Colin Munro was the British Deputy Head of Mission in East Berlin from 1987 to 1990. Although the UK did not recognise East Berlin as part of the GDR in 1973 it established an Embassy “to” the GDR (not in the GDR) in East Berlin to provide a diplomatic presence.

As Deputy Head of Mission Colin was effectively the Deputy Ambassador and was responsible for improving trade, ensuring correct dealings on status of Berlin and try to promote peaceful change. 

0:00 Introduction and Colin Munro's roles in East Berlin

1:03 UK's stance on East Berlin and the GDR

2:24 Sponsor: Financial Supporters 

2:42 Divided city of Berlin and its status

7:04 Colin's account of a sit-in at the embassy in East Berlin

15:31 Story of the sit-in at the Danish embassy

17:05 Trade between the UK and East Germany

26:18 Personal encounters with East German politburo members

33:01 Opening of the Hungarian border and its perception

40:56 Discussion on the unification of Germany

44:45 Show notes and appreciation of the podcast's patrons

45:37 Invitation to join the Facebook discussion group and closing remarks

Table of contents powered by PodcastAI✨

Do you know how much $3 USD is in Pounds? It’s 76 pence which equals about 20p or 75c per episode if you sign up as a monthly financial supporter of the podcast. 

Higher amounts are welcome too. It’s very straightforward and you can stop whenever you want. Plus monthly supporters get the sought after CWC coaster too!

Just go to https://coldwarconversations.com/donate/

If that’s not your cup of tea then leave a written reviews in Apple podcasts or share us on social media. By telling your friends you can really help the podcast grow.

Back to today’s episode, Colin tells of life in the Embassy with some fascinating insights into the unique difficulties of being a diplomat in a capital city that the UK did not recognise..

We welcome Colin to our Cold War conversation…

There’s further information on this episode in our show notes, which can also be found as a link in your podcast app here . https://coldwarconversations.com/episode154/

If you like what you are hearing, please leave reviews in Apple podcasts and share us on social media.

If you can’t wait for next week’s episode do visit our Facebook discussion group where guests and listeners continue the Cold War Conversation. Just search Cold War Conversations in Facebook.

Radio GDR

If you are interested in East Germany we can highly recommend our friends over at Radio GDR.

Support the project! https://coldwarconversations.com/donate/

Follow us on Twitter https://twitter.com/ColdWarPod

Facebook https://www.facebook.com/groups/coldwarpod/

Instagram https://www.instagram.com/coldwarconversations/

Youtube https://youtube.com/@ColdWarConversations

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices