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When the Berlin wall was being built, people whose houses were on the dividing line, were ordered to move to the interior. Instead, many opted to escape to Western Berlin through the windows, like this woman. East Berlin police tried to grab her and drag her back, but people on the other side pulled her to safety.
https://youtu.be/ExOYvW5vCj4
This woman jumped and was caught by the firemen. Her husband followed, throwing some of their possessions down first.
Some braved the barbed wires.
Eastern German police used mirrors and water hoses to stop the journalist from filming. Yet they do not dare to shoot the escaspees while the cameras were rolling. In the other places, where journalists were not present, shootings were reported.
motoalchemist
i still cannot understand after centuries of fighting, why humans still let it happen. oh yeah, religion and ignorance
303SnowWolf
Now watch this right next to footage from Hong Kong and get worried, if you were somehow, inexplicably not worried before.
imnotlostinlifeijustdonthaveanywheretogo
At least back then they knew to film in landscape
Phischstaebchen
and still 40-50% want the wall back...... can we afford to build a new one? :)
tygerpsimatrix
And THIS is why you don't built FUCKING WALLS!
senseicombs
She was free those few seconds before hitting her head on the cement below that window. Glad she made it but it did look like it hurt bad.
Hibbtygibitty
Witnessing Hong Kong in 2019 and having lived thru this makes me realize the power elite are unchanged.
Bystandr
I heard that some days after the wall and wire were up, unofficially up to 200 people per day died trying to get out.
JohnEsco
What's your source? Where'd you get these videos from?
guannabislord
PrivateEntrance
If socialism and communism are such great ideas...
azimir
I have a question for you: is the current economic/government models of democratic socialism used in several European nations also an authoritarian situation?
CaptainSkyhawk
... well? If they were such good ideas you would bring up something else when talking about violent authoritarianism?
PrivateEntrance
The obvious follow up in this context is ‘then why do people try so hard to escape them?’
CaptainSkyhawk
Because the problem is the violent authoritarianism, not the theoretical 'communism' or 'socialism' espoused by some fraction of the rulers
PrivateEntrance
Communism and socialism can only ‘work’ with 100% participation. That can only be achieved by force. They are by definition authoritarian.
CBArtist
These newsreels should be shown in high school so we don't end up with junior Communists in training.
WillemHellfire
That poor woman catching the barbed wire with her head...breaks my heart every time.
Solio22
Humans, we fucking suck.
Justtoberight
...und später schnitt man Löcher in den Zaun
Justtoberight
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UIE8uHNUeRA
QuantumLaws
Always worth remembering what fighting for freedom looks like.
jansenart
@OP That woman died of her injuries.
Naternutts
*ancient aliens guy meme* COMMUNISM
thechucktopus
A teaching assistant who came on a school trip with us told us the story of how he fled east germany by swimming across the oder river.
thechucktopus
I was about 11 at the time. I hardly remember any details but I remember how palpable the danger was just listening to him talk about it
thechucktopus
We'd all been on a massive hike that day and got soaked in the rain. We were all wearing plastic bags as slippers. Then he gathered us
thechucktopus
Dims the light and tells us this epic story of him and his brother risking their lives to escape.
thechucktopus
I was a toddler when reunification happened so it's not in my memory. It always fascinates me how recent that part of history is though
Dipityseren
Russia's politicians have been a great big cunts all the way down the line it seems.
l3acl
Yea I'm in my 20s and my high school never really talked about this =/
wheredoisign
there were 140 deaths in total, 1961-1989
SweetFighter
When my brother was in Kuwait for the Army, he was able to send us a piece of the Berlin Wall back home. Its crazy to have that history in
Grundykun
I mean you could buy pieces in stores at the time.
SweetFighter
I live in California so i don't think i could find that in a store around here lol. Which is why my brother got it in Kuwait.
SweetFighter
our house.
PotatoFaminePart2
i went to the berlin wall museum years ago, was amazing some of the stories of how people crossed the wall once it was fully built, /1
PotatoFaminePart2
inventing small submarines and airplanes amongst others, and disturbing photos and stories about the failed attempts. Never been affected /2
PotatoFaminePart2
by a museum quite like that before, well at least until i went to the Vietnam war museum, oh and Hiroshima museum
PotatoFaminePart2
hopefully one day we evolve past the need for war
ShouldersDeepInAHorse
All tyrranies fall, sometimes over night, sometimes over generations, but always at the moment people reached their breaking point.
TheWarHymn
Same can be said about republics and democracies.
ShouldersDeepInAHorse
True, that's why the strongest republics are always the ones that have as much care taken into keeping as tyrants take to build their own.
