Free Republic

The Berlin Wall came down 20 years ago, but few of the news stories marking the anniversary have explained the event's full significance. The Cold War had been raging for 14 years before the wall went up on Aug. 13, 1961. How could its collapse, on Nov. 9, 1989, have heralded the Cold War's demise? Berlin was always the centerpiece of the Cold War and, more often than many remember, very nearly the front line of real combat. At the end of World War II, the city was divided into four sectors, each occupied by one of the four allied...

With Monday marking the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, Ronald Reagan's son Michael tells Newsmax that his father was deeply troubled by the wall from the night it was first erected. Michael Reagan also said President Barack Obama's decision not to attend the anniversary ceremonies in Berlin is "sad," but "completely consistent" with Obama. On June 12, 1987, President Reagan delivered a rousing speech near the Berlin Wall in which he challenged the leader of the Soviet Union: "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!" Less than 2 1/2 years later, on Nov. 9, 1989, the wall...

President Barack Obama has RSVPed “nein” to Chancellor Merkel’s invitation to Germany to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. National Review Online asked a few experts what this snub reveals about our current president. [....] FRANK GAFFNEY: Nine words say it all: Undermine our allies. Embolden our enemies. Diminish our country. That’s the Obama Doctrine in a nutshell, and the slighting of Germany with regard to one of the most symbolic and consequential expressions of the quest for freedom undertaken in the teeth of Soviet oppression does all three. — Frank J. Gaffney Jr. is...

Europe Cracks Down on Home School Parents MUNICH, Germany - Increasing custody cases in Europe are proof that officials there have declared war against home schooling and parental rights, according to some residents.In Sweden, police burst onto a plane and took 7-year-old Dominic Johansson from his parents as they were about to leave the country.Months earlier, they told school officials they were going to home school Dominic, prompting officials to open an investigation. In a similar case in Germany, the government abducted 7-year-old Dan Schulz while the family was sleeping. He can be heard on tape screaming that he...

GM's about-face has angered both Opel workers and European governments. In an interview with SPIEGEL ONLINE, union leader and Opel board member Armin Schild blasts GM for mismanagement and says that the US company is uninterested in saving the Opel brand. SPIEGEL ONLINE: Mr. Schild, General Motors has decided not to sell Opel after all, preferring to restructure the German automaker itself. What do Opel employees think of the plan? Armin Schild: GM is going to continue pursuing company policies that have already led to the firm's decline over the last 20 years. Pressure on the employees and on the...

Cold War: The White House has announced our absence at ceremonies marking the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. Meanwhile, Russia has been practicing a nuclear invasion of an abandoned Poland. The Berlin Wall has been a famous backdrop for American presidents sounding the battle cry of liberty in the struggle against tyranny. It was there that John F. Kennedy expressed our solidarity with the encircled residents of that outpost of freedom with his famous "Ich bin ein Berliner." And it was there that Ronald Reagan, with a defiant "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall," voiced our...

German Chancellor Andrea Merkel will address a joint session of Congress today, becoming only the second chancellor to do so. Merkel is expected to speak about climate change, transatlantic relations and the downfall of Communism in Europe. It was announced that Merkel, who was reelected to a second four-year term in September, would address Congress last month. The chancellor will also meet with President Barack Obama at the White House before the speech. The two are likely to discuss the war in Afghanistan and Iran's nuclear ambitions. The two nations do not necessarily see eye-to-eye on the subjects despite that...

In his first year in office, Bar ack Obama has visited more foreign countries than any other president. He has touched ground in 16 countries, easily outpacing Bill Clinton (three) and George W. Bush (11). It's an itinerary befitting a "citizen of the world." But there's one stop Obama won't make: He has begged off going to Berlin next week to attend ceremonies commemorating the fall of the Berlin Wall. His schedule is reportedly too crowded. John F. Kennedy famously told Berliners, "Ich bin ein Berliner." On the 20th anniversary of the last century's most stirring triumph of freedom, Obama...

