This week marks the 50th anniversary of the construction of the Berlin Wall. East Germany has turned into a kind of deranged amusement park, says Frank Hornig, raising questions about how Germany should balance business with commemoration.
Berlin Wall
Before the fall: Gorbachev on 1989
Twenty years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev reflects on the events of 1989, the real end of the Cold War, and the advice he can give Obama about ending a war in Afghanistan.
Crikey wrap: remembering the fall of the Wall
The fall of the Berlin Wall, 20 years ago today, reunited Germany and marked the official end of the 40-year Cold War. Crikey intern Michelle Loh does a wrap of what the pundits are saying.
Letter from...: Fall of the Berlin Wall: the 20th anniversary
The overzealous, over-event-managed celebration of 2009 — with circuitous, one-way routes, logjam entries and cops with machine guns — was a strange ossification of the spontaneity of 1989, writes Ben Gook from Berlin.
Gorbachev: The battle over climate change is the new Cold War
On the anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall and ahead of the Copenhagen climate summit, former Soviet Union President Mikhail Gorbachev has a message for the leaders of today: climate change is your Wall.
PHOTO GALLERY: A now and then peek at the East/West German border
Photographer Jürgen Ritter spent much of the eighties recording the East/West German border. Over 20 years on, he revisits the sites to compare how much they’ve changed, moving from death strips to kids’ soccer ovals.
How we’re still stuck in a Berlin Wall mindset
East and West Germany were the ultimate economic science experiments, a government controlled economy next to a free market, the free market emerging victorious. But is this black and white look at economics what got us into this GFC mess?
Was the fall of the Berlin Wall a planned government plot?
Was the iconic fall of the Berlin Wall 20 years ago not due to the accepted story of a stuff up at a press conference and then a spontaneous protest, but rather a well orchestrated political plan between both governments?
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PHOTO GALLERY: Pulling the strings over Berlin
In an amazing display of art, man power and pulleys, two giant puppets — Big Giant and the Little Giantess — walked Berlin’s streets as part of celebrations for the 20 year anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall.
How a picnic brought down the Berlin Wall
On 19 August, 1989, 700 East Germans walked freely across their Soviet-controlled borders and into Hungary for some good food, wine and a spot of political revolution.
REVEALED: Thatcher feared the fall of the Wall
Documents smuggled out of the Kremlin have revealed details of a secret meeting between Margaret Thatcher and Mikhail Gorbachev in 1989, where the Iron Lady stated plainly that Britain did not want Germany to be reunited.
How Jacko helped bring down the Wall
An uncovered internal Stasi file from Michael Jackson’s 1988 concert outside the Reichstag building in West Berlin reveal his East German fans, listening from the other side of the Berlin Wall, planned to riot and “test the limits of the security organ”.
