this is d.w. news life and then germany marks 30 years since the day that held and a dictatorship these are live pictures of the commemorations as the country looks back on the rallies seen as a turning point in toppling for east germany's communist government this hour we're bringing you special coverage of today's ceremonies. i'm rebecca ritter's welcome to the program germany is marking the 30th anniversary

of peaceful protest same as pivotal in toppling the dictatorship in the form a stalemate on this day in 1989 some 70000 people turned out for marches in the city of life's ish it was a decisive moment in a chain of events that led to the collapse of east german communism and the fall of the bone and more people held candles and pace fully demanded more freedom and democracy despite the threat of a heavy government crackdown the demonstrations my motto was the people. well lyman's from now german president frank volta on my is due to give a speech commemorating those events let's cross now to leipzig where ceremonies are already underway kate brady is standing by there for us i believe can we hear you kate.

ok

2. i have been listening to good stuff manas symphony number one that to mark the commemoration of the 30th anniversary of the protests that really began the end of east germany's political regime and to tell us a bit more i've got simon young data correspondent with me in the studio simon tell us a bit more about these demonstrations because they were demonstrations in. lots of the country but what made they so important yeah there had been demonstrations

elsewhere in east germany running up to this and indeed in the months previously things had begun to look very wobbly for the german system with people leaving the country on mass but on the 9th of october 1909 you had a law its large number of people 70000 people on the streets of light see one of the major cities of course in the country and it was a demonstration people were saying you know we are the people it's time for change and these were protests that the news of them got out because a couple of courageous journalists filmed some pictures which were shown on west german television the next day and everybody in east germany saw west german television so this was a protest that could no longer be ignored or denied or somehow kept quiet by the german regime and of course. only

a month later the berlin wall itself fell and 70000 people i mean that is was a lot of in a city of 500000 i mean. extraordinarily large yeah i mean the demonstrations have been growing and you know the organized opposition to communist rule had been getting stronger and louder finding its voice there had long been you know people going to ising so-called peace demonstrations and organizing for instance as it were under the banner of environmental protests but here as you can see on this picture behind us you know a mass of people who really represented a clearly a large measure of opposition to communist rule ok will stay with me but they'd always came brady has met with 2 opposition activists from the former east germany they braved immense risks to type hot in the protest let's take a look. on october 9th 1989 kathleen houghton hala was in

a stasi prison in light sake in many she was just 20 years old on this they could feel that the guards were nervous and you could hear sounds later in the day close to the evening. that we have to break into that report because president front is currently speaking at the commemorations and we're going to go to him live. in and gets no. decision broke their way this is what it originally has now writes in his you st nicholas church and see the way the way of the people who 30 years ago here in life just courageously administration still it's a graphic novel who says in his novel st nicholas church i'm sure that when any of you have read the novel or something that's going to do to the bulk of money in the year of the g.d.r. until mr tarling 9th 1989 so you can tell that to him as you know mike we have you

just. marched straight shot at leipsic for free. and nobody wanted to block their way and the nobody dares to. talk to her and i was taught is that they were graduating german history i am great doesn't hurt to hears and to hear you talking about ordering to celebrate they stay with us is beyond the it is an honor. i think you very much for the invitation. yeah did i go yes i told her 9th is a grand day in german history. if i don't want to i have to start with today because when i travel in germany. god especially 2 regions that is usually are not at the center are famous and i frequently meet people who are not in much of

a myriad for celebration even less so than on the occasion of past any of our summer youth today 30 years after that october 9th i see a strong. so see a you strongly unsettled country you see i see a country work cracks are forming cracks that are reflected there game election results in me and already even more in the way. in which we speak about each other and about this country. issue when i hear about a country form people feel left behind simply ignored by politics and as it is often called the elderly when i hear about a growing gap and that's not only between the east and the west and even also between everyday reality and these between cities and the countryside between new top earners and precarious jobs i hear about young people who feel abandoned by the

older generation even betrayed by them. young people who worry that they are deprived being deprived of the future on this planet i hear about jews who are insulted and attacked i say here that our country has accepted too many refugees and migrants from other cultures and that the feeling of being a stranger in one's own country is growing. but i also hear that its citizens with a migration background feel threatened i hear a nationalist and xenophobic voice is that clearly are becoming more and more attractive and i say you have enough speed to 30 year is after the peaceful revolution and the fall of the wall i hear east germans who feel misunderstood and west germans who are tired of hearing about it and i see a country. that is struggling for cohesion ladies and gentlemen is that

