“BARRIKADE” 1960s ANTI-COMMUNIST FILM CONSTRUCTION OF THE BERLIN WALL EAST GERMANY 51314

This 1960s film titled “Barricade” protests the construction of the Berlin Wall in 1961. It shows the construction of the Wall in stages, starting with the initial temporary fence, a proper brick wall, and finally a reinforced wall with the Death Strip. The theme running through the film is people’s yearning for freedom, with footage of people escaping at each stage of constructions. It ends with a homage to the victims of the Wall, showing memorial services held for them. The Berlin Wall was a guarded concrete barrier that encircled West Berlin of the Federal Republic of Germany from 1961 to 1989, separating it from East Berlin and the German Democratic Republic. Construction of the Berlin Wall was commenced by the government of the GDR on 13 August 1961. 0:07 overview of the death strip at the Berlin Wall, a no-man’s land filled with tank traps and barbed wire, 0:26 two East Berlin Border Guards on patrol, 0:48 footage and stills of different people being emotional by the Wall and waving and communicating with people on the other side, 1:52 a cross in the ground labelled “We are all Germans”, 1:58 people waving at each other interjected with footage of border guards, 2:13 a funeral ceremony and protest by the Wall, 2:46 Title “Barrikade”, 2:54 people watching as the Eastern German Military begins constructing the Wall, 3:38 East German soldiers observing the construction of a preliminary border fence, 4:04 East Germans jumping over the fence, 4:41 Nikita Khrushchev giving a speech, 4:45 soldiers erecting barricades at night, 4:48 start of construction of the proper wall, 5:16 the wall at Bernauer Strasse, 5:33 an East Berliner throwing their belongings out of a window and jumping out, 5:56 East Berliner trying to jump out while soldiers are trying to pull her back in, 6:22 tear gas being fired at protestors during a protest, 7:07 Walter Ulbricht giving a speech, 7:16 stills of different people killed after trying to cross the Wall, 7:52 people, including Berlin Mayor Willi Brandt, at the Wall mourning the death of a victim of the Wall, 8:10 footage of the continued fortification of the wall, 8:29 bricks being laid in windows in apartments by the Wall, 9:18 shorts of different East German border guards on duty at the wall, 9:51 East German guards jumping over the fence, 10:12 memorial to Ida Siekmann followed by memorials to others, 10:33 zoom in on the barbed wire on top of the Wall, 10:49 the death strip and other close ups of the Wall, 11:24 the Wall covered in snow during winter, 11:43 West Berliners looking to the other side, 12:02 “Barrikade” Motion picture films don’t last forever; many have already been lost or destroyed. For almost two decades, we’ve worked to collect, scan and preserve the world as it was captured on 35mm, 16mm and 8mm movies -- including home movies, industrial films, and other non-fiction. If you have endangered films you’d like to have scanned, or wish to donate celluloid to Periscope Film so that we can share them with the world, we’d love to hear from you. Contact us via the weblink below. This film is part of the Periscope Film LLC archive, one of the largest historic military, transportation, and aviation stock footage collections in the USA. Entirely film backed, this material is available for licensing in 24p HD, 2k and 4k. For more information visit
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