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the mets have yet to lure the likes of a hideo_nomo from japan or a chan ho park from south_korea for their pitching staff , but they are starting to take some steps toward the orient . today , they introduced koichi taniguchi and takashi kashiwada , pitchers with the tokyo yomiuri_giants who are here to train with the mets in what was called an educational exchange . though the two players are under contract with the giants , both expressed hope that they could make enough of an impression to lead the mets to try to arrange for them to stay here , if only at the minor_league level . ''he would like to stay , but he cannot make the decision , '' isao ojimi , an interpreter for the pitchers , said of taniguchi , a 23 year old right hander . though a shoulder injury cost taniguchi some power three years ago , the right hander said he still throws 90 m.p.h . ''he has a very good opportunity to learn american style baseball , '' ojimi said . ''in japan , baseball is sneaky . in america , baseball is power against power . '' kashiwada , 26 , was invited because he is a left hander , mets manager bobby_valentine said . when asked of his repertory , the pitcher said , ''sidearm , curve , sinker . '' baseball

has a location of japan

the mystery about which team will win the right to negotiate a contract with daisuke_matsuzaka , the japanese pitcher , continued yesterday . the seibu lions know the amount of the highest bid , but , as of last night , they had not told major_league_baseball if they would accept the bid , although they are expected to . still , the delay has helped create speculation about which team has made the top bid . espn reported that the boston_red_sox might have made the bid , and it might be as high as 45 million . the fort worth star telegram reported that the texas_rangers might have bid as much as 30 million , and might have a chance for matsuzaka 's rights . both outlets relied on anonymous sources . the yankees , who , along with the rangers , have acknowledged that they bid on matsuzaka , had no reaction to the news_media speculation that they might have been outbid for a pitcher they desperately want . ''no one knows , '' yankees general_manager brian_cashman said . but yankees manager joe_torre was influenced by the reports . when torre was asked about matsuzaka before his safe at home foundation 's charity event yesterday , he spoke as if the yankees had lost out on matsuzaka . ''we 've put in a bid ourselves and we 've come up short , evidently , '' torre said . ''he was obviously of great interest to us . '' but cashman said that torre 's comments were not based on anything the yankees had told him . ''i have n't spoken to joe about it , '' cashman said . ''joe is basing it on media reports . '' the lions were notified about the bid thursday , and have until tuesday to respond . the team that wins matsuzaka 's exclusive rights will have 30 days to try to negotiate a contract with his agent , scott_boras . if a deal cannot be agreed upon , matsuzaka would return to japan and become a free_agent after 2007 . the lions would not be able to keep the bid money . inside pitch andy_pettitte indicated yesterday that he was leaning toward retirement after 12 seasons . ''if i had to make a decision right now , it would probably be not to play , '' pettitte said . pettitte , who was in manhattan for joe_torre 's safe at home foundation charity dinner , stressed that he was undecided about his future but that he wanted to make a decision quickly , though he provided no timetable . pettitte , a 34 year old left hander , filed for free_agency monday after three seasons with the houston_astros . pettitte was 14 13 with a_4 . 20 earned_run_average last season , missing the postseason for the first time . he struggled with elbow problems , especially at the end of season . he also missed much of the 2004 season with an elbow injury . ''i want to do the right thing for me and my family , '' pettitte said . ''i 'm just weighing through my feelings . '' about 16 players from the 1996 world_series champion yankees attended the dinner . baseball

