WEBVTT 00:00:04.940 --> 00:00:29.399 align:middle line:84% I was 11 years old when my parents and me fled from the GDR. They could not tell me that we were going to run away, otherwise I would have told my playmate and then we would have been imprisoned, because that was a crime in the GDR until 1989. 00:00:29.399 --> 00:00:38.979 align:middle line:84% They could not tell me that we were going to run away, otherwise I would have told my playmate and then we would have been imprisoned, because that was a crime in the GDR until 1989. 00:00:38.979 --> 00:00:51.060 align:middle line:84% So one morning my parents took me and my brother, drove to Potsdam by car and took the S-Bahn there because you could not drive to East Berlin by car at that time in 1958. There was no wall so far, they build them in 1961. 00:00:51.060 --> 00:00:56.359 align:middle line:84% We drove across Berlin, in Berlin-Charlottenburg, today's West Berlin, that’s when we got out. 00:00:56.359 --> 00:01:08.159 align:middle line:84% My parents then said we would stay here now. I asked how long and they said forever - at that moment my childhood was over. 00:01:08.159 --> 00:01:21.280 align:middle line:84% My friends, my toys, my environment - everything gone. In Salzwedel I felt like I belonged because I was one of them. And that was all gone. That struck me badly. 00:01:21.280 --> 00:01:34.980 align:middle line:84% Then we lived in a refugee home and at some point were flown to Hamburg, we could not do that by foot because we were republic refugees. 00:01:34.980 --> 00:01:39.840 align:middle line:84% We went to Hamburg and then to Lüneburg because my mother had relatives there. 00:01:39.840 --> 00:01:53.120 align:middle line:84% I was put to school alongside some classmate who asked me where I came from. 00:01:53.120 --> 00:01:57.680 align:middle line:84% I told him I’m from the Soviet zone of occupation, that's how they called it back then. 00:01:57.680 --> 00:02:01.959 align:middle line:84% He did not know that though and asked me if I was a Russian. 00:02:01.959 --> 00:02:10.199 align:middle line:84% Because of the Russians we had fled and in the afternoon when I came home I told my mother I would no longer be going to school because the others think I'm Russian. 00:02:10.199 --> 00:02:14.180 align:middle line:84% That was very hard to integrate. Sports worked best for me. 00:02:14.180 --> 00:02:19.939 align:middle line:84% I was a good athlete and it’s where I got recognition. Football, athletics - that's where I found my way around. 00:02:19.939 --> 00:02:27.460 align:middle line:84% Consequently, I did not always feel like doing my homework. But in the afternoon on the sports field I felt well received, which I missed otherwise. 00:02:27.460 --> 00:02:34.379 align:middle line:84% From then on, I always read the newspapers as an 11-year-old - what about the GDR and why is there even a border? 00:02:34.379 --> 00:02:44.400 align:middle line:84% Salzwedel is close to the border - why could not the border have been pulled further east? Then we would not have had to fly. 00:02:44.400 --> 00:02:49.259 align:middle line:84% So I knew the London Protocol – how the Allies staked their claims and why it was that way. 00:02:49.259 --> 00:03:07.979 align:middle line:84% 1964 I read in the paper and heard on the radio that all republic refugees who fled before 1961 (so including us) are exempt from the penalty and can visit the GDR. 00:03:07.979 --> 00:03:10.800 align:middle line:84% Of course I told my parents: Now we're driving over, I want to go to my childhood home! 00:03:10.800 --> 00:03:20.659 align:middle line:84% My parents said: “No way, as soon we arrive they will keep us there." They could not believe it. 00:03:20.659 --> 00:03:38.039 align:middle line:84% But I wanted to go - so all the formalities were done - my parents had then put me on the train and said that I am 17 years old and they had grown sick of my complaints. 00:03:38.039 --> 00:03:43.639 align:middle line:84% But in case I should be arrested and kept there, they would not get me out. That was my decision. 00:03:43.639 --> 00:04:02.219 align:middle line:84% Then I drove over and when I was standing at the border station, I saw the People's Police with their Kalashnikovs and their dogs and though now everything is over - I'll be locked up. 00:04:02.219 --> 00:04:19.620 align:middle line:84% From then on, I always drove to Salzwedel with my friends and continued to pursue my childhood, and my friends were happy that I visited them. 00:04:19.620 --> 00:04:31.100 align:middle line:84% And that lost childhood, which I tried to find there, also made me compare how things were in the GDR and how things went in the West. 00:04:31.100 --> 00:04:40.839 align:middle line:84% Even today, one half my heart Is in Salzwedel, the other here in Lüneburg. 00:04:40.839 --> 00:04:49.819 align:middle line:84% I was also constantly informed by my friends who trusted me and told me how it was there. 00:04:49.819 --> 00:04:54.540 align:middle line:84% There were also some friends who fled in the meantime leaving their wives behind. 00:04:54.540 --> 00:05:07.959 align:middle line:84% I was asked by the wife of a friend to tell him the letters she was sending were controlled by the GDR and he should not believe her requests to return. 00:05:07.959 --> 00:05:15.540 align:middle line:84% If that had come out, I would have been punished. 00:05:15.540 --> 00:05:24.459 align:middle line:84% Accordingly, the joy was very great that the wall had fallen. 00:05:24.459 --> 00:05:26.959 align:middle line:84% The fall of the Berlin Wall happened to me like this: 00:05:26.959 --> 00:05:40.959 align:middle line:84% It was a Thursday: I was at sports - and at my home was the daughter of the friend I was talking about. 00:05:40.959 --> 00:05:51.439 align:middle line:84% She was 20 years old then and she had fled to see her grandparents in the West and stayed with me. 00:05:51.439 --> 00:06:09.560 align:middle line:84% She had fled In October 1989 with the knowledge that she would not be seeing her parents for 30 years. 