On a freezing evening in Berlin, Ewan McDonald walks among the ghosts of those who paid the ultimate price for a new life.

German neo-Nazis are suspected of being behind threats to 'behead' a conservative politician for continuing to back a controversial refugee housing project.

They turned out in impressive numbers - hundreds of thousands at least - to celebrate the fall of the Berlin Wall 25 years ago.

As Berliners watch 8000 balloons being released into the night sky this morning (NZT), old divisions between East and West will symbolically vanish into thin air with them.

Margot Woelk was one of 15 young women forced to work at Adolf Hitler's Wolf's Lair headquarters as a food taster.