#east-germany

#east-germany

1) Fernsehturm alias Telespargel Berlin's TV tower.Photo: DPA Berlin's Fernsehturm (Television tower) dominates the largest square in the middle of Berlin, the Alexanderplatz.Completed in 1969 and standing at 368 metres tall, the Fernsehturm loomed large over the divided city and was built to display Socialist supremacy.

Hans Modrow, who has died aged 95, was the last communist prime minister of the German Democratic Republic (East Germany) before free elections took place in March 1990.Taking office at the height of the peaceful revolution in 1989, Modrow immediately set up a grand coalition government of all five parties, giving up his leading role in the Socialist Unity party (SED).

Modrow was made prime minister in November 1989 days after the fall of the Berlin Wall.Hans Modrow, who as the last Communist prime minister of East Germany oversaw democratic reforms that opened the way to German reunification, has died at age 95, Germany's hard-left Die Linke party said.Last night Hans Modrow left us at the age of 95.

Germany has rebuffed the latest push by Poland's nationalist government for vast reparations over the second world war, saying in response to a diplomatic note that the issue was closed, according to the foreign ministry in Warsaw.Poland estimates its losses in the second world war caused by Germany at 6.2tn zotys (1.2tn) and has demanded reparations, but Berlin has repeatedly said all financial claims related to the war have been settled.

Poland will become the first country to deliver fighter jets to Ukraine in the next few days, marking a significant upward step in military backing for Kyiv ahead of an expected counter-offensive.The precedent, involving four Soviet-era MiG-29s as a first instalment, could lead to other Nato members providing warplanes, a longstanding Ukrainian request.

One of the last finished paintings of Glasgow's street children by Joan Eardley will be sold at auction next week.The Yellow Jumper, valued at between 100,000 and 150,000, is one the artist's glorious depictions of children in the now largely demolished neighbourhood of old Townhead in Glasgow city centre.

Amadeu António Kiowa, a contract worker from Angola, should have lived to see his child grow up.But his life ended thirty-two years ago today in Brandenburg, where racist extremists killed him.Berlin, November 24th, 2020.Update: November 24th, 2022 (The Berlin Spectator) - On October 7th, 1990, four days after the reunification, Andrzej Frątczak became the first victim of right-wing extremists in the area of former East Germany.

More Than Ever director Emily Atef's new film is a tale of erotic obsession and despair in the farmlands of Thuringia on the eastern side of Germany's now vanished internal border: it is the summer of 1990, the last historic moments of the GDR.This is a movie to raise the possibility that Germany has still not perhaps made a full reckoning with the euphoric trauma of the Berlin Wall coming down.

Present-day Germans have a reputation, in Britain at least, for being law-abiding, solid, even stolid citizens who generally toe the line.Like most stereotypes, this caricature is hopelessly inaccurate.Anyone surprised by last week's foiled coup ignores German history and the insurrectionary exploits of one Wolfgang Kapp.

This was the week when thousands of Poles had been hoping to do their Christmas shopping for the first time in the better-stocked shops of East Berlin.But it was not to be.Eleven months after the start of a unique scheme whereby two communist states in eastern Europe  Poland and the German Democratic Republic  dropped their customs barriers for individual tourists, the experiment has been shelved.

(Image credit: Lars Baron/Bongarts/Getty Images) 12 minutes on the clock, 60 players to guess.Remember to tweet your scores @FourFourTwo (opens in new tab) and share with your mates.NOW TRY Quiz! Can you name the England line-up from the 1966 World Cup match against West Germany?Only the Brazilians have won more World Cups than Germany.