Look at Life - City of Crisis (1961)
ID: ITV-01-0392
Format: SD
Location: Berlin, Germany
Description

Filmed while the Berlin Wall was being built, this is a portrait of the city which, since World War II, has never been long out of the world's headlines. For more than 15 years, Berlin has found itself involved in crisis after crisis. No other city in the world has been assailed so persistently in the Cold War and today it stands as a symbol in the struggle between East and West. The films shows various shots (including aerial footage) of the city and its landmarks, shots of children at outdoor swimming pool, people relaxing and dancing outdoors, shots of Kurfurstendamm at night, brief shot of Willy Brandt, a military patrol on the border with the East, checkpoints showing where the three western powers (Britain, USA and France) work together, graphics show map of how Berlin was divided between the western powers and Russia, watchtowers, police patrol in boat on lake that sits between east and west, warning signs at the Brandenburg Gate, shots of post-war ruins in East Berlin, communist-style tower blocks, sign for Alexanderplatz, East German refugees at West Berlin's Marienfelde refugee camp, a couple attending a refugee screening committee meeting where "no refugees are ever sent back", refugees head to Tempelhof airport for flights to West Germany, troops, barbed wire fences and armoured cars at the Brandeburg Gate which has been blocked and closed by the Russians, cement blocks being unloaded for building the Berlin Wall, shots of the new wall, shots of British and US military exercises in German forest and mocked-up town with helicopter and tanks.

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