The thing about the stars in the sky is you can gaze at them whether youre behind a wall or not. Marked onto this quote my grandmother had a telescope we dont often get saturn and jupiter and its moons he was so corpsman is about to type. Yeah i was born in january 1901 a year after the wall fell. Its incredible to think that my parents who seem so ordinary to me grew up in a dictatorship a place where tanks would sometimes roll through the streets that are just off whites and. Up if you can now theyve used to be a law i knew that it had been built and that my mother and my grandparents were trapped behind it that was the reality i grew up with guns no mother beth. Brother and sister fans and antonia had different and their grandfather he grew up here in bend i watched asset which marks the border between east and west germany he learned this an early age how cruel that border was just coming in and after my own a theatre i remember you telling us that you once looked out of the window onto the cemetery and saw someone attempting to escape through all that you have to ask for thats right. But that was long before the wall was built it was 1953 during the east german uprising. 3 saw a man crawling on all fours between the gravestones over there he was approaching the Church Grounds and our house was already quite close but we could see also that i he was surrounded by armed guards and i was 13 it was a terrible thing to see he was a lost cause and there was nothing we could do we couldnt warn him. We hid under the bed clothes pulled the blankets over our heads and then we heard the gunfire. About it couldnt you have yelled from the window and now you have what you have now and then what. Youd already been spotted what have you there was no point in warning him to come here. If it had been a movie youd have distracted the guards imitated birds or something. Like that. Your kid to plant lived in the eastern half of the city his home and the church where his father was passed or who demolished when the button wall was built then i washed the 2 was also demolished where the love of his life grew up she became a hugely popular politician in the pastry unification yes. Which was grandmas window this one those 2 on the left and the left went to the left when you. Always are it looked on the pavement so if she stuck her head out of the window she always said her head was in the western or backside was in the east her backside in the east her backside im quoting her here and youd knock on the window. Knock on the window on my way to choir practice. But its all because of that its funny to think that was right here the floor was probably here and this is where grandma would show her better at her desk right here you know you. Are again and you know it can depend when married for 35 years until her deaths in 2001961 the balun wool was built literally on their doorstep. Also a few stars about in the wash cars i went out the door under brown hours transfer to buy a newspaper does it with you and i sounded barbwire. There had been laid out on the east side of the street when for the stuff and there were police armed with machine guns. It didnt mean much to the rest of the world but it meant everything to a married couple who lived on one side and wanted to have breakfast with their parents on the other side 1st to voice or grandparents who lived in the west and wanted to take their grandchild for a walk in humboldt and park and all of a sudden you couldnt go from one street to another from one side to the other with. The wool divided but on germany for 28 years. The wall is now in memory the city one again. Studies humanities and works part time in the planetarium antonius studies physics they live just a stones throw from the wall memorial site and from where their grandparents once lived. I know what i see i know its where my grandparents lived and nowadays you see tourists Milling Around here all the time and i love it but of course its also just where france lives and where i go to celebrate new years or watch a football match or whatever but what i will even in history sounds a bit over the top but its everywhere when you go out partying and you cross back and forth any number of times without thinking anything of it. Regina had to put on to it no doubt have enjoyed that had grandchildren live so new to when she grew up she joined the social Democratic Party in 1909 gaining a reputation for playing speaking the successful reunification of the 2 geminis was always one of her key concerns this is arch thats why i say we need to participate in whatever way we can get involved you vote for for i was aware from the outset that the moment she entered politics greg you know would never let go and politics would never let her go. She gave it her all. And not just for self for the people shed suddenly been granted responsibility for. Unfortunately saying. I would have loved to have spent a few days with her as the person i am now discussing ideas. So she years after the fall of the berlin wall antonia in france feel that differences between east and west in germany still linger there not sure if germany has grown together or apart. With sending them on a journey across eastern germany to find out visiting places where people are venting dissatisfaction and disappointment. Come on lets have a song. To. Sing. Just fish. Fish. All right. No network theres not exactly reliable internet around here but. Much of the former east germany is struggling in the communist era the country was run down and on the verge of bankruptcy since 1909 nearly 25 percent of the population has moved away. Wow. Theres little industry left here. Antonia and france are critical of coal mining like many young people today the. Worried about