I am reading up on this on the internet. When I was growing up, I always knew the DDR Germany and FRG Germany. The East Germans used to get more medals than the West Germans in the Olympics.
My Dad had a Diplomat (from Pakistan) friend in Qatar in the early 1980s and he was posted as Ambassador to East Germany, he was based in East Berlin, but his kids studied in West Berlin.
I always wondered, people who lived in West Berlin during the cold war, they were surrounded by East Germany, cut off from the rest of Germany. How did the locals manage travelling to the West? For example, you wanted to go for a drive in the countryside and have a picnic by the lake or visit another city to see friends but you couldn’t because you would be crossing into DDR Germany. It must have been like living in a goldfish bowl or bubble in West Berlin.
There were official travel corridors. There’s more information here:
My wife’s grandparents were in the East and they were able to visit her in the West once they had retired but my wife’s father was an American airforce pilot and the US authorities forbade her from visiting the East as there was a risk that she might be held by the East German authorities.
I think the whole situation was largely messed up. Aside from anything else, the West Berlin football clubs had practically no away fans as it was too much hassle.
I’m quite intrigued by the book but the extracts I saw seemed rather diplomatic in tone. I was curious about whether it mentions her dealings with Theresa May, for example, but apparently there are only half a dozen pages on the whole Brexit thing.
Can’t wrap my head around the love Merkel is getting on this forum all the time. Basically all the problems the country is facing have their roots in her 16 year chancellorship. She was a decent crisis manager, but lacked any interest in reforms or forward thinking, largely profited from reforms before her time and then stagnated. Doesn’t mean I disagree with everything she did, but the status she’s been getting is completely beyond me.
I think it’s because her term is seen as being a relatively calm and stable period in contrast to today. This was largely because she was part of a governing class across Europe who were sowing the seeds of the trouble we find ourselves in currently.
There hasn’t been a single leader in the major countries in Europe who has even begun to address the problems caused by the prevalent free market unfettered capitalism that has held sway since Reagan/Thatcher. The degradation of services, emasculation of unions, endless privatisation and asset stripping, squeezing of ordinary working people and mantra of individual liberty at the cost of social responsibility has led us to this point.
Remember his tree hugging pictures when he thought Green is the New Shit?
There’s no position/opinion Markus Söder hasn’t already had or might consider having in the future.
I’m not sure whether this fits better here or the World Politics thread, but The Rest Is Politics podcast (Alistair Campbell and Rory Stewart) have an hour long interview with Angela Merkel.
I’ve not listened to it yet, but this should be interesting:
