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Culture Express
  • 5/17/2025

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00:00In April 1945, Soviet director Yuli Reisman makes a film about the end of the so-called
00:18Third Reich.
00:19He has 38 Red Army cameramen at his disposal.
00:26The title of the film, Berlin.
00:30The liberation of the city by the Red Army is to be documented.
00:34It is due to start on April 16th of the order with the Battle of the Zillow Heights, 70
00:39kilometers outside of Berlin.
00:41At the banks of the river, the Red Army has gathered two and a half million soldiers,
00:47over 6,000 tanks, 7,000 aircraft and 41,000 artillery.
00:54They are confronted by the German army, one million soldiers, many among them Hitler youth
01:02and old men, 800 tanks and no air support.
01:07Over two million people are still living in Berlin, men and women, young and old, guilty
01:14and innocent.
01:17Soon only diaries and memories, files and pictures, ashes and dust will tell the tales
01:23of their city.
01:25Miracle upon miracle, we are allowed to sleep in, no air raid alert, not in the morning,
01:48not in the afternoon.
01:56We fetched water and made preserves, many glasses, in case of a long siege, sewing and
02:02reading in the afternoon.
02:14Nobody who hasn't lived through it will believe how orderly life goes on, despite everything.
02:20The bread carriage and the grocery truck are ringing their bells in the streets.
02:24People gather outside to chat.
02:26You're aware of the approaching catastrophe, but it's not here yet.
02:31The night between April 15 and 16 felt unusually long, with nerves strained to the utmost, expecting
03:00major events.
03:01Time passes very slowly.
03:06The offensive was due to start at 5 a.m.
03:11We watched the final seconds tick by.
03:30There has never been a day like today at the front line.
03:53Before in the morning thousands of Stalin organs opened fire.
03:57Later the battle cry echoed everywhere.
04:00To Berlin.
04:23It was cold in the early hours.
04:24Fog rose.
04:25The smell of sulphur everywhere.
04:27The ground dins and trembles.
04:29Hell seemed to have broken loose.
04:36Impacts continue.
04:37Our ears have been deaf for a while now.
04:39Hardly anyone speaks.
04:42Farms and villages are burning in the distance.
04:45Death stands right next to us.
04:58The city hums like a swarm of bees.
05:00Now it begins.
05:02In Berlin we hear the Russian cannons.
05:04Everywhere in the streets one encounters military police, hunting down refugees and deserters
05:10who are convicted on the spot.
05:12A proclamation by the Führer is hanging on each wall.
05:16Everyone ordering retreat is to be arrested and killed on the spot.
05:20Michel saw how a barricade was erected at Alexanderplatz.
05:23He also saw with his own eyes a man hanging from a tree at a crossroads.
05:27He had complained about the Nazis and the war.
05:33The German troops had been closing in on the city.
05:37Michel saw how a barricade was erected at Alexanderplatz.
05:42He also saw with his own eyes a man hanging from a tree at a crossroads.
05:46He had complained about the Nazis and the war.
05:51Supply is precarious and uncertain.
06:08Even though the Russians are well beyond Fürstenwalde,
06:12we had to take shelter from English bomber aircraft.
06:15Uncle Fritz, an old party comrade, turned pretty brutal.
06:19Dieter, you have to return to your battery. It's your duty, he said.
06:24If I didn't go to the flak tower, I was to be reported.
06:37I'm on German territory,
06:51where I have seen the tiniest Fritz and the women folk.
06:55I'm trying to destroy them faster,
06:58so the German no longer thinks he can invade us.
07:01It will be a reminder and a lesson.
07:04It will be a reminder and a lesson.
07:15Mum, I have already taken revenge for father, have killed with my own hands.
07:20I don't know how many, and yet still too few.
07:23I will take revenge as long as I shall live.
07:34The Higher-Ups report that Fürstenwalde has been occupied.
08:02I hope it is not just a ruse to lift morale.
08:05Many of our people have been killed.
08:07They are lying in the field or by the side of the road.
08:10Falling, so close to victory.
08:32Today is the Führer's birthday. We are already afraid of it.
08:40You can hear the artillery.
