the weekly radio show is called spectrum if you would like to move information on the ground or virus or any other science topic you should really check out our podcast you can get it wherever you go your pockets can also farmers and. science. if there's a country that knows what change feels like it's germany on october 3rd 1990 the country where unified to ideologically different systems became one the challenges were mana fold the former east was economically behind a 3rd of state run companies there were shut down leaving millions of work with no

choice but to start over and nothing's lockley what today's show is all about. to this day the truck bond or try out the is the symbol most associated with the east german industry the now iconic vehicle was manufactured in the city of stick in the state of saxony it was known for being on reliable and extremely polluting but 30 years on change is brewing in its birthplace today speak oh is home to one of folks logged most innovative car factories. car manufacturers are scrambling to catch up and get ahead of the future is an electric needs are brought to the transformation of germany's alter industry suppliers are struggling in west and east and germany i just like the. electric cars need to have a tree. what they don't need to get cases like this because they don't have multi

speed good boxes. and that is a major problem for us. he has the works council it's a company that makes cases d.t.h. haida now the workforce numbers more than $300.00 trainees i can tell you that there will be personnel changes very probably firings which is of course bad news out of your fridge. it's tough very much especially because i know everybody here and it's very worrying. d.t.h. is a di cost of the supplies various components to the auto industry especially good cases . the shift to electric plus the impact of the pandemic have tipped it over the edge into insolvency. its biggest customer i spoke spoken it's moving fast to switch to electric cars its contents macau in eastern germany no longer makes any cars with a combustion engine the workers that have

a job guarantee until 2029. i'm somewhat through adherence because here in this vehicle the transformation process means that every employee has teresa scale and learn how to do other jobs every worker has to be retrained. sometimes multiple times with bunch. of a cow is the w.'s most advanced plant it's in both the group strategy to go electric. the trouble is other manufacturers started to make the switch so you know i know in the elite in terms of science many safety w. has been too slow off the mop. we've been perhaps been a bit slower than i would have liked but it's never too late we found a good point in time in our development and can manufacture electric vehicles in large numbers it was a similar discussion some years ago about s.u.v.s and they did this with your own

fault for this on the s.u.v. skiing people were saying vokes wagon was too slow and was too late in fact it was just right the technology was mature and sales were good and kept growing we intend to do the same with electro mobility us sales will take off again or but as we do we're going to go over the country in. its newest call just unveiled is the id for an all electric compact a c.v. made in civic how. it weighs in at about 2 metric tons. this is on the $94.00 is special because it's an electric s.u.v. designed for the global market i have great expectations going to go big in china and america. but the current pandemic has hit the welts 3 major markets hard china the e.u. and the us the german automotive association expects a 17 percent drop in unit sales over last year. d.g.

a child to mouth has been hit so hard by the switch to eat cause and slumping cost sales the some workers will probably have to look for another job. and must make me think about the division between east and west germany. which to me shows us the struggle i feel better here in the east it's even if i would earn more in the west this is where you had gone to show that. we one country now. i know definitely not hard. to get people always say we earn union wages and i just as well as in the west where they don't say is that union wages in the east urban lower than in the west aka chuck you don't just get us to investigate. but many still as long as there are such differences we can't win one country united can you're talking about inside. the impending job cuts are preying on everybody's mind at the factory who is going to be fired and who will be invited to stay nobody knows yet. as its own curiousness in

a word the meeting was worried as we expected restructuring plans are not yet finalized but start in some jobs will probably be a factor that is john to tackle upon whether the plan makes sense i don't know further discussions are needed as are not discussed on split off it's an exhausting struggle for works council members and not only his. other companies have already announced they will slash thousands of jobs. as many as 400000 jobs could be at stake in the german auto industry. factory closures are nothing new for young force almost 3 decades ago after german reunification the factory where he did his apprenticeship was shuttered. it wasn't a problem. but why is it different now. i'm older there's. this time it will be much harder for me that's

a cause for concern as much as america. has no immediate reason to worry. about the east german tragedies of his youth now he drives a new electric. it's good for marketing. it's the most important car now for the factory and our future. combustion engine cars were once built all electric ones will soon roll off the assembly line. is investing 1200000000 euros into the switch to electric. a huge amount has been achieved since of unification still differences between east and west do remain after the wall came down there was a major brain drain from east to west and to this day young people head west for jobs all the more important then to create opportunity is at home my colleague. met one family of entrepreneurs doing just that. jack hardly seems like this

