Mainz, Germany
By Doug Adams, NBC News Producer
BERLIN – As Germany celebrates the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, in many ways this is still a divided city.
It's not a physical divide – little remains of the former wall today. But spend a few days in Berlin and you realize that the city is still split by psychological and economic barriers.
There is an expression about the "wall in the mind," referring to psychological and social barriers that keep easterners (ossis) and westerners (wessis) separate.
Many West Berliners, for example, say they rarely venture deep into East Berlin even now. Josef Jaffe, who has been an editor for the Die Zeit newspaper his entire career, described how he knows his way around Paris and New York better than around East Berlin.
And in Germany, a nation of newspaper readers, the four biggest East German newspapers and magazines are hardly read in West Berlin.The same goes for the largest West Berlin papers in the East. And therein lies the "wall in the mind."
Still wrestling with differences
I recently spent a week in Berlin as part of journalism fellowship sponsored by the RIAS Berlin Kommission to study German politics and media. In our meetings with journalists, politicians and academics, the East-West tension was a constant undercurrent.
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By Andy Eckardt, NBC News Producer
MAINZ, Germany – I vividly recall the car journeys I would take as a teenager from Frankfurt to Berlin. In those days, the trip to the isolated city of West Berlin, which was located in the heart of East Germany, required us to take the so-called "transit route" through communist East Germany. It was a bumpy ride in many ways.
There were extensive waits at the Herleshausen border crossing, where grim and often unfriendly East German border guards took our passports and checked them for hours. Once allowed through, we had to travel for more than 200 miles through the communist country on roads that made a clacking sound as you drove over them – making it feel like a journey on old railroad tracks.
Along the roadside we passed East German police, who laid in wait to issue speeding tickets to "foreigners," as it was a quick and easy way to get some cash in the much stronger West German currency.
But that all changed after the collapse of the Berlin Wall on Nov. 9, 1989.
Today, we travel the same route from Frankfurt to Berlin on spanking new highways. And it is difficult to find traces of the former 870 mile long East-West border with its hundreds of watch towers, barbed-wire fences and automatic shooting devices that once divided the two Germanys.
And there are only few signs of the original Berlin Wall, which was fortified with tank barriers, search lights and armed guards patrolling with their dogs.
"If you look at Checkpoint Charlie today, Berlin's famous Allied border crossing, it is really nothing more than a commercialized Disneyland of the Cold War," said Fabian Rueger, a historian and tour guide in Berlin.
The actors in old military uniforms at Checkpoint Charlie and the street vendors selling fake pieces of the wall are surreal images for those who actually grew up during in Cold War times.
Today, it is mainly my generation and that of my parents, who have vivid and very emotional memories of what it was like to live through the Cold War and the "peaceful revolution" that swept across Eastern Europe and ultimately brought down the internal German border in 1989.
It’s created a quandary: How do the different generations reconcile the vast and extreme changes that have altered the country in such a short period of time?
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By Andy Eckardt, NBC News Producer
WINNENDEN, Germany – Why? That is the predominant question for the shocked residents of the small southern German town of Winnenden and for TV stations and newspapers across the country this morning.
All night, forensic experts collected evidence in search of clues that could possibly explain why 17-year-old Tim Kretschmer went on a wild rampage at his former school and killed 15 people before taking his own life on Wednesday.
During a press conference on Thursday investigators revealed more clues that may explain Kretschmer’s possible motive for the rampage.
At 2:45 a.m., just hours before the attack, officials said that Kretschmer warned of his plans on an Internet chatroom. He wrote that he was tired of his life, he felt everyone was laughing at him and that nobody recognized his potential.
He added that he would be visiting his former school and wrote, "Tomorrow you will hear from me, just remember the name of a place called Winnenden."
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By Andy Eckardt, NBC News Producer
After being questioned by authorities for nearly nine hours at the German Federal Office for Migration and Refugees on Wednesday, U.S. Army Spc. André Shepherd felt tired, but also ‘‘full of hope to win the battle that had just started," according to his lawyer, Reinhard Marx.
And a legal battle it will surely be.
The 31-year old soldier from
Cleveland, Ohio, went "Absent Without Leave" in April 2007 when he walked off his unit’s base near Katterbach, Germany.
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| Reuters |
| U.S. Army specialist Andre Shepherd listens to reporter's questions during a news conference in Frankfurt in November, 2008. |
He said he deserted because he did not want to return to what he calls a "completely illegal war" in Iraq. He is believed to be the first American deserter to plead for asylum with German immigration authorities.
Shepherd’s case is unique in Germany, but he is not alone across Europe. According to Bruce Anderson, a spokesperson for the U.S. Army in Europe, Shepherd is among 71 Army soldiers to desert European bases in 2008.
If he is granted asylum, his case could create new legal options for soldiers looking to escape the military, his supporters say. But rejection of his case could find him handed over to military authorities and could lead to a longer jail sentence.
"I take it a day at a time," Shepherd said in a phone interview. "And I will pursue what I believe is the right thing. They can't punish you for something that is right."
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By Andy Eckardt, NBC News Producer
MOEDLAREUTH, Germany – It felt like I was in a time warp when a colleague and I recently visited the small village of Moedlareuth, a farming community in central Germany that was once cut in half by the infamous border that divided Germany – known to Americans as the "Berlin Wall."
Even 19 years after the "fall of the wall" – which led to the final collapse of communist East Germany and to the start of an economically difficult, but unexpectedly smooth reunification process – it was an emotional visit.
