the united states has been linked with germany for some 70 years american leaders once stood right here in berlin calling for an end to what president reagan once called a dreadful gray gash across the city germany of course is now united but the allies are drifting apart with a president who would rather build his own wall than tear one down tonight on the eve of the 30th anniversary of the fall of the berlin wall america's top diplomat visits germany can he rebuild a relationship on the rocks i'm called aspen in berlin and this is the day. that your body continues to be an enormously important partner for us but germany is truly introversion a lot of this is why we are still on line some point in the syndicate on a sounds to the time 6 in the article in there did. get

a play on go to please the law says we're going to great friend of the united states to justify it we'll never forget that the un this interim president george bush helped to send a new mistake on the way to german reunification and the focus. also on the day a man known for building walls will be getting one in the mail a group of germans is sending president trump an original section of the berlin wall along with a message from those who experienced the barrier 1st hand. today on the 30th anniversary of the fall of the wall the citizens of berlin or simply going to regional sections of the berlin wall to the united states with an important message . a letter to the president and his citizens reminding us of our historical commitment to building a world without walls. to our viewers on p.b.s. and all around the world welcome to the program we start the day with

a transatlantic relationship on life support close allies for some 70 years now germany and the united states are on the rocks there is little common ground now on nato china russia not to mention the rhetoric of the current occupant of the white house in fact a recent survey showed around 85 percent of germans say their country's relationship with the u.s. is either bad or very bad and a majority here say that they'd like to further distance themselves from america but that is a backdrop u.s. secretary of state mike pompei o has been in germany for the past 2 days his visit is of course timed to coincide with celebrations to mark the 30th anniversary of the fall of the berlin wall but disagreements about how to safeguard current political and military alliances have overshadowed his visit. been a great friend of the united states germany is continues to be an enormously important partner for us i saw the defense minister statement about increasing

germany's contribution to nato over time we think that's powerful because we think that relationship with nato matters and we need everyone working together to make sure that it remains a potent force for good in the. forwards today we have other tasks before us and again we are addressing them as partners and friends we have to face up to these tasks in the world. god knows we'll be talking among other things about the conflict in afghanistan and the conflict between ukraine and russia we'll be talking about the future of syria about peace in libya. these are some of the issues on our agenda today but let me assure you that we intend to continue to play an active part in helping solve these conflicts for more i'm joined now by thomas kline a brawl coffee's the vice president of the german marshall fund of the united states that's a public policy think tank 1st of all thank you so much for coming in we just heard some of those statements from chancellor merkel and from secretary of state. how surprised were you with what seems to be

a rather conciliatory tone things haven't been going so well between the 2 countries likely wars and because everybody here is basking in the afterglow of 30 years of for the fall of the wall and this was a kiss and make up type and i heard the secretary of state speak in a way that any american secretary of state in the past could have delivered could have delivered a speech i think the word trump did not it wasn't even mentioned maybe only once and he even left that alter ego ego of his at home that previously had criticized the multilateral order him self in criticizing him self a different form pales showed up in berlin today let's talk more though about that relationship between germany and the u.s. as you mentioned the word trump may not have come up but the president has been speaking about in the ticket to nato since he took office we want to listen to a clip this was from last summer's nato summit in brussels trump blasting

a planned gas pipeline between russia and germany take a listen. i think of late about this time i got a nature that never been allowed to happen but germany is totally controlled by russia and of course that surrounded by his own nato allies there that's just one example he also asked germany to give more money to nato what's effect you think the president has had on this relationship not only between the us and germany but more broadly nato itself well if germany is controlled by russia wonder what the president is controlled by but the effect of all of that hammering on to piling on to germany as i as i see it has had a profound effect on the public the public finds the the german american relationship to be in crisis while the american public doesn't see it that way we have a profound gap in the perception of where we stand why you think that is because of

