Thing about the stars in the sky is you can gaze at them whether youre behind a wall or not and. Mark i want to score my grandmother had a telescope wed often look at saturn or jupiter and its moons it was so cool minus about a tycoon. Even though i was born in january 1901 a year after the wall fell. And about. Because 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 awful fights and. Look up again now that 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 head and and their grandfather here he grew up here in ben i washed asset which mounts 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 yeah das well yeah thats right. But that was long before the wall was built i was 1953 during the east german uprising. 3 we 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 can see also that 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. But couldnt you have yelled from the window no you have no and then what. Hed already been spotted. There was no point in warning him with a gun he. Had been a movie youd have distracted the guards imitated birds or something. Like it was. Your kid to plant lived in the eastern half of the city his home and the church where his father was pasto were demolished when the berlin wall was built then i watched asa 2 was also demolished where the love of his life grew up she became a hugely popular politician in the pastry unification years. Which was grandmas window this one those 2 on the left of the left window the left one. Always a 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 if you ever hear of it and youd knock on the window yeah yeah id knock on the window on my way to choir practice. 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 years ahead of time when married for 35 years until her death in 2001 in 1961 the balun wool was built literally on the doorstep. Also a few straws about in the wash cars i went out the door on to burn our transfer to buy a newspaper does it with you and i saw that barbed wire. Had been laid out on the east side of the street when for the stop of hawk 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 avoid her grandparents who lived in the west and wanted to take their grandchild for a walk and home both time and park and all the sudden you couldnt go from one street to another from one side to the other with. The wool divided but one 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 war memorial site and from where their grandparents once lived. I know where its by says 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 rethink 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 plant would no doubt have enjoyed that had grandchildren live so new to wait she grew up she joined the social Democratic Party in 1909 gaining a reputation for plain speaking the successful reunification of the 2 geminis was always one of her key concerns this is actually 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. I would have loved to have spent a few days with her as the person i am now discussing ideas with mongering. 30 years after the fall of the berlin wall and tony and france feel the 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 their dissatisfaction and disappointment. Come on lets have a song. To. Just. Cut. Off. First. 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 rundown 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 funds are critical of coal mining like many young people today theyre worried about the environment but in eastern germany coal is still important like knights or 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 i feel as safe 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 could but snuff has been operating an excavator for 35 years shifting up just 3 and a half 1000 tonnes 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 just 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. Were made out to be the bad guys were destroying the environment and were responsible for Climate Change the fact that its my involvement in my opinion thats just rubbish so 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 2 its a look again like confidence 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. Ive got nothing against Environmental Protection but not in this radical way. 8000 people work in the lignite strip mines here the coal industry is by far the biggest employer in the region wide scale unemployment is a looming physica puts off it brings back painful memories of what happened after 989. 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 youve lost your job ive kept mine its hard for both sides. This is for basic english and so were you just lucky. With your job safe because its skilled. No ones job was safe one. You must have been afraid too of course. How much transformation can reach and 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 vacuum up was then communist east germany. Which ones yours. When they were younger france and antonia also rode my pads like bees. You have to cling 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 1415 year olds and think tank youre with them all the time its great to talk about it and forced on to still so lets go to this although its a symbol of values 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. By and you can i pick up all the men 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 house rebounded somewhat but when the last mines close they could be another exodus both 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. But what about the young generation. In this nation theyll move away if the regional gov. Lynn dont manage to attract industry here. In the but id say its almost too late for that. Bill to speak. Follow it with. Dr kay thought this was you. And tony and france a visiting kath and kim. Is a retired lawyer. Yet how old were you when the wall fell to the mouth i was born in 47. So early fortys projects and i was 36 when i started studying. For the wall fell yes and in 1900 i ended my studies which were under the east german system. Well 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 home bowl to university in berlin to attend endless seminars on westerman law those were hard times the amounts of hot everything it mustve felt very unfair your wrong 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 any good 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 just. 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 if you want to id yes out of 121 heads of federal ministries only 3 of them are from the former east as its good now and its like that across the board why is that do you think many people in the east locked 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 he 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 understood because this thing isnt. Based 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 view or products things like coffee and bananas bluejeans and so on and have kind of been on kind of so they were disadvantaged in that time ago and so you knew that part and of course that you werent allowed to travel or not to just. Buy a live report and you have western germans failed to grasp or see it mentioned east germans to adapt to an entirely new system to switch from socialism and a planned economy to democracy and to free market economy all the rules had changed at work and in private knife to. Antonina has given me a different perspective. It made me think about it all much more a lot but since this is back but when im with antonios family i still notice how much they talk about it in the fall of the wall the east west issue with him i think on balance 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 that. One half of gemini little changed. To the other half the worlds turned upside down on november the 9th 1909 when the wall found. Was then known to november 9th and now in the us the 9th of november 989 was my sons 18th birthday. He came of age in communist east germany so we had thrown him his 1st big party balls of fire and then comment 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 it sure right its open now itll be open tomorrow and i didnt take it seriously but again it got wind of it there and then of course the party was over and in mine 58 of us piled into my little 5 seater our car and drove to borrow much tighter there born on the bridge on the 4th of the crossing we heard was open his eyes. I. Hid them and 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 its the spring. And sake of the thing was deeply moving were drove back after midnight 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 if i think i have to but by my mid twentys i found those clothes totally cool on the street someone you know. I