The Collapse
The Accidental Opening of the Berlin Wall
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Narrated by:
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Elisabeth Rodgers
About this listen
The Berlin Wall was erected in 1961 to end all traffic between the city’s two halves: the democratic west and the communist east. The iconic symbol of a divided Europe, the Wall became a focus of western political pressure on East Germany; as Ronald Reagan’s famously said in a 1987 speech in Berlin, “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!” But as award-winning historian Mary Sarotte shows in The Collapse , the opening of the Wall on November 9, 1989 was not, as is commonly believed, the East German government’s deliberate concession to outside influence. It was an accident. A carelessly worded memo written by mid-level bureaucrats, a bumbling press conference given by an inept member of the East German Politburo, the negligence of government leaders, the bravery of ordinary people in East and West Berlin - these combined to bring about the end of nearly 40 years of oppression, fear, and enmity in divided Berlin. When the news broke, Washington and Moscow could only stand by and watch as Tom Brokaw and other journalists narrated the televised broadcast of this critical moment in the thawing of the cold war. Sarotte opens her story in the months leading up to that fateful day. Following East German dissidents, she shows how their efforts coalesced around opposition to the regime’s restrictions on foreign travel. The city of Leipzig, close to the border with Czechoslovakia, became a hothouse of activism, and protests there quickly grew into massive demonstrations. The East German Politburo hoped to limit its citizens’ knowledge of these marches, but two daring dissidents, East Berliners Aram Radomski and Siegbert Schefke, managed to evade the Stasi and film the largest of them from a church tower.
Download the accompanying reference guide.©2014 Mary Elise Sarotte (P)2014 Audible Inc.Listeners also enjoyed...
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- Length: 15 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
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In November 2008, Hillary Clinton agreed to work for her former rival. As President Barack Obama's secretary of state, she set out to repair America's image around the world - and her own. For the following four years, BBC foreign correspondent Kim Ghattas had unparalleled access to Clinton and her entourage, and she weaves a fast-paced, gripping account of life on the road with Clinton in The Secretary.
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Never got to the heart...
- By Mel on 04-17-13
By: Kim Ghattas
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Moscow, December 25,1991
- The Last Day of the Soviet Union
- By: Conor O'Clery
- Narrated by: Don Hagen
- Length: 12 hrs and 55 mins
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The implosion of the Soviet Union was the culmination of a gripping game played out between two men who intensely disliked each other and had different concepts for the future. Mikhail Gorbachev, a sophisticated and urbane reformer, sought to modernize and preserve the USSR; Boris Yeltsin, a coarse and a hard drinking “bulldozer,” wished to destroy the union and create a capitalist Russia. The defeat of the August 1991 coup attempt, carried out by hardline communists, shook Gorbachev’s authority and was a triumph for Yeltsin.
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Gorbachev is GOD!
- By Rodney on 03-07-19
By: Conor O'Clery
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The Last Days of Stalin
- By: Joshua Rubenstein
- Narrated by: Arthur Morey
- Length: 8 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
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Joshua Rubenstein's riveting account takes us back to the second half of 1952, when no one could foresee an end to Joseph Stalin's murderous regime. He was poised to challenge the newly elected US president Dwight Eisenhower with armed force and was also broadening a vicious campaign against Soviet Jews. Stalin's sudden collapse and death in March 1953 was as dramatic and mysterious as his life. It is no overstatement to say that his passing marked a major turning point in the 20th century.
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JUST A LITTLE TOO DULL
- By Count B on 08-06-16
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The Tunnels
- Escapes Under the Berlin Wall and the Historic Films the JFK White House Tried to Kill
- By: Greg Mitchell
- Narrated by: John Lee
- Length: 11 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
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A thrilling Cold War narrative of superpower showdowns, media suppression, and two escape tunnels beneath the Berlin Wall.
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captivating
- By maria on 11-28-16
By: Greg Mitchell
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Death of a Dissident
- The Poisoning of Alexander Litvinenko and the Return of the KGB
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The November 2006 assassination of former Russian intelligence officer Alexander "Sasha" Litvinenko, who was poisoned by the rare radioactive element polonium, caused an international sensation. Within a few short weeks, the fit 43-year-old lay gaunt, bald, and dying in a hospital, the victim of a "tiny nuclear bomb". Suspicions swirled around Russia's FSB, the successor to the KGB, and the Putin regime.
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Very interesting and scary...
- By A. M. on 03-21-15
By: Alex Goldfarb, and others
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The Pope at War
- The Secret History of Pius XII, Mussolini, and Hitler
- By: David I. Kertzer
- Narrated by: Arthur Morey
- Length: 17 hrs and 33 mins
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When Pope Pius XII died in 1958, his papers were sealed in the Vatican Secret Archives, leaving unanswered questions about what he knew and did during World War II. Those questions have only grown and festered, making Pius XII one of the most controversial popes in Church history, especially now as the Vatican prepares to canonize him.
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Intellectually dishonest
- By ReviewAmazon384 on 04-08-23
By: David I. Kertzer
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Lessons from the Edge
- A Memoir
- By: Marie Yovanovitch
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By the time she became US Ambassador to Ukraine, Marie Yovanovitch had seen her share of corruption, instability, and tragedy in developing countries. But it came as a shock when, in early 2019, she was recalled from her post after a smear campaign by President Trump’s personal attorney and his associates—men operating outside of normal governmental channels, and apparently motivated by personal gain. Her courageous participation in the subsequent impeachment inquiry earned Yovanovitch the nation’s respect, and her dignified response to the president’s attacks won our hearts.
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Heroic patriot's amazing story
- By Victoria Eriksson on 03-19-22
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The Year That Changed the World
- The Untold Story Behind the Fall of the Berlin Wall
- By: Michael Meyer
- Narrated by: Ed Sala
- Length: 10 hrs and 34 mins
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Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall! President Ronald Reagan's famous exhortation when visiting Berlin in 1987 has long been widely cited as the clarion call that brought the Cold War to an end. The United States won, so this version of history goes, because Ronald Reagan stood firm against the USSR; American resoluteness brought the evil empire to its knees. Michael Meyer, who was there at the time as a Newsweek bureau chief, begs to differ.
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Great book about a great year for democracy.
- By Susan on 11-24-09
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Cursed Victory
- Israel and the Occupied Territories; A History
- By: Ahron Bregman
- Narrated by: Derek Perkins
- Length: 13 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
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In a move that would forever alter the map of the Middle East, Israel captured the West Bank, Golan Heights, Gaza Strip, and Sinai Peninsula in 1967's brief but pivotal Six Day War. Cursed Victory is the first complete history of the war's troubled aftermath—a military occupation of the Palestinian territories that is now well into its fifth decade. The audiobook provides a gripping and unvarnished chronicle of how what Israel promised would be an "enlightened occupation" quickly turned sour and the anguished diplomatic attempts to bring it to an end.
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Largely just the diplomatic history
- By Norman B. Bernstein on 09-28-15
By: Ahron Bregman
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Agent 110
- An American Spymaster and the German Resistance in WWII
- By: Scott Miller
- Narrated by: Noah Michael Levine
- Length: 8 hrs and 47 mins
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This is the secret and suspenseful account of how OSS spymaster Allen Dulles led a network of Germans conspiring to assassinate Hitler and negotiate surrender to bring about the end of World War II before the Soviet's advance. Agent 110 is Allen Dulles, a newly minted spy from an eminent family. Dulles met with and facilitated the plots of Germans who were trying to destroy the country's leadership.
By: Scott Miller
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The Unraveling
- High Hopes and Missed Opportunities in Iraq
- By: Emma Sky
- Narrated by: Henrietta Meire
- Length: 11 hrs and 52 mins
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When Emma Sky, an intrepid young British woman, volunteered to help rebuild Iraq after the overthrow of Saddam Hussein, she had little idea what she was letting herself in for: a tour that would last over a decade, longer than that of any senior military or political official. As the only adviser to the Coalition Provisional Authority in Kirkuk and the closest confidante to US General Odierno, Sky was valued for her controversial voice and outsider's point of view.
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Inspiring memoir; irritating narration
- By Amazon Customer on 09-17-16
By: Emma Sky
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What listeners say about The Collapse
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Bennett Ross Williams
- 11-02-22
Great Historical narrative
A wonderfully developed theme, often forgotten, about how the Wall came down. I view the subject of this book as being, finally, the end of WWII. Seldom have I better seen the vast contrast between the prosperity of a free-market democracy and an evil communist system.