For nearly three decades the Berlin Wall was the symbol of the Cold War - it divided a city and in effect the entire country. And then on November 9, 1989 it crumbled and with it Communist East Germany and the Cold War itself. On the outskirts of Berlin lies the Glienicke Bridge. It spans the Havel River and connects Berlin to the neighboring city of Potsdam. Its idyllic setting belies a darker history. During the height of the Cold War, it was known as the Bridge of Spies - where communist and western officials exchanged secret agents that had...

BERLIN (Reuters) – George Bush, Mikhail Gorbachev and Helmut Kohl paid their respects to the ordinary people who were behind the peaceful revolution of 1989 that brought down the Berlin Wall at an emotional ceremony in Berlin on Saturday. The three statesmen from the United States, Soviet Union and West Germany -- whose steady-handed leadership paved the way for the Wall's opening on November 9, 1989 -- recalled the heady events that led to the end of the Cold War at a ceremony attended by 1,800 people. "We Germans don't have very much in our history to be proud of,"...

The last member of Adolf Hitler's notorious inner circle has died at age 96, leaving behind instructions to publish a manuscript about his time spent alongside the German dictator, the Telegraph reported. Fritz Darges was present for all major conferences, social engagements and policy announcements during World War II — and experts believe his memoir could disprove claims by some disputed historians that Hitler never directly ordered the extermination of the Jews, and that the "final solution" was the brainchild of SS chief Heirich Himmler. Darges rose to the rank of lieutenant colonel and thought Hitler was a genius. It...

Notorious SS unit 'traced' Polish authorities claim to have identified three survivors of an infamous SS unit that garnered a reputation for brutality that shocked even German wartime commanders. By Matthew Day in Warsaw Published: 5:47PM BST 17 Apr 2009 Prosecutors attached to Poland's Institute of National Remembrance (IPN), the body charged with investigating crimes committed during the war, have announced that they intend to bring the men to justice for their apparent involvement in the suppression of the Warsaw Uprising while serving with the SS Dirlewanger Brigade. The unit, named after its leader Oscar Dirlewanger, comprised of criminals, the...

SHAWANGAI, Pakistan -- An alleged member of the Hamburg, Germany, terror cell linked to the Sept. 11 attacks is believed to be among al Qaeda leaders helping the Taliban fight Pakistani forces in South Waziristan, Pakistani authorities said Thursday. A German passport belonging to Said Bahaji, a close associate of Sept. 11 lead hijacker Mohammed Atta in the 2001 attacks, was among documents recovered this week by Pakistani troops from an abandoned militant compound in Shawangai. The mountain village in South Waziristan was used as an al Qaeda and Taliban command base until as recently as this week, a military...

Critics are calling it a two-tier health system — one for the politically well-connected, another for the hoi polloi. As Germany launched its mass vaccination program against the H1N1 flu virus on Monday, the government found itself fending off accusations of favoritism by offering one vaccine believed to have fewer side effects to civil servants, politicians and soldiers, and another potentially riskier vaccine to everyone else. The government had hoped that Germans would rush to health clinics to receive vaccinations against the rapidly spreading disease, but the rising anger over the different doses may now cause many people to shy...

Israeli urgently orders two stealth corvettes from Germany DEBKAfile Special Report October 27, 2009, 5:55 PM (GMT+02:00) DEBKAfile's military sources report that the two corvettes are needed to meet the build-up of Iranian submarines and Syria warships in the Mediterranean Sea and defend coastal infrastructure facilities such as power stations and naval bases which Israel intelligence fears will be at risk in a regional war. The order placed during Israeli chief of staff Lt. Gen. Gaby Ashkenazi's three-day visit to Berlin this week as guest of the German high command surprised the defense ministry. Germany is contributing 500 million euros...

KUNDUZ, Afghanistan — Forced to confront the rising insurgency in once peaceful northern Afghanistan, the German Army is engaged in sustained and bloody ground combat for the first time since World War II. Soldiers near the northern city of Kunduz have had to strike back against an increasingly fierce campaign by Taliban insurgents, while carrying the burden of being among the first units to break the German taboo against military combat abroad that arose after the Nazi era. At issue are how long opposition in Germany will allow its troops to stay and fight, and whether they will be given...