UncleIrohnman
I am not entirely sure about that.. I mean, North Korea, the people there met and crossed the breaking point decades ago and still suffer
ShouldersDeepInAHorse
In all fairness, it's a much smaller nation, smaller population, but they also got China backing them, big power + small country.
interlorn
The dude in white tank top in the first clip...
ArgonSpark
Turns out he was just stage diving.
xane
An attempt was made.
TheDanWithNoName
Valiantly stole her shoe
Rapturr
yyyyeeeeeeEEEEEEETTTTTtttttt
ChernoGamma
As they say in Germany: YËËT
Phischstaebchen
we say what?
ChernoGamma
whöösh
Rapturr
In Germany
wheeledPhoto
Now go read about what we just did to the Kurds
RezaQin
Not even close.
SectionS3V3N
America, the works police force, amirite?
CreepyPhlox
Unless we want 9/11 2.0 then in some cases, yes.
wheeledPhoto
We should never have been there. But we are (we're). Abandoning the Kurds and cutting support to an ally that defeated ISIS for us is nuts.
wheeledPhoto
Not to mention the 10,000 ISIS members that will now be turned loose.
AllHailTechnoViking
Either get involved and see it trough to the end or don't meddle. ISIS was created because the US upset the delicate balance in 2003.
Hetamue
I served/spent time in the Middle East. I have a feeling a majority of Imgur doesn't know what they're talking about. Bring our folks home.
UncleIrohnman
Classic america, preaching about beeing allied, fighting for freedom and such and then go "know what? fuck those allies". gj guys, gj
AllHailTechnoViking
And fuck our allies. They stood shoulder to shoulder with you and now their wives and children are being targeted by a NATO member.
Grundykun
Shut up. I'll bet dollars to dinars you didn't know or care about the Yazidis or the Assyrians.
HousePest
??? What the fuck ??? You see someone caring about the oppression of one people, and instead of educating, you denounce their concern and
HousePest
humanity by holding your knowledge of the oppression of another people over their head? What kind of bullshit gatekeeping is this?????????
HousePest
Your name should be grumpykun.
AllHailTechnoViking
*grumpycunt
AnonOmis1000
If people are running to the other side of the wall you're building, maybe a wall isnt the best fucking idea
CheesMasterFury
“Some people build fences to keep people out and other people build fences to keep people in.” - Bono, “Fences” by August Wilson
pronoun
Wow, really? You think the Berlin Wall was a bad idea? Really?
AllHailTechnoViking
Or you're just a little too behind schedule with your building planning.
Camelspotting
Seems like it's working exactly as intended.
ThrowAwayAcct0000
One of the reasons I got my family out of the US. That wall is for keeping people IN, not out.
akspartankiiier
Ummmm. Yeah. That’s right. Good job! You’re better off now.
Grundykun
What.
FirePrinceZuzu
Er... what?
ThrowAwayAcct0000
Just wait.
FirePrinceZuzu
How long? I got some stuff to do in the morning.
AllHailTechnoViking
FourLegsGood
Or maybe capitalism just has better PR. Don't pretend that it's so simple. The lives of East Germans were better in many ways.
Grundykun
Name checks out.
FirePrinceZuzu
Are you German? Well, tells us about those ways then.
FourLegsGood
Better welfare, health, and education. In brief.
FirePrinceZuzu
You have got to be joking. Thirty years later, East Germany is still struggling to reach WG's standards in those fields, let alone...
FirePrinceZuzu
... while the Wall was still up. Where are you from? You're clearly not German.
wheeledPhoto
Capitalism has issues but on its worst day it is 1000x better than what East Germany had.
FourLegsGood
You don't know what you're talking about. PR victim.
wheeledPhoto
Yeah... a country you can't leave and armed soldiers are there to prevent it. Great place to be. I'm surely mistaken.
FourLegsGood
You're acting as if the world has open borders. Where can you go without a passport?
UncleIrohnman
haha what now??? dude, check your facts! Please!!
FourLegsGood
Already done. Welfare and education was extremely well developed in the east. Not in the west.
UncleIrohnman
Uhm, fact is that the east was entirely bancrupt when the wall went down, a circumstance the eastern states could never recover from
FourLegsGood
Capitalists love starving out countries that look after their citizens needs. That's not a reflection on the east. You understand.
UncleIrohnman
The stasi was everywere, jailing everyone for everything, he said she said was enough to get into jail or worse
Shekel
No it fucking were absolutley fucking not
FourLegsGood
They absolutely did. They had practical living privileges that the capitalist side didn't, because capitalism is all about InDiViDuAlIsM.
AllHailTechnoViking
I agree with you, but just humor me: Name 10 freedoms you enjoy that they didn't.
AllHailTechnoViking
A professor asked me that question a couple of years ago and it certainly makes you think.