the environment but in eastern germany coal is still important lignite all brown coal mining is a major employer and an integrity part of the regions identity zuko but slough has spent her entire working life in a coal mine. As im about to start up the excavator 1st ill give a warning and then ill set the excavator in motion. I can dig all that up you see the cable is connected to the mast and the mast lifts the arm its perfectly safe which is wobbles and it is all right ill sit down. Wow. Is it has been operating an excavator for 35 years shifting up to 3 and a half 1000 tons of lignite per hour but germany is aiming to shut down all of its coal fired power plants by 2038 reunification hit this part of eastern germany hard now its facing yet another copy for. Action. But or is it a dish but how do you feel knowing that it wont be long before these coal mines are closed down. The plane. Is too much. Its a very emotional issue for us when. We feel were being vilified by the poor were made out to be the bad guys were destroying the environment and were responsible for Climate Change the fact that its not your fault in my opinion thats just rubbish. Thats what the Mining Industry does a lot to protect the environment but nobody talks about that of course coal mining has an Environmental Impact but the industry makes up for it in the total look again at our council but cant you understand peoples concerns why theyre making these demands. Of course they dont think miners are terrible people they think theyre perfectly normal nice people who are doing their job as best they can but they want to protect the environment and bring about change so i look ive got nothing against Environmental Protection but not in this radical well. 8000 people work in the lignite strip mines here the cull industry is by far the biggest employer in the region wide scale unemployment is looming physical puts off it brings back painful memories of what happened after 9 189. 00 after reunification. Its a very difficult subject for me ive had to say goodbye to friends to colleagues who are also friends its a very emotional thing where youve lost your job ive kept mine its hard for both sides. This is for because i can place so were you just lucky. Your job safe because its killed. No ones job was safe one. You must have been afraid to of course. How much transformation can a region withstand. A few kilometers from the mine moped enthusiastic gathered in the village of tower this is where the simpson s 51 and the pads were manufactured back him up was then communist east germany. With us which ones yours. When they were younger france and antonia also rode my pads like the. You have the clinging to the noise the smell its all still there 30 years after the fall of the wall mopeds is still really big thing here again its young kids today like my son 14 or 15 year olds and shake tinker with them all the time its great to talk about it isnt forced on postal so lets go to this although its a symbol of our use of the good old days great stuff you told us all. Right lets take this one for a spin so you can sit on it while you push. Me while you can i pick up all the met is glad to see the village taking pride in its heritage but in recent decades many locals left to find work in the west the area has rebounded somewhat but when the last mines closed they could be another exodus of you know it but theres talk again about structural change once the older generation dont feel affected they think they dont have long left anyway above us mom to your room but what about the young generation. In this nation when the bell move away if the regional gov. Dont manage to attract industry here. Id say its almost too late for that. Bill to speak. A little. Dr i thought this was you. And tony and friends of visiting kath and kim. Is a retired lawyer. Yet how old were you when the wall fell to the manor i was born in 47. So early forties projects i was 36 when i started studying. For the wall fell yes and in 1980 and did my studies which were under the eastern system. A lot it was as if my entire world had collapsed. Ok so then what oh i see youve been studying a completely different legal system and wow thats crazy how infuriating so you had just finished your studies and the wall fell so it had all been a waste of time a total waste of time every weekend a colleague and i went to google to university in berlin to attend and listen ours on westerman law those were hard times the the a muslim heart everything it must have felt very unfair your war what do you think now i mean as a lawyer when you look back on what happened then. It was unfair a new system was basically imposed on us we had to relearn everything and not everybody was able to adjust. For anything it must have been really tough being in your mid fortys having built yourself a whole life and then having to start all over from scratch i cant imagine what that must have felt like if i. Didnt give up she went on to found a successful Legal Practice in front of my spare time. I was really shocked to learn how few east germans there are in executive positions its a good film for going through and yes sort of 121 heads of federal ministries only 3 of them are from the former east can now and its like that across the board why is that do you think many people in the east lacked confidence and we were looked down on during reunification everything to do with the east was discarded. There are 16000000 east germans but few of them hold top positions across academia politics Business Media and you know. Whether someone is from the still west germany is a question that Still Matters to antonia even though she was born after the fall of the wall so was her boyfriend nicholas. He grew up in western germany not far from the danish border. By the nazis when history happens on your doorstep a wall falls and 2 different systems collide then obviously its something thats going to interest you. Then. Ok but it wasnt obvious that the 2 systems were that different because the state was in. The east germany was poor ok yeah but the simple fact that a wall was built to keep people in is a huge difference. Sure but my impression is that in the west we realized that in the east people had fewer material things of the viewer products things like coffee bananas bluejeans and so on and have kind of gone on kind of so they were disadvantaged in that. One so you knew that part and of course that you werent allowed to travel or not to. Buy a live report and you have western germans failed to grasp or see it meant for east germans to adapt to an entirely new system to switch from socialism and a planned economy to democracy and a free market economy all the rules had changed at work and in private knife to. Antonina has given me a different perspective. They made me think about it all much more a lot but this is back but when im with antonios family i still notice how much they talk about it the fall of the wall the east west issue. Well its enough in my family its never mentioned we never or hardly ever discuss the east west question with for people in the west like my parents it didnt make much of an impact nothing much changed at the end of. The one half of gemini little changed. To the other half the worlds turned upside down on november the 9th 1989 when the wall found. Was to no into november thats now in the us the 9th of november 989 was my sons 18th birthday. He came of age in communist east germany so we thrown him his 1st big party balls of fire and then come out on wolf then we got a call from a friend. Telling us how the border was open so i was like what do you want about sure right its open now itll be open tomorrow and i didnt take it seriously but again you got wind of it there and then of course the party was over. And mine 58 of us piled into my little 5 seater our car and drove to borrow much tighter the point on the bridge on a fork of the crossing we heard was open his eyes. I. Said to me i can still remember the particular quality of the light in the stony expressions of the Border Police who had no idea what was going on either and we crossed over and there we were in west berlin with this film. Is it nancy because he was deeply moving were drove back after midnight and then again i wanted to go to the brandenburg gate. I. Read the sunday as a teenager it seemed so exciting. You were trapped behind a wall you couldnt cross and then at some point you could run but when i saw the film footage i just thought it uncool theyre wearing those crappy clothes those horrible bright colors as a teenager i just thought man who wears that sort of thing and theyre hopping around on a wall of life in the head of the typhoon but by my mid twentys i found those clothes totally cool on the street you can but no i. I. I know i im. Sure that. Sunday morning francis helping his friend james band get ready to perform in the park next to the former wall this famous for its weekly free markets they want to be there early to snag a prime spot. Was pretty crazy as musicians that youre trying to able to do this like put on like a proper show in the streets. You know and even the police walks by and its like yeah keep going you know thats awesome to tens of thousands of people descend on the park every sunday a readymade audience up and coming bands. To bring. Everything. With it because. Our history of. Whats now one of the most free spirited places in berlin was once aboard the death strip when east german guards under order to shoot to kill if they saw anyone trying to escape. There was always a. Chance and then tony as younger sister said celia has just moved to berlin the siblings often come to the park together. But how would you describe it to someone whos never been here you see the history you may know them our park say youre describing it to friends from out of town what would you say. This but if. They could id say imagine this was once the death strip he was the wall and there was the war and now we can just walk along it and dance and play music. On monday you can see that thats the west over there you can see that the buildings on the one side are different from the buildings on the other and i tell them how wonderful it is that all these people gather here and Party Together thats what id say. Almost 30 years it was a no mans land between east and west berlin. Today the maui park is a major tourist attraction. Each time i love to dance in the park for me its life. I love the atmosphere of the place the music the people everything about it i really hope. You know you have this kind of. Really open and no further no boundary kind of place. If you want to do it you would think and if you want to be a hero. Of fetal shoulder. Ok i like it very much its freedom and thats very good especially in the only. Ones to the wall was built in 1961 youre going to regain a hilda plant made a conscious decision to stay in the east they were critical of the communist system but they believed in change from within. I think. We were walled in the few before we did feel like we were trapped for the but we did what we could to broaden our horizons and also to show our children that its in our freedom that matters the most and that with that inner freedom you could do all sorts of things and achieve all sorts of things someone whos given the news. That children that wasnt always easy to accept. Is france and antonias mother she finished High School Just before the wall fell shed always railed against the restrictions