u. s. u. k. france and the former soviet union controlled different parts of the city. the geopolitical tensions between the eastern and western blocks eventually led to the cold war. the former zones controlled by east and west emerged as new nations, the capitalist federal republic of germany, and the communist german democratic republic. at the peak of it, berlin was one of the most strategically critical places in the world. in the early hours of august, the 13th 1961. the 1st barriers of the berlin wall rose along the eastern border. the concrete blocks put up in the days that followed, marked an immediate new reality. cutting off families and friends and the world of freedom, the broadest polish day of ashburn. i'm dealing ah, the clear statement of us policy in the wake of the construction of the wall. ah, soviet leader nikita khrushchev maintained that as long as the concrete walls still stood, western leaders could not declare victory. but as the soviet union's power and influence began to decline in the late 19 eighties, it spelled the beginning of the end for the eastern long. oh, these german government couldn't keep functioning without the support of the soviets. change was coming in the early days of november, 1989 east germans turned out in huge numbers. demanding reforms. on the evening of november, 9th 1989 history was made is unknown to november sun, this polish a thought. they did it with guitar. glancing up so far to get among the of the torrent demolish, to invite off and the rest, as they say, is history and stephanie decker. and welcome to berlin. when the borders opened, at present in the city with a whole new world of opportunities and also to the people who lived here and now was 32 years on the german capital continues its process of transformation. it's city that's been described by many as being in a forever state, becoming an ever being and perhaps that's what makes it the pulsating city. it is to day, forever marked by the clashing dogmas of east and west represented in every neighbourhood in its public space. in the way the city has been expanding, gentrifying and within its world renown street arch. the wall may have come down, but the decades of polarizing ideologies and policies that it represented had been harder to break down. what is berlin to day? and had the barriers of this war crated when broken. is there still an east versus west? on this edition of talk to al jazeera in the field will be exploring berlin's identity will be joined by berliners to discuss the cities, anti status quo legacy. and how that to the what many consider to be euro unapologetically rebel capital. aah! how much denmark knows berlin well, he studied here and parties here drink what many would say was it katie, in the 1990 s. and now in urban planner, you've seen the city change over the years. so this is your vision for 2079, exactly berlin and on book, so that both the city itself, but also for the entire region focusing on sustainable development. he's looking ahead and how to manage a city. it's constantly evolving. what fascinating effect after the fall off the wall. the city was like an open playground. there was so many empty buildings that haven't been used before. and that attractive and flow of creative people and that occupied the space of at the same time, there was of course, also a boom expect investment for there was a lot of buying of property. and trying to figure out who actually own something at the time. because even that was unclear on that period, but that economic boom that everybody expected barely enough the portal to eastern europe and so on. that just didn't happen because it attracted artists to stake people. you know, your community is the best clubs and all that. and it became off of the, the night life center here, just because the boom didn't happen. so it was a different boom that happened. and i think that made the for the very interesting, even though that was not planned, it just happened to me because it's organic. we are plan of theory. i'll plan those yet at the same time. that's exactly what you want to know in an exciting place. with freedom. the freedom over decades is attracted artists, musicians, party people, creative thinker. berlin became known as a hub for street art and expression. the interesting thing, it was like a big place in the 90s. you had a nice building. she had huge industrial sites that you could work on without problems. so i think there's a lot of few that get attracted by the freedom in the ninety's. also graffiti writers and then 2000 the freedom of the street artist is also they travel a lot and they leave their traces behind in every city. so like space invaders from friends, he left pieces here starting in 2003 or banks. he was here to he left pieces also here a little wraps. so many artist came here for that. the street artist passing by so it street our tourism, or graffiti tourism because the graffiti right is new. it's easy here, more easy to find space, maybe less police present, right, less control is berlin. still attracting artists to come here in the same way that it is before. i think now the artist that they get aware that the rents are higher . so maybe there's some less coming, but it's still attractive because it still has turner to have places, maybe