has a location of japan

they can travel as fast as jet planes . they can carry off entire houses . they can inundate coastal communities with violent flooding . some english speakers call them tidal_waves , but they have nothing to do with tides much of the world recognizes them by their japanese name , tsunami . huge tsunamis inundated northern japan monday_night , minutes after a powerful earthquake struck the sea of japan west of the northern island of hokkaido . a tsunami contributed heavily to damage along the coast and to the virtual demolition of the aonae district on okushiri , a small island known for fishing and resorts . people were swept away by huge waves and drowned . cars were flushed into the sea . ships were thrown onto land where they crashed into buildings . and hundreds of houses were destroyed in a torrent of water . one of the most striking television images of the quake was that of what looked to be an entire house floating out to sea , its roof protruding above the water . many things contributed to the damage in the quake , which measured 7.8 on the richter_scale . there was the shaking , the landslides that ruined roads and buried a hotel , and fires , probably caused by the explosion of ruptured gas lines . but perhaps the most spectacular phenomenon was the tsunami . waves outran warning while japan , perhaps the world 's most earthquake prone country , has learned how to build structures to withstand earthquakes , it apparently has not yet been able to fully cope with tsunamis . " even wooden houses in japan are built strong enough to withstand the shaking of an earthquake , " said nobuo shuto , a professor of tsunami engineering at tohoku university in sendai . japan has a warning system for tsunamis , but on monday_night the waves reached okushiri at about the same time as the warning , five minutes after the earthquake . " under this kind of situation , maybe there is little you can do , " professor shuto said . " the only way to save human lives is to evacuate immediately , even without a warning . " waves up to 35 feet high professor shuto estimated that the wave that struck okushiri ranged from 10 to 16 feet high , but said he had not completed his calculations . a researcher for the meterologicval agency estimated , based on a survey of the site , that the waves were as high as 35 feet . tsunamis are gigantic versions of the ripples produced by a pebble tossed into a still pond . but with tsunamis , the water is displaced not by a pebble , but by an earthquake , volcanic eruption or other violent undersea movement . a huge mass of water can be displaced . the tsunami 's speed depends on the depth of the water above the displaced sea bed . in the case of the tsunami on monday , where the water was about 6 , 000 feet deep , the wave travels at 300 miles per hour . as the wave approaches the land and the ocean becomes shallower , the water in the back of the wave catches up to the water in the front , and the wave height mounts . report seeing 10 waves depending on the structure of the coastline , a tsunami might strike one time and recede , or reverberate , hitting the shoreline many times . professor shuto said some witnesses on okushiri reported seeing as many as 10 waves . the professor said that while japan is most known for tsunamis , they occur elsewhere , and can strike with deadly_force thousands of miles from their source . a huge tsunami occurred off the aleutian islands of alaska on april 1 , 1946 , and traveled to hawaii . hawaiians thought warnings of a sea disturbance were an april fool 's joke and ignored them , he said , and 159 people were killed . japan began constructing defenses against tsunamis after it was hit by what professor shuto said was the strongest tidal_wave in its recorded history , with waves up to 40 feet high . the tsunami , which struck in 1960 , started off the coast of chile and took 23 hours to cross the pacific before slamming into japan 's coast .

has a location of japan

kevin mitchell has gained support from an american doctor in his dispute with his japanese employers over the seriousness of a knee injury . joe sroba , mitchell 's agent , said yesterday that dr . ron kvitni of the jobe clinic in california found that the outfielder has cartilage damage in his right knee that requires medication and three weeks of rehabilitation . kvitni , who examined mitchell last week , said the knee should be re evaluated then and did not rule out surgery , sroba said . he said mitchell was told in japan that he had minor ligament tears that should not prevent him from playing . the dispute became so heated that mitchell left japan to seek a second opinion without permission from the company that owns the team . the hawks have accused mitchell of breaching his 4 . 5 million contract , but sroba said the hawks have breached it by their actions . the team suspended mitchell without pay for two weeks , from may 25 june 8 , sroba said , because he had been critical of the club . mitchell , 33 , signed with the hawks when it appeared that the players' strike would jeopardize the season . if he were free of the contract and healthy , he most likely would command attention from some major_league clubs . mitchell injured his knee when he ran into a wall during a game april 14 . he tried to continue playing but left the lineup may 11 . sports people baseball

