Free Republic

Democrat Maryland Attorney General Anthony Brown took action against a member of his own hate crime task force on Tuesday after numerous antisemitic social media posts by the member surfaced, including a claim that the babies murdered in the brutal Oct. 7 Hamas attack were "fake." Zainab Chaudry, an anti-Israel activist who serves as the director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations' (CAIR) Maryland office, made the posts in the weeks following Hamas' attack, which saw more than 1,200 people killed, including children and babies, as well as numerous rapes and destruction of property. "The Office of Attorney General learned...

It’s long overdue. A statue of former President Ronald Reagan was unveiled and dedicated on Friday at the U.S. embassy in Berlin, Germany. The seven-foot statue overlooks the site of the Berlin Wall. In an unforgettable speech for those old enough to remember it, on June 12, 1987, President Reagan stood at the Brandenburg Gate and delivered this demand of Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev: “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall.” He was calling for Gorbachev to open the Berlin Wall which had separated West and East Berline since 1961. Reagan’s speechwriter, and current Hoover Institution fellow Peter Robinson noted...

Eighty years after Kristallnacht, the “Night of Broken Glass,” in which Nazis terrorized Jews throughout Germany and Austria, German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier was lifted in a cherry picker crane alongside Berlin community Rabbi Yehudah Teichtal to kindle what is billed as the Europe’s largest Hanukkah menorah, located at the iconic Brandenburg Gate. Thanks to a misty rain, the first night of Hanukkah was especially sparkly in Berlin this year. Raindrops settled upon several hundred onlookers gathered for the 15th annual candle-lighting ceremony, refracting the lights of Berlin’s giant Christmas tree and the illuminated 18th-century monument, just east of where the...

Much like the Swedish government, a German youth group has had enough of the mass migration of mostly Muslim refugees flooding into their country. But while the Swedes began to change their mind for financial reasons, the German youth group is standing up to keep Germany, well, German. According to Reuters:

Twenty-six years ago today, President Ronald Reagan gave a speech at the Brandenburg Gate near the Berlin Wall.And now the Soviets themselves may, in a limited way, be coming to understand the importance of freedom. We hear much from Moscow about a new policy of reform and openness. Some political prisoners have been released. Certain foreign news broadcasts are no longer being jammed. Some economic enterprises have been permitted to operate with greater freedom from state control. Are these the beginnings of profound changes in the Soviet state? Or are they token gestures, intended to raise false hopes in the...

Every American high school student knows, or should know, that President Ronald Reagan went to the Brandenburg Gate in West Berlin on this date in 1987. The President said: “If you seek liberalization, open this gate…Mr. Gorbachev,tear down this wall.” (Yes, kids, there was a West Berlin then.) *snip* As important as Reagan’s dramatic call to “tear down this wall” was, we should not forget what else he said that memorable day twenty-five years ago. His speech contained the most eloquent paean to religious freedom we have heard. Reagan was not afraid to point to: …the most fundamental distinction of...

It's been 18 days since Wisconsin Democrats put their entire Senate caucus on a bus and drove them to an out-of-state bunker at the Best Western in Rockford, Illinois. They claim to have fled in the interests of the people of Wisconsin, but rather than representing them on the floor of the Senate and debating Gov. Scott Walker's budget repair bill on its merits, they choose to flout democracy (again) and avoid a vote by virtue of absenteeism. At a time when Wisconsin needs them most, Democrats are passing the time in Illinois. The Wall Street Journal reported today that...

German media say the Democrat will hold a major campaign event at Berlin’s Victory Column next Thursday, not the iconic Brandenburg Gate as previously floated.

Barack Obama wants to speak at the Brandenburg Gate. He figures it would be a nice backdrop. The supporting cast -- a cheering audience and a few fainting frauleins -- would be a picturesque way to bolster his foreign policy credentials. What Obama does not seem to understand is that the Brandenburg Gate is something you earn. President Ronald Reagan earned the right to speak there because his relentless pressure had brought the Soviet empire to its knees and he was demanding its final "tear down this wall" liquidation. When President John F. Kennedy visited the Brandenburg Gate on the...

Conflict over Berlin Visit Becomes US Campaign Issue By Gregor Peter Schmitz in Washington, D.C. The heated debate over Barack Obama's planned appearance in Berlin appears to have crossed the Atlantic to become a campaign issue at home. It's unlikely now that he will appear in front of the Brandenburg Gate. If the American journalists covering the campaign trail didn't know all about the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin before, they certainly do now. On Sunday, Barack Obama mingled on a flight to San Diego with the pack of journalists who have been following him day in and day out. He...

