Busting the Berlin Wall: Amazing Escape Stories
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Busting the Berlin Wall: Amazing Escape Stories
Sunday November 8, 2009 at 10 pm ET/PT on CBC News Network
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For 28 years until its collapse on Nov. 9, 1989, the Berlin Wall was the epicentre of the Cold War, splitting Berlin in two and dividing a nation with two million tons of concrete, 700,000 tons of steel, attack dogs, tank traps, death strips and tripwires. From the very first day it went up, anyone who tried to escape risked betrayal, prison, or death.
While its dangers kept most East German citizens at bay, others were spurred on to overcome it, by digging under it, hiding in car trunks, flying over it in a hot-air balloon, and even surfing around it. Using brilliant CGI animation and dramtic recreations, Busting the Berlin Wall examines the most amazing daredevil escapes, interviewing former border guards, politicians, spies and escapees who risked everything in their bid to escape Communist East Germany into the West.
The stories include Klaus Koeppen who tries to smuggle out his fiance under the hood of a VW beetle. Rudolph and Horst Mùller hijack a subway train to bring their families to the West. Wolfgang Engels borrows an army tank and drives it straight through the Wall. And when East German guards get wise to these tricks, the escapers start building tunnels.
A desperate 'arms race' begins, between the builders of the Wall and ever bolder and more ingenious escapers. The Wall grows taller, broader, more deadly - with watchtowers, electrified fences, alarm wires, dogs, and armed guards ready to shoot at anyone who touches the 'death strip' of brushed sand.
But some people still can't take the lack of freedom of thought and movement, and they prove it in spectacular ways. The Strelzyk and Wetzel families fly across the border in a home-made hot air balloon, and Holger Bethke swings over the Wall in the centre of Berlin, hanging from a makeshift pulley! Later he will fly across the Wall in a microlight aircraft to rescue his brother Egbert.
Now that the Wall has disappeared without a trace, its story offers thrills, adventure - and insight, into one of the strangest and darkest periods of the Cold War.
The documentary is supported by a CGI animated website with additional information, on-line interviews, and stories.
Directed by Oliver Halmburger with Loopfilm for ZDF Germany.