08:42Dr. Goebbels says we should trust and have no fear.
08:45The Führer will conduct an experiment and all will turn out well in the end.
08:49The day when usually the flags of ugly malice would be flapping all over the country, there is not a single flag.
09:02Not even the official departments have flags out and that should mean something.
09:06The mood is kaput.
09:09In the afternoon I reported to our department in the garden of the Reich Chancellery.
09:13When Hitler appeared from the bunker, I reported to him too.
09:16Then the Führer walked along the length of the delegation.
09:38I was used as a messenger during our first attack on the command of the band leader.
09:53I had to report to the stormtroopers and pull them in.
09:57When the Russian approached Lauban, I voluntarily made myself available to the battle commander of Lauban as a messenger.
10:08Together with a local NSDAP group for the borough of Kreuzberg, I'm lying in the small bunker of the Ministry for Propaganda, waiting to be deployed.
10:34I feel awkward among the old party comrades. It disgusts me that many of them are drunk.
10:41Suddenly a radio blares with military marches and we hear Goebbels' speech for Hitler's birthday.
10:51Because Germany is still alive today.
10:54If Europe, and with it the saturated evening land, is still not completely sunk, they owe it to him alone.
11:06Because he will be the man of this century. He is the only one who remains true to himself.
11:15He is Germany's bravest lord and our people's most brilliant will.
11:25Years back they screamed Heil. Now they hate the man who calls himself their Führer.
11:49They hate him, fear him, they suffer deprivation and death for him. But they have neither the strength nor the courage to free themselves from his demonic possession.
12:08No water, no gas, no electricity either.
12:38It was in Germany when our soldiers began to ask why the Germans invaded us.
12:49Millions of our men have seen the rich farms in eastern Prussia, the advanced agriculture, the two-story houses fitted with electricity and gas, the well-paved roads.
13:01They all asked themselves in anger, but why did they come to us? What did they want?
13:09Many of my acquaintances, my friends even, will think that I am touched, that I fell for the German cities and the German population.
13:36I have to confess, no, I will never ever pity them, since I have seen for myself the havoc they have caused in Russia.
13:44The exhaustion is overwhelming, but we are going to make it. We have to make it.
13:50The Soviet troops came to Berlin on April 21.
14:00The fierce battles began right away.
14:03Everyone is on the run. The Russians are coming to Karlsdorf. It's all moving fast. Digging trenches is useless. There are no soldiers to defend them. We are in the retreat basement.
14:34In the basement, the minister performs a brief service. Soon after, two Russians appear. They demand watches. Mrs. F. gives them her watch. The Russians leave. Meanwhile at home, Mrs. Rister and Mrs. Kuschel were being raped repeatedly.
14:52It happened around midday. Unter den Linden took a hit. Without prior warning, without a bomber aircraft. One shell impact. Now it is certain. Berlin will see the Red Army.
15:16Mum wouldn't let me go to the shop. The Ari-Tank shoots like crazy. We hauled our most precious possessions to the basement and set up air shelter beds.
15:29They are burning swastikas in the houses, throwing away the medals. Me, I clear away the briquettes in the basement and bury the Führer's images. Why? I do still believe in National Socialism after all.
15:4910 p.m. Rumors are spreading in the cellar. Mrs. L. says, rather a Russian on the belly than an American bomb on the head. Miss B. is screaming in the cellar. Now let's face it, none of us is still a virgin.
16:18Nobody answers.
16:30There is no doubt. We're putting the screws on Berlin. I'm a staff member again and have to occupy myself with office work. The only fun part is listening in on the German and Allied radio shows. They're coming thick and fast through the airwaves.
16:43Defenders of Berlin, you now know your task and I know you will fulfill it exemplarily. The hour of your application is here. The Mongol storm will and must be broken at the walls of our city. I will stay in Berlin with my staff, of course. My wife and children are here and will stay here.
17:13The headlines in Sunday's paper state, the cruel front line spirit now rules over Berlin. It's about obtaining a turn in the war by sheer obstinacy. The order of the day, a fight to the last Berliner. Already new emergency measures are introduced. From now on, death penalty for using electricity for cooking.
17:43What do you have? Mom has just buried the last pieces of jewelry. I'm keeping my watch. The grounds are too wet.
17:54Mom and I have packed a rucksack in case we need a quick start. We each have our papers, two sets of underwear, soap, shoes, dress, towel and so on. Maybe we'll be kidnapped and brought to Russia.
18:24April 24. Today we crossed the Spree. It's a rather narrow and pitiful river. I spit in the damned water three times. The Fritzes are cut off. Now we're supposed to finish them.
18:54In the flak tower I reported back to Senior Lieutenant Kuttner. In our barracks I met only a few of my old comrades. But there is still news of victories in the Wehrmacht report.
19:14The most dangerous drugs are used in the course of yesterday's day and night. The brave defenders in the eastern front area of the Reichshof understand. Berlin continues to fight. Berlin trusts the Führer.
19:44I went to collect water from the big basin in No. 16 Windstreet. It's very misty, but we don't want to use our preserves yet, in case things get even worse. We are hearing about new deaths every day, people who died fetching water.
20:14Around 11 a.m. I got a call from the Reich Chancellery. I was to go and see General Krebs. Krebs told me that I had made a good impression on the Führer and had been appointed commander of the Berlin defense. I was to take over immediately.
20:44At 10 p.m. I arrived at the Reich Chancellery to report on the current situation. The Führer was once again sitting at his desk, which was covered in maps. All his words were directed towards one thought. If Berlin falls, Germany's defeat would be inevitable.
21:14The troops are moving in all directions. Where is the front line? The captain is badly injured. He's unlikely to make it.
21:34There are shootings, fire and smoke everywhere. The Germans are attacking us from their windows and doors.
22:03A grenade explodes in front of the house. We get a man shot in the arm and leg into the cellar. He's lying there with an emergency bandage and a shot of morphine. Miss Blau has been hit worse. Splinters in her lungs, losing blood. I calm her with morphine.
22:17No more beds in Gertrauder Hospital. The injured, Russian and German soldiers alike, are mixed together in the corridors.
22:37Performed surgery until midnight. I wanted to go to my room to have a drink and listen to the BBC news. Suddenly the bunker swayed like a boat. A huge bomb fell right into the clinic. My room is in ruins. The janitor and his wife are dead. Four nurses are buried under debris.
23:08I've been pondering whether I'm scared of dying. No, I'm not afraid to die, but I fear serious injury. I'm carrying cyanide with me.
23:19The battle for Berlin rages on, but for Dahlem it is over. No more Russian grenades, no more projectiles, no more Russian bombs.
23:50Around midday I saw three soldiers coming. The first Russians. They were very nice, asked for watches and liquor. Then they left. Shortly after, the next group came. One of them came up to me, took me outside, led me upstairs to the sofa.
24:13Surprisingly, I wasn't scared. I had to take off my trousers, and then he laid on me and did this. It hurt. In any case, it was horrible.
24:25We all had to, even little Inge, who was only eight years old. I kneeled in front of the soldiers, but it was no use. Later, we had to cook for them.
24:42They say that during those first few days, there were around a hundred suicides in Friedrichshagen.
25:04The pastor shot himself, his wife and daughter because the Russians broke into the basement and assaulted the girl. Mrs. Hoffmann shot her sons and then cut her veins and her daughters. Our teacher, Miss Klinkmüller, hung herself. She was a Nazi. The local group leader Schmidt shot himself and Mrs. Nitschke poisoned herself.
25:34The further we advance into Berlin, the harder the fighting. The thick, massive stone houses make for perfect fortification.
26:04Just like in a maneuver, our men jumped from door to door to attack the red shooters hiding on each floor. Our attack gained ground.
26:24Our units held their ground at Bell Alliance Platz to block the access to the government quarters and the Reich Chancellery. There are no more defenses right or left of us. We only have the bazookas, assault rifles and a few machine guns left.
26:54Company Commander Kürtner has received the Knight's Cross and returned from the Fuhrer's headquarters with Adolf Hitler's best wishes. The five floors of the Flak Tower are scattered with dead bodies. A disgusting, sweetly scent fills the tower. It stands like an island in the sea, the Russians having already moved past us.
27:24We were slowly moving forward towards the Reichstag. Suddenly I was hit by a damned fascist explosive device. I was badly injured and lost consciousness.
27:54We are out of morphine. It is terrible not to be able to give sedatives to the injured.
28:24April 30th.
28:34Everyone will remember the air in Berlin, acrid and hazy from the fire and the dust of the stones, our teeth crunching on sand. The walls were covered in German posters.
28:59I am so scared. We don't have much longer to live. I certainly won't. What will my dearest Kurt do? Surely I will not see any of my dear soldiers ever again.
29:23Good day, my friends. I am still alive, just a little drunk. I need it for courage. Three-star cognac never hurts. I'm 50 meters from the Reichstag.
29:43It's not easy to take the Reichstag. What's left of the once awe-inspiring Prussian army was desperately defending themselves. The building was transformed into a fortress.
30:12The Reichstag is filled to the brink with Russians. When we shoot 10, 20 more follow. It's dreadful. Hand grenades and gunfire are raining down on us. In the underground corridors and vaults, everyone is shooting at everyone.
30:40I climbed onto the roof with the soldiers and passed the flag to one of them. Finally, I found the spot where you could see the burning Reichstag, with burning houses and the Brandenburg Gate in the background. And I knew that's it.
31:40The fighting got more intense. Houses collapsed with thunderous noise. The Führer said goodbye to those still with him. He shook hands with everyone for one last time.
32:07He stood there, hunched over. I snapped to attention and signed off for the last time. In a seemingly calm manner, he said, Linger, I will shoot myself. You know what to do.
32:37Berlin was still engulfed in battle when the Central Committee of the Communist Party sent delegates from Moscow to Germany. The first initiative group landed 70 kilometers from Frankfurt Oder.
33:07Nothing to see all around. No city, no buildings, nothing. Two young officers approach us and say, we are very happy to be able to welcome you here. We have heard that you are members of the new German government. I almost choked. What did he just say?
33:38May the 1st. I dive from one cellar door to the other until I reach number 33, Lindenallee. There is supposed to be a battery radio there. Everything is filled with debris and ash. Furniture is damaged, the walls and ceilings hanging low. In the basement, I actually find the radio.
33:59Grand Admiral Dönitz speaks to the German people.
34:04German men and women, soldiers of the German Wehrmacht. Our Führer Adolf Hitler has fallen.
34:19The camp demands from you further, unconditional action. I demand discipline and obedience. Do your duty. It concerns the life of our people.
34:33When the message arrives that the Führer has been killed in action, everyone leaves the foxholes and is very agitated for the next few hours. There are no more clear orders. The leadership has probably lost its head.
34:55We have decided not to leave Berlin, but to stay and end our life at our Führer's side, because to me, life no longer holds value. I make this decision also on behalf of my children, who were too young to offer their opinion, but would surely come to the same conclusion if they were old enough.
35:25There is no more help and no more troops to replace us. We long to sleep and need a full meal for once.
35:55In the second half of the day, the situation became extremely grave. The defenders of Berlin were squeezed into a very small space. There was only one way out.
36:26Are you the defender of Berlin? I asked General Weidling.
36:33Yes, he answered. He had given the order of surrender to his troops today.
36:40The war is over for us, my God.
37:10He calls it Hitler's death.
37:40A young Russian soldier collects weapons and kicks against the discarded helmets lying on the ground. He laughs and brags, Vonja kaput, Hitler kaput, we go home to babushka.
38:10I leave our hiding place in the basement. At once, I'm seized by a strange atmosphere.
38:35Silence. The deafening silence after days and nights of explosions, roars, and shooting.
38:49When I had finally grasped it, I could no longer contain myself. It was impossible to hold back the tears. The day we'd been yearning for had finally arrived.
39:04The day of Berlin's surrender. It is hard to describe. Vast masses of German prisoners, their faces reflecting the drama of the situation.
39:34This cold, cloudy, rainy day. Undoubtedly, the day of Germany's ruin.
39:46I am so scared. They are picking up all the men. Our policemen have been collectively taken away. Our old policemen. The women, standing in the street as they were led away, cried. We might not live much longer.
