Ignorant of democracy but hungry for the West they cannot visit, the 17 million East Germans are a force that could decide the fate of Russia's European Empire. For most of the past decade they have been isolated by the Berlin Wall and a fortified border over 600 miles (965 km) long. Cold War attitudes have been slowest to melt in East Germany but this summer for the first time the German Democratic Republic opened its borders for three weeks to let in a BBC film crew. This is the first full-length report by a British television team on the life of the Germans who live 'Beyond the Wall.'

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