Free Republic

Most Germans—polls show, despite current economic difficulties, do not regret the fall of the Wall, the collapse of the Communist regime in the East, and the eventual reunification of their country. What doubts there are, however, come from the ranks of the Western Left, who seem to have the ability to regularly air their arguments in the op-ed pages of The New York Times. I read one such report in the paper’s pages while visiting Berlin, written by Katrin Bennhold and titled “Lessons From the Former East Germany.” Bennhold beings by noting that “Like most people, I had slept through...

Germany’s premier news magazine Der Spiegel has a hard-hitting piece by one of its own editors, Christian Schwaegerl, condemning Barack Obama’s handling of global warming. The article is significant because it demonstrates the depth of anger and sense of betrayal among Left-wing intellectuals in Europe over Obama’s failure to deliver what they expected in advance of next month’s UN Climate Change jamboree in Copenhagen. As I noted in a previous post, the disillusionment with Obama among European liberals is widespread and growing. Here are some excerpts from the Spiegel commentary: US President Barack Obama came to office promising hope and...

Ah, so nationalized healthcare doesn’t work, they’re essentially saying. And to make up for the gap, people will have to buy private insurance. Hmmm . . . isn’t private insurance allegedly “discriminating” against the poor and those with pre-conditions the thing ObamaCare is supposed to solve? It’s very clear it doesn’t solve that. Germany, with this move, is moving away from government healthcare toward private providers because government can’t afford it. And yet the ObamaCare proponents are citing Germany as an example of how government healthcare works better than private insurance? Someone’s not paying attention. And it isn’t the opponents...

Alex W., the man who stabbed pregnant Egyptian pharmacist Marwa al-Sherbini to death in a courtroom in Dresden in July, was sentenced to life in prison on Wednesday. The judge imposed the harshest possible sentence under the German system by ruling that W. will not be eligible for parole after 15 years. A court in Dresden sentenced Alex W., a German man of Russian origin, to life in prison on Wednesday for murdering Marwa al-Sherbini, a pregnant Egyptian woman, by stabbing her 16 times in a courtroom in a case that caused outrage across the Arab world. The judge, Birgit...

UFO fever is sweeping through Germany, no doubt about it. The entire year has been pretty much one long UFO flap with around 500 sightings submitted to various UFO reporting agencies. Sightings have occurred throughout the country and a number of these have been the subject of serious government investigations. These two short films were allegedly taken in the last few days. The first of these (below) comes from the quiet town of Scheuditz in the Saxony district. The witness writes that he ‘I looked out my window and saw a UFO!’ and that he filmed it with a hand-held...

In one of the most scorching excoriations of a fellow Global Citizen Christian Schwägerl writes that Global warming energy strategists and environmentalist are accusing president Barry Hussein Soetoro of lying to Europe when he presented himself as a citizen of the world even above being a citizen of the United States of America when he spoke in Germany prior to his winning election for the U.S. presidency. In Schwägerl’s article, in the German Spiegel Online, it is quite apparent that Europe expected something from Mr. Soetoro—something that he has yet to deliver on and it’s apparent that Europe’s impatience is...

One night in August, the Taliban stormed a local police station in this once-peaceful province and shot dead the governor's younger brother. Since then, the governor has singled out a culprit: The German military, which he says refused to send a helicopter to rescue his brother as he bled to death. "I called them and they said that wasn't a mission they could do," said Gov. Mohammad Omar. "They don't like to go out at night." German officials said there was no way they could have saved his brother. They offered their condolences, and said the death is just one...

SNIPPET: "A 90 year old man, identified only as Adolf S., was indicted on Nazi war crimes in Germany. The former member of Hitler’s SS is charged with 58 counts of killing Jewish slave laborers in Deutsch Schuetzen, in Austria. According to prosecutors he, along with other members of the fifth SS Tank Division "Viking,” devised a plan to rob and murder the Jews. The following day they made good on their plan, taking 57 Jewish slave laborers into the woods, stealing their valuables, and firing bullets into their heads from behind. The final indictment comes from the allegation that...

A previously unknown militant group claims to be behind a series of arson attacks on banks in Frankfurt over the past two weeks. Police are still hunting for leads to the elusive group, while commentators are drawing links with Germany's notorious terrorist group the Red Army Faction. Until two weeks ago no one had heard of the Bewegung Morgenlicht. But now, they have thrust themselves onto the police's radar with a number of attacks on banks in Frankfurt. Two Saturdays ago, militants threw a petrol-soaked cloth into a Dresdner Bank foyer, setting fire to a cash machine. Just 24 hours...