our country does he go is that the whole truth about our country then let me tell you this is certainly not the case. let me ladies and have a land of try to see things differently because when i travel i also need people with amazing stories to tell you i listen to their story was i hear stories of new beginnings of success and failure of hopes and deception you see i hear star easy stories of in life so that each for itself do not make history with the bats and the vine by a riot of 82 millions who have left their marks on this country views in because who are we and what is this country even if not most of the some star uses. i am especially impressed by the stars of the season that. they are a force in vast. task to be took to the streets

with. their immense desire for freedom and democracy that became evident in the peaceful revolution is that we're. back and i was uprooting over my doctoral thesis is in a little room in the attic of the university of gleason but i understood the desire and to move i admired the car each of the many people here but did i have an idea or a dream i did here i'm thinking about how much our age was required to how much she really took to turn initial demonstration exhibit into a beginning that turned into a revolution in the peaceful revolutionaries met many of them had met long before 989 in churches and private apartments they fought against by mental pollution and decay they struggled for more participation and equality they fought

for freedom of opinion and movement and free elections and they dreamed of a peaceful and united europe they founded environmentalists reuse and printed pamphlets. they wrote resolutions and open letters. many of their ideas mags found their way into the. new constitution that was developed later at the round table dominates house back then. as people in the light sic tell me over and over again i know. there was an incredible atmosphere of optimism but if you listen closely. then you do not only hear stories about new beginnings and valor and these talk also about doubts and fear. being fear of despotism and persecution violence sometimes actual violence sometimes

threatened violence is a permanent shadow cast over families and friends if you can. also remember the many victim of these despotism and suppression suppression we must not forget them on this october night. thank. you but then you to my house and this fall 30 years ago something astonishing happened. fear switched sides. and you feel it became 1st it happened in a plow and on october 7th and 2 days later. while another and people from pa and i here apparently 2 days later on october 9th

hearing light sig it's far more than $70000.00 people gathered for peace prayers and be a largest monday duncombe strace in until then despises to defeat a chinese solution that had been mentioned several months after the last aircraft tiananmen despite not knowing if the su dear regime what crushed the proper tests best they can join that is you have to be as easy as you have prevented a western journalist from coming to light. the food making good and prevents footage secretly filmed by sikh bad can i remember doms coming from the tower of the reformed church to be smuggled to the west. in the aftermath of october 9th these images flickered across the screens in many

living rooms and many sensed in the west and in the east that in the g.d.r. something had to gain momentum that was unstoppable the fear had switched sides and after is based 9th of october and leipzig. in the g.d.r. nothing was as it had been before many of the car you just people are here with us cut him out of all charges you know all of man's an innocent columnar. b.s. hall it's are and. the relatives of court mazhar are also here. for us and we are will speak for them in a minute it is great to have all of you here to. day. you could see your stars have made german democratic history and you stand in the best tradition of our history in the tradition of the german freedom movements of

848982 and use your star in all this our extraordinary starry ways of moments of glories of our countrymen they have added an important piece to the history of our democracy and feet because of its them even as you see peaceful revolutionaries we owe you our respect also our gratitude from the east and from the way. your so done then my. gratitude because ladies and gentlemen limited wall did not come tumbling down by itself the people of the g.d.r. made it tumble down peaceful and islands before the autumn of revolution there had been a summer of 198900 so if i was unjust citizen of the g.d.r.

left everything behind in search for freedom and they found. they knew also where part of the great change their stories also made history feel with and. many of the stories have not been told completely and some have not even being fully heard 30 years after the reunification the time has come to make them these east german stories part of our common german we. exude using decision to do in the hearts. the starry uses are the stories of our european neighborhoods the apoc maybe can change that we come right with our celebration today would not have been possible without the struggle for freedom of our east german neighbors.

