Flucht Aus Der DDR / Escape from GDR

yes these were not staged, the guys fleeing through the river were coincidentally filmed by a tourist.

Wieso geben wir heute Menschen kein Asyl mehr?

Immer noch gibt es Penner, die PDS/Linke wählen.

Hinterher wäre das wohl etwas schwierig.

shame they were 'fleeing' to a dictatorship of capital run buy the nazi heirs. now there are lots of east germans who want the wall back up.

mich kotzen ALLE an, die versuchen, anderen ihre freiheit zu nehmen!!!

Tja, das sollte man allen west- und ostdeutschen Schülern, die seit 1995 geboren wurden, vielleicht doch mal zeigen. Damit sie wissen, wovon die Rede ist, wenns zuhause mal wieder heißt, so schlimm wäre das alles gar nicht gewesen.

I'm watching this, and trying to remember my nine years' worth of German, but I can't really understand a lot. Are these unstaged films etc? That swim looked excruciating.

the river belonged completely to East Berlin, they were only safe once they reached the bank. Theoretically the East German border guards were ordered to shoot to prevent the swimmers from getting out of the water. Obviously, with so many witnesses, the guards did not dare to do it.

its the river spree which runs behind the old parliment building in centre of berlin. I lived on the west side in the 80s and am amazed they chose this place to escape as it's not the easiest. razor wire and spears/spikes two feet under the water, not very nice.

At the spree river on the bank at the Reichstag in Berlin. The river was East-Berlin and the bank was West-Berlin. Once the people go out of the water they were safe.

Does anyone know where, exactly, this incident took place? Like near what street/park, exactly?

It's awful to have an entire country run like a Stalag. BTW where exactly is the border here? Seems that the bank on the cameraman's side is a safe haven. At what point is the GDR supposed to terminate pursuing escapees?

It's emotionel for me to see this film. To many memories about a country were I were born and left when I was 14 (3 weeks before the wall was gone).

the GDR was a big prison