Memories of a difficult past were triggered when we saw remains of the old bulwark running through town and sat down at the local museum to watch a film about the dark chapter of German history that luckily culminated on Nov. 9, 1989.
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By Andy Eckardt, NBC News Producer
MAINZ, Germany – As soon as Barack Obama’s presidential victory was confirmed, German media outlets cheered what they hoped would be a big change from the Bush years.
"America – risen from ruins," said the headline on the Web site of Germany's national newspaper, Sueddeutsche Zeitung.
"Historic victory for Obama. America has shown: everything is possible," Germany's mass-circulation BILD newspaper exclaimed online.
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| EPA |
| An Obama supporter holds a placard which states 'Obama for chancellor' during an election party at the Bucerius Law School in Hamburg, Germany on Nov. 4. |
Election enthusiasm
Interest in this year's U.S. election was exceptionally high in Germany, with millions of viewers staying up all night to watch election coverage.
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By Andy Eckardt, NBC News Producer
MAINZ, Germany – It's not surprising Germans are fascinated with the American election; it's colorful and flashy when compared with the usually staid German political process.
Even German politicians admit that they are impressed by the numbers of supporters at U.S. campaign events and especially envy the American parties' financial budgets.
"There are clearly cultural and structural differences between the two countries. In Germany, for example, the entire election spending of all parties adds up to only $85 million," said Dirk Metz, a spokesperson for the local state government in Wiesbaden, in comparison to the hundreds of millions spent by both the Democrats and the Republicans in their race for the White House.
But, in general, Germans are clearly just interested in American politics. When the candidates' television debates were shown recently in the early morning hours in Germany – the usually marginal middle-of-the-night ratings surged.
The interest likely stems from the desire among the general public in Germany to overcome what has been dubbed "Bush-fatigue." A generally negative sentiment towards the Bush administration that has been nurtured over the past eight years by Germany's anti-war stance, as well as the "old Europe" and "with us or against us" remarks by U.S. officials.
But while many Germans favor the fresh face of Sen. Barack Obama, it's yet to be seen if he is really the best candidate for German interests.
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By Andy Eckardt, NBC News Producer
MAINZ, Germany – With nearly 3 million people of Turkish descent living in Germany, it’s going to be a night of fierce but mostly friendly rivalry when the two countries play in the semi-finals of the European Soccer Championship. (The match starts at 2:45 p.m. ET).
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| AFP - Getty Images |
| Crowds of supporters of the German and Turkish teams wave their national flags in the "Fan zone" in front of the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin on June 25. |
Hundreds of thousands of soccer-crazy fans from both nations will be flocking to "public viewing sites" in major German cities.
In Berlin alone, up to 500,000 spectators with German and Turkish flags are expected to gather at the "fan mile" in front of Brandenburg Gate.
Many of Turkish origin find their loyalties are split.
"I had been rooting for Germany at the beginning of the tournament, but tonight my heart goes out to the Turks, the underdog, who showed amazing morale in the last two matches," said Cueneyt Goekcoel, a 35-year-old German of Turkish descent.
"In my head, I feel German," Cueneyt said, "but tonight I am Turkish."
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By Andy Eckardt, NBC News Producer
It is an everyday lottery when it comes to fuel prices at German gas stations. Prices for regular unleaded and diesel gas bounces up and down, often changing twice on the same day. And drivers in this car-loving nation are unhappily dealing with increasing prices at the pump.
Record prices on the international oil markets have driven gas prices across Europe sky high, with a gallon of unleaded gas costing about $8.60 per gallon in Germany. (In Germany, gas is sold by the liter with one liter of unleaded fuel selling for an average of $2.29)
The high prices hit people where it counts – in the wallet.
"For us, as a family with two children, the high fuel prices are burdening," said Britta Koester, a nurse who has a 20-mile commute to work at odd hours and no options for using public transportation. "I am totally dependent on the car; the infrastructure in our little town is miserable in that respect," said Koester.
While filling up his small Volkswagen Golf, Dietmar Dannemann, 63, watched the meter at the pump carefully and tried to stop his purchase at an exact amount.
"As a member of the ADAC automobile club, I get one cent discount per liter, but I don't want to get more than 15 liters today, the prices are too high," he explained.
Meanwhile, Susana, a 33-year-old mother of two children, actually traveled across town to get a better price at the pump. "I get gas when I see a bargain," she explained. "And, in my family, we call each other when we spot a station with lower prices."
Still loving the autobahn
But despite the rising costs, Germans have continued their love affair with the open road.
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By Andy Eckardt, NBC News Producer
A few weeks ago, I wrote about the zeal of the recycling-conscious German public. Little did I know at the time that one waste product was potentially life threatening – at least for German hedgehogs.
Hedgehogs, spiny creatures which are native to Africa, Asia and Europe, are so beloved in Germany that they led McDonald’s Germany to introduce a new, hedgehog-friendly design for its McFlurry ice cream treat containers.
Two years ago, McDonald's Germany was contacted by BUND, one of Germany’s largest environmental groups, which reported that up to 100 hedgehogs had been killed as a result of being caught in the lid holes of the popular McFlurry treat.
"There were no solid statistics on hedgehog deaths caused by McFlurry lids," said Alexander Schramm, a McDonald's spokesman in Munich. "But, because our company had confronted the same problem in the U.K. in 2006 and had already changed the product line, we decided to do the same in Germany."
The re-design process included several different lid-sizes and cover flaps, which could prevent hedgehogs and other small animals from getting stuck inside the containers and, as a result, starving to death.
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