employed not employ one of the people had stood up already against dictatorship and unfreedom mass protests and strikes the foundation of the lead our national round table despite all setbacks but democrats say she was i'm stoppable. he said and barks bred to other countries to hungary that in the spring of 1989 opened its border is. the. former czechoslovakia and what happened in eastern europe also encouraged the people in the g.d.r. to this new view and today we know you can see that history could have taken a different course if in the crambo make algarve

a chance had not decided not to send troops. if garbage chop had not asked the s.o.g. of its leadership to refrain from violence if the best strong ally is had not agreed to the german you're in if you cation and ladies and gentlemen the gift of german reunification we must not forget that it is an equivalent with europe growing together and the new trust that our neighbor. or is it that have placed in us after their disasters of the 20 century this is something that we germans must be grateful for.

it is not only about grateful in this known us germany this we bear a special responsibility for the success of this peaceful and united europe. and it is unique in the history of this continent and we bear this responsibility ladies and gentlemen in the future as well and we take it particularly serious as time is more. trying to drive europe apart and this promise belongs to today's young and you personally. thank. god more funding. but if you only speak about the moments of lauri's the change of the stays you can't possibly possibly grasp all the stories that characterize our country that still have an effect and will have an effect in the future because

german unity was an immense task and it demanded much from the people in our country those in the west as well but more than anything the people in the east because they have mastered changes his mind again to an extent. that my generation in the west has never seen and this is an outstanding achievement this is also part of call memory tingles that has not been made strip used to for a long time most people in the west have experienced the change from afar and many believe that in a united germany everything would go on as usual. we saw that was already that that a misjudgment in the west has not the main the same after unification and i say this the united germany is lucky that this is the case.

this is beautiful and to do in this region united germany is characterized by many incentives coming from the east good incentives to be on the jury and you will. see dear regime had established a dictatorship because it and it had brought fear and violence into the society and . there were incentives and a momentum and common from the human reality of eastern germany if i may say so in some aspects was resistive and unconventional yes modern and progressive i am thinking about the 100 role of women and i am thinking about a dense social infrastructure often child care or medical care concepts that are partially being rediscovered today and indeed it is no coincidence that it is east

german women amongst others who have shaped and changed our reunited germany. to this god of course there were many people in the west as well who wanted to do something west germans who were curious who wanting to help know we building in the east who went to the new lender not only because they wanted to make a career but because they wanted to be part of the change because they wanted to shape the to germany and many of. them found not only exciting challenges but also a new home and the one thing is certain rooms in eastern germany changed heat people significantly harder than in the west because the changed every single family companies were shut down millions of people lost their jobs or had to be

retrained the parents were worried how they would feed their families in the future and the especially the young people often did not see any kind of perspective and left for the west and this locks the ninety's and one has left deep marks in some places and some places and tire generation mills are missing i often hear stories about dislocation about broken certainties and today what we know and how could it be different if not through the me that of course not everything was without an alternative as you mr cruncher i have said the companies were shut down and the question of the constitution was raised in the field intentional and more often than not unintentional mistakes were made and we have to talk about them when we have to correct them this is the task of politics and it is

a task that even after 30 years it has lost nothing on one hand in importance for example taking a look at some rural areas only elderly people have remained and with the young people who are spoke to enslave and here we need a political solution for functioning infrastructure for good living conditions do not believe being alone with their fear is and means let us take their problems seriously take care and do something for child care conduct arns in school connections on the firefighters. made a wadi of sterile practitioners of labor perspectives and internet connections because it is small tasks that for the big one.

the idea of seeing yesterday decades after the year and if occasion were difficult the years off changes and adapt haitians and we can feel the effects until today and all the more amazing it is. to take a look at the courage and the pragmatism and the energy with which east germans tackled the challenges and mastered them when i travel and east germany i mean people who have rebuilt comedown cities and stopped and environmental destruction. who have fought successfully for their companies or founded their own. and more frequently i hear stories about people going back. today many people move from the west to the east lately even slightly more people move to the east or on land or than from the east to the west.

that's so i don't want to that shows ladies and gentlemen. that does really get a fixation even 3 decades later is nothing. complicated in that they passed to words it is still ongoing and. is eastern germany is a special space with special experience is your concession or call certain rights and it is that these special experience it is that have led to a new east german confidence especially in young people and awareness that sees the differences not only. perceive them as a deficit and they are right these cultural biographic characteristics they are nothing that we have to leave behind quickly as possible in order to be part of it as maybe many east germans believed in the 1990 s.