40:04In the evening, they found Goebbels. He's dragged to the door of Wilhelmstrasse. Hitler's right-hand man is dead, but still recognizable. Soldiers and civilians gaze at his corpse.
40:34Before Goebbels killed himself, he had someone poison his kids. We were only interested in one thing. Where's Hitler?
40:59Zoological garden. There was fighting there. Cages destroyed. The bodies of monkeys, tropical birds, bears.
41:25A conversation with an old man. He had cared for the monkeys for 37 years. In one cage was the body of a dead gorilla. Had the animal been frightening, I ask? No, he answers, people are more vicious.
41:53There were rumors of a dead horse across from us, in a street just off Kudamm. I went to cut off a piece as well.
42:14The food situation is critical. You have to listen carefully to find out where to get bits and bobs.
42:29I found typhoid pills and warned everyone against drinking the water. It comes from pumps, and because of all the bodies buried in the rubble of the city, the groundwater could be contaminated.
42:54We took off and walked to Eiches. There are many bodies and the bloated cadavers of horses lying in the street. It looks terrible.
43:09Luckily the weather is rather cold. The body of a man in the next door garden has turned blue and black and is threatening to decompose.
43:23The Russians refuse to deal with German corpses, but are very thorough when dealing with their own dead.
43:39Our soldiers have been through everything. Pain and hatred, bitterness and self-blame in the face of defeat, the hopelessness of encirclement, desperation in detention camps, the rage of attack, the euphoria of victory in battles from Volga to Spree.
44:06And all that for some of them to die in these last few minutes on the streets of Berlin.
44:13The looting of shops has begun. Yet it's not the Russians who are responsible for looting, but mostly the German people. Unbelievable scenes.
44:44Women hit and scratch each other, pour oil on themselves and rub their skin with jam. They're cutting things away by the kilo.
44:53It feels strange to no longer be in charge in your own country, but to be exposed to the whims of lawlessness.
45:22Where there was once a forced order, now there is chaos.
45:25We were assigned to Soviet officers with the task of helping their commander Tura establish and build administrative bodies.
45:48We were to get in touch with former members of the Communist and Social Democratic parties, and with those unions who had remained true to anti-fascist ideology during Hitler's regime.
45:58Proclamation by the Russian city commander. The population is to remain calm.
46:15All members of the Wehrmacht, SA and SS have to come forward within 72 hours. So I have to come forward. I might be taken to Siberia.
46:45Today at noon there is supposed to be a nationwide ceasefire. Germany is surrendering.
47:06At two in the afternoon, three Douglas aircrafts appeared in the sky. The British Air Marshal Tedder arrived on the first plane, American General Spatz on the second, and the third brought French General Delattre de Tassigny.
47:27At last another plane landed with Field Marshal Keitel. No one shook his hand.
47:33What did open our eyes was the drive-in from the airport to Karlsdorf, where the meeting was to take place. It's a fairly long drive, but you can take my word for it that there was hardly a single habitable house or usable building within sight along the entire distance.
47:59One can put it in six words. Berlin has practically ceased to exist.
48:08All eyes were on the door. Over this threshold, those who have so boastingly proclaimed to be able to conquer the whole world would enter at any moment.
48:38Keitel entered, arrogant and defiant, strode to his table and raised the Marshal's baton in greeting. He eyed up the room as if from the battlefield.
48:54He looks ridiculously Prussian as he bangs his heels together. No one gets up. When he sees me, he says, oh, the French. What's next?
49:25Zhukov asked me if I had read the Articles of Surrender. I answered, yes. The second question was if I was prepared to accept by signing. Again, I replied with a definite yes.
49:43At 43 minutes past midnight, the document was signed. I ordered the German delegation to leave the room. They stood up, bowed and left with their heads hung low.
50:00An incredible ruckus broke out in the room. Many people had tears of joy in their eyes. I then opened up the banquet and made a toast. The feast went on way into the morning with songs and dance.
50:30There is nothing to say about the night except that I was allowed to spend it alone. For the first time since April the 27th, there was no one under my sheets.
50:58No Major, no Uzbek showed up.
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