of life in east germany. Does the food minister its basically stimulus i felt like it wasnt real life or that we were somehow frozen in time and the world beyond was turning without you here that was the dominant feeling for me my i longed for openness discussion all i can say is i didnt find any of that there and that was what i yearned for and got and you knew that there was this other world i imagined the west was something completely different we often went to the church of reconciliation and looked across the room just think we could actually see this other world you could see the double decker buses and the people in the street living lives that somehow seemed more colorful more vibrant more full of life it sounds ridiculous but when i was 12 i stood in front of the mirror and swore to myself that i wouldnt stay that i would leave this job why is that and does it make you. Sure enough in august 1909 and fled to west germany via hungary and austria like tens of thousands of others that summer no one family included had the slightest suspicion that the wall would fold just 3 months later. Of and i didnt know when i would ever see my daughter again this is she wouldnt have been allowed back and we werent allowed to go to the west and it was just awful for us better if yours but we never expected to be back for christmas the same year but she was going off there you go by would talking. Oh. Oh. Its. Funny. But if. You. I go its probably a good little awful. Awful hard work for different interfamily live in a village outside ballin theres almost always a full house. And politics is a favorite topic at the dinner table the family is alarmed by the rise of the far right in eastern germany. I keep telling people go and vote otherwise nothing will ever change that and almost 25 percent of the people in the state of brandenburg support the right wing populist party the a. F. D. C. With their political activism theyre here to plant a keeping reggae no spirit alive even today shes remembered fondly in eastern germany. For let go of him for fun cause ive just been so amazed in the last few days by how much people remember grandma. When you were traveling. Yes shes like a superhero they really idolize her. To be honest i was almost shocked shocked because the excavator operator said that meeting at regina hildebrands grandchildren was like hitting the jackpot. Why asshole out of yeah theres a lot to live up to. Nowadays many in eastern germany feel theres no one on the political stage who represents that injustice as i asked most for my client a submission for a start it wasnt a Reunification Team one system simply imposed itself on the other as im west germany didnt bother to even consider if there was anything in the east german system they could have been useful fixed a problem was boosted cohesion they didnt think what aspects of east germany should we take a closer look at maybe keep they only cared about things that related to wreck me to a market economy and that was a mistake but the. Head of land often spoke to her children about the full of the war about the joy every unification and the mistakes made in itself to mass. Ratio to maybe 3 adjusted downward. Keep going. Wheres the man in the moon. Trance and then tony i go back on the red this time theyre on their way to saxony the part of the country where the shift to the farm. Right is mystic street they want to find out why. Dresden is famous for its cultural landmarks but also as the cradle of the notorious piggy to movement which is nationalist and he is not and far right i. I i i support his regularly demonstrate against chancellor angle americas refugee policy against the idea of a multicultural germany 50 times and antonia their extreme politics right now and. When the bigoted demonstrations began in 2014 they struck a nerve at that peak they drew 10000 people today any a small step in course still take to the streets every week antonia and funds the meeting to be a savoy if hes put on sunglasses as a journalist hes an a finger but well compare. View of how often have you been here. Over a 100 times really thats quite something after you get asked to give it was founded in october 24th team so they see a marks its 5th anniversary which is really you know theres a lot of dedication going into this system its amazing how much time and energy is invested in something so pointless. It depends most people here dont think demonstrating is pointless. Quite a few draw parallels with communist east germany they felt silenced then and claim to feel silenced today even though their unafraid to spread was a rough and overtly racist slogans following after 7 i was at the demonstrations in 1009. And the mood now is similar. You cant dismiss these people as nazis thats just rubbish there are thousands of people have grievances and they just want to express them going with them then they hear them didnt says this is our way of telling the government that a lot is wrong with this country which im not sure is closer personally i dont want to see islam take over germany if thats what you want fine but i dont and neither do most germans regardless only that in fact the majority of people in dresden including to be a sloth dont sympathize with the piggy to support as he says theyve crossed too many lines with that inflammatory and racist rhetoric thats informational only mention it to me these people are lost causes you cant get through to them its also possible. That the very least there are people who will accept the violence sloganeering in order to celebrate themselves as Something Better because that what judgement of us was on the us was a torch and was one of their secret data that gave his deputy leader green. Is he going to kick us out of there