because it was on the contrary these characteristics make faceted country richer a country. that consists of many different regions and as you know there are other regions in this country that do not exactly suffer from a lack of confidence we need the experience is the east with changes so we can gain strength from the. memory of how people stood up together for a better life far better on the country and it gives us courage. that new and good things were created on that basis this experience this eastern german experience is immensely valuable let us take it with us in our common future ladies and gentlemen.

this is the one thing is certain. in that there is no such thing as official story of german reunification and i believe that we've all never have it and maybe we do not need it in our country because history is composed of different star you. and even if germans are very different views if our histories are multi-layered and my u.t. this multilayer and that is not a deficit but we can see it as a strength crissy have to take it or ship separation and reunification peaceful revolution and 2 systems growing together migration and integration ladies and gentlemen is there another country i can be that gathers so many different experiences and only the recent past. with

a view of the different experiences in the east and west of those who have always been here and those who have joined us recently and let us be curious what common in future. we are new solid our unity pact of appreciation in our society and i am not talking about. talk in circles or symbols the solidarity power that i am talking about is an offer as well as an imposition of because it means you on the other side are a part of it i am willing to listen to you and to your story and your believes but the same i expect from you this solidarity pact doesn't offer because it says in this country are for is room for many opinion was. and appreciation is not aware of this solidarity impact it is also an imposition because appreciation means that we

have to accept people being different thinking in a different way. to all those who dismiss others exclude others or leaves them behind and put to use and have given up on democracy years it does we are the people. using to. you know we are the people our fellow claim off back then means all of us are the people in a democrat and a democracy and the only exists in a plural form a diversity of voices we have to develop as. a guideline for all common actions and that often is a difficult task for politicians are you never again must an individual or group claiming to speak for the self proclaimed true people and this oh so.

i know these are mine also has to be a lesson from our history ladies and gentlemen not a series of what we have been lowering from the nasty dictatorship regime and the coup all of the peaceful revolution and guests these unless it was should be must be taken to heart in the understand in the west after 30 year it is a wish us all and a self-confident view on our own country. and i am wishing facts in these years and decades that ticket of life past us we see not only a long chain of breaks and upturns and i says it has issues but that instead we

see the people who mastered. task and the process of unification but also in everything that followed just a few examples of it's a. swing from being the last one middle east in europe to becoming its motor the current eastern expansion of the group in the union solidarity in the islands we sold in the fiscal and economic. at the beginning of the 2000 was that and. i believe that germans are pulled through and have a better way than most of our partners in europe and let us not forget excepting and to take care of them here more than a 1000000 refugees in 20152060. 5

i know that maybe it's difficult to. for this last point but despite all the remaining challenges ladies and gentlemen it still is. a man task and a cheat have meant the end tire society if that was only possible because we stood together and we should be proud of it together that if we look at our country like that with confidence and sometimes even we have. then we can rightly say that we have not only suffered from our history we made our history of and of the basis of the way we look at our country and then we can have confidence in the fact that we did not suffer from our history and in the same way we do not simply have to accept the presence or freeze in the face of the future yes there were inequalities yes there were disadvantages and yes there were problems and acknowledging to

changing it is a permanent task especially because we are not the victims of the course of history being a victim that does not fit with the democracy no democracy has invented a wonderful different term the notion of citizen because we are citizens free and self-determined with equal rights and equal obligations amounts and this is. why i find it painful to hear some people say that east germans this group are another. are 2nd class citizens. and the way dualists feel that way to us is. never resign ourselves to it's not let me say it clearly in our country. and on the basis of our constitution that there were no 1st or 2nd class citizens.

then is instead there is a federal republic of germany its citizens and we have them the many people who live and work in our countries and their minds and together we are all responsible for a good future and a peaceful living together in our country on which all of us have our invite to be part of our common future and of course it is true. the responsibility but the 1st and foremost we have the politics politics has to make sure that our children receive a good education their parents good jobs in their grandparents' good care but that is not all their we ladies and gentlemen and their responsibility for our democracy to our future. is also. every single citizen and i understand that some see this

responsibility as a bird and. may be asked too much and it is right sometimes courage is needed in order to face that responsibility is to carry that. truth ladies and gentlemen to me that a democracy without courageous democrats can never work. and does this and that also is a legacy of 1989 and that is an obligation for all of us a living democracy needs courageous people confident people and doers and those who have already lost courage and those who are discouraged those who turn their backs. they may be me are not against democracy but one

