Berlin Wall
20 years reunification: Coke, immigrants and east Germans
On 3 October Germany celebrated the twentieth anniversary of its reunification. But many are disappointed with the unification process and East Germans are still underrepresented among the country's elites, the Czech, UK, Italian and Slovakian papers write
Melancholy in Berlin: views of three foreign writer residents
Very loosely, a 19-year-old Klaus Mann saw 1920s Berlin as 'seductive, gray, scabby, peeling, yet vibrant vitality, nervous, shimmering, phosphorescent, animated, full of tensions and promises.' Italian, Croatian and French writers Gianluca Falanga, Maksim Cristan and Maia Mazaurette give us their noughties take
berlin wall, berlin, poverty, labour, multiculturalism, central and eastern europe, books
To be or to be in Berlin: poor but (creatively) rich
Money and the crisis are not on the agenda for Berliners who can focus on different things, such as art. 'Being poor is not cool, but OK,' is the word on the street. It all looks very promising for someone from Bulgaria, the EU's officially poorest country, where a lack of money, unlike cheap glamour, can never be a virtue
berlin wall, berlin, poverty, labour, sofia, central and eastern europe, art
Berlin film festival: 60 years of masterpieces
The Berlin international film festival (or Berlinale) has been fraught with political struggles. Created by the allies of west Berlin right under the noses of communist dictators, it was a way of opening a window to the 'free' world. Over the years, it has developed into an unmissable world cinema event
berlin wall, cinema, cold war, berlin, jean-luc godard, nouvelle vague, rainer werner fassbinder
European bloggers describe their Berlin walls
Monday is 9 November, the day when the Berlin wall was brought down. To reflect on this iconic modern historical event for the eurogeneration, citizen journalists from five cafebabel.com local teams - Sofia, Budapest, Turin, Strasbourg and Istanbul - simultaneously blogged one day about the walls they see in their cities
berlin wall, communism, event, architecture, budapest, blogs, sofia
Picture that: it's only been 20 years since the Berlin wall fell
For its twentieth anniversary Europe will euphorically celebrate the fall of a wall that didn’t just split Berlin in two, but an entire continent. At 6:57 pm on 9 November, the GDR's Politbüro member Günter Schabowski announced that from now, east German citizens could travel freely. Hours later, Berliners were hugging each other from the east to the west. Another 20 years later, and the eurogeneration have made their motto out of this freedom of movement - eastern working girls invade Europe’s labour market, symbolic walls come to a fall in Paris, or exist in people’s heads. Does the spoiled post-89 generation know how lucky they are? Perspectives
- Read the special edition Picture that: it's only been 20 years since the Berlin wall fell
- Czech internet forums, KSCM: disillusionment and nostalgia for communist past
- 9/11 - the fateful day of German history
- 20th anniversary: go and see the 'Berlin wall' be destroyed in Paris
- Jean-Christophe Bas: 'the erasmus generation doesn’t know how lucky it is'
- What communism means to three central and eastern European women
- Twenty years on: why Berlin is not Germany
It's like talking to a Berlin wall
140 kilometres of wall crumbled in 1989 and hundreds of European expressions arose as it fell. The idiom of the week is flavoured by the 9 November event
berlin wall, 1989, tower of babel, cold war, iron curtain, languages, berlin
Berlin craze: tourists shun sights for ‘Kiez’ experience
The metropolis attracts more visitors than any other German city with almost 18 million overnight stays in 2008. But tourism is no longer about taking in the typical sights: tourists are now taking over ‘Kiez’ (city neighbourhoods) and bikes which, until now, were exclusively secrets for the capital’s residents
berlin wall, berlin, prenzlauer berg, tourism, biking, germany
An East German childhood: ‘People took off their clothes to express their freedom’
West Germans often subscribe to a pretty grim idea of life growing up behind the wall in the German Democratic Republic (GDR). Yet although East German children had few toys and less holidays, were they really less happy than their western counterparts? Eik, 29, recalls his Soviet upbringing
berlin wall, 1989, school system, school, gdr, childhood, eastern germany
Soviet nostalgia: Russian drink, bunker parties and film in Vilnius
Twenty years after the Iron Curtain, the Baltic tiger is experiencing a bout of nostalgia. A young, trendy generation, fed up of hearing about the past, is looking back at a not-quite-so ‘carefree’ childhood under the soviet regime
berlin wall, good bye lenin, giedrė beinoriūtė, marius ivaškevičius, lenin, reunification, cold war
2 days in Warsaw: Solidarnosc, cult Polish documentaries and Berlusconi
For two days at the end of April 2009, the Polish capital becomes the 'centre of Europe' as the EU's largest centre-right party descend on the city. Quality time spent between British, Spanish and Polish colleagues raises an understanding of what the last twenty years mean, and the gap between east and west. Opinion
berlin wall, cinema, director, divorce, communism, european popular party, protest
Alison Smale: 'by learning languages I could escape the boring life I had been living as a child in England'
The former German and Politics student at Bristol university is the first woman to lead the Paris-based International Herald Tribune. The multilingual managing editor talks European elections, languages and journalism
berlin wall, paris, copenhagen, stampa, barack obama, john bird, journalism
20 years: fly on the Berlin wall
9 November 1989. The Berlin wall comes down, freeing the democratic motorways between the countries of the former Warsaw pact. Two decades on, many of these countries are in the European Union, tested in the climate of east-west precarity brought on by the economic crisis. In this edition: focus on those who were born after history was made, those who escaped that history and those who are staging it today on the floorboards in London and Berlin
- Read the special edition 20 years: fly on the Berlin wall
- Solidarity turn their backs on 1989
- London and Berlin reviews of Mark Ravenhill's 'Over There' play
- Mihai Mircea Butcovan: 'the majority of Italians ignore everything which Romania does for the EU'
- What communism means to three central and eastern European women
Opium, the green gold of Afghanistan
Despite the efforts of the United Nations and the government, the production of opium continues to grow, inundating Europe with tonnes of heroin.
berlin wall, netherlands, germany, exports, afghanistan, poland, russian federation
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