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SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 21, 2009
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NEWS ABOUT: East Germany

East Germany stories: 22 news summaries

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SLIDESHOW


 Germany Celebrates 
 Fall of the Wall  

Twenty years later, unified country celebrates togetherness

Nov 9, 09 5:51 PM CST
(Newser) - Fireworks illuminated the rainy skies above Berlin as Germans and high-profile visitors came together today to commemorate the fall of the Berlin Wall exactly 20 years ago. President Obama unexpectedly joined the festivities—in a video greeting introduced by Hillary Clinton. "There could be no clearer rebuke of tyranny,... More »

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Hillary Clinton • communism • Angela Merkel • Berlin • East Germany • Berlin Wall • Communism • West Germany • Iron Curtain • President Obama

opinion

 Post-1989 Germany 
 an Unexpected Success 

Successes in Europe would boggle a 1989 mind: Applebaum

Nov 9, 09 12:42 PM CST
(Newser) - As “the exhaustive and perfectly blameless celebrations” of the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall unfold, Anne Applebaum has a bone to pick. The festivities are “focusing on what didn’t happen rather than what did,” she writes, treating “the past two decades... More »

MORE ABOUT:
Angela Merkel • Eastern Europe • democracy • Soviet Union • East Germany • Berlin Wall • Communism • Central Europe

party like it's 1989

 Germany Hails 
 Anniversary of  
 Berlin Wall's Fall  

Dominoes, fireworks, music help mark 20 years

Nov 9, 09 8:54 AM CST
(Newser) - Hundreds of foam dominoes will fall today in Berlin, symbolizing the collapse of Communism in Eastern Europe on the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. Chancellor Angela Merkel, who has called Nov. 9, 1989, "the happiest day in recent German history," will lead the festivities.... More »

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Hillary Clinton • Angela Merkel • Germany • Eastern Europe • Berlin • Nicolas Sarkozy • Gordon Brown • East Germany • Berlin Wall • Communism • West Germany • Lech Walesa • Brandenburg Gate

 Domino Wall 
 to Fall on Berlin 
 Anniversary 

'Domino-Aktion' to mark 20 years since Berlin Wall toppled

Oct 15, 09 3:31 AM CDT
(Newser) - Twenty years after a domino effect of resistance toppled Communist regimes across Europe and brought down the Berlin Wall, the Germans are trying it again with actual dominoes. Volunteers have crafted almost 1,000 8-foot-tall Styrofoam dominoes and plan to assemble them along the path of the old Wall through... More »

MORE ABOUT:
Germany • Berlin • East Germany • Berlin Wall • Communism

 Thatcher Urged 
 Gorbachev to Block 
 German Reunification 

British leader warned Soviets that the change would endanger security

Sep 11, 09 2:06 AM CDT
(Newser) - Margaret Thatcher called on Mikhail Gorbachev to halt German reunification months before the Berlin Wall came down, newly unearthed Kremlin documents reveal. Thatcher—telling the Soviet leader he should disregard NATO pronouncements on the issue—said the breakdown of the Warsaw Pact wasn't in the interests of the West, the... More »

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Soviet Union • Mikhail Gorbachev • Margaret Thatcher • East Germany • Berlin Wall • Communism • West Germany • reunification

OPINION

 Beck Dons 
 GDR Getup: 
Too Timid to 
 Do Nazi?

Host scales new heights of stupidity for cover of Arguing With Idiots

Sep 5, 09 6:20 AM CDT
(Newser) - Glenn Beck's decision to don an old East German army uniform for the cover of his latest book is as ridiculous as the paranoid rantings that no doubt lie within, Silbey writes at the Edge of the American West. It's not clear what statement Beck's trying to make, Silbey notes,... More »

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talk show • East Germany • Glenn Beck • book • Pat Buchanan

(Newser) - Pre-race World Championship blood tests on super South African runner Caster Semenya revealed testosterone levels three times typical female rates, a source tells the Telegraph. The results of the tests, carried out in South Africa, contributed to a decision by sports officials to call for "gender verification" tests on... More »

MORE ABOUT:
gender • Berlin • South Africa • testosterone • anabolic steroids • East Germany • World Championships • blood tests • gold medal • gold medalist • gender confusion • women athletes • Caster Semenya • gender test

Hungary Fetes 1989 'Picnic' That Led to Fall of Berlin Wall

Provided escape from Communism for East Germans

Aug 19, 09 1:14 PM CDT
(Newser) - Hungary is celebrating the 20th anniversary today of its “Pan-European Picnic”: the day it opened its border with Austria, providing a pathway for hundreds of East Germans to exit Europe’s communist east. “The Soviet bloc was like an air balloon with over-pressure so it needed only a... More »

MORE ABOUT:
communism • Angela Merkel • Eastern Europe • Hungary • Western Europe • East Germany • Berlin Wall

(Newser) - After many years of indifference, Berliners have started getting serious about saving what's left of the most famous symbol of the Cold War, Der Spiegel reports. When the Berlin Wall fell in 1989, locals viewed it as merely an unfortunate reminder of  a bad past and little thought was given... More »

MORE ABOUT:
Germany • Berlin • Cold War • East Germany • Berlin Wall • West Germany • reunification

Poll: Half of East Germans Positive on Communism

Nostalgic Germans believe life was better before the Berlin Wall came down

Jul 4, 09 7:20 AM CDT
(Newser) - They may not be pining for the Stasi or the Trabant, but half of people recently polled in the former East Germany are thinking, in hindsight, that Communism wasn't so bad after all, Der Speigel reports. Nearly 20 years after the Berlin Wall came down, the poll finds  that 49% ... More »