has a location of japan

lead has the silicon_valley ideal outlived its usefulness ? has the silicon_valley ideal outlived its usefulness ? a generation of engineers became heroes by abandoning careers at big corporations for the chance to make a fortune by building new companies around a risky new technology . lately , however , a small but growing number of influential scholars and executives have been reassessing that ideal . they point , in particular , to the notable decline of the american semiconductor_industry and argue that the ideal of the entrepreneur has been taken to excess . rather than propelling the economy to new heights , the constant spawning of companies may actually be sapping america 's economic might , they assert . industry breakups feared in new books , in such prestigious management periodicals as the harvard business review and in recent speeches , these experts say that the pattern of people constantly leaving established companies to start new ones can break up industries into too many small companies . these companies , they say , do not have the wherewithal to compete against the corporate giants in japan and other countries . the constant exodus also saps the strength of the larger companies and discourages them from making long term investments , these experts say . worse still , according to this view , the smaller companies often have to sell technological secrets for badly needed cash , providing a way for foreign companies to buy the latest technology inexpensively . the most forceful proponent of the reassessment is charles h . ferguson , a political_scientist at the massachusetts_institute_of_technology who studied the decline of the american semiconductor_industry . ''making yourself or a small number of managers rich is very different from contributing to the long run growth of an industry , '' he said . robert b . reich , professor of political_economy at harvard_university , also thinks the nation has put too much store in the myth of the lone entrepreneur , much as it once worshipped the pioneer and the lone cowboy . instead of a few heroes with big ideas , mr . reich maintains , the nation needs more continuous and collective innovation . a similar theme is sounded by clyde v . prestowitz jr . , a former chief trade negotiator with japan , in his book ''trading places how we lost the lead to japan . '' ''can it be that the notion of individualism , so sacred to the united_states , is also its fatal flaw the basic strength that works against itself to reduce strength ? '' he wrote . at this point those attacking entrepreneurship are a distinct minority , and it is far too early to tell whether the reappraisal will grow into a larger movement that could have a meaningful impact on public_policy . nevertheless , this reappraisal marks a sharp departure from the years in which entrepreneurs were widely lionized as innovators and small companies were praised as the source of most new jobs . the young electronics whiz , toiling night and day in the garage to create a product and build a company , became an american hero , praised by president_reagan , pictured on the covers of magazines and envied even by the japanese . envious foreign dignitaries regularly paraded through silicon_valley , that bastion of entrepreneurs . now , however , the nation 's semiconductor_industry , which is responsible for silicon_valley , is reeling from japanese competition . mr . ferguson 's conclusion is that the decline was largely brought about by a condition of ''chronic entrepreneurialism , '' in which the industry was increasingly fragmented by start up companies . the one american company that still seems capable of competing across the board and matching the japanese in semiconductors is the giant international_business_machines corporation , he notes . ''the time of entrepreneurship and instability , and the virtues of the lone start up engineer , are virtually over in this industry , '' mr . ferguson said in an interview . while small companies can often bring products to market quicker than large companies , he said , many falter after their first products . a troubling thesis for other industries the implications of the debate are widespread . the semiconductor_industry was the first that grew in the pattern of corporate defections and start_ups backed by venture_capital . if mr . ferguson is correct , it could mean that trouble may lie_ahead for others that have followed that pattern , like the computer and biotechnology industries . some think this is already happening in the industry that makes the machinery used to produce semiconductors . hundreds of american companies are competing in the market and slowly losing out to the japanese . ''it is simply unlikely that more than 800 relatively small manufacturers can survive against 15 or 20 giants in japan , '' w . j . sanders 3d , chairman of advanced_micro_devices inc . , the chip maker , said in a recent speech . the debate could also have national policy implications . the government , for instance , is considering how best to help american industry gain the lead in the new technology of high temperature superconductors . the options range from an extensive government industry program to leaving it to private enterprise and american ingenuity . argument is disputed many industry officials say mr . ferguson 's thesis is simplistic . they note that many significant industries , including those involving personal_computers and biotechnology , were created by entrepreneurs while existing computer and pharmaceutical companies virtually ignored the new technology . and america 's three large automobile companies , they say , have not fared any better against the japanese than the hordes of small semiconductor companies . ''there 's no ground for the belief that the future will lie in big conglomerates , '' said george gilder , a conservative economist now debating mr . ferguson in the harvard business review . mr . gilder noted that there are more japanese companies than american companies making cars , an industry in which japan has bested the united_states . that suggests that fragmentization is not necessarily a problem . michael borrus , deputy director of the berkeley roundtable on the international economy at the university of california , also disagrees with mr . ferguson . ''we do n't do i.b.m . 's very well in this country , i.b.m . being the major exception , '' he said . a problem regarded as just a phase others say that what is at issue , to some extent , is merely the phase an industry is in . the semiconductor_industry has matured to a stage in which large economies of scale and huge capital investments are necessary , they say , favoring the japanese model of large vertically_integrated firms . but in less mature industries , they add , entrepreneurs still seem to be the most effective way of speeding the new technology . some say that while entrepreneurship is healthy on the whole , it has drawbacks that are often overlooked . mr . reich of harvard argues that the constant departure of employees causes companies to under invest in technology and worker training because they know they will not keep their employees long enough to benefit from such investments . ''the biggest single problem that the american manufacturers have is loss of continuity of management and technology and work force , '' said gene norrett , a semiconductor_industry analyst at dataquest . intel cites setback when three top microprocessor designers left the intel_corporation to form zilog in the 1970 's , the move set back intel 's microprocessor development by a year , according to andrew grove , intel 's president . what is more , rather than pioneering new areas , some start_ups merely duplicate what is already being done elsewhere , he said . one example of how the entrepreneur craze fragmented a market is what happened in the memory chips known as eeproms . in 1981 , several intel engineers left to form seeq technology , a company that developed eeproms and eproms , another kind of memory chip . intel sued for theft of trade secrets . it was settled out of court on undisclosed terms . a few years later , three executives left seeq to form atmel inc . , which worked on the same technology , and was in turn sued by seeq for theft of trade secrets , a suit also settled out of court . another seeq executive , b . k . marya , left to form exel , which was pursuing the same technology . exel failed , and was sold at a bargain price to a japanese company . mr . marya went on to start catalyst semiconductor , which is involved with the same technology and is working with oki electric industry of japan . still other intel executives formed xicor inc . and the lattice semiconductor corporation , which also pursued the same technology . trading secrets for hard cash another problem , some say , is that many young companies trade away their one asset , technology , to foreign companies in exchange for money , manufacturing or marketing help . many of the more than 100 semiconductor start_ups formed in the 1980 's could not afford factories , so they formed contracts with japanese and korean companies to do their manufacturing . a seven year old company , the lsi logic corporation , a leader in semicustomized chips , gave its software technology to the toshiba_corporation in exchange for the manufacture by toshiba of the silicon wafers that lsi needed . in the last month , vlsi technology inc . of san_jose has done the same with hitachi ltd . in exchange for manufacturing processes . kubota ltd . , a japanese heavy equipment manufacturer , owns pieces of several small american technology companies , including the ardent computer corporation , a highly rated designer of small supercomputers . now , some say , the pattern is starting to repeat itself in biotechnology . many small biotechnology companies have licensed their technology to foreign concerns and in some cases have sold stakes to them . some say the contentions about the harm caused by the defections and the flow of technology overseas are exaggerated . the executives involved in the various intel and seeq spinoffs say there is no doubt that the start_ups fractured the market for the products . but they point out that intel never really pursued the eeprom technology and that despite the technology licenses , the japanese have not yet moved into this market . ''intel would have never focused on all of these areas , '' mr . marya said . and j . daniel mccranie , president of seeq , said his company was not hurt by the defections and is now thriving , with sales exceeding 50 million a year . little agreement on what to do even those who think there has been an excess of start up companies differ on what to do about it . some say the situation resulted from too much venture_capital in the early 1980 's . market forces will bring about a correction , they say . mr . ferguson argues that some tax policies that encourage start_ups could be reversed . raising the capital_gains_tax , for example , would reduce the flow of money into venture_capital funds . curbing defections from established companies may be more difficult . the best approach to keep people , executives say , is to grant them stock options and other financial incentives , as well as responsibilty and credit for a job well done . 'intrapreneurialism' grows in a movement known as ''intrapreneurialism , '' large companies have sought to develop new businesses and products by allowing employees to start little enterprises within the company , free of the normal bureaucracy . the experiments have been a mixed success . while intrapreneurs often get the same freedom they would have if they had started their own companies , they usually cannot get the same financial rewards . large companies are often best at the long range basic_research and development that leads to innovations , while small companies are often best at turning a research discovery into a product . then the large companies are often best at manufacturing and marketing . such cooperation is beginning to occur . the national_semiconductor corporation has taken an equity interest in a couple of small semiconductor companies . the xerox_corporation , which developed many of the concepts used in advanced personal_computers , was poor at commercializing its developments . now xerox is encouraging some of its researchers to form small companies in which xerox maintains a stake .

