04 May 2015

Berlin, July 1945


Awesome color footage with excellent definition, certainly worth clicking the full-screen button.  I'm glad this was compiled without any narration - the images speak for themselves.

6 comments:

  1. let us celebrate the post-modernist, neo-cubist, avant-surrealist architecture of berlin!

    wait a minute, that's two months after the end of WWII. oops!

    I-)

    ReplyDelete
  2. The devastation is amazing. Somehow, I always think of the destruction of cities by the Germans, and not the destruction of their capital at the end of the war. So many dirty looks, and even a woman thumbing her nose, at the photographer. Thank you.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I didn't notice it was added foley till the pump handle sound.

    ReplyDelete
  4. At the end of the video, someone added the infamous line, "Wollt ihr den totalen Krieg?" (from the actual Nazi broadcast). ("Do you want the Total War?") They certainly got it.

    BTW, there are a number of shots of the "rubble women" who gleaned the rubble for reusable bricks. Their contribution to the rebuilding of Germany has only of late been properly acknowledged.

    Lurker111

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. And further:

      Note that one of the first things that the Germans got back to working was Mass Transit--viz., the streetcars.

      Note also that it was a good thing for the war to have ended before the onset of summer. Had the war ended, say, in November, there would have been many, many frozen to death.

      Lurker111

      Delete
    2. Related:

      http://tywkiwdbi.blogspot.com/2010/08/remembering-germanys-trummerfrauen.html

      Delete