BAUMHOLDER, Germany, Oct. 26, 2009 – The noncommissioned officer corps often is considered the backbone of the Army, but defining what it means to be a part of that brotherhood is not as easy as it sounds. A wounded warrior now serving in the plans, training, mobilization and security directorate at the U.S. Army garrison here believes that attaining NCO status does not automatically make a soldier a leader. Army Sgt. 1st Class Chris Edwards, a wounded warrior, chose to remain on active duty and continues to lead soldiers at U.S. Army Garrison Baumholder, Germany. U.S. Army photo by Ignacio...

DRESDEN, Germany – The husband of a pregnant Egyptian woman knifed to death in a German courtroom testified Monday that the alleged attacker continued stabbing his wife even after she was on the ground. The suspect, 29-year-old Alexander W., arrived for his trial in the same court room Monday with his face concealed beneath a hood, hat, sunglasses and a mask. Only after several urgings by the judge did he remove the mask, hat and hood, but he was fined for contempt of court for keeping the sunglasses on. He faces charges of murder, attempted murder and dangerous bodily harm...

Michael Barone finds it odd that Barack Obama can go to Oslo and Copenhagen for mainly personal reasons, but somehow can’t find the time to travel to Berlin to commemorate the twentieth anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall — the climax of the Cold War and the West’s triumph. Given the key role played by the US in the collapse of Soviet Communism, people have good cause to wonder why the leader of the free world can find time to pick up an award for himself and pitch his hometown to the International Olympic Committee, but not to...

Many people have said or thought this since Darwin’s cousin, Francis Galton, invented the term ‘eugenics’ in 1883.[1] Since then, the cheerleaders for this offspring of evolution have included racists of many different nationalities, such as Hitler’s Nazis, as well as enthusiasts for the ‘right’ to abortion, euthanasia, and now in the 21st century, human destruction for embryonic stem-cell research. This is of course consistent with the belief they all share, namely that people are all just evolved animals. The many violations of human rights, and the killings and genocides which are the result of eugenicist beliefs are well documented...

Berlin - The pro-business Free Democrats (FDP) on Sunday endorsed a coalition deal designed to let them govern Germany in a conservative government led by Chancellor Angela Merkel for the next four years. An overwhelming majority of the more than 600 delegates at a special party congress approved the 124-page programme worked out with Merkel's Christian Democrats after three weeks of negotiations. The FDP would have five ministers in the new government, including the post of foreign minister for its leader, Guido Westerwelle, who is also set to become deputy chancellor. 'Germany will in future be governed from the centre,...

Israel is hoping to order two modern German-made warships without paying for them, daily Hannoversche Allgemeine Zeitung reported on Friday. Sources within the German government told the paper that Israel wants the Berlin to finance the MEKO corvettes, a sum that would reportedly reach hundreds of millions of euros. The paper reported that the government has not yet reacted to Israel’s request. But “influential politicians from northern Germany,” where the shipbuilding industry is suffering from the global economic downturn, are apparently supportive in the interest of keeping German shipyards in business.

BERLIN, Oct. 8 (UPI) -- Germany has been asked to help fund yet another submarine for the Israeli navy. Jerusalem plans to order another submarine of the Dolphin class from German Howaldtswerke-Deutsche Werft AG and has asked the German government to subsidize the order, German news magazine Der Spiegel reports. Berlin has helped Israel pay for five previously ordered submarines. The first two (named Dolphin and Leviathan) were a gift by Germany after it surfaced that German companies were involved with Iraq's chemical weapons program. To save the orders and jobs for the German shipyards, Chancellor Helmut Kohl decided to...

Germany's Christian Democrats (CDU) and the Free Democrats (FDP) have agreed to form a coalition government, pledging to cut taxes, reform the health-care system, and pull all remaining US nuclear weapons from the country. Angela Merkel, the CDU leader who will start her second term as chancellor, said on Saturday that the new centre-right cabinet was Germany's "answer to the [economic] crisis". "We will focus on growth and tax relief," she said in a joint news conference with the FDP leader on Saturday. "We are deeply convinced that this is the premise for work paying off and also to create...