Volkswagen Group has displaced Toyota for the first time as the world's largest car manufacturer in terms of production. The German carmaker produced 4.4 million vehicles in the first nine months of the year, overtaking its Japanese rival by 400,000 units, consulting firm IHS Global Insight said on Wednesday. Volkswagen Group owns a variety of models such as Skoda and Seat and high-end lines Audi, Bentley, Bugatti and Lamborghini. In July it expanded its stable by acquiring Porsche. HIS Global Insight said Volkswagen was able to beat Toyota thanks to increased sales in China, Germany and the U.K. even amid...

The President of leisure has a pretty slow day Monday, highlighting the point that no pressing business kept him from celebrating the fall of communism 20 years after the Berlin Wall fell. Jim Gerraghty of The Campaign Spot on National Review goes over the official schedule for our leader yesterday: Just look at the man's schedule: He had a 10 a.m. daily briefing from the intelligence community, a 10:30 a.m. economic daily briefing, an 11 a.m. meeting with senior advisers . . . and then, right after that, at 6:45 in the evening, he had to sign an executive...

There was one world leader absent for today’s commemorations marking the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. Surprisingly enough, it’s President Barack Obama, who found time last year to give a campaign speech there last year, which Der Spiegel summed up as “People of the World, Look at Me”. The White House has cited a packed schedule, though looking at it he had nothing much on yesterday (brief chat to reporters about healthcare – by far his biggest priority) and just blah briefings and a bill signing today until a metting this evening with Benjamin Netanyahu. This...

Berlin - German Chancellor Angela Merkel called Monday for more cooperation between nation states and the transfer of power to multilateral organizations such as the UN, in a speech ahead of anniversary celebrations of the fall of the Berlin Wall. "This world will not be a peaceful one if we do not work for more global order and more multilateral cooperation," said Merkel, who was to great world leaders in Berlin later Monday. Compared with the European the Americans more problems would have to deliver authority. This is however necessary for a peaceful future. “One of the most exciting questions,...

Thank-you Great Communicator,Pope John Paul II The Great,And Margaret Thatcher for planting the seeds that realized a harvest on this day in history. On November 9, 1989, the East German Government announced that its citizens could freely visit West Germany and West Berlin. It came after several weeks of protests by East German citizens who yearned for the kind of freedom that the west enjoyed. It also marked the end of a 28 year old blockade that was the result of some 3 and a half million people fleeing communism to the west. After its erection, numbers vary, but it...

President Ronald Reagan's demand that the Berlin Wall be torn down became a reality. Video with his actual words.

The Berlin Wall anniversary is a reminder that people smugglers were once regarded not as the scum of the earth but as heroes. Hartmut Richter was one. He fled East Berlin five years after the wall was built by swimming across one of the canals that separated the city. He then helped another 33 people escape by smuggling them across the border in his car. Twenty years on, he worries about what is called Ostalgie - nostalgia for the old East Germany. The former German Democratic Republic has largely been romanticised in film, fashion and design. But Mr Richter warns...

Twenty years ago, on Nov. 9, 1989, the Berlin Wall fell, as protestors on both sides began chipping away with sledgehammers, picks and hands. But the first crack in the wall appeared two years before that — on June 12, 1987 — when President Ronald Reagan stood at the Brandenburg Gate and gave his ultimatum to the Soviet leader: “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!”In his new book, “Tear Down This Wall” (Simon & Schuster), Romesh Ratnesar, deputy managing editor at Time magazine, traces the origin of Reagan’s remarks, noting how administration officials disagreed over whether the president should be...

German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle (R) introduces his partner Michael Mronz (L) to his U.S. counterpart Hillary Clinton during the Atlantic Council Awards ceremony at the Adlon hotel in Berlin, November 8, 2009, one day ahead of the celebrations marking the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. REUTERS/Kai Pfaffenbach (GERMANY ANNIVERSARY POLITICS)

By 1939, more than 10,000 Catholic schools had been closed and the Catholic boys and girls sent to Nazi public schools for indoctrination. Catholics are constantly confronted with the claims that Pope Pius XII was complicit in the Holocaust, that vast numbers of Catholics collaborated with Hitler's diabolical regime, and that Catholic priests, nuns, and bishops were ardent members of the Nazi Party and supporters of its policies. It is true that many Catholics turned a blind eye to the Holocaust, and others remained silent out of fear for their lives and the safety of their families. There were certainly...

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...

