, Hurt Feelings Tags: Berlin, Berlin Wall, Checkpoint Charlie, Cold War, East Berlin, German, Germans, Germany, History, Language, The Berlin Wall, Tourism, West Berlin 1 Comment

That means Disneyfication.

Just stop by Checkpoint Charlie sometime and see for yourself.

Authorities in Germany’s capital Berlin have banned local performers from wearing US army uniforms at Checkpoint Charlie, the iconic Cold War crossing between the east and west of the city.

They said the actors exploited tourists by demanding money for photos at the attraction…

People impersonating US soldiers have been at Checkpoint Charlie for nearly 20 years, working in rotation to pose with tourists.

But many Berliners are unhappy about the “Disneyfication” of the site, where fake Soviet Red Army fur hats, gas masks and pieces of the Berlin Wall can be found for sale.

BMW: Bring Me West

October 11, 2019 By Hermann Observer in Hard Facts, Hi-tech, High Art, History, Home Cooking Tags: Automobiles, Berlin, Berlin Wall, BMW, Cars, Cold War, Communism, East Berlin, Engineering, Escapes, Freedom, West Berlin Leave a comment

German engineering at its best.

Talk about a mother of invention…

In 1963, a man named Klaus-Günter Jacobi decided to help his best friend escape East Berlin and before being forced to report for duty in the East German army. To do so, he decided to modify his BMW Isetta to be able to hide a body.

Now, if you’re not especially familiar with the Isetta, it’s a tiny bubble car with a motorcycle engine at the back and barely enough room for two people to sit in the bench seat behind the front opening door. Space is at a premium, but Jacobi — who had trained as a mechanic — found that there was a dead space behind his seat and next to the Isetta’s tiny engine that could be used to smuggle a person.

The Small Escape

I Can Smell The Coal In The Air Now

May 17, 2016 By Hermann Observer in High Art, Higher Education, History Tags: Documentaries, Films, German, Germans, Germany, Movies, West Berlin 2 Comments

And hear the MiGs booming through the sound barrier high overhead. And see the Allied tanks rolling down Kaiserdamm.

The good old days? Not really. But kind of, I dunno, predictable?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=caKiHdaVwhM

Berlin in the 1980s was a time of wild parties and artistic creation – and a new documentary gathers the work of over 70 filmmakers to capture the essence of the city during that heady decade before the wall came down. BMovie, Lust and Sound in West Berlin 1979-1989 features unseen footage of musicians like Nick Cave and New Order. It was made by English musician Mark Reeder, who began by talking about bringing Joy Division to Berlin for their first gig

German Of The Day: RIAS

July 19, 2015 By Hermann Observer in Hi-tech, Hideology, Higher Education, History Tags: Berlin, Cold War, German, Germans, Germany, Language, Radio, RIAS, West Berlin 4 Comments

That stands for Rundfunk im amerikanischen Sektor and means radio (or broadcasting) in the American Sector – of a place they used to call “West Berlin.”

Now Father Time has managed to take care of something that the East German jamming stations were never able to do back then in the good old bad old days: Shut this broadcasting tower down. With explosives, in this case.

Von Britz aus ging 1946 der Rundfunk im Amerikanischen Sektor (Rias) auf Sendung. Später entstand dort Europas damals leistungsstärkster Mittelwellensender, mit dem jahrelang auch die Störsender aus Ost-Berlin überwunden werden mussten. Heute gilt die Übertragung per Mittelwelle als veraltet.

The Rise And Fall Of The German-American Volksfest

August 14, 2014 By Hermann Observer in Habitudes, Hard Facts, Helplessness, History, Hurt Feelings, Hypocrisy Tags: Berlin, Carnivals, German, German-American Volksfest, Germans, Germany, Tradition, West Berlin Leave a comment

And fall and fall and fall it has. It’s been falling for at least twenty years now.

They ought to just finally get it over with and pull the plug for good. Like they already have on that other German-American whatever-it-used-to-be.

…At the time, West Germany and the United States were facing the first major postwar crisis in their relations. Many West Germans were protesting against the US war in Vietnam while many others, around 500,000 annually at the time, attended the annual fair, which was then held near the barracks in Berlin’s Dahlem district. They came because they liked the United States or American music — or maybe even its beer.