Spy on visitors and control their own citizens. Hello. I am a curator historian at the International Spy museum in washington dc and we had the largest collection of espionage and intelligence related artifacts in the world. Looking coldl be war berlin. Germany was divided between the victors, the u. S. , United Kingdom and the soviet union. Andsoviet union occupied the other countries, the west. That included the capital city of berlin, divided into four the soviets occupied the eastern section of berlin. This starts the division of germany and berlin after the war. That division became concrete the election of of the berlinn wall. In the years after world war ii and with the occupation of east germany and berlin by the soviets, hundreds of thousands of people in the east had been fleeing to the west. These numbers became larger and larger. It was a terrible drain of intelligent and of skills in the east. These numbers were reaching very large numbers in the months leading up to 1961. East germans called it the antifascists board. Was to keep out west, but of course, it did keep millions of well. Erman in as the city of her then was completely isolated within east germany. Berlin, which after the war, it was set up with a political and Economic System and was democratic capitalist, completely surrounded by communist east germany. It became a symbol of the division between the communist and democratic system in the cold war. Years a hotspot for many during the cold war, of that tension between east and west. The berlin wall south was about 96 miles long. Separating west prison from east berlin, but also completely surrounding west berlin. Ofhave a couple of pieces the berlin wall that i would like to show you. Had two authentic pieces here that were donated to the museum, right outside of berlin, and we shipped them over to washington dc from germany, and we put them up here. Think about the berlin wall, they think about the group e and design on the wall. These are completely plain. They were on the east side, where people were not allowed to graffiti on the wall. One reason why they did not want people drawing on the wall was because having the wall completely clean made it easier for the guards, who were guarding the border, to see people. It made them more visible. Seeing them without graffiti should remind us of the reason why the wall was put up, to keep people in. Before the berlin wall was built, several Million People actually cost the border from after the walld was put up, people did not stop trying to get out of germany. Half the number were successful. Great stories about people who were success in getting across the wall. Took a lot of bravery and creativity and imagination because the berlin wall was not two with all but strip in the middle which could be guarded by guard dogs, there were watchtowers and so on. That was anss extremely difficult feet. People came up with amazingly creative ways to get across the wall. We have a few examples here. Two families actually build a hot air balloon and were able to float across into western germany. Out made the balloon part of sheets and other pieces of material that they stitched together. Two families were able to make the trip. Another extraordinary story about three brothers who managed to cross the border in different ways. Across the floated river on an air mattress. Another brother was able to zip line across the border. , connectedhing line it to a cable and shot it across the border using a bow and arrow. Brother was actually able to slide across the border with a fly with a small airplane. These stories are stories of success, people who managed to make it across to freedom. There were many stories that ended in tragedy. Killedt 140 people were trying to cross the berlin wall. Some of those people were killed by Border Guards as they tried to climb the wall, to cross the. Iver they are sad stories about people who were shot and died, but some of the most tragic stories were about people who cross and their death was covered up. Trying to escape from east germany was a crime, and it was seen as a terrible reflection on the, on communism in general. Fact that people wanted to try to escape was something that the state needed to cover up. We had three stories here about people who died at the wall and their stories were covered up. Is abouty tragic story a worker in west berlin. One night, it appears he might have had too much to drink and he stumbled into the area near the wall, stumbled close to the wall and the guards from the east shouted at him, warning him to go away. He was scared and started running. Keeps shot 177 times and died at the wall. Wife back in west berlin knew nothing, only that her husband did not come home that night. She did not find out until the records were opened in the 1990s. Of course, it is even more extraordinary because after he madeilled at the wall, he a complete cover story for his wife, as to why he had never returned. They went so far as to show her stagedwhere they had photographs of his car, which had been broken into, all made up. She was not able to find out the truth until decades later. Lets look at another message by which people tried to escape method by which people tried to escape. Escapehod for trying to ,as going through checkpoints hiding within cars. Here is a cutaway of a popular car. You can see some of the hiding