Special Navy forces discovered weapons and ammunition on a cargo ship overnight Tuesday, after boarding the Francop some 100 nautical miles west of Israel flying an Antiguan flag. Defense officials said the 140-meter long Francop, captured near Cyprus, was carrying arms sent by Iran and destined for Syria and Hizbullah. More than 60 tons of weaponry were on board, in dozens of containers. The Francop carried hundreds of containers. A significant amount of 122 mm. Katyusha rockets, likely made in Iran, assault rifles, mortar shells and grenades were found on board. Israel Radio reported that advanced anti-aircraft platforms not before...

In the summer of 2008, then presidential candidate Barack Obama delivered a historic campaign speech in Germany. With the Berlin Wall as a back drop, Obama proudly informed the masses that he was not there as a candidate, but as "...a fellow citizen of the world." The crowd went crazy and the world rejoiced. Finally, the United States was ready to join the community of man. In what former U.S. ambassador to the UN John Bolton calls our first post-American President, Obama has bestowed instant cachet on the growing ranks of Americans who revel in the thought of being the...

Berlin -- A divorced woman once described as "a cross between Mother Teresa and Demi Moore" was Wednesday elected head of Germany's Protestant church, the first woman to hold the post. Margot Kaessmann, 51, received 132 of the 142 votes cast at the church's general assembly in Ulm, southern Germany. She now leads 25 million faithful across the country. "Trusting in God's help, I accept the vote," she said. Kaessmann, who was elected for a six-year term, was the only candidate for the post. The charismatic Kaessmann hit the headlines around the world in 2007 when she became the first...

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...

Afghanistan and Pakistan are being shaken by attacks, and the Taliban is dictating the course of the war. US President Obama has been silent about the situation for far too long and European countries like Germany and France are correct to demand better American leadership on the issue of Afghanistan. The most important piece of news from the most recent meeting of NATO defense ministers was that there was no news. NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen pointed out the dangers of failure on the part of the Western military alliance in Afghanistan. The war effort is already underfunded to...

AFP - European Union warships have captured seven suspected pirates off the coast of Somalia after two fast boats attacked a French fishing vessel, the EU's naval force said Wednesday. Soldiers aboard the fishing vessel fired on the pirates after they attacked it some 350 nautical miles east of Mogadishu Tuesday, said a statement. A German warship was despatched to the scene, while a helicopter from a nearby Spanish naval vessel -- the ESPS Canarias -- was launched and located the two skiffs trying to flee the area. "The helicopter fired warning shots to stop both skiffs, after which the...

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...

Egypt's chief archaeologist, Zahi Hawass, announced that his country wanted its queen handed back forthwith, unless Germany could prove that the 3,500-year-old bust of Akhenaten's wife wasn't spirited illegally out of Egypt nearly a century ago... Then he said he was sure the work had been stolen... Mr. Hawass also recently fired a shot at France, demanding the Louvre return five fresco fragments it purchased in 2000 and 2003 from a gallery and at auction. They belonged to a 3,200-year-old tomb near Luxor and had been in storage at the museum. Egypt had made the demand before, but this time...

History comes back to haunt us. Just over 20 years ago, the then British prime minister Margaret Thatcher told Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev: “Britain and western Europe are not interested in the unification of Germany. The words written in the NATO communique may sound different, but disregard them. We do not want the unification of Germany.” She went on to say... About one year after the construction of the wall, Peter Fechter attempted to flee from the GDR together with his friend Helmut Kulbeik. The plan was to hide in a carpenter’s workshop near the wall in Zimmerstrasse and, after...

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...

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...

Following the successful organized uprising, the first of its kind in occupied Europe, by the Serbian resistance forces under the command of Serbia’s General Draza Mihailovich that not only threatened Germany’s southern flank in Europe and her occupation of Serbia after Yugoslavia fell to Hitler in April of 1941, but critically delayed Hitler’s planned attack on the Soviet Union that summer, the Germans retaliated. But it wasn’t in the usual way, man to man, soldier to soldier. The method of Nazi retaliation initiated against the Serbs was unprecedented, and the target was the civilian population. Hitler’s aim was to suppress...

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...

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...

Note: White Jihadi. # SNIPPET: "The NEFA Foundation has obtained a new video from the Islamic Jihad Union (IJU) showing a group of alleged German nationals receiving instruction at an IJU terrorist training camp in northwest Pakistan. The video also includes footage of a balding Caucasian male identified as a U.S. national fighting alongside the IJU, "Abu Ibrahim al-Amriki." The IJU has claimed responsibility for a failed terrorist plot in 2007 targeting airports and other critical infrastructure in Germany - including Ramstein Air Base."

