In an interview with the German magazine "" in November 2005, Dietrich's daughter and grandson said Dietrich was politically active during these years. She kept in contact with world leaders by telephone, including Ronald Reagan, Mikhail Gorbachev and Margaret Thatcher, running up a monthly bill of over US$3,000. In 1989, her appeal to save the Babelsberg Studios from closure was broadcast on BBC Radio, and she spoke on television via telephone on the occasion of the fall of the Berlin Wall later that year. Also in spring 1990, she spoke on French forces radio station addressing her fellow Berliners in Germany about her then most recent conversation with former French president Mitterrand regarding his promise to her that Berlin will be the capital city of a united Germany later on—at that point in time, a quite appealing but non-official French presidential statement.