we've patterns into luxury fabric of our 1st have to master the machines before she could take over as production manager. now she supervises a fact sheet of workers all of them on the outside and you need to know how everything works to be able to organize things properly otherwise you don't have a feel for it. because it is a family owned company cloudier was trained by her father and her uncle. went to my uncle's got a sense of humor which is always important not to take things too seriously but to laugh at things because if we didn't we'd stop coming to work. that life would be much fun of the was under hopes to fight wrinkles. but as i went on cruise through it to my uncles responsible for machinery and investment as well as quality

control and procurement through to my father's responsible for production. most in this review would have sworn i saw these my boss step above me and he also takes care of the bookkeeping and sales people. who do for to me but more than anything else she's inherited his love for the product jack fabric usually based off so i love textiles or i wouldn't be working here and i also love the way they're made the textiles are just so diverse that they've become a real passion of mine shaft of order this. is one of the world's last remaining companies to manufacture the precious jacket fabric a firm but nights cotton material with artistic patterns woven into it rather than printed on the surface. it's used for table cloths and bedding. and

also as closing for african customers. and industrial soft. power weaving male in our in southeastern germany is 130 years old in that time it see many threats to its existence. especially after world war 2 when eastern germany became the socialist g.d.r. the company was taken over by the state in 1972. the old power logo was replaced by one proclaiming a just so called v. e. b. for people's enterprise. it was for new york windows that goes with it was a tragic experience for the family i had just finished my degree and had intended to start work here. in studio but when that happened i knew i wouldn't be working

here after my studies. instead the 2 by our brothers worked as textile engineers in other state run enterprises virtually none of which survived. then came 1909 and the fall of the wall offering them the chance to start over again. had to my brother managed to convince me he said the product was marketable this was an opportunity. to get the company back on its feet all debts 1st have to be paid off and new machines installed. it was a massive investment. at that time the ballad brothers were working around the clock. as a defender having thought it was a very hard time for us as a family. we lived in the villa at the front of my father was basically never. is and of the really proud of what the pair of them achieve. they stayed the course

and were so tenacious. the family villa is on the grounds of their weeping mail today it's the company's headquarters. was invested a lot of care in restoring the villa. i grew up in this building as a kid and the works grounds were my playground when i was young and it school. so i formed a bond with the villa and the factory itself when i was a child and the connection became pretty deep with. rebuilding the company has been a labor of love and one day no doubt a successor from the host of offspring who follow in michelle footsteps. a labor of love is certainly not how you could describe the subject of our next for

poor us here in berlin a new stage of the airport is due to open at the end of october a mere 9 years later the project seemingly endless problems with the brunt of many jokes about the myth of german efficiency our reporter. has the story. the brand new berlin brandenburg international airport it's finally open on earth 312020 that's about. $3289.00 days from the 1st planned opening day so our hope it's worth the wait is former chancellor and berlin greece everyone at the terminal and friends with the famous quote of it if i were asked to say what apart from peace was most important to me then my answer would be freedom maybe if berlin's current administrators were asked

what apart from building a world class air force for the german capital it was most important to them to see that with the opening it does these things happen along the way. to go through a letter airport code for this airport was meant to be. brandenburg international airport but that turned out to be taken by the airport in india so don't get confused about the. are. the signs showing arrivals and nations had been hanging here for so long that eventually they stopped working after a few years they had to be switched out to the tune of half a 1000000 euros. more than 90 kilometers of cable. so for a few months and 2030 in the light stayed on because they couldn't figure out how to switch them off because of a technical glitch. but 9 years and 7000000000 euros later the airport management

says it's finally worked everything out and volunteer airport testers are here to take fake flights to see if that's true. lots of people pretending to go to frankfurt today but not everyone flying to tell of you today cullen bunn please southampton him how do you find the new airport it's quite nice very modern very scary as it sounds it's pretty and still looks new even though it's been here for so long it still looks good for trying it out i think this is. i'm really surprised i can positively surprised yes positively. perfect effect ok perfect temperature yes i like it but i'm here to form my own impression now the check in counters are made of regionally sourced award so they're very pretty but i think there should be more of them it doesn't feel like there are nearly enough.