i im. Pleased that. Sunday morning frances helping his Friends Family or james band get ready to perform in the park next to the former wall this famous for its weekly fee market poll that they want to be there to snag a prime spot. But its 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 and readymade audience up and coming bands. And you have. To bring. Everything that i. Would because. I was curious to see. Whats now one of the most free spirited places in berlin. The death strip where east german guards were under order to shoot to kill if they saw anyone trying to escape. And then tony is younger sister said syria 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 they are describing it to friends from out of town what would you say. That this. Place but id say imagine this was once the death strip here was the wall and there was the wall 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 a 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 and i love to dance in the park for me its a life of this life i love the atmosphere of the place the music the people everything about it i really hope. You know you have a kind of. Really open and no bird there no boundary kind of place and. If you want to do it you would think and if you want to be a hero for a vehicle shoulda done that ok i like it very much its freedom and thats very good as. Actually. I. Love to the wall was built in 1961 youre going to begin ahead of us and 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 about we were walled in. 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 can do all sorts of things and achieve all sorts of things so much is given us. For that children that wasnt always easy to accept how could hit a plant is france and antonius 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 that was the dominant feeling for me my i longed for openness discussion all i can say is i didnt find any of that their homes and that was what i yearned for and got and you know knew that there was this other world i imagine 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. That and does it make you. Sure enough in august 1909 plan to lead 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 ish for the vandals i didnt know when i would ever see my daughter again this is the she wouldnt have been allowed back and we werent allowed to go to the west and it was just awful for us better its what we never expected shed be back for christmas the same year but she was enough there you go by were talking. Oh. Oh. Oh yeah. But if. You. Cost. For a coffee is good enough will i. Go higher with. 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. With their political activism the hildebrands a keeping regain a spirit or life even today shes remembered fondly in eastern germany read widely. Followed him for fun because ive just been so amazed in the last few days by how much people remember grandma. When you were travelling. 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 are all. Yeah theres a lot to live up to. Nowadays many in eastern germany feel theres no one on the political stage who represents that interests as i asked most for my clowder 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 that could have been useful to fix the problem 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 directly to a market economy and that was a mistake but. How he had different 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 would have made you 3 in just a downward. Chalk. Keep going. Wheres the man in the moon. Dance 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 make stick st 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 anti islam and far right i. I. I support is regularly demonstrate against chancellor angle americas refugee policy against the idea of a multicultural germany for a few times and antonia their extreme politics right now and. When the piggy demonstrations began in 2014 they struck an a at their peak they drew 10000 people today any a small step and 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 anything but welcome here. How often have you been here. Over a 100 times really thats quite something after youve asked to get it was founded in october 24th team survey cmax its 5th anniversary features you believe. 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 water often overtly racist slogans the following after 75 years at the demonstrations in 1009. Prison on the move 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 bring with them then the given didnt says this is our way of telling the government that a lot is wrong with this country action off the trees 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 youre either so me. In fact the majority of people in dresden including to be as the boys dont sympathize with the piggy to support as he says theyve crossed too many lines with that inflammatory and racist rhetoric on the scene for michelle only mentioned to me these people are lost causes you cant get through to them. To odo at the very least theyre people who will accept the violence sloganeering in order to celebrate themselves as Something Better because that what judgement of us does on the us was a fortune was one of their secret day puts his deputy leader in the green. Is he going to kick us out. There he cant how could he. Leave he seen us there but hes pretending to ignore us. There he gives during his man of the people fame who did all that he has put those guys who were hanging around before him so us doesnt got there and theres a sure guys there like circling sharks know exactly. Where shes 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 up for. The far right f. T. Is seizing the moment in saxony attend to the state parliament in 2014 and is currently the state Strongest Party after the senior antonio in france a meeting a. F. D. Politician on the event its not a conversation any of them exactly relishes but look 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. And getting stuff from the a. F. P. 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 of in the end you think most of them risked their lives and get in these rubber boats just really economic reasons the court a majority yes thats my opinion. Whats your excuse to being a racist i dont know why or not i cant explain it. 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 bad. Because its about speaking there what about the terrible speeches denying history and the diatribes against homosexuals. That of aspects of its a question of how the media instrumentalists is these issues in germany. People are labelled far right very quickly article young guns 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 a far right opinions that goes without saying we have a dish. Transcendental money and spend an hour talking to andre event that they find Little Common ground. To make your stance 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 if the cold war the grandchildren a celebrating with friends from around the world in it so my america. Dear friends dear antonia did said celia im sitting on the terrace at twilight its peaceful. 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 it as in 1943 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 bombed we lost almost everything we owned. 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 dancers 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. You 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 and poor 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 so im. Doing it for fairly darkness has fallen and still peaceful may have remained so for your sakes my dear grandchildren. Pair. They. Ok you were thats enough for me for me to. Cause. Such hot seat plane and top. By now says im sorry. They are flimsy im in very lame. Clothes and feel awesome and sorry to place. Give us your country people will make you rich. People oil will provide you with jobs. Because it will take good care of the masses at least a big claim up once you 1st took hold on the west coast to come in 2000 so investors. Put years later reality looks very different. Litters. The Drinking Water shortage. Such a. Good. This is before. The move this has. Happened to become a stream of supply. Gold. Oil promises starts december 4th. Place. The book. News live from berlin a deal to end fighting in nagornokarabakh that needs with joy and outrage the celebration on the streets of azerbaijan which now seals its games in the disputed territory while in armenia people stormed parliament demanding resignations after the Prime Minister agreed to respect the russian brokered cease fire also coming up. To action of course great light at the end of the cable