joining me now in the studio as each of these political correspondent simon young welcome simon are we heading to with an anniversary which changed the course of history tell us more about how a germany is commemorating these events of 30 s. ago you know you used the word festivities and i think this really will be a week of celebrations especially here in berlin there are you know parties of course on projects speeches discussion panels and all sorts of events around this and of course the t.v. networks have been full of all those familiar. shots particularly when those crossing points were opened between east and west in the streets of berlin pretty much became a huge street poesy and i think the authorities are going to rekindle some of that atmosphere 30 years old remembering the victims of division of course as well but it it will climax in a huge goal of performance at the brandenburg gate on the 9th of november of course the day the actual full of the world as we call it absolutely and the getting some of the euphoria that people felt at that time but the beautification had lose

simon young welcome simon are we heading to wasn't an anniversary which changed the course of history as we heard tell us more about how a germany is commemorating these events of 30 s. ago if we use the word festivities and i think this really will be a week of celebrations especially here in berlin there are you know parties of course on projects speeches discussion panels all sorts of events around this and of course the t.v. networks have been full of all those familiar. shots particularly when those crossing points were opened between east and west in the streets of berlin pretty much became a he street policy and i think the authorities are being to rekindle some of that atmosphere. is own remembering the victims of division of course as well but it it all climax in a huge goal of performance at the brandenburg gate on the 9th of november of course the day of the actual full of the world as we call it absolutely and the getting some of the euphoria that people felt at that time but the reason a fixation had losers and winners specially in eastern germany and some people embrace the opportunities others said it was quite hot so tell us what this anniversary means for them well i think a lot of people will find it hard to join in the celebrations you know there's no doubting that germany today will democrats the place than communist. germany ever was but 98940 changes for many people for many people in the east it meant the end of the country that they'd grown up in where they understood the system where they knew how to get on and suddenly they found themselves struggling to come to terms with the capitalist system in some cases you had west germans and other foreigners turning up and telling people how to live their lives and making big decisions about for instance the future of businesses and of course not everybody thrived in it and indeed in line with that there's a survey out just this week saying that around harf of eastern germans believe that they're less free now to express their opinions than they would in communist east germany and that's along with the impression that many east germans have or eastern germans i should say you know they're somehow 2nd class citizens they get paid less their pensions a lower it means you know not everybody looks back with fondness to 989 although i should also say that very very few people want to return to the g.d.r. in the bad old days and that comment about freedom of speech is quite remarkable given that one of the most dreaded aspects of eastern germany was the stasi police the secret police so what was it like for citizens off east in germany living with that yeah i mean this the stasi the secret police in east germany was something like a state within a states and it was there to sort of protect communism and keep the whole thing going but what it involved was a huge apparatus all of professional agents but also unofficial collaborates is in 1989 there were around 300000 people working for the stars in one way or another that's over 2 percent of the population and they were collecting information and in some cases spying on people within their own families of course a lot of people will locked up somewhat tortured and that was a grim system and of course no one wants to return to that so many of these political correspondent thank you very much. and as we heard from simon the east german secret police the stasi spied on thousands of citizens many had no idea what information the stasi had gathered about them until years later when the stasi files for meat available we caught up with 2 women whose lives were changed by the stasi but who still feel the effects today. fall under long as aber visit the building where they used to live. when the 2 secretaries lived here in their younger years spies from the stars he used germany's secret police monitored them through the kitchen window. but then the tree was smaller i was even visited you see people from the stars he's standing there you know as for me i just recently read about it. we never would have thought of such a thing. no i don't think so either. they read about it in their stars he files a couple of 100 pages of intercepted letters private mail and official correspondence and most of all reports from spies including the layout of your learners aber and zuko all files flat. at 7 am on april 30th 190

simon young is there that welcome simon we've just been looking at scenes of jubilation from the 30 years ago what's the scene that now. well not quite the same level of jubilation but of course people are free here now to mill around come have a look see what they'd like to do and you have to imagine 30 years ago up to that point where i'm standing right now is in the middle of the death zone it was an absolute no go area you couldn't cross from the east where i'm standing to the west or vice versa and you know there was a lot of pain associated with that it was a symbol of german history the brandenburg gate behind me an important building and everybody recognizes it around the world but you know nobody could really come and visit it up close and i think for that reason people come down here now to take a look remember those days and of course one of the things we've been doing in recent days is looking through some of that emotional archive footage from 30 years ago in particular one piece we've dug out let's have a look this is an east german woman who came down to the brandenburg gate in 989 she wanted to cross to see her relatives in the west this is what happened to her. guarding the brandenburg gate the 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 just once and the other part of burma and. i've never been over there and i. had 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 my love and you know by that if you keep going like this will never get better is that so hard to understand. that we had so much. pleasure. 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. so some young here we are 30 years on what's happening that tonight. well people are preparing you know there's a big show planned for tomorrow evening with musicians and i'm sure they'll be lots of members of the public down here for that perhaps you can see the stage just through the branagh gate behind me and there is the projection of the world on that spherical stage they're a symbol as you say of freedom and unity bringing people together people have been coming here all week to look at that many tourists as there always are but many berlin is drawn to this central location as a symbol of freedom and how the world has changed. simon young that buttons brandenburg gate thank you so much. u.s. secretary of state mike pompei oh is in germany for a visit timed to coincide with celebrations to mark that but he also came to address disagreements of current political and military alliances the u.s. secretary of state had come to berlin with china and russia on his mind instead wherever it might pump aoe went he was confronted with the question whether he said french president in manoa mccall's gloomy view of nato which mccormack described as brain dead so many good answers so many cameras yes. i. pump out it on a more serious note. if nations believe that they can get the security benefit without providing nato the resources that it needs if they don't live up to their commitments there's a risk that little could become ineffective or obsolete reminded that there's a price to pay for having the us as a partner a message heard loud and clear in the german government chancellor angela merkel expressed profound gratitude a

because one simon young is in the east and jim one ton of c colleen joins me now from there welcome simon tell us what's happening there today . yeah. very shortly chancellor merkel is expected to arrive here in speak out which as you mentioned is the small town just off an hour or so south of leyte seek in eastern germany where the 3 active members of the n.a.c. the national socialist on the ground were able to leave and operate for several years undetected as they planned and carried out several killings and chancellor merkel is coming here really just to show solidarity at this memorial as you mentioned 10 trees one for each of the victims was it you know great just yesterday it's in the park that you can branch see behind me and you know people here are awaiting to you would get a glimpse of the chance that this time it seems the memorial that was vandalized a while ago what happened then. yes there was there was a memorial here previously it was a tree planted more memorialize and machine shake it was the 1st victim of the n.s.u. a flower seller murdered in the year 2000 and he. was