https://feeds.thelocal.com/ Read the latest news and views from Germany in English en-us news@thelocal.com (TheLocal) webmaster@thelocal.com (TheLocal) TheLocal RSS Feed People who as children were forced into state care by the former communist East German regime will more easily be able to obtain compensation, Berlin said Wednesday, as it sought to lift barriers to claims for payment. https://www.thelocal.de/20190515/child-victims-of-ex-east-german-regime-to-get-compensation Wed, 15 May 2019 17:24:16 +0200 child-victims-of-ex-east-german-regime-to-get-compensation Exactly 69 years ago, on February 8th, 1950, the fledgling German Democratic Republic(GDR) officially debuted its security service, dedicated to monitoring and preventing outside influences - particularly from the West. https://www.thelocal.de/20190208/what-the-stasi-show-about-an-unforgotten-era-of-mass-surveillance Fri, 08 Feb 2019 12:29:41 +0100 what-the-stasi-show-about-an-unforgotten-era-of-mass-surveillance The Czech Republic has compensated a man for wounds suffered during his 1982 attempt to cross the Iron Curtain, a spokesman has said. But the former East German citizen reportedly said the amount was "not satisfactory". https://www.thelocal.de/20190208/german1982bordershooting Fri, 08 Feb 2019 10:01:44 +0100 german1982bordershooting German authorities said Friday they were blocking a proposal to rebuild part of the Berlin Wall for a massive film-art project in the German capital. https://www.thelocal.de/20180921/berlin-wall Fri, 21 Sep 2018 14:09:46 +0200 berlin-wall A new report suggests the number of deaths along the Cold War East German border is much higher than prior estimates. But there are still doubts about the true figure. https://www.thelocal.de/20160811/researchers-row-over-number-of-cold-war-border-deaths-east-germany-gdr-ddr Thu, 11 Aug 2016 19:05:34 +0200 researchers-row-over-number-of-cold-war-border-deaths-east-germany-gdr-ddr For three decades Western drug companies carried out hundreds of tests on East Germans before selling their products at home, a new report reveals. https://www.thelocal.de/20160315/western-firms-tested-drugs-on-hundreds-of-east-germans-in-cold-war Tue, 15 Mar 2016 17:40:02 +0100 western-firms-tested-drugs-on-hundreds-of-east-germans-in-cold-war Chancellor Angela Merkel's government took a step forward on Wednesday towards atoning for East Germany's murky past by approving €10.5 million of aid for victims of the Communist state's doping programme. https://www.thelocal.de/20160309/east-germanys-doping-victims-set-to-get-105m-euros-of-aid Wed, 09 Mar 2016 18:17:08 +0100 east-germanys-doping-victims-set-to-get-105m-euros-of-aid The US Air Force planned to drop 91 atomic bombs in and around East Berlin in the event of the Cold War turning hot, documents released on Wednesday showed. https://www.thelocal.de/20151223/usaf-planned-systematic-destruction-of-east-berlin Wed, 23 Dec 2015 13:04:50 +0100 usaf-planned-systematic-destruction-of-east-berlin German reunification has been an expensive 25-year project that hasn't always gone according to plan. Jörg Luyken asks if things would have been better if the two states never united. https://www.thelocal.de/20151001/would-it-have-been-better-if-germany-stayed-split Thu, 01 Oct 2015 19:50:44 +0200 would-it-have-been-better-if-germany-stayed-split A quarter-century after the fall of the Berlin Wall, Lenin made a comeback of sorts on Thursday as authorities unearthed a granite head of the Russian revolutionary to truck it across the German capital. https://www.thelocal.de/20150910/25-years-after-cold-war-lenin-rises-again Thu, 10 Sep 2015 10:55:22 +0200 25-years-after-cold-war-lenin-rises-again After the Berlin Wall was destroyed in 1989, East and West Germany still had a long way to go before they could become one nation. But in August 1990, the date was finally set for the birth of reunified Germany. https://www.thelocal.de/20150827/the-day-that-sealed-east-germanys-fate Thu, 27 Aug 2015 18:03:56 +0200 the-day-that-sealed-east-germanys-fate While "Deutschland 83" gets its permiere as a mini-series at Berlinale on Tuesday and Wednesday, it also makes entertainment history as being the first German series to be broadcast for American audiences. https://www.thelocal.de/20150210/east-west-spy-drama-to-get-american-debut Tue, 10 Feb 2015 08:55:00 +0100 east-west-spy-drama-to-get-american-debut The Stasi Records Office has made selected records from the infamous East German secret police force available online. https://www.thelocal.de/20150109/stasi-documents-trove-released-online Fri, 09 Jan 2015 09:00:00 +0100 stasi-documents-trove-released-online Left-wing politicians in Thuringia have tried to placate centrist voters in their programme for the first state government led by the Linke (Left) party, the former East German Communist Party. https://www.thelocal.de/20141120/linke-led-government-shows-friendly-face Thu, 20 Nov 2014 16:14:00 +0100 linke-led-government-shows-friendly-face He's known for his eloquence and rhetoric, although this week he was just a guy being chased into a bathroom. We're naming Die Linke (Left) party leader Gregor Gysi our German of the Week. https://www.thelocal.de/20141114/gysi-continuing-the-family-business-east-germany-sed-linke Fri, 14 Nov 2014 12:00:00 +0100 gysi-continuing-the-family-business-east-germany-sed-linke Benefit payments to former political prisoners of ex-communist East Germany (GDR) will be raised to send an "important message" 25 years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, the government said on Wednesday. https://www.thelocal.de/20141001/victims-of-gdr-get-benefit-boost Wed, 01 Oct 2014 17:22:00 +0200 victims-of-gdr-get-benefit-boost Visitors to google.de were greeted with a sombre image of candles on a cobbled street on Thursday in place of the usual colourful logo, as the US search giant commemorated the 'Monday demonstration' in Leipzig 25 years ago. https://www.thelocal.de/20140904/google-commemorates-1989-leipzig-demos-montagsdemonstrationen-gdr-berlin-wall-reunification Thu, 04 Sep 2014 17:38:00 +0200 google-commemorates-1989-leipzig-demos-montagsdemonstrationen-gdr-berlin-wall-reunification Berlin is suing one of Switzerland's largest banks in its bid to recuperate hundreds of million euros that went missing during the reunification of East and West Germany, the bank said Thursday. https://www.thelocal.de/20140822/germany-sues-swiss-bank-over-east-german-marks Fri, 22 Aug 2014 10:46:15 +0200 germany-sues-swiss-bank-over-east-german-marks Wednesday marked the 53rd anniversary of the building of the Berlin Wall. Yet fewer than a third of Germans under 30 can name the exact date when Germany and the capital were divided in two, a survey showed. https://www.thelocal.de/20140813/berlin-wall-date-august-13th-1961-survey Wed, 13 Aug 2014 12:39:00 +0200 berlin-wall-date-august-13th-1961-survey "Night is Life": so runs the title of a book to be published on Friday by Sven Marquardt, the merciless bouncer of Berlin's world-famous Berghain club. He may be hard to get past, but our German of the Week also has a sensitive side. https://www.thelocal.de/20140807/berlin-berghain-bouncer-sven-marquardt-publishes-book Thu, 07 Aug 2014 17:15:00 +0200 berlin-berghain-bouncer-sven-marquardt-publishes-book