helmut kohl took advantage of the euphoria he convinced france britain and finally soviet leader mikhail gorbachev that a united germany would be at the service of europe. in record speed german unity was a great both nationally and internationally the 5 states of the former g.d.r. joined west germany on october 3rd 1990 called finally attained his goal a unified germany. while the berlin wall was of course a brutal symbol of germany's division today there's almost nothing left of it except for a few scattered reminders start easy to find most of them. where did the berlin wall go luckily this metal strip marks where it once stood but where can you see the pieces of the wall itself we are some tourists if they found the wall no. i have it set up there ok good yeah because i'm going to head up that way. i don't know and i never gave it was no no that's that's somewhere else i don't know on both sides of the former border lin has grown and grown together only long time residents remember it where all the wall just behind you behind me yes. there's nothing there. on the that's tough luck but it was t

with its new leader mikhail gorbachev in the middle of the 1980 s. . perestroika meant restructuring towards liberalization and democratization it certainly had a positive impact on the international situation astonishing news from east germany where the east german authorities have said in essence of the berlin wall doesn't mean anything anymore. but inside the u.s.s.r. the weakening of kremlin control had different consequences. in ukraine a nationalistic political organization. or people's movement emerged in 1989 due to this openness. they advocated for independence of ukraine from the u.s.s.r. and became an incubator for leaders of ukraine. in 19011 of them new book founded svoboda an openly radical nationalist party preaching the good old principles of bondage era. feel good. just to. please. her jew crane from the jews in russia ukraine for ukrainians and so on his statements got him 5th place in the simon visa center top 10 anti semitic world leader rankings of 2012. but also sadly attracted numerous follow ups. dimitry are founded another extr

helmut kohl took advantage of the euphoria he convinced france britain and finally soviet leader mikhail gorbachev that's a united germany would be at the service of europe. in record speed german unity was a great both nationally and internationally the 5 states of the former g.d.r. joined west germany on october 3rd 1990 called finally attained his goal a unified germany. a stark about this more now with the views of thomas sparrow from our political bureau here in the studio good morning thomas morning brian we've just seen some incredible images of the hard to forget if you saw them all those years ago when the wall fell to the germans still feel that same enthusiasm that they did back then i probably wouldn't describe that as who is yes i'm older probably when they do look at those images they feel very happy about it most germans i think do feel that reunification is a very important step for germany in fact a recent poll also stressed that a majority are. once feel that unity has been achieved there are still very clear differences and i will speak about those differences in a moment but i

helmut kohl took advantage of the euphoria he convinced france britain and finally soviet leader mikhail gorbachev that a united germany would be at the service of europe. in record speed german unity was a great both nationally and internationally the 5 states of the former g.d.r. joined west germany on october 3rd 1990 kohl finally attained his goal a unified germany. we remember those days very well someone who made those days possible is with me here in the studio right now a former east german civil rights activist caterine. i think it's good to have you on the show we've talked before here at the big table i want to pick up on the topic of the german chancellor angela merkel we've been talking about her tonight when you think about. her contribution to german reunification has she done enough. has she let you down how do you feel. you know i in my opinion this is not a one man show or one woman show so we unification or democracy is the job for all of us so we have to make it possible we have to talk to each other and to understand each other it's about understanding and now those position w

that was alexander tskipko remembering interesting times with former president mikhail gorbachev.ere at the royal academy. we will be back next month with more first—hand accounts of extraordinary moments in history. for now from me and the rest of the witness history team, goodbye. hello there, we've seen heavy rain pushing across just about all parts of the uk over the last 2a hours but eastern england has had more than its fair share. this was how it looked for a weather watcher in norfolk a little earlier on and if i show you the radar picture you can see why it was so wet because the rain really did linger across these eastern areas. you can see the dark blue colours on our radar picture affecting parts of norfolk and suffolk for a good part of the afternoon. that rain easing through the next few hours and it will clear away as we get into the overnight period to leave a drier interlude. but only a brief one because behind me you can see our next weather system approaching from the west. outbreaks of rain splashing in here. brisk winds as well. a mild night in the west, but a

that was alexander's occur remembering interesting times with former president mikhail gorbachev to dissolventh with more first—hand accou nts back next month with more first—hand a ccou nts of back next month with more first—hand accounts of extraordinary moments in history. for now from me in the west of the team, —— and the rest of the team, good night. as one weather system clears, another comes in from the atlantic. it does notjust sum up the weekend weather across the uk but pretty the next 7—10 days out there. this is next weather system coming in as we go into sunday. here is the next one that will come in on monday. more rain to come this weekend. not a washout, there will be some dry and bright skies either side of an area of rain that will be heavy at times as it spreads its way eastwards. this is how we start on saturday morning. chilly across the eastern side of the uk where we have had skies overnight and perhaps a touch of frost on the coldest parts of north—east scotland. and where it has been clear there could be mist and fog patches, dense in a few spots, through the mornin

