(dramatic music) - This is where east meets
West in the heart of Europe. This is where communism
and capitalism clash during the Cold War. The crossing point
between eastern and west was called Checkpoint Charlie and was universally known as
the epicentre of the conflict. Throughout its history, it was a place of high
tension and drama. It all began after
the Second World War with the 1945
occupation of Germany. The United States
and the Soviet Union began to emerge as ideologically
opposed supe
rpowers, each wanting to exert their
influence in the post world war. And unfortunately,
Germany became the focus of cold war politics. It was an era of secret
spies, espionage, covert operations, agents,
and assassinations. Many agents were
operating undercover and living double lives to infiltrate enemy
governments and societies. It was a time when
information was king and fear and uncertainty ruled. All this subterfuge
conflict and espionage soon became hot
property in Hollywood. The James Bo
nd series exploded and quickly
captivated the world. But Hollywood isn't real life. And for the millions
of people affected by the politics of the Cold War, it was a heart-rending,
grinding, and difficult time. Join me on a journey
back to the Cold War when Checkpoint Charlie
held centre stage in the fight for freedom as we take a closer look
at the price of freedom and what freedom really is. And as we do so, you may find the freedom
you are really looking for. (dramatic music) In the spring of
1945, as the Second World War in
Europe ground to an end, the four liberating
allied army forces, Britain, France, the
United States and Russia met in the capital
city of Germany, Berlin At the Potsdam Conference held between the 17th of July
and the 2nd of August, 1945, they agreed to divide the
city into four sectors, each one controlled by one
of the occupying forces. However, Britain,
France, and the US soon decided to
join their sectors. It was only meant to be
a temporary solution, but th
e four occupying
zones in Berlin quickly led to a divided
city and a divided nation. Although the invasion, shootings and bombings of World
War II had ended, there sooner rose a
tension in the city and a new kind of conflict
in the post-war era. Shortly after the end of
the war in October, 1945, the famous English
writer, George Orwell, wrote about the new
threat of nuclear warfare between the two superpowers
and used the term Cold War. In his article, "You
and the Atomic Bomb." The world had qu
ickly become
divided into two hostile camps dominated by the
two superpowers, the United States
and the Soviet Union. The name chosen for this
geopolitical confrontation between the two
world superpowers was George Orwell's
term, "The Cold War." Even though the USA and
the USSR had been allies and fought on the same
side during World War II, there was soon
tension and animosity between the two governments and the opposing systems
they represented. The US wanted to curb
the spread of communism, t
he Russian style of
government in the world, while the USSR wanted
to spread its influence as far as possible. The first Russian controlled
communist satellite government was formed in Poland in 1947, followed by Bulgaria,
Romania, Hungary, Yugoslavia, and other eastern countries,
including Czechoslovakia. So to combat the
communist pressure, the US helped Greece and Turkey form capitalist
governments in 1947, but it was Germany
whose government was centred here
at the Reichstag that became the
focus
of Cold War politics and the superpower rivalry. The country was soon divided
into two independent nations, East Germany and West Germany, and tensions escalated in the US controlled
West Berlin sector that was completely
surrounded by East Germany that was now under
the control of Russia. The Berlin Blockade was one of the first
major international crises of the Cold War. In 1948, the Russian forces blocked the western allies,
railway, road and canal access to the now surrounded
and besie
ged West Berlin. So the allies organised
the Berlin Airlift. For 15 months, planes
known as candy bombers flew more than 250,000
times to West Berlin, bringing thousands of
tonnes of necessary supplies of fuel and food to the people. The Cold War was truly underway. And although there was
no official war decleared between the two superpowers, the US and Russia fought
indirectly in proxy wars in Korea and Vietnam. The two powers also competed to get the upper hand
on their military might dramatic
ally increasing
their defence forces and military spending. The race was on to create
the best weapons for war and to develop nuclear
bombs in case of an attack. By 1949, the USSR began
testing its nuclear weapons, followed by the USA's test of the first hydrogen
bomb in 1950. The fear in the USA of the
spread of Russian communism and the threat of nuclear
attacks was palpable and soon created the perfect
environment for espionage. It quickly became a vital
