Tiergarten

Directly at the Brandenburg Gate is the largest black market in occupied Berlin.

The place is ideal for illegal business because the Tiergarten is nearby and the Soviet sector begins only a few meters away.

Many Berliners sell their last belongings that survived the bombing war for food.

Officially, the Allied authorities disapprove of the barter trade and occasionally try to crack down on it with raids.

The big three are meeting in Potsdam to discuss the future of Germany.

Although Truman sees with concern that the Red Army controls almost all of Eastern Europe, he still believes in a future for the anti-Hitler coalition with the Soviet Union.

In the British sector, George Stevens films a Red Army unit marching through the Tiergarten, His president expresses the belief these days that the Russians would continue to be friends of the US.

Although incidents between GIs and Red Army soldiers continue to occur in Berlin, Truman sees no reason at this point not to welcome their friendship and give them ours.

And so now we're sitting here going, we know there's a lot in there, but you don't get that many shots at it.

So how did you think about when you were standing, you know? you're in the Tiergarten, you're surrounded by all these like international marathon nuts and you're like, I just want to have a solid day.

Did you have like a pace range or is it go by feel? Did you have like a window of success? What were you looking for?

Yeah, yeah.

Yeah, it looks a little in this aerial photograph.

It's this whole, the Tiergarten, I think it was called in Berlin, right?

Yeah, that's right.

And then further down here, there's this sort of table of statistics about the actual songs that they play.

But the interesting thing was that it was, th- that, that smoking in, in, in those, in, in, in that setting was experienced differently from, let's say, a novelist in the 1970s at a, at a typewriter.

Um, and in the revolutions of 1848, uh, notoriously, one of the demands of the Berlin revolutionaries was the right to smoke in the Tiergarten, in the, in the, in the zoological park.

That was literally a, an important, an important right, because the police had been en- enforcing a no smoking law.

And the, the, t- smoking had this, this, this incredible populist aura.

I do not bite.

I have been retired for four years, and I no longer command anything except an armchair and a view of the Tiergarten.

You commanded the German Army.

I did.

Pa Used to Be a Terrible Man.

With Mark's daughter, Susie, I was walking in the Berlin Tiergarten one afternoon when we encountered a very rough specimen of the genus tramp.

"Look at him," said Susie.

"You know, Pa, too, was an awful man before Mama took him in hand and married him." And with added seriousness, she continued, "He used to swear and swear and then swear again, and the only thing that he didn't do that was bad was to let cards and liquor alone.

Unreal pizza.

Um, and then went for an hour's jog around the Tiergarten, which is like...

So Berlin is obviously historically is kind of split east and west.

Mm.

Um, but, like, from an outsider, it's almost split into four.

Right.

And the, and the Tiergarten is kind of across the middle, and it's massive.

Like it'd be three times the size of Hagley Park.

At around 4 a.m., Hitler signed his last will and testament and married his longtime companion Eva Braun in a simple ceremony witnessed by Goebbels and Martin Bormann.

In the following hours, the Soviets captured the Gestapo headquarters, although a counterattack soon forced them to retreat temporarily, while the other Red Army units moved into the Tiergarten Park.

The following day, surrounding bridges in the area were repaired, allowing the Soviets to bring in heavy artillery, which they used to attack the Reichstag.

However, their plan was hindered by German entrenchments and support from anti-aircraft weapons in the distance.

Admiral Karl Dönitz became the President of the Reich, while Goebbels became the new Chancellor, both in accordance with Hitler's last wishes.

Around 10,000 German soldiers had remained in the center of the city, and they were subjected to assaults on all sides.

The last of the German Tiger tanks were positioned in the east of the Tiergarten to defend against the 3rd Shock Army, while another Soviet unit, the 8th Guards Army, moved to the south, pinning the Germans into a much smaller area and making an escape much harder.

In the small hours of May 1st, General Hans Krebs, Chief of the General Staff of the German Army High Command, reached out to the commanders of the 8th Guards Army, seeking to surrender following Hitler's demise.

So I actually got up with my parents.

We Ubered to the Tiergarten and then hung out with them for a little bit.

It was so fun because we actually were sitting on a bench in the park, met another Puma Project 3 athlete.

And then we chit-chatted for a while.