that because of that critique of that what i find to be a very stark and some say unreasonable critique of the country the countries have always had some policy differences gas pipelines was an issue between germany and the and the. the united states in the 1970 s. at that time reserve you the soviet union so those those issues and those frictions don't go away but they are now in a different context the philosophy embed it they're embedded in the larger picture and that's i think what concerns people. the u.s. secretary of state is making this visit with this big anniversary not of the president himself is there anything we can read into there no i don't think so. he said he will be coming to germany and so i don't think you can read anything into i'm happy that he's here and i'm satisfied that there was such

a kiss and make up session this is how it should be just not convinced. i just hope mr trump hears about it as well now so much focus of course with this 30th anniversary the berlin wall falling i mean taking the lessons maybe from that moment and one thing that mike on paper said today was interesting he said quote the west lost its way in the afterglow of that proud moment what do you make of that do you think that the west has lost its way think that the west has overreached and that it has it has had the belief set that under western and especially american hegemony most of the rest of the world would join the democratic peace and become a capitalist and democratic countries that certainly hasn't happened and therefore i think one has to have a much more constrained realist approach. to the world today part of

that approach the world at least from united states has been america 1st recently that's the motto from the president that's potentially leaving a void in this power balance is germany do you think preparing to step into that void are you seeing the country taking on perhaps more of a responsibility on the international stage that's been the debate in this country for years german you know is not only a late nation state in the 19th century it's also late internationalist understanding that the liberal international order is to the benefit of germany and that it has lived in peace and well with it and that it needs to in. vest more into it that it's not enough to be part of the west it also has to produce the west we have seen some surprising steps recently we've seen the secretary of defense here saying the proposing a safety zone that's patrolled internationally that's something you wouldn't heard from germany in the past years and she has delivered a speech just 2 days ago in which she prepared presented a plan for

a more robust more more far reaching german security policy that will be debated in this country what that means and what the goals of the show be and it is an unusual step for a defense minister to take such a broad and bold view thomas klein a broken vice president of the german marshall fund of the united states thanks so much thank you. this weekend in germany is marking the most significant event that led to its reunification it was 30 years ago this weekend that the berlin wall fell as part of the special coverage of the 30th anniversary we'll take a look now at one of the city's most significant locations the brandenburg gate on the 9th of november 1989 thousands of germans gathered right there on the western side of the wall euphoric crowds clambered on top of the wall as you can see which

until then had been completely off limits for decades. and our political correspondent simon young is at the brandenburg gate simon this is the site of festivities of course tonight and tomorrow but you know the berlin wall as we saw it once cut right through the area where you're standing so how did the brandenburg gate become a symbol of unity rather than one of division. well call of course the brandenburg gate is one of the most iconic symbols of the german nation it was built by the prussians later it was misused by the nazis as a backdrop for their parades and marches and the east german communist regime closed it off because just on the other side of the brandenburg gate on the western side. was the berlin wall for 28 years india where i'm standing was

a complete no go zone you couldn't come from here you couldn't cross from the east where i am to the west or the other way and that in that way it was a symbol of division but so on the night of the 9th of november 1909 of course people were able to come here and. within a few hours of the unexpected announcement that people would be allowed to leave east germany they were dancing on the berkeley and wall just near here and you know of course as we say the rest is history people now of course come here to celebrate and just to tell each other the stories from that time look at some of the art installations of it here but to really get that feeling once again the 19 $189.00 feeling of freedom. well and we remember those emotional times in particular with some of the video that was

that was broadcast back then in particular we've dugouts a lady who came down in the east german lady came down arguing with the is jim border guards and she she managed to get to to get across let's hear what she said. guarding the brandenburg gate to highest duty for border guards until november 9th. i can't take it anymore. and i just wanted for once in my life to go through the brandenburg gate to take a look around i just want some the other part of. i've never been over there and i . have no fake on no grandmother no uncles over there do you understand that. i wanted to go through and come back with my head high i love and yet still buy that if you keep going like this we'll never get there why is that so hard to