undertaking by both superpowers to pro
tect their
national security and hopefully prevent
another major world war. Then the Cold War almost
became hot in April, 1961. Between 1959 and 1961, CIA agents in the USA
recruited and trained 1,500 Cuban exiles to
overthrow Fidel Castro, the president of communist Cuba. The failed incident was dubbed
The Bay of Pigs Invasion. Then Russia decided to set up
nuclear missile site launches in communist Cuba aimed at all
the major cities of the USA. It was called the
Cuban Missile Crisis and is con
sidered the most
critically dangerous event in the cold war. Diplomacy between the
US President Kennedy and the Russian
President Khrushchev under the guidance of the
United Nations president averted a crisis. It was decided that America
would not attack Cuba and in turn, Russia would
withdraw missile stations from Cuba. After this precarious event, many world leaders wanted
a ban on nuclear weapons. A hotline was soon established between the Kremlin
and the White House to encourage both countri
es
to refrain from nuclear war. But the cold continued to thrive due to simmering tensions caused by the ongoing
issue of a divided Germany. The city of East Berlin was
the capital of East Germany and under the control
of the Soviets, while the city of West
Berlin and isolated island some 180 kilometres
behind the iron curtain or border between
Eastern and West Germany was protected by
the Allied forces. East Germany was known as the
German Democratic Republic and its leader, Walter Ulbricht had
been part of the German
Communist Party from 1919, the year it was founded. Ulbricht was a
hardline Stalinist whose goal was to make East
Germany a model socialist state. For 16 years after the
end of World War II, the sector boundary was
an almost invisible border marked only by the
occasional painted line. Then without warning in 1961, Ulbricht directed the
building of the Berlin Wall to stop the flood of
people from East Germany, leaving the communist
dictatorship for a life of freedom
in We
st Germany. Now, what made this
wall so extraordinary was the speed at
which it was built. In the early hours of
the 13th of August, 1961, 10,000 East German soldiers were sent into the
streets of Berlin and began to seal the
border and its crossings between the eastern Soviet
occupied zone of Berlin and the Western
American, British and French controlled sectors. But it wasn't just
one wall, but two, measuring 155 kilometres
or 96 miles long and four metres or 13 feet tall. These walls were sep
arated by a heavily guarded and
mined corridor of land known as the death strip. When people in Berlin woke up
on the 13th of August, 1961, they suddenly found themselves on one side or the
other of the wall. The Berlin Wall divided a city, a people, and the world, tearing apart
families and friends. People in East Berlin had
lost their freedom to travel. In a sense, the wall created the
largest prison in the world. The Berlin Wall soon became a powerful
symbol of the Cold War and divided German
y
from 1961 to 1989. The building of the Berlin Wall now made the border
between east and west, a militarised border, and the most famous border
crossing was Checkpoint Charlie. This was now the
Cold War frontline and became an iconic symbol
of the division of Germany. On the 22nd of October, 1961, soon after the wall was built, for the first time, members of
the American military mission were asked to show
their identity cards when they drove
into East Berlin. The Americans refused as it breach
ed an
international agreement, but their vehicle was stopped. In retaliation, the Americans stopped
Soviet vehicles from entering West Berlin. There was a tense combat alert as US and Russian
tanks faced each other until the 27th of October, 1961 when the tanks retreated
to their own sides of the checkpoint. Now, life in East Germany before
the wall went up was tough, but as soon as the barb
wire was rolled out, the escapes began. Some just jumped over the
barbed wire as it was laid out before t
he concrete
barricades were built, but they had to
become more inventive once the wall was erected. They didn't just
escape over the wall. In the 28 years that the
wall divided the city, spy tunnels and more
than 70 escape tunnels were built underneath the wall and around 300 people managed to escape through these
tunnels to freedom. But it's the Mauer Museum
that is known around the world for its extensive collection
of historical items from the time of
a divided Berlin and its assembly of the
amazing inventive ways people found to escape. One of the early
successful escapees was 22-year-old Joachim Rudolph. One night he waited through a
river, crawled through a field and hid from the border guards until he had crossed the
border into West Germany. But what makes his
escape so remarkable is that two months later when the young
engineering student is safe and studying at
the West Berlin University, a couple of Italian students
