Uploaded April 2014 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
When the East German government closed the border from East to West Berlin on August 13, 1961 to stop the flow of refugees to the west and began erecting a barrier of wire, NBC News was there. Concrete slabs and cement blocks supplemented the barbed wire shortly thereafter and the Berlin Wall was built.
In 1962, when some engineering students decided to dig a tunnel between the two Berlins to free a fellow student and his family in East Berlin, NBC News was there. This dramatic escape is captured on film in the NBC News Emmy Award-winning program "The Tunnel."
For close to three decades, as the most visible symbol of the Cold War, the Berlin Wall attracted visits from world leaders as well as tourists from around the globe. NBC News was there over the years. And when East Germany dissolved its Politburo in response to another refugee crisis and opened access to West Berlin on November 9, 1989, NBC News was there. Tom Brokaw was the only U.S. television network anchor to report live from the Berlin Wall on that historic day.
NBC was in Berlin long before 1961 to cover the struggle between the Eastern and Western powers, covering anti-government riots in East Berlin in 1953 that were met by Soviet tanks and repression. The 1958 NBC News program "The S-Bahn Stops at Freedom" covers the train stop for the Marienfelde refugee camp in West Berlin, the destination point for those fleeing East Germany for the west. And just three weeks before that fateful day in August 1961, NBC aired "Berlin: Where the West Begins" on the city's history since World War II and the refugee crisis and manpower drain in the east that would lead to the border closing.
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When the East German government closed the border from East to West Berlin on August 13, 1961 to stop the flow of refugees to the west and began erecting a barrier of wire, NBC News was there. Concrete slabs and cement blocks supplemented the barbed wire shortly thereafter and the Berlin Wall was built.
In 1962, when some engineering students decided to dig a tunnel between the two Berlins to free a fellow student and his family in East Berlin, NBC News was there. This dramatic escape is captured on film in the NBC News Emmy Award-winning program "The Tunnel."
For close to three decades, as the most visible symbol of the Cold War, the Berlin Wall attracted visits from world leaders as well as tourists from around the globe. NBC News was there over the years. And when East Germany dissolved its Politburo in response to another refugee crisis and opened access to West Berlin on November 9, 1989, NBC News was there. Tom Brokaw was the only U.S. television network anchor to report live from the Berlin Wall on that historic day.
NBC was in Berlin long before 1961 to cover the struggle between the Eastern and Western powers, covering anti-government riots in East Berlin in 1953 that were met by Soviet tanks and repression. The 1958 NBC News program "The S-Bahn Stops at Freedom" covers the train stop for the Marienfelde refugee camp in West Berlin, the destination point for those fleeing East Germany for the west. And just three weeks before that fateful day in August 1961, NBC aired "Berlin: Where the West Begins" on the city's history since World War II and the refugee crisis and manpower drain in the east that would lead to the border closing.
Go to NBCUniversalArchives.com to license any portion of this video.
Like Us on Facebook.com/NBCUArchives
Follow us on Twitter.com/NBCUArchives