spaces that people would try to fit themselves into, in order to evade the guards. Can you imagine fitting yourself into the wheel well of a car . Of course, not everyone succeeded in this. They became aware that people were trying to hide inside cars. People, weid catch know that sometimes they would make these people show where they had hidden and take photos, showing them exactly where it was. You can see women, children, adults and amazing places where they were trying to hide. Anybody who came to visit the country would have to be aware that they were going to be spied upon. Here we are in a hotel room in east berlin. It was a hotel built especially for foreign guests. There were rooms in the hotel that were completely under surveillance. Nickname was the stasi nest. Which they went to to spy on visitors at a hotel like this. This looks like an ordinary cuckoo clock, but it has been modified. If you take a close look, you might be able to see that behind the window is a tiny pinhole. Camera. Hat be this it is a wonderful piece. Looking through these pieces here. Here be goingion through the wall. Right behind pinhole in the cuckoo clock camera. While you were sitting in your hotel, you are being spied upon all the time by someone behind the wall. Was somegle artifact kind of device for concealment. What is the best thing to use for concealment . Something you would never think would conceal something suspicious. One of them is a walnut shell. Who would think anything suspicious about that . One of these actually contains a one time pad. A piece of paper with codes on it that could be used for communicating and code. Ways ofe important communicating secretly because they were completely unbreakable. Others wouldon the be able to break the code and read the secret message. Actually in the apartment of someone in west germany who was a spy. West German Security who were looking at the apartment and investigating it had an idea that it might not be what it looked like. They signed it over every single walnut. The glue that was used to stick them on that together glowed under the uv light and they were able to find it. Another object that you might not suspect at all as being anything other than an ordinary iron, but it was a concealment device. Germany living in west had this iron in her apartment. Again, she could keep in there what is clever about this is, if someone came into the apartment and was looking around, she was able to incinerate the evidence of her espionage very efficiently. We have a number of pieces of clothing here that are concealment for cameras or other things. Is the pairvorites of gloves that concealed and adapted camera. Cameras were usually used with two hands. You needed to use the secondhand to wind the film on, but they were actually able to adapt it to be used by one hand. Conceal andt could be activated with just one hand. Therefore, it would not look suspicious. You could activate it with one hand and do surveillance. Of course, even when you are visiting the International Spy museum, you are under surveillance when you are in berlin. That surveillance can be seen in our office down here. Office wheren our a person could actually watch surveillance feed taking place in the hotel room. A lot of different artifacts the, all of which reflect incredible expertise in doing surveillance. Actually the invention of former stasi officers. We have the file that shows how this was invented and many made proposals because they said, especially during the summer months, there really was not anything that helped women conceal surveillance cameras on their body that would be unobtrusive. They devised this camera. It is right in the middle. It comes out from behind and the camera could be activated with this in the pocket of your summer dress. We have some surveillance photos that were taken and the four and had a codename. There are a number of other artifacts here. The case of the foreign intelligence brands branch was notorious. He banned the Foreign Intelligence Branch for over 30 years and he was a master of doing so. One of his techniques that he developed was developing romeo spies. Men and women who were especially trained to seduce their targets. They targeted secretaries at not sothers, maybe young, but women who were a and they wouldr seduce them to get a lot of intelligence out of them. Serviceign intelligence had extraordinary success infiltrating the west german government, even getting to the highest levels of the west german chancellorship. There was a reputation in the west for being extremely elusive. The man without a face because even though western intelligence new about him, they did not know what he looked like. They scoured photos coming out of west germany to find out what this man looked like and it was not until the end of the cold war that they were able to identify him. We have some artifacts. Have these elk horns. What are they doing here . He had a summer house outside of berlin that he might to use as a place to bring people to feel comfortable and he could debrief them and get information from them. While they were having a beer out on the terrace, they were being recorded all the time. Right ina bug planted the back. Coasters. Also these germanyership in east were able had bunkers to retreat to. Marcus will also had a bunker. He had these coasters especially made to have this little