has a location of japan

the contentious relationship between hideki_irabu and the japanese news_media boiled over today when , according to reporters from japan , he angrily took film from photographers and then stomped on the foot of one cameraman and battered his videotape . the incident occurred in the runway outside the yankee clubhouse as irabu was about to leave legends field after pitching four shutout innings in an 11 inning , 5 5 tie with the detroit_tigers . irabu , who has been upset with what he believes is unfair and erroneous reporting by journalists from japan , stopped to talk to the group outside the clubhouse . several of the newspaper reporters said that irabu agreed to speak off the record about how to improve their relationship with him . but as irabu looked to the side , he saw a cameraman with his videotape running . irabu told him to stop , the reporters said , and when the cameraman did not , the pitcher demanded the videotape . irabu walked away , then ran back . keiichiro hoashi , a television cameraman from the tokyo broadcasting system , said irabu wrestled for his machine , stomping on his foot . hoashi agreed to give up the videotape . ''i did n't want him to trash my camera , '' hoashi said . threatening legal action , irabu demanded that the still photographers hand over their film , which they did . the reporters said irabu then unraveled the rolls of film , threw down the videotape and stomped on it , then waved his hand as he walked away . irabu left the complex and was not available to discuss what happened . george rose , irabu 's interpreter , declined comment other than to say that he was gathering information from the japanese reporters . george_steinbrenner , the yankees' principal owner , said an hour later , ''i do n't know anything about that . '' but other club executives were meeting three floors above him to discuss the incident . brian_cashman , the yankees' general_manager , released a statement that said ''we 're aware of the incident . we intend to review the facts . there 's nothing more we can say about it at this time . '' earlier in the day , steinbrenner said tampering charges leveled against the yankees last year in the irabu matter are pending . ''i believe we will be cleared , '' he said . a wry grin formed on steinbrenner 's face . ''you know what could happen is , if he has another year like last year , if they think we tampered , we 'll give him back to whoever had him , '' steinbrenner said , laughing . baseball

has a location of japan

kaori matsuoka stared at the small vase of flowers and the rice cakes at her side as she huddled with her two boys where her house once stood , now an expanse of gray and red rubble . she remembered telling her 13 year old son to put on two pairs of socks to guard against broken glass when he crept out of his crushed bed after the earthquake , and she remembered hearing her husband rush after her older son as he screamed for help . from downstairs her mother , sleeping with her father , cried out that she was all right , and mrs . matsuoka 's husband pulled her from the debris . but she never heard a word from her father . in ruined homes , public shelters , grocery_stores and cracked streets , the residents of this shattered city were all trying to come to grips with their losses . some clung to their families , some volunteered their services , while others simply wanted to tell the world about their pain . " he was asleep and everything had fallen on top of him , " mrs . matsuoka recalled on thursday , her voice trembling , her cold fingers pulling at her cuffs . " i tried to get my father out , but a fire erupted nearby and everyone told me to get away or else it would be too late . " if her parents had lived alone in the house in the neighborhood called higashi nada ku , they would both have died in the earthquake , mrs . matsuoka said , and she pointed to her neighbor 's house , now a_level pile of debris . " the 72 year old woman who lived alone there is somewhere in all that . " then she motioned to the ground by the flower vase , sobbing " my father is still here , too . i think i can see some bones , but i just ca n't make them all out . " she had come back each day since the quake to check on her father , but the smoldering coals from the fire that burned down five houses on this street made it impossible for her to get any closer than the sidewalk until thursday . " we have nothing left , " she cried . " we have to do everything we can to start a new life again , but i have to deal with one problem at a time . and now what i have in mind is to bury my father 's body and only after that can i figure out what we should do next . " the residents of kobe are only beginning to grope their way through the corridors of shock . even those whose own families had survived intact were touched by someone else 's sorrow . toshiko asa , 56 , who with her husband rented a second floor apartment from her friendly landlord below , enlisted help from her relatives to forage for her possessions , all lost in a deep and messy hole . but she knew she was far luckier than her landlord , whose name is nakagawa . " i do n't even know what to say to him , " she said softly , choking back her tears . " he lost his wife and son . " " i remember yelling , 'help ! ' " she said . " i was calling for mr . nakagawa to help us . i did n't realize that his wife had died . their 12 year old son had bruises on him , and the mother was lying on top of him , as though she had been trying to protect him . they died instantly . we tried to massage them back to life , but it was too late . " the troops who came here as rescuers are still searching the debris for survivors , but it is corpses that they are finding . " i 've evacuated three people today all dead , " said a 24 year old soldier . " it 's the first time i 've ever had to do this kind of work . it 's my duty . but i wish they 'd all been alive instead . " the soldier was one of a team of 12 , dressed in khaki outfits and helmets . they climbed under beams and over split dressers and fallen walls , and jumped over gaps in the floor . they sawed beams , shoveled debris and occasionally consulted with one another on extraction techniques . their task at the moment was to help sachiko morimoto and her two brothers . mrs . morimoto , a thin 18 year old covered with blankets to guard against the cold , leaned against a fragment of chair , waiting for a word from the soldiers , who were searching for her mother , almost certainly dead in the jumble of broken plaster walls , pillars , splintered wood and torn belongings that used to be a home . her brothers , who lived in the house and had also been trapped for the first few hours , had been looking for their mother since the earthquake struck tuesday . the soldiers arrived today to help . " i was crying at the beginning , " mrs . morimoto said , putting her hand on a tuft of blanket that covered her year old boy . " but now all i want is to see my mother , to find her . i think that as long as my mother is breathing , she 'll be all right . " the soldiers emerged empty handed , however , without saying anything to the family . mrs . morimoto and her brothers hardly glanced at the soldiers , assuming they were taking a break from their exhausting work . before the soldiers arrived , the neighbors had all helped in the search , setting up a " digging team " who used their hands or whatever tools they could find . " the army ca n't get to everyone , " said ishioka tomotaka , 53 , a businessman . " so we have a civilian crew . " mr . tomotaka 's entire house was bounced into the road , about 10 feet away , crushed and unsalvage able . he and his wife had moved to the local school , now a shelter for a few thousand people . blankets and food were finally reaching many of the shelters today and people waited calmly in the freezing cold for a couple of hours to get wool blankets . at the fukuike elementary_school , more than 500 people lined up in the yard on thursday evening to get one blanket per family . while the distribution of supplies was orderly , the atmosphere in the shelters was part macabre , part pandemonium . children scurried back and forth outside classrooms where the bodies of the dead lay on desks under futons . " we have 19 of them here , " said koichiro taka , a volunteer manager at the school , referring to the corpses . " we ca n't let the people in this area leave the bodies in the demolished houses , so they are brought here . there were more , but we just could n't keep them all . " most classrooms in the school were occupied by the nearly 2 , 000 refugees , who had brought whatever valuables they could rescue from rubble . mr . taka insisted that there had been no theft except for one case when a man drank another 's sake . because the buildings are potentially hazardous in the aftershocks , many grocery_stores are selling their wares from tables out in front . at seer cooperative , a large discount grocery chain , purchases are rationed . managers said there had been no looting . mitsuyoshi sugi , the manager , looked out over the long line of people and shook his head . " we 're japanese , we live on an island and we are disciplined and taught differently , " he said . one thing everyone could identify with was fear of another quake . aftershocks , which continued early this morning , frightened many , and radio reports about the possibility of another quake fanned anxieties and deterred many people from sleeping in homes that may still be safe . " these aftershocks are terrifying now , " said kinue nabeno , 62 , as the floors of the shelter where she was staying shook . " i have n't gone through an experience like this since the second world_war . " quake in japan one neighborhood

