Walls and Wire: Virtual Tour

Learn about the British soldiers serving on the front line of the Cold War in this virtual guided tour of our special exhibition.

Following their victory in the Second World War, the Western powers and their Soviet allies saw what was already a tense relationship grow increasingly frosty. The ensuing Cold War was one of the great ideological struggles of the 20th century.

The British Army was prominent on the front line of this conflict. From their bases in West Germany and the political enclave of West Berlin, soldiers were busy preparing to fend off the Soviet threat should the Cold War turn hot.

Join Dr Peter Johnston, the lead curator of our special exhibition, ‘Foe to Friend: The British Army in Germany since 1945’, to discover the significance of the British Army’s role during this fraught period of history.

The tour will take in a range of objects that tell this story of walls and wire from its inception in the wake of the Second World War until the collapse of the Soviet Bloc 30 years ago. 

The tour will be available to watch on this page from 12pm (noon) on Thursday 25 February. It will last approximately 15 minutes and will be followed by a live Q&A session with Dr Peter Johnston.

Live chat and Q&A

If you would like to take part in the interactive elements of this virtual tour, please visit our YouTube watch page.