East Germany

Parliament buildings over looks the city of Belfast, Northern Ireland, Oct. 28, 2022. 

State reformation: Part I

This week's Critical State, a foreign policy newsletter by Inkstick Media, takes a deep dive into what might happen should Ireland and Northern Ireland fall under one government again.

State reformation: Part I
In this Jan. 16, 2020, file photo an uniper coal-fired power plant and BP refinery steam beside a wind generator in Gelsenkirchen, Germany.

What Germany can teach the US about quitting coal

What Germany can teach the US about quitting coal
a German flag waves and a protester holds up a sign that says "tolerance Nazi"

Is there a ‘Nazi emergency’ in the German city of Dresden?

Is there a ‘Nazi emergency’ in the German city of Dresden?
A woman holds a video camera in her hand in a black and white photo

Vintage home movies show another side of life in East Germany before the fall of the Berlin Wall

Vintage home movies show another side of life in East Germany before the fall of the Berlin Wall
Women hold bags and signs that read: "Same pay for same work" at a rally for equal pay in Berlin, Germany, 2015.

Women in Germany's east earn close to what men do. Can we thank socialism for that?

Women in Germany's east earn close to what men do. Can we thank socialism for that?
People walk under the "Lichtgrenze" installation along the River Spree in Berlin on November 8, 2014. A part of the inner city of Berlin was temporarily divided with a light installation to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall.

This Berlin friendship began over the radio and in the shadow of the Wall

In 1989, Leslie and Cornelia were two young Berlin students living on opposites sides of the wall. But when the border opened, a shared love of radio brought them together in a friendship that is still alive today.

This Berlin friendship began over the radio and in the shadow of the Wall
A part of the inner city of Berlin will be temporarily divided from November 7 to 9, 2014, with a light installation featuring 8,000 luminous white balloons to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. Here a woman walks in front of

During the Cold War, buying people from East Germany was common practice

East Germany never had a lot of cash on hand. What it did have was political prisoners, and plenty of them. So during the Cold War, the communist regime ransomed hundreds of thousands of people to the West in exchange for much-needed hard currency.

During the Cold War, buying people from East Germany was common practice
Mars

India's low-budget Mars probe snaps an iconic photo of the red planet

India's Mars mission keeps grabbing headlines — including this week, when the probe took this remarkable photo. Meanwhile, the US is shipping more of its oil overseas than at any time in the past 50 years, and that's a good sign gas prices are heading down. And ISIS thwarts US airstrikes with a speedy change in its tactics, in today's Global Scan.

India's low-budget Mars probe snaps an iconic photo of the red planet
A cover illustration for the Communist-era board game Burokratopoly, which is being re-launched by Berlin's DDR Museum.

To understand life in East Germany, all you need is this board game

The board game called Bürokratopoly isn't about getting filthy rich, though players might feel filthy after they're done playing. The popular German game was created by dissidents in communist East Germany years ago as a satire about power and corruption. Now it has become a teaching tool for German kids trying to understand what it was like to live in the Communist East.

To understand life in East Germany, all you need is this board game
Blood Bucket Challenge video

European youth have started the #BloodBucketChallenge

After the success of the Ice Bucket Challenge that swept YouTube, European young people are hoping for viral success with a campaign to bring world attention back to the conflict on Ukraine's eastern border. Meanwhile, killing is the subject of newly-published scientific research. In this case, the killers, though, are chimps. And a Chinese tennis star retires in her 30s, having brought tennis and a bit of sports freedom to her home country, in this weekend's Global Scan.

European youth have started the #BloodBucketChallenge
Actors Rebecca Schneebaum, Maureen Keiller and Bobbie Steinbach (not pictured) performed "Muttersprache Mameloschn" at the Goethe Institut in Boston.

What happened to Jewish survivors who stayed in the former East Germany after the Holocaust?

It’s nearly seventy years since World War II ended. In that time, many historians have documented what happened to Germany’s Jews under the Nazis. But less attention has been paid to what happened to Jewish survivors who stayed in Germany after the Holocaust – particularly the Jews who settled in the former East Germany, or the GDR as it was called. Now a new German play addresses some of that history.

What happened to Jewish survivors who stayed in the former East Germany after the Holocaust?

Cold War linguists: NSA spies in Teufelsberg kept ear on Soviets

At the height of the Cold War, a small group of Army personnel monitored communications in Soviet-controlled East Berlin. They'd send the recordings back to NSA headquarters in Washington and — in many ways, are the precursors to the modern surveillance system that has become so controversial.

Cold War linguists: NSA spies in Teufelsberg kept ear on Soviets

Anniversary prompts memories of German teen who landed private plan in Red Square

At the height of the Cold War, a German teen decided he'd fly his single-ending plane deep into the Soviet Union to build a metaphorical bridge between the Germans and the Soviets. He landed in Red Square — and was arrested and sentenced 25 years ago last week.

Anniversary prompts memories of German teen who landed private plan in Red Square

New documentary looks at development of skateboarding culture in East Germany

During the Cold War, all things Western were either forbidden or held in deep suspicion among officials east of the iron curtain. Yet, somehow, the culture of skateboarding that cropped up in California made it into East Berlin, where it thrived. A new documentary looks at that evolution.

New documentary looks at development of skateboarding culture in East Germany

California-based Cold War museum tries to preserve reminders of bygone era

For 50-some years, the Cold War dominated life in Russia, Europe and the United State. In the nearly two decades since it ended, though, the physical manifestations of those decades are rapidly disappearing. A museum in California is hoping to hang on to the past and make it real for the future.

California-based Cold War museum tries to preserve reminders of bygone era