has a location of japan

leaning alone against a wall , wearing sunglasses on a rainy afternoon , daisuke yoshioka is a black jacketed image of urban loneliness . but , for this member of japan 's thumb generation , a cyberweb of friends is only thumb strokes away . ''i get about 80 e mails a day , '' this 18 year old college student says , his right thumb flicking expertly through a directory of incoming e mails on the screen of his web capable cellphone . ''some of my friends now only use their thumbs for pressing doorbells , or pointing at things . '' in a quiet technology driven change , young japanese are developing hyperagile thumbs , the fruit of childhoods spent furiously thumbing hand held computer games and now young adulthoods spent thumbing out e mail messages on cellphone key pads . ''their thumbs have become bigger , more muscular , '' said sadie plant , author of a new report of ''on the mobile , '' a study of cellphone habits of people in eight major world cities . talking from birmingham , england , she said that japan 's ''oya yubi sedai , '' or ''thumb generation , '' was ''the most advanced in the world . ''what impressed me in tokyo was their ability to tap in a message without even looking at the keypad , '' she said of her study , which was financed by motorola . television stations in japan have held thumbing speed contests . last year , one young woman was clocked thumbing out 100 chinese_characters in a one minute burst , similar to typing 100 words a minute , a feat normally done with all fingers flying . while thumb operated computer games have been around for years , thumb operated , web capable phones are new . the number of japanese cellphones equipped for e mail has jumped to 50 million today , about 40 percent of the population , from 10 million two years ago . with the united_states years away from such mass use of cellphones for messaging , japan has become a national experiment for intensive thumb use . ''in the u.s. , those young people who hang out in the mall will become the american thumb generation of the future , '' predicted jeffrey l . funk , a business professor at kobe university and author of the new book , ''the mobile internet how japan dialed up and the west disconnected . '' ( isi publications 2002 ) . sending text_messages appeals to japan 's passion for discretion . messages can be sent and received silently in university lectures , business meetings , and in crowded commuter trains where talking on cellphones is often banned . aki goto , a 21 year old college student who carries a tiny american flag and a hot red kiss me sticker on her phone , said of her text_messages ''i am not intruding on others when they are in the middle of doing something . the receivers check them whenever it suits them . '' across town , in a white tablecloth restaurant where talking on cellphones is discouraged , ayako inaba 's right thumbnail peach pink with little silver stars silently guided her through the electronic tree in her cellphone display . ''it has changed how i live , '' said the 22 year old fashion journalist who bought her web capable cellphone as soon as she moved back to tokyo from new york last spring . ''we used to say , 'we will meet at 7 30 in the ginza in front of the lion of mitsukoshi department_store . ' now we just say , 'let 's meet at 7 in the ginza . ' '' wandering tokyo 's premiere fashion district , ms . inaba and her girlfriends negotiate their dockings by thumbing out messages with their coordinates . in contrast to this fluid style of living , she said that in new york , ''i missed a lot of meetings . '' thumbing through her in box , she read from the text index a message in english from her boyfriend in italy , a message in chinese_characters , or kanji , from an old boyfriend in japan , and a message from a college girlfriend . ''she is saying that she has a boyfriend , but is seeing another man i messaged back , 'you like him ? go for it , ' '' ms . inaba said , focusing intently on her flip top cellphone , the indispensable life tool for the modern young japanese . in the restrooms of chic bars and clubs , women are often seen thumbing out progress reports on their dates to girlfriends . ''i am spending less and less time with my parents , so i report my activities to them by e mail , '' said ms . goto , the college student . using the japanese word for cellphone , she continued ''girls use keitai mail more than boys . i get about 50 mails a day . i send out mails like , 'i am here ! ' or 'are you there ? ' '' using a cellphone that retrieves most frequently used characters from memory , ms goto said ''my thumb has become faster and more agile . '' thumb skills are spawning thumb snobs . kannon konno , a_20 year old college student , paused from perusing her e mail to watch a middle_aged man pecking at his cellphone with an index_finger . she commented drily ''i think he should use a p.c . '' on a cellphone , speeding thumbs make road kill of grammar and punctuation . some cellphone companies include 200 pictographs in an electronic vocabulary . interviewed by e mail , etsuko yano , an airline employee , thumbed back this high speed missive ''honestly , i am a expert in to punch out with thumbs ! my thumbs remember exactly the right place of words . i always send mails to my friends from my cellphone using only one hand , i mean only one thumb . very easy and fast and sooooo convenient to make mails for me . '' in japanese , cellphones are eroding people 's writing skills . in a poll of 3 , 000 japanese adults conducted in january by yomiuri shimbun newspaper , 27 percent said that the use of computers and cellphones had made their handwriting worse , and 52 percent said they had forgotten some characters . with more young adults reading cellphones in subways , sales of books and magazines in japan dropped last year , for the fifth year in a row . in the future , japanese thumbs could suffer from the repetitive stress ailments that sometimes afflict the hands of computer workers . but so far , thumb stress is mild , partly because cellphone text addicts glide their thumbs across the keys , exerting minimal pressure . dr . yasuuki watanabe , a tokyo neurologist , said of thumb cases he has treated ''the number is small , i have just seen several . '' thumbs , the doctor cautioned , should not be belittled . scientific research indicates that ''thumbs dominate a huge area of the brain . in japan , if you lose a thumb , you are redesignated under our national labor legislation as heavily handicapped . ''

