May 22, 2012
The following articles have been tagged with "Gdr":
National: 1 May 12
Swedish furniture giant Ikea is investigating claims that its factories East German political prisoners for labour during the 1970s and 1980s.
READ »
Society: 27 Mar 12
Thousands of survivors of abusive communist East German children's homes are to receive state compensation, after the Interior and Family Ministries announced a new €40 million fund on Monday.
READ »
Society: 29 Feb 12
Piled-up, forgotten and gathering dust, 23,000 artworks from the former East Germany fill a vast warehouse 90 kilometres from Berlin, testimony to an oppressive past. AFP's Yannick Pasquet reports.
READ »
Lifestyle: 14 Feb 12
In the suffocating atmosphere that was East Germany, a whole range of misfits managed to find air to breathe and now, two decades after the Berlin Wall's fall, new films are putting communism's outsiders in focus.
READ »
Politics: 23 Jan 12
East German communist leader Erich Honecker had a difficult marriage with his wife Margot, new intelligence reports reveal, with both partners having affairs.
READ »
Society: 29 Dec 11
As the drinks flow over the days and nights leading up to January 1, spare a thought for the bumper crop of potatoes which introduced northern Germany to large-scale spirit making. Caitlan Carroll looked at what has evolved.
READ »
Lifestyle: 21 Dec 11
There’s more to skiing in Germany than the northernmost bits of the Alps. As the new season begins, The Local introduces some alternative slopes that just might be closer than you think.
READ »
Politics: 19 Oct 11
Manfred Gerlach, who served communist East Germany as its last head of state, has died after a long illness it was reported Wednesday.
READ »
Society: 2 Oct 11
A computer system to put torn shreds of Stasi files back together and reveal what they say should be ready for testing in just a few months.
READ »
Analysis & Opinion: 30 Sep 11
Following the Bundestag’s vote on Thursday to expand the eurozone bailout fund, The Local hit the streets to find out what the average German makes of it all, in the latest instalment of our new Zeitgeist series.
READ »
Society: 5 Aug 11
One week before Germany marks the 50th anniversary of the construction of the Berlin Wall, newly uncovered photos offer an unprecedented glimpse of the communist eastern side looking to the free west.
READ »
Society: 4 Aug 11
As Germany prepares to mark the 50th anniversary of the building of the Berlin Wall, a new exhibition explores the importance of refugee camps for those fleeing communism before the Iron Curtain came down. Erin Huggins reports.
READ »
National: 3 Aug 11
One in five eastern Germans have some sympathy for the communist regime's decision to build the Berlin Wall, according to a new poll, published nearly 50 years after the Cold War barrier was erected.
READ »
Lifestyle: 26 May 11
This week’s highlights: Contemporary design in Berlin, classic cars in Hamburg, and a night of music in Munich.
READ »
Society: 23 May 11
Roland Jahn, the new head of the archive housing the former East German secret police files, wants to shift attention from the Stasi to the rest of the communist dictatorship in an attempt to better understand how it worked.
READ »
National: 6 Apr 11
Fifty years after Adolf Eichmann went on trial in Israel, Germany is still keeping mum on how much it knew before Mossad agents kidnapped the Nazi war criminal in Argentina in 1960, a new Berlin exhibition revealed Wednesday.
READ »
Lifestyle: 3 Mar 11
This week's highlights: Karneval in Cologne, Japanese fashion in Munich, and an art/dance party in Berlin.
READ »
Lifestyle: 24 Feb 11
This week's highlights: Warhol Polaroids in Cologne, pictures of ballerinas in Berlin, and Hercules and Love Affair begin their dance across Germany in Munich.
READ »
Society: 31 Jan 11
Prosperous Bavaria has the highest suicide rate of any German state, a fact that is confounding experts, a Monday media report said.
READ »
Politics: 16 Dec 10
Leading members of the pro-business Free Democratic Party are reportedly considering deposing Guido Westerwelle as party boss and foreign minister to reverse the FDP’s fortunes going into an important election year.
READ »
Politics: 13 Dec 10
A senior Free Democrat has likened his party’s current difficulties to the downfall of communist East Germany, adding another self-inflicted wound to the junior partner in Angela Merkel's centre-right coalition.