MORE ABOUT:
Germany • capitalism • East Germany • Communism • reunification

(Newser) - Angela Merkel got behind Barack Obama’s Middle East peace push today, calling his Cairo speech the “ideal basis” for renewed efforts. Obama called for “difficult compromises,” adding, “The United States cannot force peace upon the parties.” The two leaders met and spoke at a... More »

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Barack Obama • Middle East • Angela Merkel • Germany • Guantanamo Bay • Israel and Palestinians • East Germany • Dresden

 Lightning-Rod W. German Cop 
 Unmasked as Stasi Spy 

Revelation likened to discovering Kent State shooters were KGB agents

May 27, 09 8:17 AM CDT
(Newser) - The West German cop whose shooting of an unarmed protester in 1967 changed the country forever has been unmasked as an East German spy by historians going through Stasi files, the New York Times reports. The shooting sparked a wide, sometimes violent left-wing protest movement many believe spawned Germany's current... More »

MORE ABOUT:
Germany • Germans • East Germany • Stasi • West Germany • spies

German Tempers Heat Up Over Cold War Tourist Traps

'Snackpoint Charlie,' actors in military uniforms labeled disrespectful to dead

May 20, 09 9:51 AM CDT
(Newser) - The Disneyfication of Cold War landmarks in Berlin has irked people with bad memories of East Germany, the Independent reports. Critics, including former Allied officers and those who suffered under oppressive rule, argue that the atmosphere around places like Checkpoint Charlie—where actors in military uniforms hustle tourists for coins... More »

MORE ABOUT:
Germany • Berlin • East Germany • Berlin Wall • Communism • West Germany • checkpoints

 Berlin Pols Target 
 'Disneyland' Soldiers 

They're turning serious monument into 'Disneyland:' officials

Apr 15, 09 4:41 PM CDT
(Newser) - German politicians want the fake Cold War soldiers who pose near Berlin’s Brandenburg Gate gone, because they’re turning a somber symbol of the nation’s unification into “Disneyland,” Der Spiegel reports. The performers don American, East German, and Soviet military gear and snap photos with tourists... More »

MORE ABOUT:
Germany • tourism • Berlin • Cold War • East Germany • Brandenburg Gate

German Cops Raid Neo-Nazi Houses

Cops seize banned music as anti-Semitic violence rises

Mar 4, 09 2:10 PM CST
(Newser) - German police are searching houses nationwide for neo-Nazi propaganda that may be fueling anti-Semitic crimes, Reuters reports. The probe of 200 houses and businesses belonging to Germany's extreme right comes as extremism increases in East Germany, the country's poorer half. "The primary aim is to seize and confiscate prohibited... More »

MORE ABOUT:
Germany • Holocaust • extremists • radicals • East Germany • Neo-Nazi • anti-Semitism

Analysis

 Germany Is Crux of Russia Talks

Merkel could be valuable go-between

Aug 25, 08 10:05 AM CDT
(Newser) - A fretful Eastern Europe is hoping Germany can play a key diplomatic role in its stare-down with Russia, the New York Times reports. Until recently, relations between Moscow and Berlin were too cozy for the Caucasus’ tastes, but East German-born Angela Merkel has distanced herself from Russia just enough... More »

MORE ABOUT:
Russia • Angela Merkel • Germany • Vladimir Putin • Georgia • East Germany • Dmitry Medvedev • Gerhard Schröder • Chancellor of Germany

Germany Revives Schools
to Turn Out  Olympians

Return to East German model to restore Olympic glory

Aug 2, 08 9:10 AM CDT
(Newser) - Concerned over its sixth-place overall finish in the Athens Olympics, Germany is taking steps to centralize its athletic training program in a move reminiscent of the notorious East German training machine, the Wall Street Journal reports. In a country where membership in local sports clubs is the norm for athletes,... More »

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sports • Germany • training • East Germany • Olympic athletes • Olympics

 Verdi, Naked and Anti-American 

Austrian Marxist uses opera to slam US capitalism

Apr 12, 08 6:51 AM CDT
(Newser) - A German staging of Verdi’s “A Masked Ball” leaves Uncle Sam wearing little but a mask, Der Spiegel reports. In a rebuke of US capitalism, the production parades naked retirees on a set of the World Trade Center's ruins, and offers a female singer with a Hitler mustache... More »

MORE ABOUT:
theater • Germany • Marxism • opera • East Germany • anti-Americanism • Erfurt • Johann Kresnik • Giuseppe Verdi

Berlin Journos Say They Were Stasi Spies

Two top Zeitung editors admit informing for
East German police

Apr 3, 08 3:07 PM CDT
(Newser) - Two top journalists for a Berlin paper have admitted they worked as informants for the Stasi, East Germany’s secret police, prompting an investigation of the paper’s editorial staff, the Guardian reports. Berliner Zeitung’s top editor ordered an inquiry after a senior stafffer was identified as a 1970s... More »

MORE ABOUT:
spy • East Germany • Stasi • Berliner Zeitung

Giant Bunnies Hit Silver Screen

Doc details how N. Korean officials devoured monster rabbits meant for poor

Feb 18, 08 12:10 PM CST
(Newser) - Giant bunnies overran the 2008 Berlin Film Festival, reports Der Spiegel—in the form of a 5-minute documentary on the international intrigue that ensued when a German rabbit breeder sent a dozen of his 20-pounders to North Korea to be bred to help alleviate hunger. Instead, they met a tragic... More »

MORE ABOUT:
North Korea • rabbits • giant rabbits • East Germany • Kim Jong Il • Berlin Film Festival • Johan Onah • Karl Szmolinsky • Berlinale

1 - 20 of 22 Stories | 1 2 Next >>


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