00:06:09.560 --> 00:06:22.980 align:middle line:84% When I came back from sports at 10 pm she was sitting in front of the TV and said "Look - the wall is open." 00:06:22.980 --> 00:06:33.000 align:middle line:84% We sat in front of the TV and cried just like the people who walked through the wall. 00:06:33.000 --> 00:06:44.939 align:middle line:84% And on Saturday her parents returned from Salzwedel with baumkuchen. It was all over. 00:06:44.939 --> 00:06:50.240 align:middle line:84% No waiting for 30 years - It was all over. 00:06:50.240 --> 00:06:56.199 align:middle line:84% I would like to say something about the German policy: 00:06:56.199 --> 00:07:02.920 align:middle line:84% There I have a very special opinion against the background of my biography. 00:07:02.920 --> 00:07:10.279 align:middle line:84% Many people say that the GDR has cost us too much money and that the East Germans are all lazy and always lamenting. 00:07:10.279 --> 00:07:22.959 align:middle line:84% I see it differently - the GDR population has fought for democracy in a favorable moment. They fought for their freedom. 00:07:22.959 --> 00:07:27.079 align:middle line:84% They should have much more confidence than they have. 00:07:27.079 --> 00:07:46.300 align:middle line:84% Us West Germans just received democracy as a gift - a nice gift. 00:07:46.300 --> 00:07:52.879 align:middle line:84% Today you can say: Preserve your gift and look to the left and right...there are dangers, especially from the right. 00:07:52.879 --> 00:08:03.199 align:middle line:84% The East Germans fought for their democracy, they took to the streets, were imprisoned and tortured even and yet they prevailed. 00:08:03.199 --> 00:08:05.399 align:middle line:84% My second point: 00:08:05.399 --> 00:08:09.680 align:middle line:84% Economically the GDR lost the war alone. 00:08:09.680 --> 00:08:15.860 align:middle line:84% Us West Germans got the Marshall Plan - we received capital aid because the Americans had their own agenda in mind. 00:08:15.860 --> 00:08:21.759 align:middle line:84% We were able to rebuild the country while East Germans did not receive this aid. 00:08:21.759 --> 00:08:28.540 align:middle line:84% On the contrary, the Russians took away a lot of money for machines and reparations. 00:08:28.540 --> 00:08:36.639 align:middle line:84% They took high quality industrial products from the GDR and sold them way under world market price. 00:08:36.639 --> 00:08:43.279 align:middle line:84% And when they sold oil to the GDR they took a lot of money. 00:08:43.279 --> 00:08:53.600 align:middle line:84% The East Germans have paid alone until 1989. 00:08:53.600 --> 00:09:02.299 align:middle line:84% So a solidarity surcharge is justified and if the people complain, then that is unfounded. 00:09:02.299 --> 00:09:08.779 align:middle line:84% That is what we owe them. That us what we Germans owe each other. 00:09:08.779 --> 00:09:14.179 align:middle line:84% Since people always complain why we have to pay for them - that’s why. 00:09:14.179 --> 00:09:26.759 align:middle line:84% Because we lost the war together but they paid the price alone. 00:09:26.759 --> 00:09:33.980 align:middle line:84% How do you perceive populist movements and xenophobia? 00:09:33.980 --> 00:09:51.519 align:middle line:84% In 2010 I stopped working and in 2016 I came back to school to teach refugees. The teachers needed someone who knew about computers. 00:09:51.519 --> 00:10:03.759 align:middle line:84% And there I once again became aware of the fact that they had fled not because they had bad intentions here but because they were miserable back home. 00:10:03.759 --> 00:10:15.460 align:middle line:84% I listened to the refugee stories and remembered that I too have a refugee history and that I had also come here feeling strange, but I spoke German and came from Central European culture. 00:10:15.460 --> 00:10:23.659 align:middle line:84% The refugees there come from Syria, from Afghanistan, from a completely different culture. 00:10:23.659 --> 00:10:27.179 align:middle line:84% It must be a hundred times worse for them. 00:10:27.179 --> 00:10:40.299 align:middle line:84% Considering this I would like to talk to an AFD voter and tell him, "Do you know how it is when you have to flee? I know that, but that's only 2% of what the refugees had to go through." 00:10:40.299 --> 00:10:48.120 align:middle line:84% But I can empathise with the refugees. 00:10:48.120 --> 00:10:57.259 align:middle line:84% And I am afraid when I think of the image the AFD party has of mankind, that must never gain power. 00:10:57.259 --> 00:11:06.539 align:middle line:84% From my point of view, the 5% democratic diversity can exist, but they never should have anything to say in our country. 00:11:06.539 --> 00:11:12.440 align:middle line:84% We saw what came out after the Second World War - the German division. 00:11:12.440 --> 00:11:16.860 align:middle line:84% Do you have any other wishes for Germany or the state? 00:11:16.860 --> 00:11:21.860 align:middle line:84% I have the wish that capitalism won’t continue to cause so much damage to our society. 00:11:21.860 --> 00:11:24.820 align:middle line:84% The distribution is not fair. 00:11:24.820 --> 00:11:30.259 align:middle line:84% Why does a CEO at VW earn 250 times more than a worker on the assembly line? 00:11:30.259 --> 00:11:32.919 align:middle line:84% It would be enough if he earned 10 times more. Differences like that. 00:11:32.919 --> 00:11:42.059 align:middle line:84% Why is it possible for a company like BMW to sell us diesel cars and not be held accountable? 00:11:42.059 --> 00:11:47.059 align:middle line:84% I wish for more justice in the market economy, for people to be able to pay their dwellings, for companies that carry on a capitalism such as the auto industry to be held accountable.