READ »
Science & Technology: 29 Oct 10
With the last valid East German patent set to expire this weekend, engineer and prominent inventor Dieter Mosemann looks back on a time when the communist country's economic shortages sparked innovation and creativity.
READ »
Lifestyle: 12 Oct 10
Exberliner, Berlin's leading English-language magazine, in October celebrates Haus Schwarzenberg’s 15th birthday, gets it's 15 minutes of DJing fame, and still has time for coffee and cake in Kreuzkölln.
READ »
National: 2 Oct 10
Ailing former Chancellor Helmut Kohl, regarded as the father of German unity, warned the country again faces daunting hurdles Friday in a rare address to his party to mark 20 years since unification.
READ »
Society: 16 Sep 10
A piece of Cold War history was due to go on sale in Germany on Thursday as Checkpoint Bravo, a major former crossing point between communist East Germany and West Berlin, goes under the hammer.
READ »
Politics: 8 Jun 10
The socialist Left Party has chosen one of its own MPs, former television journalist Lukrezia Jochimsen, to challenge Christian Wulff and Joachim Gauck for Germany’s presidency, media reported Tuesday.
READ »
Sport: 21 May 10
With Germany bidding for their fourth World Cup title in South Africa, defender Philipp Lahm admits there is an air of expectation on Joachim Löw’s side to prove themselves.
READ »
Lifestyle: 13 Apr 10
This month Exberliner, Berlin's leading English-language magazine, gets literary, goes retro and comes up smelling like roses.
READ »
Society: 11 Apr 10
A woman born in the former East Germany is claiming discrimination after discovering the word "Ossi" preceded by a minus sign had been written on a job application rejected by a firm in western Germany. She's going to court.
READ »
National: 1 Apr 10
As the sex abuse scandal within Germany’s Catholic Church continues to unfold, former charges at East German children’s homes have come forward to allege there was widespread abuse in the communist country's state-run institutions.
READ »
Politics: 31 Jan 10
Chancellor Angela Merkel reportedly got poor grades in her obligatory Marxism-Leninism course during her doctoral studies in communist East Germany.
READ »
Sport: 23 Jan 10
Former East German sprinter Gesine Tettenborn has asked the German Athletics Federation to remove her name from Germany's 4x400m relay record after admitting to doping, according to a report.
READ »
Society: 22 Jan 10
“Birth rates at an all-time low!” “The Germans are dying out!” The headlines couldn’t be more alarming, but the statistics behind are more complex. Jacinta Nandi and Ben Knight pick apart Germany’s demographic anxieties.
READ »
Society: 29 Dec 09
A new book showing the huge lengths the East German secret police, the Stasi, went to in order to spy on Nobel Prize-winning author Günter Grass will go on sale in March, its publisher
said Tuesday.
READ »
Politics: 5 Dec 09
Head of the socialist Left party, Lothar Bisky has proposed building a new relationship with the Social Democratic Party (SPD) and even suggested an eventual fusion could be possible.
READ »
Society: 4 Dec 09
Nika Knight from Exberliner magazine visits Germany’s oldest Demeter farm to find out what hides behind the organic label.
READ »
Society: 16 Nov 09
President Horst Köhler awarded Germany’s highest honour, the Federal Cross of Merit, to 12 former East Germans on Monday for standing up to injustices committed by the communist regime.
READ »
National: 6 Nov 09
There’s no question East Germany persecuted its citizens, but have the communist regime’s henchmen been wronged since reunification? David Wroe investigates.
READ »
National: 6 Nov 09
As a public affairs officer for the US Embassy in East Berlin just before the Berlin Wall fell, Peter Claussen had a unique view of life in East Germany. The Local spoke with him about how he remembers the historic time.
READ »
Society: 6 Nov 09
As thousands of East Germans surged past the Berlin Wall to taste freedom for the first time 20 years ago, Chancellor Angela Merkel visited the sauna and had a beer.
READ »
Society: 6 Nov 09
Two minutes have bestowed a title on Sarah Klier for life. She came into the world on October 2, 1990 in Leipzig – two minutes before midnight – making her the last child born in communist East Germany.
