Main content
A Cold War love affair
The story of a West German woman who crossed the Iron Curtain for love in the 1980s.
The East German authorities built the Berlin Wall in 1961 to keep their people in. Thousands had been streaming westwards. But a few people went the other way. Frauke Naumann was one of them. She grew up in West Germany but fell love with her cousin who lived on the other side of the border. So, in 1986, at the age of 22 she left home to join him. Frauke tells Tim Mansel about the joys and the miseries of making a new life in a foreign country under the watchful eye of the secret police.
PHOTO: The Brandenburg Gate in the 1980s with the Berlin Wall passing in front (BBC)
Last on
Sun 23 Jan 202200:50GMT
BBC World Service Australasia
More episodes
Broadcasts
- Fri 21 Jan 202208:50GMTBBC World Service
- Fri 21 Jan 202212:50GMTBBC World Service
- Fri 21 Jan 202218:50GMTBBC World Service except East and Southern Africa & West and Central Africa
- Fri 21 Jan 202223:50GMTBBC World Service East and Southern Africa & West and Central Africa only
- Sat 22 Jan 202203:50GMTBBC World Service except Australasia
- Sun 23 Jan 202200:50GMTBBC World Service Australasia
Podcast
![]()
Witness History
The story of our times, told by the people who were there

