Clive James’s Postcard from Berlin was part of a TV travel documentary series that was broadcast in Great Britain in 1995. In this show, you can see Australian broadcaster and comedian Clive James exploring the German capital a few years after the fall of the Berlin Wall and the reunification of the country.
In this episode, Clive James explores Berlin as I imagine that most people would and think as most people would. He drives around town in an East German Trabi, he tries to eat German cuisine, he looks for somewhere to have fun with women. His view of the city feels antiquated from time to time, but this was 25 years ago, and I can understand it. Somehow.
It’s interesting to me to see the sights that he decided to explore in this new unified Berlin. Like the Glienicker Brücke that was so important during the Cold War as a location to exchange spies.
He visits the gravesite of Marlene Dietrich, who had died in 1992 and had returned to the city a couple of years before that. He explores how much Germans like to get naked like Conan O’Brien did two decades after and he talks about a wave of artists immigrating to Berlin, looking for something new.
For me, this video is interesting because it shows how much the city changed in the last 25 years. While I was watching it, I had to stop the video from time to time to see if I could guess where Clive James was in Berlin. Sometimes I was right, sometimes I had to guess. Sometimes he was in an area that changed so much I had to look for help online, like when he visits the Führer Bunker next to Potsdamer Platz. Back in 1995, that area was a wasteland, and the only reference point I have was the abandoned watchtower in the back.
Also, it’s pretty exciting to take a look in the background of anywhere Clive James is driving. There are so many great sights that are hard to pinpoint them all here. You’ll have to watch it know!
While watching Clive James’s Postcard from Berlin, you will see that Berlin changed a lot in the last 25 years. But one thing remains constant, there are cranes everywhere. And, Checkpoint Charlie was a tourist trap.I learned about Clive James and his tv show through my friend Mike that already appeared at Fotostrasse before. If you want to see the official version of this episode, you should go straight to the BBC. If you are not in the United Kingdom, you should click on the link below and go to Youtube to watch it.