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- DS
- 05-25-15
NON VIOLENCE WINS
I was born shortly after V-E day and by 1989 I had grown used to the permanence of the Berlin Wall and the Soviet Empire.
When the wall suddenly fell I was surprised and confused and aware that this was huge. My son was 9 years old and just beginning to pay attention to current events. The following Easter Break we flew to Paris, rented a car and drove to Berlin. The crossing from West Germany to East Germany produced a sullen border guard and then a drive through the no-man's-land between two fences with now empty guard towers. There were still lots of chunks of the wall available for sale in Berlin and I bought a small piece that sits on my book shelf to this day. I wanted my son to see Checkpoint Charlie and learn about the power of individuals, banding together, to effect change.
This book has cleared my confusion of why and how the wall came down when it did. Also, my conviction that the great lesson of the 20th century is that great, and lasting, social change was only successful through non-violent means. I am now adding the fall of the Berlin wall to India's independence, the end of apartheid in South Africa and the Civil Rights movement in the US.
My other take away is that history is also caused by incompetent leaders and I think we can all see that our invasion of Iraq, on a false premise, removed a dictatorial, but constraining force, that has led to the rise of ISIS. Thus history is formed by governmental incompetence either in East Berlin or DC. On a positive note, Bush the elder handled the fall of the Berlin Wall very well, it's too bad his son wasn't as wise.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Amazon Customer
- 02-09-24
Bravery of E Germans and Bungling of E German Regime
A fantastic telling of the small, unexpected, sometimes unnoticed actions and decisions tied to fall of Berlin wall and E German regime. Avoids the pitfalls of "great men doing big things" history telling. Finds the individual E Germans who were crucial to changing their own lives and took the risk to make that change. Highly recommended to all who want to understand history from the street level were people did the deeds.
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- Margot Robinson
- 06-06-15
Superb
A stirring account of an historic event. I learned much that I did not know.
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- gobraugh
- 02-03-17
A series of fortunate events?
Any additional comments?
The Fall of the Berlin Wall is one of those events that are burned into my memory. I was a child of the Cold War and hoped, but never believed, I would see in my life time the fall of the Berlin Wall and the break up on the Soviet Union. After the crack down and blood shed of the Tienanmen demonstrations, the seemingly unexpected and peaceful opening of the Wall was just too good to be true. Interestingly I never really understood how it all came about and how regular East Germans where the catalyst, particularly Christian ministers, in setting the ball of discontent in motion. The well researched and written book was surprisingly moving. I would recommend this to anyone who likes a good story.
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- Kevin
- 02-15-18
Not what you’re taught in history class
The Collapse is a great story about an event in modern history. How even in such a short time a narrative has been constructed and disseminated to the masses. When in fact the true story, or the more detailed is much more interesting. Anyone interested in the Cold War should read/listen to this book
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- T. R. Pearson
- 07-08-18
A really interesting history of how the wall fell
This book is perhaps not as slickly written as it might be, but it is a fantastic read nonetheless - because the story itself is so interesting - a story that is a such a fantastic series of screw ups by the East German government that if this was fiction you would find it hard to believe!
Even if you aren't into history or politics this is still an interesting read/listen.
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- Martin Omander
- 01-23-15
Great blow-by-blow description of what happened
The Good: The fall of the wall was not easy to understand from the news accounts at the time. We all knew *what* was happening, but not *why*. This book explains the big political picture and gives an exciting account of who did what, when and why in November 1989. I found the audiobook as hard to put down as a well-written thriller. And it was fascinating to see how easily things could have gone differently.
The Bad: Hard to find anything bad to say about the book. The narration was competent and clear, but it didn't knock my socks off, so I gave it four stars instead of five.
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- Girish C
- 02-13-20
A thriller where you least expect it!
The story of the fall of the Berlin Wall has been told many times but not like this! The amount of research that has gone into writing this is staggering and is amazingly matched by the storytelling - at many points it was like watching an episode of 24 with edge of the seat action ( even though the ending is known!) told from multiple perspectives. And so many lessons to learn from this historic moment, not least the fact that revolutions happen because of the little things.
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- bawalton
- 09-14-15
Very good
Engaging story well told. Detailed account of events generally unknown to most people. Account probably discounts the macro political effects while focusing on the details.
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