he cant how could he. He seen us there but hes pretending to ignore us. There he goes during his man of the people frank. All that he has put those guys who were hanging around before him saw us doesnt go there and theres a sure guys of like circling sharks exactly my question is the biggest supporters of a small but vocal minority but the fact remains the far right is gaining ground. Its good to but i think the there are right wing tendencies all over europe and theres donald trump in the us but here its taken on a different dimensions its not just about job losses an industry thats being shut down which is bad enough its like the warm food its the fact that theres been an entirely new society to adjust to daily life. Values and. What i mean to say is there is no justification whatsoever for racism and marginalizing people thats completely totally wrong but i can understand that people feel frustrated and left behind and that they struggle to identify with our Society Today just going off. The far right a. F. D. Is seizing the moment in saxony attend to the state parliament in 2014 and is currently the states Strongest Party after the city. Antonio in france a meeting a. F. D. Politician on the event its not a conversation any of them exactly relishes. You know i assume you know that we dont sympathize with the f. D. A. And you dont have to we dont i think the f. D. A. Is pretty creepy to be honest. A lot of the slogan on my election poster is there must be limits to immigration. From the f. T. Was founded in 2013 which is when the 1st wave of Asylum Seekers arrived in germany and there was no Firm Political intervention you could not think. And you think most of them risked their lives and get in these rubber boats just purely economic reasons to call the majority yes thats my opinion. But used to being a racist i dont know why i cant explain it to me as if you have no clue what would be interesting to know why your party which youre active in is seen as racist its an accusation meant to make us look back at life and its best to get there what about the terrible speeches denying history and the diatribes against homosexuals. That of aspect of a its a question of how the media instrumentalists is these issues in germany. People are labeled far right very quickly article you and others of what it is that i get and if i dont know its certainly true that given our history we germans have a particular duty when it comes to the expression of far right opinions that goes without saying the obligation. Transcendental spend an hour talking to and prevent but they find Little Common ground. That its just very obvious to me that the democracy we live in cant be taken for granted and im very aware that its not an especially good shape right now. Its monday evening and france and his housemates are having a policy. Just a stones throw from where their grandmother once lived from where the but once stood from the former front line of the cold war the grandchildren a celebrating with friends from around the world and it so my america. Dear friends dear Antonia Celia since im sitting on the terrace at twilight its peaceful. Youre mine and my 3 grandchildren sleep untroubled in front of me are photo albums that date back to when i was younger than you are now how times have changed. As a 943 when i was 2 the same age is to serious now it was wartime we were evacuated from central berlin our home to the country shortly thereafter our home was bombs we lost almost everything we own and. At antonias age i had experienced evacuation the end of the war back in berlin i lived in makeshift lodgings with a toilet in the stairwell i started over from nothing. When i was 8 frances age germany was split into 2 and remain divided for decades. When your mother was born in 1969 the wall was already 8 years old. A few my grandchildren were born after the wall fell born in a unified germany a wonderful time a time of great joy. Now im going to get political. It will be nice if we could get better at making our towns and cities proper communities. Where rich or the sick and the healthy the young and the old the disadvantaged and the advantaged could live together and children would learn from early on how to get along together and how to take responsibility for our world im. Going to furnish the darkness has fallen but still peaceful made remain so for your sakes my dear grandchildren. My parents. Who. Dont care who you were thats enough for me me to. Shortage of teachers in rural areas. Its a big problem for russia and a huge problem for children. Arslan jaan isnt a teacher when he wants to do something positive. Voluntarily travels to remote areas in teaches kids to open doors of opportunity for them. In 90 minutes on d w. Im not laughing at well i guess sometimes i am but most end up in with. Have been think deep into the german culture shock. You did see him take his grandmother day out to you its all that. Enough time rachel join me to meet the japanese on the gulf coast. Come to. Discover your concept discover it with a. School. After 100 years its the ideals of the comps are more relevant today than they were. Cheers ago missionaries reshapes things to console the boss people understood design as a way of shaping society. With. Part documentary starts nov 14th on w. This is news coming to you live from berlin it will be 30 years since the fall of the bowling ball on the 9th of november it was the climax of weeks of civil rights protests in communist east germany we talked to a prominent east shell but activist who played a key role in those events and the new united germany. Also coming up chiles embattled president moves to increase the minimum wage but will it be enough to quell the countrys worst on risk in decades