an inspiring vibe or something like that. and amazing spaces, ah, ah, increasing rents, and then i can. housing is an issue facing berlin. we put that to thomas. after the fall of the rule, the reputation berlin was that you could come, anyone could come here and live very cheaply, do whatever they wanted. but that seems to be changing now. 30 years later that changed to changing 1st of all, a tough book a longer. so the boom that initially didn't happen, happened later and delayed for some european larger companies put their headquarters amberlynn moved here from frankford or even from london. they recently, of course, over the breakfast play the throne. but maybe, you know, interestingly, is that to be freedom and creativity was so interesting that that became an attractive by its own company. if people thought out that environment, even if maybe they themselves weren't artists, they want to be close to them. you know, thought that were the 1st pioneers and then a bit more mainstream followed. and let's not forget that also all these great people, they just got older for their part it a bit less merry than married. suddenly they have children, maybe they even start at the company and now on the record label, what not, but it has become, are, we are business. and we see that happening now. is there a backlash to that? because berlin seems to be a city that if we're generalize or against rules, they don't want more expensive rents. gentrification seems to get a lot of push back here at thoughtful, fascinating because it seems there are 2 parallel processes going on. on the one hand, there's the people here at the cause, instead of always being in the neighbourhood and off enough of what's happening, they might even ask, what are these creative people doing here? and why is my rent suddenly much more expensive? i don't want any of that. and then on could say that recently it's observable that there's almost a paolo world emerging on power system of international capital coming in the apartment paid by the company. whatever doesn't matter, let's just go for it. and so there's a huge gap between these 2 systems, and that indeed leads to a backlash and to conflict at the moment. and we see that we see that, especially in courts, that if they have the fans to help opening the window get smashed regularly. not because of a particular hate against that store, but just to, you know, to try to them from the curve if you want your not to keep the speculation and the tech to repeat down. but that, of course, can't be the solution either. berlin has a very unique history with a wall east, west germany, and in general, how do you see that in berlin? how do you still see that today? you can see it if you know what to look for, for i think it depends very much. if you are from here, and maybe even though intuitively, you can also see it even and the light of the bulk of the 3 lamp on the pattern of the sidewalk, whether you are in the east, on the west. also importantly, there is a kind of heritage which is more under fire t i'm not much in the built environment so that they are still thing for clichy, if which are typically eve, typically west. but maybe if you're new, come to the city, you don't notice them and that's possibly a good thing. you know that the difference was disappear. ah, it's been over 30 years since the fall of the war i wanted to understand. does east and west remain an issue? today's patrice buddha, bella is berliner specifically west berlin and t. v. presenter. how would you describe yourself these days? berliner does east and west all matter to you. to me it actually does, but just i barely because like some people don't even know sometimes kind of i feel offended in ways when sometimes i'm travelling wrong with people and they ask me, so is this the east? and i'm wondering why would they think it's the eas, although that we are in the west. so. busy because they are not really so familiar because so many things have been billed or renovated within the last few decades. so of course i understand it's really hard to tell. um you have some street signs which still indicates in which pods you are it's. it's very diverse, but also a very chaotic and berlin. of course, it's not what it used to be like in the eighty's, which is not a bad thing, but we have to figure out if it's a good thing ah you them when the walk in. yeah. that was exciting. the thing is actually the open. i actually live back in and back in the days like in 89 i used to live in vetting, which was quite the area were born almost hoss when walk handouts was really right upon your neighborhood. yet it wasn't enable in the west and, and of course it was shocking to a certain point i in, i already kind of felt like, well, i don't know if this turns out. well, it did turn well in some ways. but having after so many decades, still kind of an issue between an east and west. some not really talked about if you just go off with all these political cur, currently, for instance, you see that there's quite a gap between what people in the western part of germany are voting and some of what people in the, in the eastern part of, or for so you can really tell that they're still kind of here for interesting. some people say that there's actually become more of a divide recently