logo
episode-header-image
Jan 2020
8m 59s

East Germany's punks

Bbc World Service
About this episode

In the early 1980s, thousands of young people in communist East German became punks, attracted by the DIY culture and anti-establishment attitude.

But the East German secret police the Stasi believed the subculture represented an existential threat to the state and tried to crush the movement.

Lucy Burns speaks to former punk Jürgen Gutjahr, aka Chaos, and Tim Mohr, author of "Burning Down The Haus: Punk Rock, Revolution and the Fall of the Berlin Wall."

Photo: Young punks posing in Lenin Square (now United Nations Square), East Berlin. 1982. (Credit: Photo12/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)

Up next
Apr 2025
The Cu Chi tunnels of the Vietnam War
During the Vietnam War, North Vietnamese VietCong guerrillas built a vast network of tunnels in the south of the country as part of the insurgency against the South Vietnamese government and their American allies. The tunnel network was a key base and shelter for the North Vietna ... Show More
9m 43s
Today
Colombia's Salt Cathedral
<p>In 1995, a cathedral was built 180m underground in the Zipaquirá Salt Mine in Colombia. </p><p>The idea came from the miners building makeshift altars in the mine in the 1930s, to pray for their safety before starting their shifts. </p><p>It’s now a major tourist attraction, a ... Show More
10m 35s
Yesterday
Toy Story: the first digitally-animated feature film
<p>Released in 1995, this buddy movie about a cowboy doll and a toy astronaut was the first to use entirely computer-generated images. </p><p>The story, about a group of toys who come alive when humans are not around, appealed to audiences around the world.</p><p>In 2017, animato ... Show More
10m 47s
Recommended Episodes
Aug 2021
The Berlin Wall
<p>In August 1961, communist East Germany began building the Berlin Wall, which divided the city for nearly three decades and became a symbol of the Cold War. We hear the memories of Germans from both sides of the Wall and tales of daring escapes. Plus, what life was like in the ... Show More
50m 46s
Nov 2014
The Fall of the Berlin Wall
It had been one of the enduring icons of the Cold War. It had divided East Berlin from West Berlin; and socialism from capitalism. But on 9 November, 1989, after weeks of anti-Communist protests across East Germany, that all changed. Hear from two East Germans - Aram Radomski and ... Show More
9m 1s
Oct 2019
The fall of the Berlin Wall
<p>1989 was a seismic year in world history and ended with the fall of the Berlin Wall, the clearest symbol of the Cold War. But it was a series of events across Europe that added to the momentum. We journey back through Poland, Hungary and East Germany ahead of that historic m ... Show More
49m 54s
Sep 2023
Beyond the Wall: What Life Was Really Like in East Germany
When the Iron Curtain fell in 1990, East Germany ceased to be. For over forty years, from the ruin of the Second World War to the cusp of a new millennium, the German Democratic Republic presented a radically different Germany than what had come before and what exists today. Soci ... Show More
43m 10s
Aug 2021
83. The Berlin Wall
60 years ago this month, the German Democratic Republic (East Germany) began building a barrier that divided the city of Berlin. It stood until 1989 and came to symbolise the front line of the Cold War. Iain MacGregor, author of "Checkpoint Charlie: The Cold War, the Berlin Wall ... Show More
1h 5m
Sep 2020
Fall of the Berlin Wall and German Reunification | 33
This year marks the 30th anniversary of one of the most historic moments of the 1990s. On October 3, 1990, East and West Germany were reunited after 45 years of cold war separation. The reunification process was set in motion a year earlier when border crossings along the Berlin ... Show More
38m 43s
Nov 2014
Reichstag
Neil MacGregor began his journey through 600 years of German history at the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin, and ends it at the Reichstag, seat of the German Parliament. These two extraordinary buildings, only a few hundred yards apart, carry in their very stones the political history ... Show More
13m 53s
Jan 2021
Hitler's beer hall putsch
<p>Hitler made his first attempt at seizing power in Germany in 1923, ten years before he eventually became Chancellor. The failed "beer hall putsch" - so named because it started in a beer hall in the southern city of Munich - would become a foundational part of the Nazis' self- ... Show More
49m 58s
Dec 2022
Irving Berlin, Part 1
<p>The immeasurably famous Irving Berlin seems like the perfect example of a U.S. immigrant success story. But reality is complicated and imperfect, and so was Berlin’s music-filled life.</p> <p><strong>Research:</strong></p> <ul> <li>Bergreen, Laurence. “Irving Berlin: This Is t ... Show More
36m 30s
Apr 2023
322: East Germany: Life Behind the Iron Curtain
The German Democratic Republic was born in the ashes of the Second World War, and described itself as a socialist “workers’ and peasants’ state”. The country struggled for much of the latter half of the 20th century, relying on economic support and political backing from the USSR ... Show More
1h 6m