A conservative ally of Chancellor Angela Merkel said that Barack Obama should not speak at Berlin's Brandenburg Gate because he played no role in German reunification. Erwin Huber, chairman of the Bavarian sister party to Merkel Christian Democrats, accused Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier of pandering to the U.S. presidential candidate by inviting Obama to speak in the center of Berlin. Obama's tentative plans to hold a speech in late July at the Brandenburg Gate, a symbol of German unity, have exposed simmering tensions in the German government, an uneasy alliance between the main conservative and center-left parties. Merkel and Steinmeier,...

BERLIN (Reuters) - The German government denied on Friday that Washington had put any pressure on Chancellor Angela Merkel to block a proposed speech by U.S. presidential candidate Barack Obama in Berlin in late July. Merkel's spokesman Ulrich Wilhelm said the Illinois senator was welcome in Berlin even if details of his visit are still unclear. He said, however, that Merkel had not dropped her objections to Obama speaking at the Brandenburg Gate. Leading German newspapers, including Bild and Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, reported that Bush administration officials attending a G8 summit in Japan this week expressed reservations to the German...

A leading German politician is the latest to criticise a tentative plan by Barack Obama to speak at Berlin's historic Brandenburg Gate. Erwin Huber, the leader of one of the main governing parties, said the Democratic White House hopeful had played no part in German reunification. Chancellor Angela Merkel earlier said it was "a bit odd" that Mr Obama should speak at the Cold War landmark. Mr Obama is to visit Europe and the Middle East in late July. His campaign team said the Brandenburg Gate was one of several locations they had inquired about as the venue for a...

German Chancellor Angela Merkel has signaled unease over the prospect of a possible speech by Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama at Berlin's historic Brandenburg Gate, a spokesman said Wednesday. Merkel has "only limited understanding for using the Brandenburg Gate as an election campaign backdrop, as it were, and has expressed skepticism about pursuing such plans," Thomas Steg, a spokesman for the chancellor, told reporters. However, Steg stressed that the chancellor is "very happy" for Obama to visit Germany and meet her and Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier. Berlin city officials said this week that members of the Democratic candidate's campaign had...

Only US presidents have been given the honour of speaking in front of the 18th Century gate, whose chariot of victory overlooked the Berlin Wall and the ecstatic party that followed its destruction in 1989. Angela Merkel's office this week made it clear that Mr Obama would be welcome in Berlin, but no more or less than his rival Senator McCain. "The mayor would be delighted to have Mr Obama take advantage of speaking at the Brandenburg Gate to spread his message," said the mayor's spokesman.

 Ronald Reagan: Remarks at the Brandenburg Gate delivered 12 June 1987, West Berlin Audio mp3 of Address  [AUTHENTICITY CERTIFIED: Text version below transcribed directly from audio. (2)] Thank you. Thank you, very much. Chancellor Kohl, Governing Mayor Diepgen, ladies and gentlemen: Twenty four years ago, President John F. Kennedy visited Berlin, and speaking to the people of this city and the world at the city hall. Well since then two other presidents have come, each in his turn to Berlin. And today, I, myself, make my second visit to your city. We come to Berlin, we American Presidents, because...

New Year’s Eve celebrations held last Saturday at Berlin’s Brandenburg Gate pour into nearby Holocaust memorial. Wine bottles, empty packs of condoms left on some stones New Year’s Eve celebrations held last Saturday at Berlin’s Brandenburg Gate poured into the nearby Holocaust memorial, Israel’s leading newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth reported. “The riled up masses drank, ate and sent massive amounts of fireworks into the air from in between the graves,” an Israel Air Force pilot who is currently visiting Germany said. Following the celebrations, wine bottles, decorations and even empty packs of condoms were left on some of the stones. Cleaning...

This week, as we mark the one-year anniversary of the beginning of Operation Iraqi Freedom, it is useful to recount why we have fought. Not long ago I visited South Korea, just as the Korean government was debating whether to send troops to Iraq. In Seoul, I was interviewed by a Korean journalist who was almost certainly too young to have firsthand recollection of the Korean War. She asked me, "Why should Koreans send their young people halfway around the globe to be killed or wounded in Iraq?" As it happened, I had that day visited a Korean War memorial,...

BERLIN (Reuters) - Not even German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder's famed fondness for grilled sausages could stop officials from banishing bratwurst at the Brandenburg gate. The license for the only bratwurst stand at the gate, which marks the old border between East and West Germany, expired on Thursday and will not be renewed despite widespread protests. "They say my bratwurst stand isn't appropriate for the square's historic surroundings," said Curt Boesenberg who has sold his sausages from a stand in front of the gate for years. "That's ridiculous. Sausages have a long tradition in Berlin." Expensive restaurants have opened in the...