that the debate about the differences in eastern west has increase. and that it's important to recognize other people would say that with time, this thing should have, should have lessened by now. well, as i said, for my generation that you somewhere something that's still an issue, it isn't going to remain an issue. no, it's, it's got to become something which is a global issue. it's gotta be with re max up and down. it's going to be between like, wealthy and, and, and that's not fair with . sabina grew up in east germany for her divisions and challenges remain when it comes to east and west. she shows us a picture of her 1st ever trip to the west, and once the war came down, she's written a book about the generation that grew up under those changes and challenges her generation. the history always ended in 1989 with the people dancing on the wall and everyone is happy and then sort of unification. germany boom, a powerful country and that. but for us like the east germans, the 90s were still completely different than for the west. germans for the west, germans, everything continued as normal, and their country just gotten a bit bigger. they had maybe more but unities to buy property or get new jobs. but for us, like everything was upside down. one of the issues these days still that you feel people have issues with being from east germany having been from east germany and do people still talk in the form of houston last? yeah, totally. i would say even more than ever. and i notice it in myself, i never, i never wanted to be an east german. i just wanted to be german. the meaning of the word has changed and because you get stereotyped so much higher is germany, is german. so you do that where your parents at this darzy like at the scene for police saw and did you have enough to eat or all these sort of stereotypes from the, from the ninety's have changed. they're not, they're, they're not so crude any more. the stereotype says that a little bit more elaborate, maybe i would say like, um, you're always in a position to explain yourself and to justify yourself. because me because you're from these as a pre bob. dr. martin, i was long credit on the phone for a minute. i'm listening to a bunch of surgeons with what happened here just over 30 years ago. this is significant americans. exactly. so people were rushing to the border crossings like was in berlin like what this was. this was one of them, and they were just standing there sort of quietly and demanding to be led through because as press conference, they said it now. yeah. and it's now is yeah, as immediately like god. so they were waiting, waiting, and inside to the authorities to policeman the soldiers. they were like super nervous and not really knowing what was going on or what, what they should do. and they couldn't reach any of the bosses. so like around 930, i think they made this decision by themselves more or less to open the bridge and then people were yeah, flooding over into the western district off of wedding. so i still start to cry. i think, you know, i don't know, it's like, it's like a really big event and i'm really happy about that. that happened. and that was part of my my time. so to say the people made this happen, you know, peacefully like, not a single shot was fired. it was a big thing. you know, for a german person, we didn't have so many peaceful revolutions or so it's a source of pride and happiness that day. and i remember my parents being very excited of the so called light, not the unification, but like something different. and i know it was a minority, like people in the info did for the safety, the deutsche mark the unification. but not everyone was like that. and yet i was of course then sad wonder and there was this election in march. it was decided that there would be a relatively quick unification. not as quick as it then happened to her that her brutal. yeah, it felt like i felt like a brutal stop because then suddenly it was like clear that just everything would be taken over from the, from, from west germany and nothing from the judea was kept. and then with an idea 1990, basically everything changed. you know, even basic things like when the, when the dodge mach arrives, everything the supermarkets change, you can find any, any product from the past any more. and not that one love this old product so, so much. but it was like a sort of like everything that was home suddenly changed. and in my school the teachers disappeared because there were this darzy checkups and suddenly awhile and knowing that i have a legacy remain strong. yeah. the sadie legacy, even after 30 years her remains very strong. now, you know, even now it is, it is also being being used to drive our competitors. one could say, i mean and why? well, if you are an east german and you are like, want to have like a powerful position or so you being checked, you know, there's a whole sort of chain of, for journalists who just sort of ask for files if there's anything you know, and the study on this ozzy file on the south, the fall authority, and if there's anything or is already enough to have like go to cast a doubt. you know that you were sort of like a super mater also. and then your, your, your career can be ruined. i mean, so many people's careers have been burned in the