READ »
National: 5 Nov 09
The collapse of the Berlin Wall rectified East Germany’s biggest crime. But as David Wroe reports, many of the communist regime’s victims are still seeking justice for other misdeeds two decades later.
READ »
Lifestyle: 5 Nov 09
This month Exberliner, Berlin's leading English-language magazine, introduces a laboratory for anarchist art, a new bar serving up classic cocktails and the pioneers of Berlin’s dubstep parties.
READ »
Society: 5 Nov 09
East German nudist culture is still encouraging Teutons to let it all hang out some 20 years after the fall of the Berlin Wall - and has even attracted fans from the West. AFP's Simon Sturdee reports.
READ »
Lifestyle: 4 Nov 09
Daily life in Germany’s formerly communist eastern half has changed dramatically in the 20 years since the fall of the Berlin Wall. David Sharp turns back the clock in Eisenhüttenstadt.
READ »
National: 3 Nov 09
As thousands of people celebrated the opening of the Berlin Wall on November 9, 1989, Victor Grossman feared he might be arrested. Brett Neely meets an American defector who fled to communist East Germany.
READ »
Society: 2 Nov 09
Former Stasi prison inmate Carl-Wolfgang Holzapfel has broken off a week-long live performance art re-enactment of his internment over the weekend due psychological distress, organisers have announced.
READ »
Politics: 31 Oct 09
Brandenburg’s Minister President Matthias Platzeck has called for reconciliation with the former communists who ruled East Germany.
READ »
Society: 30 Oct 09
Carl-Wolfgang Holzapfel, who famously lay prostrate across the border at Checkpoint Charlie to protest the communist East German regime, has returned to a Stasi prison for seven days to reenact his incarceration.
READ »
National: 30 Oct 09
For nearly 20 years, Reverend Martin Weskott has been saving books printed in the former East Germany from the rubbish heap of history.
READ »
Sport: 27 Oct 09
Heidi Krieger was one of East Germany's star athletes, but years of forced doping caused her to opt for a sex change and become an outspoken advocate for the other victims.
READ »
Society: 19 Oct 09
The shelves of Berlin's souvenir shops are filled with small, spray-painted pieces of concrete mounted in Plexiglas. But are they real chunks of the Wall or just a scam for tourists? Ben Knight investigates.
READ »
Society: 19 Oct 09
Curiosity for the West German sex trade boomed among East Germans after the Berlin Wall fell in 1989, but now there is a growing nostalgia among these same people for sex the way it was behind the Iron Curtain.
READ »
National: 8 Oct 09
Twenty years ago this week, East Germany’s communist regime celebrated its 40th anniversary while people took to the streets. Der Tagesspiegel’s Matthias Schlegel reports on the peaceful protests that would bring down the Berlin Wall.
READ »
National: 25 Sep 09
Communist East Germany's last leader Egon Krenz said this week he still believes socialism will triumph over capitalism in the end, almost 20 years after the fall of the Berlin Wall.
READ »
National: 20 Sep 09
The Berlin Wall fell on the night of November 9, 1989 because of a hasty announcement by an East German official who had hoped the measure would "save" the communist regime, reports AFP's Audrey Kauffmann.
READ »
Society: 18 Sep 09
Once a Stasi security training ground for the likes of Honecker's bodyguards, the former East German city of Kallinchen is now dominated by tourists, including those drawn to a historic nudist camp and the re-purposed secret police facility.
READ »
Lifestyle: 15 Sep 09
This month Exberliner, Berlin's leading English-language magazine, highlights girl comics, the fifth anniversary celebration at an artists' collective, the perfect gift shop, and a new online web community for film buffs.
READ »
Politics: 14 Sep 09
Continuing a series of interviews with parliamentary candidates with non-German backgrounds, The Local speaks with Social Democrat Ravindra Gujjula, an Indian-born doctor and mayor in Brandenburg now running for the Bundestag.
READ »
Lifestyle: 10 Sep 09
This Week's Highlights: It's Gallery Weekend in Munich, Day of Open Monuments in Berlin, and time for the Autumn Fun Fair in Frankfurt.
READ »
Lifestyle: 3 Sep 09
This Week's Highlights: A big art opening in Berlin, Belgian dancers in Hannover, and a children's film festival in Frankfurt.