BERLIN — Germany's newly elected government unveiled its plans for the next four years on Saturday, spearheaded by 24 billion euros of tax cuts in spite of the country's mammoth debt mountain. "It is all geared to creating jobs," Chancellor Angela Merkel said, calling the coalition pact, finalised after three weeks of tough negotiations in the early hours of Saturday, Germany's "answer to the crisis." "We have agreed a coalition programme showing that we want to advance courageously into the future," she said. "We are aiming for growth, for the creation of an education republic and social cohesion." "The burden...

German Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservatives have sealed a coalition deal with the Free Democrats (FDP) based on major tax cut plans. The deal between the CDU/CSU and the pro-business FDP paves the way for the coalition to take office next week. Income taxes will be slashed by 24bn euros ($36bn, £22bn) starting in 2011, according to the coalition agreement. The parties agreed to unite after the September general election in which the FDP achieved its best-ever result. They have also announced key cabinet posts.

A group of rich Germans has launched a petition calling for the government to make wealthy people pay higher taxes. The group say they have more money than they need, and the extra revenue could fund economic and social programmes to aid Germany's economic recovery. Germany could raise 100bn euros (£91bn) if the richest people paid a 5% wealth tax for two years, they say. The petition has 44 signatories so far, and will be presented to newly re-elected Chancellor Angela Merkel. The group say the financial crisis is leading to an increase in unemployment, poverty and social inequality. Simply...

Eurofighter to be boosted by new radar LONDON, Oct. 22 (UPI) -- A new radar system will make the Eurofighter Typhoon more attractive to international buyers, designers say. The companies responsible for the jet's current radar system are proposing to Eurofighter consortium partners Britain, Germany and Italy a rotating e-scan radar known as Caesar, Defensenews.com reports. While the current mechanically scanned Captor radar system is fixed, the new system will rotate to increase its efficiency. The so-called Euroradar consortium wants to put the new radar system into the Tranche 3 jets to be delivered over the next years to Britain,...

The British Broadcasting Corporation in England has deemed it necessary to try and absolve Darwinism from any responsibility for the Holocaust and the many other atrocities committed in the name of evolutionary progress ever since Darwin published his Origin of Species in 1859. To achieve this, BBC2 produced a TV “documentary” entitled Darwin’s Dangerous Idea,[1] written and presented by their journalist and political commentator Andrew Marr. This 3-part series...

Many species of marine creatures are very well suited to their watery environment, with precisely arranged gas exchange organs, properly angled eyeball parts, and streamlined bodies with appropriate musculature for expert swimming. They also have a continuously sloughing slime layer that lubricates their underwater motion. Rahul Ganguli of Teledyne Scientific in California is experimenting with ways to provide a similar slime for ship hulls to glide through water more efficiently...

Convicted German man 'kidnapped' A German doctor convicted over the death of his step-daughter nearly 30 years ago was found tied up outside a French court house, police say. Dieter Krombach, 74, was allegedly kidnapped in Germany and found in the French border town of Mulhouse, after an anonymous phone call to police. Krombach was investigated in both France and Germany, but only a French court found him guilty of manslaughter. The girl's father was arrested on suspicion of organising the kidnapping.

PDATED (October 2, 2009): Volkswagen has now officially released details on the 2010 Golf TDI. The new model is rated at 30/41 mpg (city/hwy) for the manual transmission and 32/42 mpg with VW’s advanced DSG automatic transmission. The car is priced from $21,990. Noticeably absent from the North American market since 2006, the Volkswagen Golf TDI will return for 2010. The new model was showcased today at the New York Auto Show, along with the high performance GTI (see our review here). There weren’t any standard Golfs on the floor, but we do have info on that model too....

iccardo Ehrman, a veteran Italian foreign correspondent, and Peter Brinkmann, a combative German tabloid reporter, both claim they asked the crucial questions at a news conference on Nov. 9, 1989, that led East German Politburo member Günter Schabowski to make one of the biggest fumbles in modern history.

