Her. Book garia for some just a summer paradise. For others the path to the free worlds. The 1980 s. When the world was still split into 2 camps with an iron curtain dividing europe bulgaria was part of the eastern socialist bloc it was also a magnet for tourists from east and west alike who were drawn to black sea coastal resorts. It became a place where germans from both sides of the wall could meet. Your conceal lake was a citizen of the german democratic republic the g. D. R. In september 1988 he and a friend flew off to bulgaria from. We of all members are just the mom went on from who and it was our 1st time on a plane and we were hoping to have a nice holiday here in bulgaria at the seaside. As well for me so it was really satisfying for me to go on a trip abroad for the 1st time. So until then id only been allowed to go on holiday in the g. D. R. It was really a feeling of joy leaving the country for the 1st time that they have also come. At a time anybody who wanted to travel outside the g. D. R. Had to request official permission it was a lengthy procedure one that had also gone through. The flight to bulgaria took 3 hours his greatest adventure had begun he was 24. 00. This is forms. He arrived in bourg was. The terminal was bustling back then today its been abandoned time seems to have stood still and the memories come flooding back. You can see a lake was one of over 300000 tourists from east germany who visited bulgaria in 1988. He and his friend intended to spend 3 weeks relaxing and lying on the beach. They wanted to party meet people enjoy life. Despite big brother watching. My words as we were supposed to stay with our group or form smaller groups and never come into contact with others outside those groups over there with west germans for example and also feel of a 3rd. Of all when they wrote them and there were many west germans there. But we were supposed to stay with our east german group. Beginning in the 1960 s. The stasi started recruiting unofficial collaborators to work in bulgaria as holiday resorts these operative groups were given the task of keeping east German Tourists under observation. At 1st the 2 friends kept to the unwritten rules they didnt want to draw attention to themselves or raise suspicion because they did indeed have an all teary your motives for being there. And your we did want to have a nice holiday here but in fact we had other plans on the plane. And. Once youve been hellish 80. If i had to say im not too kind. As much as we tend. To fill up we got a. Friend there was a nice t. V. Film back then which we had watched the one where there were scenes where you saw the bulgarian border and it just seemed possible to go right up to it and cross at those within the film there wasnt much checking going on. So thats how we thought it would be. But the reality was very different the 2 friends were not aware of the fact that at least 339 people were shot trying to escape from bulgaria before 1909 many of the documents relating to these deaths were destroyed if they were recorded at all. And his friend were on their way to their holiday destination sunny beach with gold necklaces and west german deutschmarks hidden in their socks to pay for their planned escape. I knew. I. Was. The. Only people who had hard currency could afford to spend an evening in the trendy bars and expensive restaurants this paradise was also clearly divided into 2 camps. The of one a north to this now if they want to sleep with the. Rose garden the one to get back. In france board mention or a currency. You can see was one of those unlucky guests from east germany. But once you join theres a word for. This hotel here wasnt that great. The room was reasonably nice but whenever we took a shower it would completely flood everything and we would have to wait half an hour before the water drained away. Leave. Today the hotel has been renovated is modern and inviting until 989 it was only for guests from socialist states. Who used to be a translator runs the hotel now. Directly opposite is the coup which back in the day was one of the most Luxurious Hotels on the beach. 10 west germans were also staying here in 1908. You quickly got to know them. They always took us with them and paid for everything. We didnt have much money we werent allowed to exchange so much everything was restricted. So they took us with them to discos and places we would never have gotten into on our own. We became friends and that was when we came up with an idea where. We thought maybe one of them could lend us their passport so that we could get on the boat to istanbul. Then someone else would bring their passport back. But none of them dared. That was too risky for them. So the 2 friends had to rethink their plans. But they didnt give up. They were determined to leave the g. D. R. They no longer considered it home. But the decisive moment for me was when i wanted to go see my grandfather in the west who is turning 80. My mom and i both applied together she was allowed to go but my application was rejected. Really and. And then 3 or 4 months later my grandfather died. And my mother my sister and i applied and once again my application was rejected and so i thought to myself. Why should i continue to live in a state that treats me like this. I cant even go to my grandfathers funeral. Why should i live in this state will have to try to get out of here. I had already done my bit of the army for 18 months my work plus over time i had finished school and my training and so on and i