READ »
National: 1 Sep 09
German Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Tuesday that her country unleashed "endless suffering" by starting World War II, but also recalled the fate of ethnic Germans expelled at the end of the conflict.
READ »
Society: 24 Jul 09
A new exhibition in Berlin highlights the underground fashion scene in former East Germany and how it helped bring down the Wall.
READ »
Business & Money: 22 Jul 09
Deutsche Bank has admitted uncovering four suspected cases of spying carried out by companies it hired but stressed the incidents were "isolated."
READ »
National: 21 Jul 09
Almost a quarter of Germans from what was communist East Germany feel they are the losers of reunification, according to a new study for social welfare group Volkssolidarität released on Tuesday.
READ »
Society: 21 Jul 09
Germany needs to rethink its relationship to the architecture of its formerly communist eastern half, head of famed Bauhaus Dessau Foundation Philipp Oswalt said on Tuesday.
READ »
Lifestyle: 16 Jul 09
This Week's Highlights: U2 in Berlin, tennis in Hamburg, and Sven Väth drops in for an all-day party in Munich.
READ »
National: 9 Jul 09
Some 17,000 former East German secret police workers are likely working in local government authorities in eastern states despite background checks, daily Financial Times Deutschland reported on Thursday.
READ »
Politics: 2 Jul 09
The Group of Eight industrialised powers (G8) is no longer the appropriate forum to thrash out the world's problems, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Thursday.
READ »
Society: 1 Jul 09
The last reel to be dug out of East Germany's banned film vault premieres for the first time in Dresden on Wednesday, 43 years after it got the censor’s ax.
READ »
Society: 26 Jun 09
More than half of Germans from the former communist east see the failed dictatorship in a positive light, according to a new survey conducted for the government.
READ »
National: 22 May 09
A former West German police officer who infamously shot a protestor in 1967 may face trial for a third time after reports emerged on Friday that he was an unofficial informant, or IM, of the Stasi.
READ »
Politics: 21 May 09
Germany's incumbent President Horst Köhler is favoured to win re-election at the country's ceremonial head of state on Saturday, but analysts said it’s not a sure thing just yet.
READ »
Politics: 19 May 09
In the ongoing debate over the East German legacy, Chancellor Angela Merkel roundly condemned the former communist regime on Tuesday, but defended her membership in communist youth organisation the FDJ.
READ »
Society: 11 May 09
AFP's Arnaud Bouvier looks at a new exhibition seeking to explain what it was like to live in communist East Germany to children with no memory of their country's turbulent past some 20 years after the fall of the Berlin Wall.
READ »
Society: 7 May 09
Gunther von Hagens, the man behind the controversial anatomical Body Worlds shows, has sparked outrage by showing dissected corpses having sex. Netzeitung’s Kerstin Rottmann looks at his lastest provocation.
READ »
Society: 7 May 09
German Transport Minister Wolfgang Tiefensee, who is also commissioner for issues concerning eastern Germany, complained Thursday that there was too little respect for the achievements of former East German citizens.
READ »
Sport: 14 Apr 09
Former East German track-and-field stars insist there is a "cover-up" conspiracy after five athletics coaches admitted being part of a doping program behind the former Iron Curtain.
READ »
Society: 1 Apr 09
Many of northeastern Germany’s coastal herring fishermen will be forced to return to port early this year. An EU catch quota reduction means many crews have already reached their limit, fishery groups said on Wednesday.
READ »
National: 29 Mar 09
A few activists got rowdy on Saturday when tens of thousands in Berlin and Frankfurt took part in the international demonstrations against the consequences of the financial crisis.
READ »
Lifestyle: 20 Mar 09
With this year marking the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, Mark Ravenhill's new play “Over There” makes separated twins into a metaphor for German reunification. Ben Knight talks to co-director Ramin Gray.
READ »
National: 20 Mar 09
Women’s groups across Germany will protest on Friday to highlight the yawning pay gap between the sexes in the country, one of the worst in Europe.
READ »
Lifestyle: 4 Feb 09
Exberliner, Berlin's leading English-language magazine, this month picks the best places to strip burlesque style, get your very own personal shopping guide or speak your mind before an audience.
