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History

Germany and the Cold War

August 21, 2020

For more than four decades, divided Germany was the epicenter of the Cold War. The border severing East and West embodied the animosity between the US and USSR. The smoldering conflict threatened to escalate.

https://p.dw.com/p/3hIrV
Berlin Checkpoint Charlie
Image: picture-alliance/akg-images

The Cold War was persistently present in the two Germanys - both on the political and military level, but also in everyday life. On the one hand, there was the race for technical progress, the fear of bombs and rockets, the struggle for moral superiority over the other side: and on the other, doubt about each state’s policies, and those of their allies. 

How did Germans experience this Cold War? How did it shape attitudes to life on both sides of the Iron Curtain? This three-part documentary asks political actors and decision-makers in East and West, but above all contemporary witnesses from divided Germany, what experiences they had in the period between 1945 and 1991. Who were the winners and losers in this brutal stand-off between communism and capitalism?

The demonstrations on June 17, 1953, the construction of the Berlin Wall, the major demonstrations in Bonn against Pershing missiles, nuclear strike drills, employment bans in West Germany on members of the German Communist Party, the opening of the Wall, the collapse of the Eastern bloc - all were events that shaped people’s lives. This is their story and the story of Germany in the Cold War.


Broadcasting Hours: 

Part 1: 

DW English

MON 05.10.2020 – 01:15 UTC
MON 05.10.2020 – 05:15 UTC
TUE 06.10.2020 – 09:15 UTC
SAT 10.10.2020 – 12:15 UTC
SUN 11.10.2020 – 15:15 UTC

Cape Town UTC +2 | Delhi UTC +5,5 | Hong Kong UTC +8
Lagos UTC +1 | Cape Town UTC +2 | Nairobi UTC +3 
San Francisco UTC -7 | Edmonton UTC -6 | New York UTC -4
London UTC +1 | Berlin UTC +2 | Moscow UTC +3

DW Deutsch+

TUE 06.10.2020 – 09:15 UTC

Vancouver UTC -7 | New York UTC -4 | Sao Paulo UTC -3 

Part 2: 

DW English

MON 12.10.2020 – 01:15 UTC
MON 12.10.2020 – 05:15 UTC
TUE 13.10.2020 – 09:15 UTC
SAT 17.10.2020 – 12:15 UTC
SUN 18.10.2020 – 15:15 UTC

Cape Town UTC +2 | Delhi UTC +5,5 | Hong Kong UTC +8
Lagos UTC +1 | Cape Town UTC +2 | Nairobi UTC +3 
San Francisco UTC -7 | Edmonton UTC -6 | New York UTC -4
London UTC +1 | Berlin UTC +2 | Moscow UTC +3

DW Deutsch+

TUE 13.10.2020 – 09:15 UTC

Vancouver UTC -7 | New York UTC -4 | Sao Paulo UTC -3