Meteorologists on Tuesday morning recorded the lowest ever October temperature in Germany, as the mercury dipped to a chilly -24.3 degrees Celsius in Bavaria’s Berchtesgaden national park.

Damage control is the name of the game in Berlin on Monday as politicians rush to deny that they are receiving a better, safer swine flu vaccine than ordinary Germans. The first of 50 million doses arrived in Germany on Monday. But with news breaking over the weekend that top government officials in Berlin will be injected with an alternative vaccine -- one widely seen as safer -- a debate about an alleged two-class medical system has erupted. The controversy centers on an additive included in the vaccine manufactured by pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline. The additive includes an inactive strain of...

Museum officials in Thailand have covered a billboard depicting Adolf Hitler saluting after complaints from the German and Israeli embassies. The advertisement, which reads in Thai, "Hitler is not dead," was set up on a main road out of Bangkok two weeks ago. The billboard was covered up after the museum received "a lot" of complaints, director Somporn Naksuetrong said. The series of highway advertisements featuring famous dead people promote Louis Tussaud's Waxworks in Pattaya. "We weren't showing his image to celebrate him," Mr Naksuetrong told AFP. "We think he is an important historical figure, but in a horrible way....

Just a week after it emerged that the German armed forces was getting a different kind of A/H1N1 vaccine to the general population, Der Spiegel magazine reports that the government will also get special treatment. The general population will be offered the GlaxoSmithKline vaccine, called Pandemrix, which contains a new booster element, or adjuvant, as well as a preservative containing mercury. Controversy has grown around the rapid licensing of the GSK vaccine – and a similar one being made by Novartis. Critics said not enough testing had been conducted before European licensing authorities rushed an approval. Chancellor Angela Merkel, her...

Der Spiegel has learned that the German chancellor and government ministers are to get a special version of the H1N1 vaccine. Other high ranking members of government will get it as well. Their vaccine does not contain any controversial ingredients—unlike the vaccine for the general population.

The tense negotiations to form Germany’s next government entered their final stretch on Friday night, as Angela Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union floated new income tax cut proposals to break the deadlock in talks with the liberal Free Democrats, the chancellor’s future junior coalition ally. Ahead of what was expected to be a long weekend of talks, Steffen Kampeter, one of Ms Merkel’s key negotiators, said the CDU would agree to income tax cuts of €20bn (£18bn, $30bn) over four years – more than the €15bn it campaigned for before the election but less than the €35bn the FDP is demanding....

The defeat of communism 20 years ago was the most liberating moment in history. So why don't we talk about it more? On August 23, 1989, officials from the newly reformed and soon-to-be-renamed Communist Party of Hungary ceased policing the country's militarized border with Austria. Some 13,000 East Germans, many of whom had been vacationing at nearby Lake Balaton, fled across the frontier to the free world. It was the largest breach of the Iron Curtain in a generation, and it kicked off a remarkable chain of events that ended 11 weeks later with the righteous citizen dismantling of the...

US President Barack Obama has shelved his plans to attend festivities marking the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will reportedly take his place at the Nov. 9 celebrations. Germany is going to have to wait longer than expected for US President Barack Obama's first official visit. Citing government sources in Berlin, Reuters reported on Friday that Obama will not attend the anniversary festivities marking two decades since the fall of the Berlin Wall. The event will take place on Nov. 9 -- just two days before Obama embarks on a long-planned...

Eurojet proposes thrust-vectoring upgrade for Typhoon By Andrew Doyle Eurofighter and engine supplier Eurojet are stepping up their efforts to interest Typhoon customer nations in a thrust-vectoring upgrade that promises to bring substantial operational benefits and pay for itself through lifecycle cost reductions. Equipping the twin-engined Typhoon's EJ200s with thrust vectoring nozzles (TVN) could reduce fuel burn on a typical mission by up to 5%, while increasing available thrust in supersonic cruise by up to 7%, the engine consortium says. Eurojet partner ITP benchtested a TVN several years ago, and EADS earlier this year equipped its Typhoon cockpit simulator to...

