"It was like getting a letter from myself, but with a different life."

The extraordinary story of  The twins bought up on either side of the Iron Curtain...but who lived identical lives.

And the similarities between the two sisters continue to amaze them. "As children, we both loved art and painting, chose the same subjects at school and both went into the same career, event management, which unites our creative and practical sides. And we each had our first children, both daughters, when we were 19," says Conny.

"We both married young, at 18 and 19, I think because we were so desperate for closeness with someone. But funnily enough, since we found each other, we've both got divorced from the men we married as teenagers.

"We're both now living happily with new partners instead and have had younger children with them.

"I've got three children, aged 20, 17 and eight, and Ulrike has four, aged 20, 16, six and two. We even both like the same colour schemes in our houses and often meet up wearing the same or near-identical outfits.

"We've had the same hairstyle as each other - long hair - all our adult lives and wear the same make-up.

They were separated by the East German state policy that twins have no right to stay together even if one of the adoptive family wanted to take them both.  The other family had no idea they were getting a twin.

The twins feel an unrelenting fury at the communist apparatus that separated them, but have been unable to find an individual to hold responsible.

"It's so obviously wrong, unethical and immoral to separate two babies who were meant to be together. We're identical twins - why split us up, especially when people wanted to adopt both of us?" says Conny.

"We both feel so much anger at the system that kept us apart for so long. But since we found each other, we're so full of joy that the idea of trying to take any sort of action against the adoption agency seems a negative way to spend our precious time.