READ »
Society: 3 Feb 09
East German songwriter Kurt Demmler was found dead on Tuesday morning in his Berlin jail cell, the same day he was to stand trial for more than 200 counts of child sexual abuse, daily Berliner Morgenpost reported.
READ »
National: 26 Jan 09
An architect has discovered a Leipzig apartment left untouched for the last 20 years after being abandoned by its East German occupants as the communist state crumbled, daily Berliner Morgenpost reported on Monday.
READ »
Society: 29 Dec 08
In light of the upcoming 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall next year, the premier of Saxony-Anhalt, Wolfgang Böhmer, warned on Monday against adopting a rose-tinted view of communist East Germany.
READ »
Lifestyle: 25 Dec 08
This Week's Highlights: Henrik Ibsen in Berlin, Icelandic music in Frankfurt, and a salsa Silvester in Hamburg.
READ »
Society: 4 Dec 08
A comparison of East and West German versions of the all-time favourite German children’s TV series Sandmännchen has opened this week at Frankfurt’s Museum for Communication.
READ »
Lifestyle: 28 Nov 08
Ex-Sneaker Pimp Chris Corner loves Berlin. Like many musicians, he’s made the city his home base. Exberliner Magazine's Julie Colthorpe grilled him on the IAMX project, his stage persona – and the Germans.
READ »
National: 6 Nov 08
Nineteen years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, its historical shadow is fading fast for Germany's youth – many of whom do not even know who built it.
READ »
National: 3 Oct 08
Speaking during celebrations to mark German Unity Day on Friday, Chancellor Angela Merkel said young people in Germany needed to learn more about their country’s Communist past.
READ »
National: 3 Oct 08
Germany opened a three-day party in Hamburg on Unity Day on Friday with Chancellor Merkel and President Köhler to mark 18 years of the unification of East and West Germany.
READ »
Society: 1 Oct 08
On the eve of German Unity Day, a group of divorced women from the former East Germany plans to demonstrate in Leipzig against the government's failure to recognize their right to equal social benefits after reunification.
READ »
Lifestyle: 30 Sep 08
With the world’s financial markets currently giving capitalism a bad name, David Wroe dons his Che Guevara t-shirt and heads to a new Berlin exhibition showing forgotten East German art.
READ »
Politics: 24 Sep 08
Eighteen years after German reunification, the eastern states still depend on financial support from the federal government, Transportation Minister Wolfgang Tiefensee told broadcaster ZDF on Wednesday morning.
READ »
Lifestyle: 9 Sep 08
Exberliner, the German capital's leading English-language magazine, this month picks the best places to light up a ciggie in Berlin.
READ »
Politics: 8 Sep 08
Angela Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union (CDU) is planning a campaign against communist nostalgia and the rise of the hard-line socialist Left party, according to daily Financial Times Deutschland on Monday.
READ »
National: 13 Aug 08
More than 1,300 people died at the border separating East and West Germany between 1945 and 1989, according to a new study published on the eve of the 47th anniversary of the building of the Berlin Wall.
READ »
Lifestyle: 16 Jun 08
What is the capital of North Rhine-Westphalia? Why was Willy Brandt kneeling before a memorial in Poland in 1970? You'd better know the answers if you want to become a German citizen.
READ »
Lifestyle: 5 Jun 08
Women in Berlin are more likely to end an unwanted pregnancy than in any other state in Germany. Close behind are the former East German states. Exberliner’s Ben Knight looks at what’s going on.
READ »
|
UKForex Currency Converter |
See all ads | Join the Marketplace
1148 jobs available
838 new jobs this week
165 new jobs today
More news from Sweden at thelocal.se
More news from Switzerland at thelocal.ch
More news from France at thelocal.fr
More news from Norway at thelocal.no
Dating
Looking for your own blonde bombshell? Or is the strong, silent type more your
style? Find a German sweetheart here.
Weather
"After clouds comes clear weather," say the Germans. But what about after that? Find out in The Local's weather
section.
Blog
German stuff that's distracting us today.
Noticeboard
Whether you want to buy, sell, hire, announce or promote something, here's the place to do it - completely free of
charge.
Discuss
Debate the news, ask for advice, make friends - or just let off steam.
Register now for:
> Free use of noticeboard
> Special discounts
> Weekly news roundup
> Unlimited use of discuss