Eight years after 9/11, the city where the attack was planned is once more enjoying a sad reputation as a center for Islamic terrorism. The German media reported earlier this week that German security officials are tracking in Hamburg a new, ten-man Islamic terrorist group. Hamburg is the city that hosted Mohammed Atta and other key, 9/11 terrorists, while they planned their strike against the World Trade Center. Afterwards, history bestowed the city’s name on Atta and his associates, who ever since have been collectively called the “Hamburg Cell.” According to an internal intelligence report composed by Hamburg’s security agencies,...

Revelling in the fuss he was causing, Vaclav Klaus, the president of the Czech Republic, calmly tucked into a plate of steamed shellfish on the terrace of the elegant Adriatic hotel in the Albanian seaside resort of Durres last week. In faraway Brussels furious diplomats were calling for his impeachment and even his country’s expulsion from the European Union because of his obstinate refusal to sign the Lisbon treaty. Klaus, now the only European leader holding out against ratifying the document, made it clear he did not give a damn. European leaders were told he was not available to take...

“If the president is obstructing the democratic process and opposing the decision of parliament as well as the will of the people, he is moving beyond the law and will need to face the consequences,” a German diplomat told The Sunday Times. Jiri Oberfalzer, a member of the Czech senate and Klaus’s closest ally, said Nicolas Sarkozy, the French president, had already threatened the Czechs with expulsion from the EU. “Ideas of changing the constitution just to get rid of the president only shows how weak our young democracy is,” said Oberfalzer, a Eurosceptic. The political hot potato now lands...

Germany is set to send 1,200 police to Afghanistan to train local law enforcement in a major boost to its commitment to the war-torn country, news magazine Der Spiegel reported Saturday. An official request for the officers would come in the next week from NATO, the magazine reported, citing sources within the transatlantic alliance. The German officers would be needed for the “NATO Training Mission Afghanistan,” which is due to start in April. Under the program, some 10,000 foreign instructors would train the Afghan security forces as part of a major push by NATO to ready the strife-torn country to...

A German book publisher has canceled a novel about Islamic "honor killings," fearing that the book would offend the Muslim community and put him in danger. Critics of the decision call it a cowardly move, but others say the publisher is simply being responsible. The publisher of the book, which was to have been titled "To Whom Honor is Due," has indicated that he withdrew the book after an expert on Islam warned that some of the passages could spark violent retaliation from Muslims. "After the Muhammad cartoons, one knows that one can't publish sentences or drawings that defame Islam...

A German book publisher has canceled a novel about Islamic "honor killings," fearing that the book would offend the Muslim community and put him in danger. Critics of the decision call it a cowardly move, but others say the publisher is simply being responsible. The publisher of the book, which was to have been titled "To Whom Honor is Due," has indicated that he withdrew the book after an expert on Islam warned that some of the passages could spark violent retaliation from Muslims. "After the Muhammad cartoons, one knows that one can't publish sentences or drawings that defame Islam...

Picture of Evil: Bloodthirsty German Al Qaeda Fanatic Poses With 2Ft-Long Knife For Beheading British Soldiers In Afghanistan [Pic in URL] By MAIL FOREIGN SERVICE 09th October 2009 Warning: Abu Askar records a video while holding the knife An Al Qaeda fanatic who trains fellow Europeans to fight in Afghanistan has given a stark warning to our troops - by posing with a 2ft-long beheading knife. The bearded terrorist, identified as ‘Abu Askar the German’, belongs to one of Osama Bin Laden’s ‘foreign legions’ fighting alongside the Taliban. In a new terror video posted online he vows to 'achieve a...

Taiwan in talks with Germany over four subs: report by Staff Writers Taipei (AFP) Oct 7, 2009 Taiwan is considering purchasing four German-built submarines that had been rejected by the Greek Navy, a report said Wednesday. According to Next Magazine, Taiwan's military approached Kiel-based shipbuilder Howaldtswerke-Deutsche Werft (HDW) for four Class 214s after Athens rejected them for not meeting standard requirements. "The defence ministry has sent personnel to Germany, who have discussed a deal with the shipbuilder," the popular Taipei-based weekly said, citing an unnamed military source. Taiwan's defence ministry said it was not aware of the report and would...