understand. that we have to push did. shoot or deal with her as a person the border guards at the brandenburg gate seem to be waiting for orders only gradually did it become clear that it was all over. simon quite the emotional look back there now 30 years later just walk us through what's planned at the brandenburg gate this weekend. yes on saturday evening the night the november that's the actual anniversary of the fall of the wall of course. they'll be a big get spectacular show here i think you can see the stage just on the other side of the gate behind me they've been rehearsing the seating they'll be down you'll barenboim with his orchestra and the d.j. west spam and no doubt many other acts the v.i.p.'s will be here but lots of

berliners lots of tourists all wanting to you know just celebrate that sense of freedom in the way the world has changed in 30 years. so i mean young political correspondent he is at the brandenburg gate for us tonight thank you very much. well one of the darkest chapters in the history of former east germany is parents being forced to give up their youngsters for adoption because of regime consider them disloyal hundreds of such cases have been documented the reporter on your call met one woman who spent decades looking for her daughters. 'd when evers i mean it's subfields despair she takes a walk in the forest during the past 35 years she's felt this way off. those years i always had it in the back of my mind i have 2 children and how are

they and whenever i saw people taking a walk with older children or a mother with her pram or playing with her child these things would trigger that feeling i mean who. gave birth to 2 daughters in the former east germany in the 1980 s. but her joy was short lived a few years earlier she had tried to flee east germany but was caught and convicted reason enough for the youth welfare office to come to the house and take the children away. in the 1st moment i stood there paralyzed then i ran out the door after them and yelled where you take you my daughter you give me back my child the officer turned around pointed a finger at me and said if you don't quite down now i will call the police and you will have to go to jail. they have given me 3 years' probation

so if i did anything i would go to prison i just stood there and asked myself whether i should protest or stay silent. and happy. subnets half initially gave up but after the garden wall came down she started gathering evidence in the 1990 s. she managed to connect with her older daughter but the years apart had created an estrangement too big to bridge and they broke off contact just one year ago her younger daughter suddenly made contact that he had stopped was unable to cope. it's as if he were not the forget their 1st phone call i will never forget that i think all the neighbors heard everything but i didn't care.

of am from then on we talked on the phone every day and it kept growing from there then after more than 30 years of separation mother and daughter finally met. i have yesterday i thought my heart would burst. before i couldn't handle the situation i was hugged and cuddles and i didn't know how to respond suddenly this person was standing there too i was related i think i only realized that part later on because the section the livest there is you did you immediately recognize her yeah you don't get your child's. this kid.

now is have you know it's happy can take walks in the forest with the younger starter and she has plans she will finally be able to need to have grandchildren and to make up for decades lost time. or if you wanted to send a letter to president donald trump there might be one sure fire way to get him to actually read it write your message on a wall that's in fact where one group of germans is doing sending an original piece of the berlin wall to the white house of course you can't put this letter in the mail it weighs nearly 3 tons so the wall segment was loaded onto a truck back in october beginning a long journey across the atlantic from berlin to washington but was painted with a message to trumpet recent parts quote for 20 years as wall separated east and west families and friends know wall lasts forever for decades the u.s.

played a major role in bringing this wall down. and one of the leaders of that project joins me now in studio philip who is a man the managing director of. the in english the open society initiative to talk about this unusual gift i guess you'd say thanks for coming in and what i want to know 1st of all is where exactly is this piece of wall right now i mean it is not going to be turning up in the mailbox at the white house right where was the ball actually right now it's in d.c. and we do a little test drive so we're just passing the capital and there's actually already a lot of interest from people approaching us talking to us what is this but this is just a test run and so tomorrow we come back to us in d.c. and then we're going to deliver web belongs to the white house to president trump how exactly did you take this what nearly 3 ton piece of the wall how did you get

