“The Stasi museum and other museums give a wrong impression of the German Democratic Republic (GDR) and the Stasi (Ministry for State Security),” says Hans Bauer. According to this man it is all Western propaganda; the information signs in the Stasi museum, the story of the tour guides and recent politics. However, the Stasi...
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Wednesday 9th December With talks beginning from the start of this week, news is only now beginning to emerge regarding the EU’s earliest proposals for climate change. Stern believers in the effects of emissions on our environment, they have already begun with a few interesting plans as the focus on how to solve the...
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Baroque-style domes and Roman pillars grace the heart of Berlin’s city center. Museums and cathedrals form the core of this island surrounded by the River Spree. But across the street from the Berliner Dom, caged behind iron gates, bulldozers claw at the damp earth in an empty lot. A worker leans on his shovel,...
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A new international climate protocol to slow down global warming and climate change is one of the main challenges on the Copenhagen agenda
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After its demolition in 2006, the ‘Humboldt Forum’ -a new building resembling the former Schloss- will be constructed in the area
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Unlike Germany, which once reigned dominant in Europe, then crumbled in the post-war years, and eventually divided during the cold war period, the Olympiastadion has somehow endured the winds of change and emerged from it unscathed. It has always managed to serve its intended purpose as an internationally acclaimed sports hub. Once used by...
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The effects of the abolition of the European Milk Quota in 2015 on the Dutch dairy farmers. By Elke Willemsen and Heather E. Moore Milk prices in Europe are currently at a historic low, leading to troubled times among dairy farmers. The future plans of the European Commission to abolish the current EU milk...
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Confrontation, discussion, friction. After the fall of the wall, Germany’s oldest and most prestigious cultural institution, the “Akademie der Künste”, was in search for a new identity. A reflection of a process of reunification which took place in every field of German society. Two academies existed: an Eastern socialistic and a Western independent version...
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Greenpeace activists strongly protested against the construction of a coal plant by staying in tents to attract the attention of Flemish Environment Minister, Kris Peeters and the world ahead of the Copenhagen Climate summit. (Read More..)
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East Berlin – the heart of DDR socialism. The antagonism against the West was obvious. Just as obvious as the struggle for admiration and glory in competition with the capitalistic sibling on the other side of the Wall. A sumptous attempt to demonstrate the greateness of socialism was Kino international in East Berlin. Today...
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Mats Persson, 30 years old, is research director for Open Europe, an independent think tank. Behind it are UK’s leading business people who want to show an alternative direction for European integration. The principles of reform: economic liberalization, a looser and more flexible structure, real powers over EU legislation for national governments and decision...
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A victory for transparency or a disaster for democratic legitimacy and public trust in the EU? The opinions about how the Lisbon treaty affects the openness in the Union are in massive variance among officials, experts and journalists. “The Union definitely gets more transparent now. For the first time in an EU treaty the...
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Peaceful Revolution in the GDR district of Prenzlauer Berg: Gethsemane Church. Protests, hunger strikes, Stasi-spies and a concerned and angry crowd: the Gethsemane Church was the centre of resistance in Prenzlauer Berg against the communist government of East Berlin in October 1989. The protestors were able to get in contact with sources outside of...
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The former GDR workers’ area Prenzlauer Berg has gone through a change into the currently hippest city quarter of Germany’s capital city with the highest birth rates of whole Berlin. School enrolment figures rise steadily. Many former GDR school buildings are today reused for the same purpose. But school life in the quarter has...
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One of the things that students share most, all over the world, and no matter where they are, is their taste for coffee. A caffeine jolt in the morning or the afternoon can get a sleepy head back in the game. So visitors and students in Utrecht are in luck: the Dutch are very...
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I come from Canada, which is a far off land of wide-open spaces compared to the windy maze of streets in Utrecht. Canada is a land of three storey houses, sprawling green lawns and pick-up trucks. The Netherlands is not. On the first evening in my new city, I dropped my bags at the...
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“Welcome to the Netherlands”, she said with a little hint of sarcasm, as we watched the rain pour down over a very dull cloudy horizon, getting ready to begin our interviews. I couldn’t help but laugh; it was a particularly crappy day, that was more than true, but there was a small sense that...
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I had been sitting in Schiphol airport for 4 hours and the moment of contact was finally drawing near. I had prepared a welcome note for her, with the words, “Cristina”scribbled onto a piece of paper. I have never done anything like this before; even while standing at the airport carrying her name card...
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