Speechless - An end to the St Petersburg Dialogue? | Shipwreck Ahoy: The Pirate Party on collision course | Escaping the Crisis: Young Spaniards in Germany | Nearly-Forgotten Terror: The former East Germany’s 'Operation Vermin'
The forum was meant to promote deep understanding between Germany and Russia. Now the St Petersburg Dialogue may be at an end.
Andreas Schockenhoff, the German coordinator and Chancellor Merkel’s commissioner for German-Russian cooperation, has sharply criticized Vladimir Putin, saying the Russian president uses repression and confrontation, and that he views the country’s citizens not as partners but as a threat to the state.
They were seen as a fresh breeze in Germany’s political landscape, representing internet freedom and grassroots democracy. Opinion polls put their support at a heady 13 percent nationwide. But instead of presenting issues, they’ve delivered ongoing disputes in the state parliaments.
The economic crisis in Spain has led thousands of young Spaniards to leave home for Germany. In 2011, the Federal Statistical Office registered a rise of 50 percent. How are young Spaniards in search of work being received in Germany? And are they getting support from Spanish people who have been in Germany for decades?
1952: at four in the morning, East German police rang the doorbells of thousands of people in what is now the state of Thüringen, forcing them to leave their homes immediately. An exclusion zone hundreds of kilometres long was created along the border between East and West Germany. Resistance was brutally suppressed.