it all the way from berlin unfortunately had to fly it in we wanted to ship it but there was no time that it was a very spontaneous idea so we took it to an airplane on an airplane flew to new york city and arrived yesterday in new york city and then we brought it with a truck or a trailer to watching to see today i want to back up now as i can tell you where the idea came from for this project i mean the ideas that you want to do something else in an initiative a citizens in berlin for this big anniversary we're celebrating 30 years where the wall came down and we wanted to have to really give a sign send a message to to the world pretty much because we believe in an open society and we think we have to defend it and we have to we have to really fight for an open society and we thought what what could be a good sign a good good project for that. so what exactly is the message you're trying to send here along with this blog me we've heard a bit of what's written on there but what's the overall significance here i mean

the overall significance is that if you want to have an open society you cannot afford to waltz it's just a working democracy and waltzes doesn't go together and we know this from germany and the overall message is you the us the president's former president of the u.s. helped us with overcoming walls tearing down this wall said ronald reagan in the eighty's george bush helped us getting rid of the wall and john f. kennedy was in berlin saying it's benign bellino showing solidarity with berlin sit ins ins so this is a long tradition and we want to remind president on this great tradition now of course the berlin wall as we know it was built to keep its own citizens in writing and trumps a border wall is really meant to keep people out i mean so does your does this symbol really hold and i mean you're absolutely right and we know that this is not 100 percent coherent but it's really the general idea of walls like do walls fit

into a democracy and there was say no you shouldn't have walls of course you need bardas etc but that was dia to give us a signal to show us sign a big sign and yeah but you're absolutely right it doesn't fit totally the comparison. how did you get this piece of the ball i mean it's there's only a few bits left in berlin a lot of it was was cleared away pretty much immediately where do you find now these days a piece of the berlin wall it will be a surprise because it's quite simple you just have to google it and so we found an online store dealer and berlin who is selling pieces off the wall mostly smaller pieces but he had this big chunk of the berlin wall so we could just buy it from him how much it cost actually i don't really know and so the whole cost was transportation etc it's like in the law 5 range to so but i don't know exactly what's what the cost was of the wall he's now some might argue if your message is

that the balls 'd are not compatible with democracy you could have sent this piece of the berlin wall. much shorter distance you could have sent it somewhere in the e.u. you could send it to hungary there are a lot of walls going up right in germany's own backyard you know there are 2 messages in that and i want to emphasize the positive message in this present in this letter because 1st of all we want to send a big thank you to the us by what i just explained like the long history of u.s. presidents helping us to overcome the wall so it has this double meaning and quite frankly we don't have enough money to send to send walls to all. let's say regimes or political parties that may be. enhancing the open society right now now this wall is in the u.s. how do you hope if this makes it to the white house i mean maybe a tall order how do you hope the president will respond i mean hopefully he'll

receive the letter and the president i would be great that would be a great sign also from the sides and a great. son so hopefully he will accept that that's a hope do you think you have a chance of changing his mind when it comes to walls of course he's been campaigning on building a wall right there on the border with mexico no i don't think he will change and that's not the goal of this project to make this clear it's a symbol and it's also fun of course but also we want to we want to like communicate to this to the the u.s. to the citizens not only to donald trump it is also like a present we we give to the people in us and maybe ideally this this piece of wall if it will not accept it we want to give it to someone else in the u.s. maybe make a competition out of it what relationship do you think berliners and germans

overall have with the wall these days now 30 years after it came down. i would say like. a very. pragmatic i would say and like we really try to celebrate this and of course there's like still some some a division between east and west so you can feel that but i also sense that especially today and tomorrow on the big celebration day people really come to believe in go to brown brigade and celebrate that we are unified any message you'd hope to send to trump if he's watching right now i mean i mean i hope i. will accept our present go into the me read the letter and give us an answer maybe you want to treat about it that would be really nice all right thank you very much philip who is a man with the open society initiative thank you. that's all for the day the conversation continues online on.

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a long before more border between east and west berlin. i would like to see what remains of a history of the division of europe germany temporarily. searching for traces of the berlin. 60 minutes d w. staying up to date don't miss our highlights d.w. program on line d.w. dot com highlights. syrian born american visits a local bar in berlin. he lives just opposite with a father who was a member of the hitler youth as

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