ninety's, and i'm not, i'm not sort of justifying what the stars did. i mean, not at all. i mean, people who were and foremost, and tom or the people of cause they shouldn't be in a public position. so, so, but it was also completely mean the whole system this darzy and farmers weren't the bad guy in, not just single hourly. the bad guys, i mean, who were the people behind them? i mean, in the party or so, and the whole um, the whole functionary elite and they were in prosecutor. but if you were unlucky enough to had, like sort of in your eighty's when you were 20, a couple of chats with the wrong person, this could term destroy your career now. so here what you want your children, i suppose when they're older, to remember, and to take away from this and maybe cheat, teach their children. this is a diverse generation. i think we're, the east west conflict won't be so prevalent anymore. i mean, when i was growing up, they thought that in my generation it wouldn't be a topic anymore, but that was wrong. that takes much, much longer. but i want them to know, you know, that already now in kindergarten it says a little bit that they get this. yeah. are the sort of east germany, the g d. i was this sort of prison stayed basically the life was horrible. and i, i just want them to differentiate child between the state and the private lives. and um, just sort of tell them that g o, it was slight, much more complicated on the day to day on a day to day basis. and that it's also something to be, to be proud of this sort of democratic legacy. do think your children will be affected still by the east west narrative. i think it will still be there for them, but already now i see like people who are like young legs sort of like 30, maybe that for them. it's on such an emotional thing anymore. it's not sort of, they don't have this feeling to justify certain things. so or 2, they don't have to. so this heard maybe an emotional legacy takes more than the pulling down of a room to heal. but berlin is moving forward. how did the demolition of the wall affect the infrastructure and the development of the city? let's say from, from then until now to where we are now. much of it actually has been become an opportunity for development of holding which at the moment of awful folly needed. this is also a question of justification again, because these new buildings are very comparatively expensive. and that also means, again, influx off, new comers, so can afford the apartments to buy to own brothers actually also beautiful apartments here, or building a completely different rent level. and all these words are flashing. and that's why i see the gravity here, you know, so look at that, that may be also just tagging, right? but also a statement of lead us as soon as the facade is newly painted. put the gravity on top because i might keep the ramp down a bit longer. now let's, let's resist a bit. and the resistance against the occasion is now everywhere on the 15th, where the influx of money meets all its in growing communities for. that's the same case. and for the fine, which was east coast back, which is west. i'm so that the way for you to read this again against the change on the money but, but again, i want to also say that in principle, this is not a bad thing because of course we want the 50 to become nice. so we want you talk to be finance, the city wants to collect more taxes to maybe build more public transport. so all the things in principle are good. but what needs to happen that the citizens in this neighborhood sub protect us from the negative effects of that so that they do not get pushed out, or that they can still post it if possible, to balance that. and i think that needs a careful balance between yes it's free markets building your partner and also for the people are more money. why not? but at the same time, the people who have always been here to, to balance that and also to regulate that the change of at least don't happen too quickly and that no one is left behind. i think that's the important thing. you spent a lot of your life here. us university here. you party. you went into the scott syria saying re now you're helping plan the city. moving ahead. like how do you feel about the changes in where the city is today? and in general, i feel good about it because yeah, i have enough out your tool and i miss some of the old pioneer dentist. open creativity and and therefore the ability also. but at the same time, look, i don't know, we have a much better choice of rest. very much more international. we hear all kinds of language. and i think, and i hope that that makes the city just richer. why not? less than 2000000 stuff as long as i don't i still van, you know, it's just their space for both. i think. i think for me i in pakistan just teaching climate change in water shortages. a driving some residents to desperate measures one. 0, one east. me the waters of corruption on l 0. aah. ready talks amid tension spiraling over the ukraine, the u. s. and russia officials are due to meet in the coming out. ah, i'm wrong on this. ok, 0 life. and also coming up authorities in kazakhstan as a 164 people were killed and thousands were arrested in days of anti government protests. this is a horrific of riff.
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