"Transcript: Message from the "Emir" of the "German Taliban Mujahideen" Abu Ishaq al-Muhajir" By Evan Kohlmann SNIPPET: "The NEFA Foundation has obtained a new document from the designated terrorist organization known as the “Islamic Jihad Union” (IJU), offering a message from the “German Taliban Mujahideen.”" T

Quote: 19 October 2009 ATTACK ON GERMANY? IN OCTOBER? At al-Faloja they've passed the Insha'allah stage, are deep into Buqra, and heading towards Ma'alesh at a rapid rate of speed... Posted on 19 October 2009 @ 01:38

...How can we forget this? We who remember over three and a half thousand years of our personal history. Our Patriarchs Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Our Matriarchs Sarah, Rebecca, Leah and Rachel. The twelve Tribes from whom we are descended. The Torah, our Code of Laws, which was given to Moses on Mount Sinai. The Words of our Prophets more than 2500 years ago which still resonate today. The building and destruction of the First and Second Temples in Jerusalem. Exile, persecution, expulsion, inquisition, settlement, temporary acceptance. All this we remember but an event of the magnitude of the Holocaust...

German police are investigating a chilli sauce to determine whether it was so spicy that it was capable of causing grievous bodily harm when used in an attack. Police took a sample of the sauce from a kebab stand in Bremen's central train station after a kebab salesman threw it into the eyes of a customer during a fight over napkins. "Legally, the question of whether the spiciness of the kebab sauce constituted 'normal' or grievous bodily harm must be addressed," local police in the northern city said on Friday.

Francis Phillips hails a stunning study of Catholic resistance to National Socialism 16 October 2009 John Frain subtitles this book, Catholic Resistance in the Nazi Era and at first glance it might seem a well-trodden path, adding little to what is already known. For instance, negative publicity given to the alleged "silence" of Pope Pius XII during the War has led to a succession of scholarly studies of his attitude and behaviour towards Jewish victims of Nazi persecution. But Frain's terms of reference are wider than this; he examines every level of Catholic opposition to Hitler, particularly in Germany: the...

BERLIN — Part of Berlin's red-light scene is going green. One bordello, hoping to stave off falling demand in the economic crisis, has begun offering discounts to customers who pedal bicycles to the door. "It's very difficult to find parking around here, and this option is better for our environment," said Thomas Goetz, who owns the brothel Maison d'Envie, or House of Desire. Local residents in Prenzlauer Berg - a part of former East Berlin now home to scores of trendy boutiques, restaurants and clubs - had staunchly supported the Green party in recent elections and have welcomed the bordello's...

Note: The following text is a quote: Department of Public Information • News and Media Division • New York SECURITY COUNCIL AL-QAIDA AND TALIBAN SANCTIONS COMMITTEE ADDS NAME OF ONE INDIVIDUAL TO CONSOLIDATED LIST On 27 May 2009, the Security Council Al-Qaida and Taliban Sanctions Committee approved the addition of the entry specified below to its Consolidated List of individuals and entities subject to the assets freeze, travel ban and arms embargo set out in paragraph 1 of Security Council resolution 1822 (2008) adopted under Chapter VII of the Charter of the United Nations. C. Individuals associated with Al-Qaida QI.H.269.09....

German 'Wise Men' Fear Credit Crunch In 2010 Germany's leading institutes have warned that the pace of economic recovery is "unsustainable" and that the country's banks may face a fresh crisis over the next year as bad debts surface in earnest. By Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, International Business Editor Published: 7:31PM BST 15 Oct 2009 The Wise Men said Germany's economy would contract by 5pc this year 'There is still a significant risk of further shocks to the international financial system,' said a joint report by the five 'Wise Men', a panel that advises the government. Emergency action by the European Central...

Nuremberg - The daughter of a close associate of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has requested asylum in Germany, after attending a human rights film festival in Nuremberg, a festival spokesman said on Tuesday. Filmmaker Nargef Kalhor, 25, had refused to return to her native Iran after the festival and applied for asylum instead. She is currently in a refugee centre near Nuremberg, the spokesman added. Kalhor's father Mehdi Kalhor is said to be one of Ahmadinejad's closest confidants. The former documentary film producer has advised the Iranian president on cultural issues since August 2005. Nargef Kalhor attended the Nuremberg festival...

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The US and its allies patrol the seas, looking to stop proliferation of nuclear technology and to enforce sanctions against rogue nations, especially on arms trafficking. In the case of the latter, one of its allies clearly needs a little more work in preventing trafficking — on their own ships: US troops boarded a German-owned freighter in early October and found eight containers full of ammunition, allegedly headed to Syria from Iran. The shipment is in violation of a UN weapons embargo and has become a source of chagrin in Berlin.

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...