helmut kohl took advantage of the euphoria he convinced france britain and finally soviet leader mikhail gorbachev that a united germany would be at the service of europe. in record speed german unity was a great both nationally and internationally the 5 states of the former g.d.r. joined west germany on october 3rd 1990 called finally attained his goal a unified germany. i. say here in us so vividly remember the euphoria you imagine this arms around her voice was an incredible that it was difficult not to be moved to but you see as we were hearing from chancellor merkel the process of unity is still has a long way to go there but there's still a generation of eastern germans and western germans who were born in reunited germany how do you think your work marcher older. and how do you think they feel on this day of germany and if acacia and. for them it's a little bit difficult to grasp i have to say i think what they would say is that this is the very positive message that a lot of people especially in a city like berlin which is very much a city where people live very close to each other collide

helmut kohl took advantage of the euphoria he convinced france britain and finally soviet leader mikhail gorbachev that a united germany would be at the service of europe. in record speed german unity was a great both nationally and internationally the 5 states of the former g.d.r. joined west germany on october 3rd 1990 called finally attained his goal a unified germany. peter i certainly get goosebumps listening and watching that ceremony because we've both seen those events 29 years ago now 30 years on there was so much euphoria back then 30 years on would you say the greenough occasion has been a success. without a doubt in by and by and large the germany is a. natural entity is very broad one side and it has begun to grow together the question is the pace at which the 2 sides are growing together and whether that process is now moved into almost possibly reverse gear i mean it's interesting if you speak to east germans about or even speak to west germans about what happened in the pearl in the period in the last 3 decades or so say how their lives have changed but as a result of german reunif

do we no telephone call from or school in fact never had cleared the move with soviet leader mikhail gorbachev in a 20 minute phone conversation that went on for 2 hours gorbachev said until i am sitting in this chair that if he'll be no repetition of $56.00 which is in order words was a clear message that miklos. your hands. and the more now the fences back to keep out a whole new wave of refugees the hunger in government is exploiting the fear of migrants to further its domestic agenda mental domain manolo. i don't know how many people right now would be happy if the iron curtain were dismantled today like it was 30 years ago. that. she may well be right many hungry and think like this ice cream man in the border town. we didn't know what was going on at 1st. we didn't know who these foreigners were. to get sick. but then more and more came and we got scared especially for our children because we didn't know what the refugees intentions were. it's an irony of fate but the refugees and all the hustle and bustle at the border brought him a lot of trade this season will now be his last. final s

chernobyl is billeas an open air museum of the soviet era, uninhabited for 33 years, since mikhail gorbachev was in charge. frozen in time. taken over by nature. >> chernobyl for me is kind of a mecca of sorts. back home i'a professor of russian literature, history, culture. i grew up in the height of the cold war. i remember climbing under desks threats.y did mock nuclear bomb this debris and destruction here for me it's kind of symbolic too, of the soviet era. >> reporter: do you ike chernobyl might have been the beginning of the end for the soviet union? >> absolutely, i think it fell under heavy criticism from thend world for thathe moment gorbachev tried to correct soviet policies, the moment he tried to open things up, i don't think he knew what he was opening up. and i think the aftermath of that burned pretty hot. >> reporter:s of septemberha mon 90,000 people have visited, that's already well fove more than the number people who decided to brave chernobyl in the whole of 2018, according to the exclusion zone administration. this is actually my third trip to chernobyl, but my first o

and mikhail gorbachev understood that. so he, in effect, sued for peace. so i would say, you know, to ask yourself what price peace? was it worth running up the national debt as much as ronald reagan to end the cold war which included conflicts hot and cold, affected people on every continent and in which tens of thousands of americans died, to end that at long last and to do it at the bargaining table and not on the battlefield. >> host: kathleen's in lawrence, kansas. hi, kathleen. >> caller: hello. i want to compliment c-span. you're a wonderful program, and you have different points of view on. i'm calling in because i don't know where else to ask the question. i am older and not a technocrat. but i'm a liberal, i grew up in california, but i transplanted to the midwest, and i'm concerned about the midwest being just considered flyover states. anyway, my question is a constitutional one. i'm worried about the erosion of the power of congress, and and i'm wondering why when it takes a to ratify treaties, why just one person, the president, can pull out

>> i'm sure, when ronald reagan was talking to mikhail gorbachev -- >> they can have private conversationswhen reagan met alone with gorbachev, one-on-one, no aides in the room. the first thing reagan did was call the team together, here is exactly what went on. here is what was said. there were no contemporaneous notes or things of that kind. >> right. you can't, you're not subject to -- >> president reagan nearly sort of gave away the whole shebang there, didn't he? you were in that famous meeting in reykjavik where he went way beyond where the allies were going and most of his national security advisors. neil: it worked out for him. >> you're right. presidents have to be able to have confidential conversations. otherwise -- neil: i think that is what bannon was saying. he is worried the genie is out of the bottle. it will only get worse. >> if you don't do that, there will be even worse. even less transparent than it is now because if presidents think every single phone call they make to foreign leader ends up on the front page of "washington post," they will find ways to communicate wi

bush, john mccain, john lewis, hillary clinton, muhammad ali, mikhail gorbachev, and the dalai lama.overage to get underway shortly. this is life on c-span. on c-span. announcer: ladies and gentlemen, please take your seats. the program will begin momentarily. announcer: while we wait for the weemony to get underway, have this. john conyers jr., a career war veteran, the longest-serving african member of congress in u.s. history, died today at 90. during his 53 years in the u.s. house, he built a reputation as a champion for civil rights. we are waiting for live coverage of the liberty medal ceremony to begin shortly, live on c-span. ladies and gentlemen, please welcome the