enjoyed it all and truly mind but then i was treated like this as if i were just a number and rejected without a reason. Norman almost 2 and that was it for me. To be going no go no i love those walls on. The 3rd of october 988630 am. Yet. Here this is you here you know. If you want. It had been a difficult night but there was no going back it had taken a long time to get this far. That you had dressed up hoping to pass for west germans they left their suitcases in their room after all they were just supposed to be going for a hike. Yet. Their destination was the stranded on mountains on the bulgarian border with turkey. I was a border guard here in this region to go. To and. The number. Of the people crossing the border illegally. Were mainly from the socialist camp. Germany supported poles and gary ins were to have come on holiday to bulgaria. But who actually wanted to get to western europe or to via turkey. Or if you grew up on iraq. Ever thought. That was the post well a part of it. Thats where i began my service in that building behind those streets. And heres the new building. He retired almost 10 years ago and doesnt like to remember his time as a border guard even 30 years after the fall of the communist regime the subject of Border Security in bulgaria remains to boom. He doesnt want to give his real name either. So were calling him story on twitter off. He was 37 in 1988. On the 3rd of october he was on duty. He was highly concentrated. He could afford no mistakes as this would lead to punishment. The border between bulgaria and turkey was a popular escape route because it was sparsely settled and there was a thick forest which offered protection and hiding places. I dont believe that anyone should have been allowed to escape by the border is. The. It was our job to catch anyone trying to flee. We didnt really know why they were leaving. If they had family in the west. Or if it was just an adventure for the. Simply to capture them. This in this is the. These are the remains of the old eastern block borders on. Story until ron was on duty precisely here. At the time the area was finally rate so that movement could be easily detected. The guards would quickly notice any attempts to cover up tracks and be able to tell if it was an animal or a human who had left the tracks. The phony bushes behind the fence were also a deterrent. And each time the fence was touched a silent alarm was sent to the border post. But this was not the final obstacle the actual border was 2 kilometers away but few people knew this. When the alarm was triggered 2 squads would be sent out one went to the 1st crossing a restricted zone with a tracking dog the other unit went to the actual border people trying to escape hardly had a chance this is the area in which most defectors were shot dead. No i never shot anyone. I never shot at people. And the. If someone was already close to the border and we couldnt catch him. We would shoot in the air 3 times he thought these were warning shots. But there were places where people were shot without warning. But have been talking about the actual border which was further away. If someone didnt give in self up there. He would be shot at directly. There. So. We had no idea that guards were shooting there and that the border zone was patrolled to such an extent it was almost more secure than in the g. D. R. You know the or 1st the 2 friends took the bus to board then they took a taxi to maturing in the south of bulgaria. Without knowing it they were already in the border zone where anyone would have come under suspicion of trying to escape. They asked some locals if they would take them to the border but everyone refused saying it was too dangerous. So they decided to continue on foot. And. They had no idea what was going to happen. They still believed they had a good plan. They could lean you the goods there was no transport there wasnt a bus there was nothing there. There was only a very narrow road that was in pretty bad shape and not many cars. And there was a sign with the words border zone on it and we saw it but that didnt matter we knew where we wanted to go. But that we would come across a sign like this so soon that was surprising to us we didnt know that we were already in the border zone so far away from the actual border. Wed always thought it would be like in the film that we would be able to go right up to the border there would be a bridge a barrier or toll gate and we would simply go across it we didnt know about the whole border zone. Of control. So i saw a bus coming from a long way off. And with me i hope that my friend wouldnt wave it down but he did and the bus stop was over those walls and it was an all of green bus. My friend talked a lot and tried to make contact with the driver and to tell him that he was from hamburg and a tourist and he was going hiking here. They tried to bribe the driver with deutschmarks and a pin a picture but that didnt work. Would be real. Normal i got increasingly scared and the one gets i didnt know how to get out of the situation to work through. We have all those who call. Home i thought that we could maybe hijack the bus. Was so i could have easily driven it. Would have been a lie but we didnt do that either of those on with them for all from. Suddenly the bus came to a stop 13 kilometers from the Turkish Border 13 kilometers to freedom. They were made to get out and wait by the roadside under the watchful eyes of 2 border guards. Called andree until fall and then a jeep drove up over for the