asked Joachim to work with them to tunnel back into East Be
rlin to help some other
friends and family escape. Joachim willingly worked
with them to build not one, but two tunnels, and despite being betrayed, the group eventually
assisted 29 people to escape from the east. One of the transport
cards used in the tunnels can still be seen today. People found novel and sometimes virtually
impossible ways to escape. Take for example, this Isetta. It doesn't look like
your usual escape vehicle and certainly doesn't
have enough space But space was made
for a p
erson to hide by taking out the manifold,
the heating system, and changing the position
of the exhaust pipe. Six times people
escaped to the west in one of these tiny is Isettas. Kurt Wordel used
a larger vehicle using three VW
1200s like this one with a hidden area
just large enough for a person to
hide in the bonnet. Kurt smuggled 55 people
out of East Germany between 1964 to 1966. Another successful escape plan involved this Opal P4 van that carried five people
across the border. The car had
armour
plating placed on the The insides of the doors
were filled with concrete, so it was now virtually
a bulletproof vehicle. The driver then just drove straight through the
border crossing to freedom despite being shot at
by the border guards. In 1977, the singer
Renate Hargan was helped to escape East Berlin by hiding in one of
the loudspeaker boxes in the back of a station waggon. In their desperate attempts
to escape and find freedom, some went over the wall,
others went under the wall, Pe
ter Faust went
around the wall. In 1988, Peter escaped
in an inflatable boat with a surf sail built
of hockey sticks. He sailed past ghost guards
in the Baltic Sea to freedom. In just 16 minutes, this ultralight was
used in a daring mission by two brothers. They flew into East Berlin,
picked up another brother, and landed safely
back in the park near the Reichstag
in West Berlin, al completed in just 16 minutes. One night, Hans Strelzik,
a former aircraft mechanic, was watching a TV programme ab
out the history of
hot air ballooning. It gave him an idea. He'd long wanted to
escape East Germany, and perhaps this
could be the way. So with his friend
Gunter Wetzel, they built a hot
air balloon engine from four old propane cylinders. Their wives stitched
the balloon together out of pieces of old
canvas and bedsheets. Then on the 16th
of September, 1979, the two couples and
their four children floated over the
border at 2,400 metres. They landed safely in
Bavaria in West Germany. The desire
for freedom
lies well entrenched deep within the human heart. Thousands of citizens
of East Germany tried to escape
across the Berlin wall between 1961 and 88. Only around 300
successfully escaped, but sadly, more than 100 of them were shot and killed by
the GDR border guards, or died in other ways
during their escape attempt. One summer's day on the
17th of August, 1962, a year after the construction
of the Berlin Wall, 18-year-old Peter Fechter
and his friend Helmut Kulbeik attempted to flee
f
rom East Germany. They jumped out of a
window on Zimmerstrasse and onto the death strip. The two young men
then raced across it and started to climb
over the two metre wall that was topped with barbed
wire into West Berlin right near Checkpoint Charlie. As they began to climb the wall, the East German border
guards fired at them. Although Kulbeik succeeded
in crossing over the wall, Fechter was shot in the pelvis. Hundreds of witnesses
watched helplessly as Fechter fell back
into the death strip
on the East German side. Despite his screams for help, Fechter received no
medical assistance from the East German side and could not be tended to
by those on the west side. Although the West German
police threw in bandages, he bled to death after
approximately one hour. The memorial near the old
border commemorates his death and the many others
who lost their lives trying to escape to freedom. Finally, in 1989,
the wall came down, the fall of the Berlin
Wall and its dismantling ended the longe
st conflict
of the 20th century. It was a pivotal moment in
the history of modern Europe. On the 22nd of June, 1990, checkpoint Charlie
was dismantled. Foreign ministers and
military commandants from both east and west,
watched as a crane hoist transported the
infamous porter cabin, which had guard the crossing
point from nearly three decades to the heart of what
was the American sector. The Cold War had come to an end in the lead up to the fall
of the Soviet Union in 1991. Here in Clayallee is
the
1998 sculpture called The Day The Wall Came Down. It's a memorial to the time
on the 9th of November, 1989 when the Berlin Wall
was neutralised, the statue of the
five wild horses jumping over actual
remains of the wall is a symbol of freedom today. The founder of
communism, Karl Marx had a dream to
liberate millions. Instead, his writings
and philosophy were used to create an
empire that for decades was one of the greatest
repressors of human freedom that the world has ever seen. It was thi
s empire that created
the despised Berlin Wall. As the miles and miles
of wall were going up, the Soviets and their
East German government argued that the wall wasn't
there to keep people in, no, they said, it's been
created to keep spies out. Very logical, except
for one thing, the communist guards at the wall had their backs to the west side while they were facing the
east, the communist side. Far from keeping spies out, they were keeping their
own people locked in. Thousands of tonnes
of conc
rete and steel were created for
only one purpose, to stifle the freedom of the
millions of people behind it. The wall was a
symbol of oppression. Then in late 1989, many of those people
took their sledgehammers and began smashing
down the wall. It was a powerful symbol of
the human desire for freedom. That desire for
freedom was so great that despite the danger, many risked their lives
to cross the wall. The lure of freedom
was so strong that thousands
attempted to cross it. Hundreds of others d
ied
seeking the kind of freedoms that we so often
take for granted. There's a basic longing in
the human heart for freedom. We all want to be free, and yet if history has
taught us anything, it's that freedom
isn't easy to come by. Now, in the context of this
whole question of freedom, I'd like to read a
quote about freedom in the Bible Book of John. Jesus said, "So if
the sun sets you free, you will be free indeed." Now, Jesus is talking about
a different kind of freedom, a freedom independent
of politics, a freedom that no government, whether a liberal western
democracy or a communist regime can give to anyone, and even more importantly, it's a freedom that no
one can take away either. You see, freedom is
a big deal to God. God made us to be free. He wants us to live in freedom. He doesn't want us enslaved
to guilt or resentment or the pain of our
past or anything else. He wants us to live free. Let me tell you something. The biggest prison was not
behind the Berlin Wall, the biggest
prisons in
life aren't physical, they're the mental
prisons in your mind. Maybe it's a you
feel trapped in. Maybe it's debt that
you can't escape. Maybe it's a habit you
can't seem to shake or an addiction you can't break. Maybe it's a painful
memory you can't forget. No matter what kind of prison
you're in, you need a way out and Jesus is your doorway
to freedom and eternal life. And you know what? We can have it right now. Freedom and the
assurance of eternal life through what Jesus
has done
for us. Remember that though
we were created free, we've all sinned and made
mistakes in that freedom. But the good news is that
Jesus paid the penalty for those sins and mistakes, and so when we accept
him as our saviour, we walk away free of guilt,
free from condemnation, free from the fear
of eternal death. Justice checkpoint Charlie was the way to freedom
for many behind the wall, so Jesus is our
checkpoint of freedom and the only way to
forgiveness, grace, peace, and the abundant life. Many
feel freedom
is worth everything and Jesus was willing to
give everything for you. He was willing to
give everything so that you can be
free for eternity. He opened the door
to real freedom where we find release
from fear, condemnation and the bitterness,
anger, loneliness, grief, addictions, hurts, and habits
that hold us back in life. He loved us so much. Our freedom was worth his
sacrifice on the cross. Jesus wants us to enjoy and
experience an abundant life and a life of freedom. In the Gos
pel Book
of John, it says, "I have come that
they may have life, and that they may have
it more abundantly." If you would like to
experience the freedom that Jesus offers, then I'd like to recommend
the free gift we have for all our incredible
journey viewers today. It's the booklet, "Freedom
Worth the Sacrifice." This booklet is our gift to
you and is absolutely free. I guarantee there are no costs
or obligations whatsoever. So make the most of this
wonderful opportunity to receive your free gi
ft today. - [Announcer] Phone or text
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@tij.tv Don't delay. Call or text us now. - [Gary] If you've
enjoyed our journey to Berlin's Checkpoint Charlie, the frontline of the Cold War and our reflections on the
human longing for freedom that only Jesus can provide, then be sure to join
us again next week when we will share another
of life's journeys together. Until then, let's
pray to the only one who can give us true freedom. Dear heavenly Father, we thank you for the freedom
you give us to choose life. We all want to be free, but
fre
edom isn't always easy. We want to claim your promise that you can indeed
make us free. Help us now to choose you, to choose that freedom that
you so graciously offer us. I ask this in Jesus' name. Amen. (soft music)
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