cartoon figure on their. It was his nickname. Officers had to undergo quite a bit of training. Lets take a look. But we have on display here is a criminalist kit. Was a crime, so how do you catch criminals with a criminalist kit . To be a spyning catcher in east berlin would have taken a course in east berlin. At the end of the course, they would receive this complete kit, which was everything that needed to catch a spy. Mundane articles , a hammer, a screwdriver, a pair of pliers, rubber gloves to avoid leaving fingerprints, test tubes, other glass bottles to store hair and fiber samples, some pouches to put any kind of documents that you might find along the way, is basically an entire kit for a spy catcher. Spy,u were caught as a there were serious consequences. This is from a prison in east berlin. It is the actual door from one of the prison cells. This prison house local from someoneybody who tried to escape from east berlin to someone who had been reported on by one of their neighbors or coworkers for having ideas or thoughts that may not be compatible with the communist system, someone who might be suspected of having a link with west, anything of that nature. People would be brought into the prison and subjected to interrogation. They would stay there for days or maybe even years. They did not believe in physical torture. They came up with their own methods. The prison, someone might be subjected to a very cold temperature or perhaps it would not be allowed to sleep for very long. Would have to lie on a very hard bed in a particular position with their hands by their side. If they moved at all, the guards would shout at them. Of breakingart someone down psychologically. Even after someone was released from prison, they still might remain a suspect. They had a unique way of keeping tabs on them. We will take a look at that story, next. One other piece of information they might be collecting would be a persons scent. After they were finished talking to them, they would collect that piece of material and store it in a jar, on the shelf with case they on it in needed to track this person in the future. Dogs were especially trained to track the smells. Material inside them. They had hundreds of these from different people that they stored in their head orders. Another artifact of a similar hormone kit. Led a if they wanted to track someone around the city, they might onay some female dog bones the mat outside their apartment or even under the door. The person would step on it, get the hormones on their shoes. Especially trained male dogs contract these hormones through the city, even for days. The berlin wall fell. Remember very well when the berlin wall fell. I know that increasingly, visitors to the museum do not remember the berlin wall or east berlin. They do not remember the cold war. At the museum, we have this exhibit on cold war berlin, which too many visitors will be learning about something that they do not know anything about at all. It is important to remember that period of history when physical barriers divided people from the same country into different societies and to remember the differences between those societies. East germany is an example of a surveillance state. We often talk about that balance between security and freedom. Whereermany is an example the emphasis was on security over freedom. Forhink it is important people to remember when a state like that was like, what it might have felt like. They are giving people a taste of what it might have been like to live in a state like east germany. A tastejust given you of cold war berlin. We hope that it will come to washington dc, visit and see our international on espionage. You can watch this or other american artifact programs at any time by visiting our website, cspan. Org history. He can watch archival films on Public Affairs each week on real america. On American History tv. Here is a cap one of our recent programs. We interrupt this program for an nbc news special report. Good afternoon. Here is the latest information coming from east germany where a short while ago, government officials made the startling announcement that citizens will have the right to leave the country to travel directly to less journey germany or western berlin. The announcement was made by the theesman and member of politicians. Here is how the announcement was made this evening. Says that the communist leadership has decided to draw up a new travelogue but until it has been passed by the east german parliament, east toman will have the right cross all border points between east germany and west germany, including east berlin and west related. That announcement was made at the News Conference that concluded a few minutes ago. Wall of all, the berlin still stands. But appears to be nothing more they will have the right to leave through the wall. You can watch archival films on Public Affairs in their entirety on our weekly series. Here on American History tv. Next, winston lord talks about the Nixon Administrations Foreign Policy approach. On diplomacy, grand strategy and your ship. He describes president nixons relationship with his secretary of state and how it was instrumental in developing Foreign Policy strategies. The Nixon AdministrationFoundation Hosted this event. Evening, ladies and gentlemen. I am with the Richard Nixon foundation. Welcome to the president ial library