above the city they ordered us to stand up and they tied our hands behind our backs and pulled bags over our heads like we will go through. And then they threw us into the back of the jeep. Was on guns and free and we drove around for what felt like one or 2 hours. Therefore we didnt know where they were taking us there was a feeling i just cant describe what we was extreme. They were interrogated the same day. It was you can see who licks turned 1st. He would spend 6 hours in the interrogation room. He tried to stick to the story hed worked out with his friend not a word about their plan defection it was an elaborate fiction. Theres a fog when the movie dont release questions came again and again on. The interrogation. It went on for quite a long time as grounds could be i told them we just wanted to visit the border area to look at it. Wed agreed in advance not to admit we wanted to defect. But the questioning went on for hours and they explained to us what the border area looked like and that we were lucky they hadnt shot us. And by that time i was so emotionally worn down that i told myself theres no point in denying it anymore and telling these people stories. So i admitted that i wanted to flee to turkey through bulgaria and then go on to my relatives in west germany. You can see when they spent the 1st days after the failed escape attempt behind the walls of the Central Prison in bogus in solitary confinement in darkness. Then he was transferred to another prison in sofia. There he shared a 3 by 4 meters cell with 2 other inmates. We only had a 10 leader canister of water that counted as drinking water. We had a wooden spoon with dirt on it so thick nobody would have dared to eat with it for them and the toilet was just a bucket its stored in the cell the whole day and was only emptied once a day. In november 988. Was transferred to east germany and put on trial the sentence was one year and 6 months in prison. So that out of the. Story entitled couldnt find the valuable watch hed been given as a reward for another arrest. But he has many souvenirs from his years of service stored in his basement. Now. I have no problem meeting up with him. Im even curious to see him after so many years and shake his hand. So we can forgive. We all live in the same zone now in a free europe. I dont know. Back then. You know. They may think it was your family yes she has 4 children oh. I dont have any hard feelings towards this man. Thats just how would want. So much has changed in the world after 31 years ago. Nobody expected the wall would fall. That everything would be so free and open. None of us saw that coming. For with this escape was the only possibility we saw. The influence we tried to make use of it. When were home simple bjork born in the causal. Ready ready ready ready ready ready ready ready ready ready ready ready ready ready ready ready mechanisms wait a minute do i know you. d d d d youre going to serve all are welcome once again to bulgaria. The ship and the the meat given i never would have expected to meet the man who arrested me here in bulgaria 31 years ago. Do you recognise me have you still got the image in your mind. Might have recognised your features a little over the long ago that ready its been a long time. But do you know how many people pass through here. You were just doing your job here your work but its all in the past now. Was i was forgotten about i mean. I want. I want us to forgive each other were brothers now living in one family. Garia germany. Here we ought to turn a new page. For a more standard how many times are totally different and were living in the here and now and not in the past. Was released from prison early now he lives in southern germany and works as a stock man story until the half still lives in the area his son became a border guard 2. Decades after the fall of the iron curtain the bulgarian Turkish Border is once again closed on. Now its meant to stop people from entering the European Union. Go camera guy. The solar power line at. The dream girls are enlightening many villages in cameroon in more ways than one. This in geo brings Sustainable Energy and know how to the countrys women and solves more than one problem in the process. You can look at africa in 30 minutes to double. Where and how we choose to be buried reflects the life we lead. In germany traditional symmetries im no longer the only place for burials more and more people are looking for alternative. Signs is the grave changing landscape of german cemetary. 60 minutes on d w. How to cover more than just one reality. Where i come from we have a transatlantic way of looking at things thats because my father is from germany my mother is from the United States of america and so i realized fairly early that it makes sense to explain different realities. And now here at the heart of the European Union in brussels we have 28 different realities and so i think people are really looking for any journalist they can trust for them to make sense of this. Site is backed up by work at the w. Frankfurt. International gateway to the best connection self road and rail. Located in the heart of europe you are connected to the world. Experience outstanding shopping and dining offers and try our services. Be our guest at Frankfurt Airport city managed by france bought. This is either. Cheers and dancing across south africa. World champions the springboks put on a display. Capture the world cup tie. The Program Police in hong kong. Just. As protesters returns of the streets