thing is certain it is a person that democracy is missing so this is a person that we never let go with a shrug of shoulders and as a person we have to win back this is what we can expect from this country this is what we as citizens can do what we have to do ladies and gentlemen because that a democracy responsibility for our democracy as i've said before does not only align with politicians is in all our hands. to conclude he lived many ask themselves it's a question that we have heard today can be so many ask themselves these days in a manner what has remained of all the vigor the energy the immense forests that we could experience 30 years ago in the cities of the streets and then by and by in the entire country what has remained these of god because i believe this is an

important question and. the fact that we need power and vigor. is obvious in time news worthy open for extremists seem larger than ever before climate change and digital transformation inequality and cohesion by the old answer is obviously fail us inside may be in times when the future of our democracy is uncertain and the democracy of the future has not taken on shape yet been music is good i am sure that it would be good for our country if we could use the multifaceted legacy of the voyage peaceful revolution for 2 days on the let us link capital to the. forests that seem to change that the east german news has found in 1989 and the decades that followed over and over again let us look up to the courage to take on responsibility as citizens let us

link up choose the energy to eliminate the deficits and then justice that's easy once and to let us make up to the will. overcome our gas hopes to tear down walls and mines them into our common solutions over and over again and why not let us link up to the round table and the tradition of round tables where a politics happened followed past. and without ideology describe magic and other bases of dialogue let us find form you know. participation and idea as a citizen can be brought to life on a local level as there were many exciting ideas for that our democracy only becoming more a life. ladies and gentlemen yes i believe as this site the time has come for

new tables in our country so for my. not to avoid arguments be to be good but to have arguments on the basis of rules and full of respect from tables and stuff and the permanent indignation and take friends with that could be a way to maintain our democracy on a straw man. be depressed because the guys do your guests yes it is true and all of the hopes of those who took to the streets on october 9th have materialized just now. the process of unification has not been concluded it still is our mission and many things remain to be done. but let us remember air which loosed the rider and if we remember our. possibly block how the way we live in

a country about to take more naturally not everything was good but it is a country a view that provides us everybody with the possibility to make things better and 5 duties as and because we improve this country we love it and protest so let us love this country and take care of each other and we owe it to those. who had the car reach 30 years ago. those who have united this country those who have turn. into the best germany there ever was thank you very much. thank. you thank you thank you president thank you time i am speaking on the 30th anniversary of the mass protests that. before my east german government. is marking commemorations today in the german city.

and joining me to dissect that speech is of course data analyst simon young in the studio and brady who's standing by for us in lots ok i'd like to start with you if i could this must be an emotional day for people way you pick up off the back of what time i had to say what do you think is really the essence of his fate age. but i think we're back to the essence of my speech today was very much an assessment of germany right now and where german unity is at almost 30 years since the fall of the berlin wall over which of course will be commemorated exactly where a month from today and steinmeier of course seemed to acknowledge that of course that awful issues are being dealt with between east and west and germany so especially when it comes to the economic differences between east and west and

there is differences are still felt today particularly when it comes to things like pensions and also wages but shimei seem to be calling on both east and west and german city to focus more on what they have in common 30 years on since the fall of the berlin wall as opposed to their differences and i think it was interesting as well that he also cited that slogan that famous slogan fears and thus follicle we are the people which was a very prominent slogan during the 1989 demonstrations in which the opposition protestors were trying to remind the government in east germany that democracy only functions if people can also participate and that it wasn't the democracy doesn't function with a purely top down dictatorship government and so it was interesting that steinmeyer quoted that slogan today and actually reiterated that yes there are problems in

germany right now that need to be addressed but that yes while the politicians carry a large part of the responsibility in solving these issues he was trying to remind germans i think that they also need to reflect on that courage that was shown by some of these protesters in 1989 that the courage is needed for participation by you every day voices by ivory de germans to make democracy work and that this is a symbiotic relationship between paul. the titians and the use is to make sure that germany is a country that they want it to become and what courage that was taught and i'd like to turn to you what was it exactly that the protesters were calling for back in 1900 it wasn't necessarily the fall of the wall say that's right not the full of the war particularly not even necessarily the end of communism i think what united the people who demonstrated them was it's

