East Germany – News Stories About East Germany - Page 2

Berlin Pols Target
'Disneyland' Soldiers

Apr 15, 2009 4:41 PM CDT

Berlin Pols Target 'Disneyland' Soldiers

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

(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...

German Cops Raid Neo-Nazi Houses

Mar 4, 2009 2:10 PM CST

German Cops Raid Neo-Nazi Houses

Cops seize banned music as anti-Semitic violence rises

(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...

Germany Is Crux of Russia Talks

Analysis

Aug 25, 2008 10:05 AM CDT

Germany Is Crux of Russia Talks

Merkel could be valuable go-between

(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 to...

Germany Revives Schools
to Turn Out Olympians

Aug 2, 2008 9:10 AM CDT

Germany Revives Schools to Turn Out Olympians

Return to East German model to restore Olympic glory

(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,...

Verdi, Naked and Anti-American

Apr 12, 2008 6:51 AM CDT

Verdi, Naked and Anti-American

Austrian Marxist uses opera to slam US capitalism

(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...

Berlin Journos Say They Were Stasi Spies

Apr 3, 2008 3:07 PM CDT

Berlin Journos Say They Were Stasi Spies

Two top Zeitung editors admit informing for East German police

(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...

Giant Bunnies Hit Silver Screen

Feb 18, 2008 12:10 PM CST

Giant Bunnies Hit Silver Screen

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

(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...

Stasi Ordered to Shoot First

Aug 12, 2007 3:08 PM CDT

Stasi Ordered to Shoot First

Defectors stood little chance at Berlin Wall

(Newser) - During the Cold War, East German border police were ordered to shoot all attempted defectors, a newly discovered Stasi document confirms. “Do not hesitate with the use of a firearm, including when the border breakouts involve women and children, which the traitors have already frequently taken advantage of,”...

East German Women Are Heading West

Jun 1, 2007 5:11 PM CDT

East German Women Are Heading West

And Neo-Nazi parties are courting the men left behind

(Newser) - Young, educated women are fleeing eastern Germany—and Neo-Nazi parties are flourishing in the vacuum they leave behind. One-and-a-half million people, two-thirds of them women, have left left the economically stagnant east since the mid-1990s, a new study shows.