a sense of frustration even of anger the country they were living in was failing the cities were in disrepair the environment was polluted and you know it became increasingly evident to i think everyone that. the regime didn't really care about the rights all the aspirations of individuals they used to say the party is always right that's one of the slogans and there had been you know increasing economic problems life expectancy actually in east germany was fooling during the 1980 s. where of course everywhere else it was increasing and then earlier in 1909 there had been the local elections in east germany which had been exposed as having been falsified by the regime i think then everybody not just dissidents but even those who were loyal to the party could see you know this is the way the socialist unity party is running this country and something has to change that's why the people

went onto the streets and said we are the people and we have to take destiny into our own hands well kate brady he's standing by for us in this you met with 2 opposition activists from the former east germany they braved immense risks to take part in the protest movement let's take a look at the report. on october 9th 1809 kathleen hatton hall that was initially the prison in light in east germany she was just 20 years old on this day. few of the guards were really nervous and you could hear sounds later in the day close to get moving and what relate to crew few but maybe what we have heard. where the sound of 70000 people walking. among the crowd marching for freedom and democracy was that 18 year old opposition

activist catherine moll of. german reunification just didn't cross my mind at the time my motivation was things can't go on like this a strings are this country has no future we have no freedom of expression no free elections i wanted to reform the country i wanted democracy in the g.d.r. in. the months premie things had been held at leipsic said nicholas church on september 4th catherine hutton how an unfilled abana it called for an open country with free people the protest was captured on film by western media. it was important to us that our own people in our country could see it and they could see oh wow there's something that has started in my city and it's not as g.d.r.

media tells like they are criminals and they want to destroy our country know they are girls they could be my friend they could be my daughter she was imprisoned soon after for riotous assembly but by october 9th knowledge of the growing protests had spread like guns like the clock and it was clear throughout life what was at stake was vance for a post at our own town full of soldiers and police on a call. on the roofs and. tom lives in the hospital's blood reserves were being stocked up in the car who hasn't been put country after the bone got water but the protesters marched peacefully around the city of light sick in the following weeks the demonstrations continue to grow and within a month the berlin wall had fallen and up for the in the hot it just gives you goosebumps it was unbelievable to see that so many people had overcome their fear

mustered up their courage and decided to join these demonstrations and i think that's asked of us again today to engage in advocating for democracy and to nurture it together. and so that's an ongoing mind on what authentic i think a group always stay with me but i have been growing up in a dictatorship for that. i will always value the freedom i haue but i would like people remember that. the more chrissy is a. living being so we have to be part of it. and that there is no one out staring at fords i would really like people to remember that. well simon young he joins me here in the studio in cape brady in leipzig simon one month after these protests on november 9th 1909 the famous wall fell did do you think the east german regime underestimated the discontent among the populace well

they knew that discontent was growing and that there was a sense that you know the economy was broken and that people in east germany were increasingly annoyed that they you know they couldn't they were going to miss out on so many things that were taken for granted in the west and as we heard there that frustration at the lack of freedoms and rights in the summer of 99900 seeing these growing wave of people leaving the country to go through the newly open border in hungary there was this atmosphere that things were breaking down i think the regime were increasingly nervous and. they saw these demonstrations they prepared their own troops possibly to intervene but the story of what happened in life so you know i've been 189 was really that when it came to the crunch nobody on the ground was actually willing to give the order to. take that direct deadly action against their own citizens and do you know that was what gave others the

courage old mutlu to say we will stand up as well and something will change in this country now kay i'll just turn to you for these history making events and i happened 3 decades ago are they still relevant there to people in lives there's today. and they're still extremely extremely relevant especially for the people here in life to get something that they're very proud of here and the courage that we're sharing 30 years a guy by people who are still alive today were alive in $1809.00 and managed to shape the history of germany and played such a pivotal role in the fall of the berlin wall. and also the reunification of germany in 1990 but here specifically in life because well it's important for younger. generations of people that were born even 30 years ago or less and they can see even today how big a significant role that parents and grandparents had by going to those

demonstrations 30 years ago and you can see say in life as well how little a city like leipzig really has been one of the success stories of german reunification and certainly seen as somewhat of a boom in recent years the. number of citizens living here and in light signal is bigger even than in east germany and of course like much of former eastern germany there was a massive exodus of people after the fall of the wall and so that is something that is really seen been seen as a success here in leipzig and i think it is still important not only in light sake but also across to me to remember these these demonstrations 30 years ago and something which still for many western germans is still relatively unknown ok brady braving the wind for us there in line and simon young warm here in the studio thanks very much for your analysis. let's continue now on some of the other stories

making news around the world the white house has announced it will not cooperate with congressional impeachment inquiry of u.s. president donald trump releasing an 8 page letter addressed to democratic party leaders the trumpet ministration has also blocked. the u.s. ambassador to the a youth from testifying and impeachment hearings approach is examining a whistleblower complaint that trumps all political favors from ukraine. turkey says it's ready to launch an offensive against syrian kurds following u.s. president donald trump's decision to pull troops out of northern syria president trump now faces accusations that he's abandoned kurdish forces who were killing u.s. allies in the fight against the so-called islamic state. well now it's to some breaking news and the royal swedish academy of sciences has just awarded the nobel prize in chemistry to a tame of 3 scientists john being good in our m. stanley wishing him and developed lithium ion battery the committee says the

battery is a lot weight and can be used in devices from my of all phones to laptops and electric vehicles. well to explain all of that to us i'm joined by derek williams from our science desk put the development of lithium batteries in context the context of what's so challenging about it but the thing is the thing about battery systems is that is they've been around really since the 1900 centuries of these storage systems for energy to power things it's a fairly simple set up to you have a positively you have opposed leave charged and of the battery in a negatively charged under the batter down in the catheter and you get this flow of the inside of that anode and cathode you have positively charged negatively charged molecules or or elements there that means that they're willing to give up electrons and if you give up those electrons over a particular circuit then you have an energy flow so that the concept is easy but the thing is what they what they were able to do was take lithium which is a highly reactive substance which means that it's actually good at this it gives up

its electron very easily and it also takes it back very easily but it's also highly reactive substance they took this highly reactive substance which is great as a material for a battery and they made it safe. very important now modern world with the land modern gadgets that how useful have these batteries bayne to us while the anybody who carries around a cellphone and a laptop there and everything on electric toothbrushes that lithium ion batteries have become central really to the modern world in the modern digital age and in particular they're also in the future going to be the cornerstone of electric car technology you have to have a lightweight material in your battery that's capable of taking on a really heavy charge and lithium fits that bill perfectly but tell us about environmental factors because that hams not that great for the environment i believe will mining lithium there are a lot of detractors who say most of it is mined in south america in the salt flats it's there's there is obviously an environmental impact i mean the price of lithium has exploded in the last few years and more than doubled in the last 3 years

because there's such heavy demand for this particular element however you have to also balance that against sustainability issues because this is the whole point behind energy storage systems like those that lithium provides is that it means that we're able to use sustainable sources of energy long term the sun isn't always shining all the time and the wind isn't always blowing we need to be able to say that energy that's being produced by those sustainable sources and lithium ion batteries are really the cornerstone of being able to do that so yes there is an environmental impact when it comes to mining but on the other hand it's more than weighed out on in my opinion by these sustainability issues that actually the sustainability problems that it helps us overcome when israel scientists thank you very much for breaking that down for us. now watching d.w. news coming up next up some culture and don't forget you can get all the latest news from around the world on our website at www dot com.

literature invites us to see people in particular that i like to see as the kids find instruments grown up her. might object to what the sheriff. did every book on you to. trinity and justice and freedom the 1st words of the german national anthem and the 3 central valley was that formed the foundation of this country how have these

values developed in east timor germany or is it to live by and defend the principles of unity justice and freedom and i want to bring to you my. our journey to the syrians starts october 21st on d w. hello and welcome to news from the world of arts and culture is what's coming up on the show today. we follow in the footsteps of a renaissance genius leonardo da vinci who spent his final years not in italy in france. and the german photographer. and his fascination with water in all its forms. we

begin with a new film about the most legendary woman in science maggie cookery radioactive is currently doing the festival circuit so now man scott rocks for a quarter with it's a rainy and direct to be sure it film festival in switzerland he'll be here in the studio in a minute but 1st his reports about. scientists changing. careers scientists rebel and feminist and a new film from mars also topic in this extraordinary look at the 2 time nobel prize winner and pioneer of the science of radioactivity change the world. remembers her own mother holding the scientists up as a role model for any mother who was preparing her daughter not to making with marriage and become a good wife and wanted a better thing for them. to become independent and be someone you know i company something this is the example she's one of the would be for. to try.