has a location of japan

lead because of an editing error , an article last sunday about physics experiments in japan misstated the nature of electrons and positrons , elementary particles of matter . although apparently without internal structure , both have mass . because of an editing error , an article last sunday about physics experiments in japan misstated the nature of electrons and positrons , elementary particles of matter . although apparently without internal structure , both have mass .

has a location of japan

lead japan , a world leader in earthquake preparedness , sent its first emergency supplies to soviet armenia today , days after most other countries mobilized quake relief efforts . japan , a world leader in earthquake preparedness , sent its first emergency supplies to soviet armenia today , days after most other countries mobilized quake relief efforts . japanese officials attributed the delay to japan 's constitutional constraints on using military aircraft outside its boundaries . while other countries flew supplies to armenia on military planes beginning saturday , relief officials here said , japan had to wait until commercial flights became available . in the past , japan has been criticized for its slowness to respond to disasters outside its borders , despite its national wealth , well known efficiency and existing elaborate disaster preparedness plans within its earthquake prone borders . ''in 1985 , after the mexican earthquake and the flood in colombia , japan contributed only cash and was severely criticized by the rest of the world , '' said eiryo sumita , head of an emergency rescue team within the official japan international cooperation agency , which was set up last year in response to such criticism . today the japanese cabinet approved a total of 10 million in aid to soviet armenia , including 8 million in grants , 800 , 000 in relief supplies and 490 , 000 in medicine , tents and blankets . the first shipment left this morning on an aeroflot flight to moscow , and japan expects the last shipment to be flown out on thursday . a four member delegation left for armenia on sunday to assess what additional aid might be necessary .

has a location of japan

the metrostars are looking for a new coach . in a move that was expected , carlos queiroz informed the team late sunday_night that he had accepted a 2 million offer to coach in japan . queiroz will leave the metrostars at the end of the major_league_soccer season . with two games left in the regular season and the metrostars ( 14 16 ) in danger of missing the playoffs , the timing of queiroz 's decision is awkward . but he had no choice . queiroz had to make a decision by sunday_night or the offer would have been rescinded . ''we 're sad to see him go , '' charlie stillitano , the vice_president and general_manager of the metrostars , said yesterday . ''we made a substantial offer to carlos , but the offer from japan was too big . '' stillitano started looking for a replacement about two weeks ago , about the time when he heard of the japanese offer to the 43 year old queiroz . ''we intend to hire someone of international stature , '' stillitano said . queiroz , 11 11 since replacing eddie firmani last may 28 , said , ''i cannot give any negative reasons for leaving , but japan is a new challenge for me and i must take the new challenge . '' with their 2 0 loss at columbus on sunday , the metrostars ( 36 points ) lead columbus ( 34 ) and new england ( 33 ) in the eastern conference . columbus will visit giants_stadium tomorrow night and new england will face d.c . united . nice view for tampa_bay with two victories in three days , the tampa bay mutiny ( 18 12 ) clinched first place in the eastern conference . los_angeles leap frogged into first place in the western conference with a_4 2 victory over san_jose on sunday . los_angeles has 43 points to 41 for dallas and kansas_city , while san_jose has 38 . colorado became the first team to be eliminated from the playoffs , and it has cleaned house . coach bob houghton , general_manager rich levine and bruce brown , the goalkeeping coach , all have been dismissed . the playoffs will start next week and the championship game will be oct . 20 at foxboro stadium . surprise from jamaica jamaica , better known for cricket than soccer , pulled off a huge upset in world_cup qualifying on sunday . jamaica shocked honduras with a 3 0 triumph at kingston 's cricket stadium . mexico , playing in the same group , also played in a world_cup qualifying game on sunday , beating st . vincent , 3 0 . coached by brazil 's rene simoes , jamaica eliminated suriname earlier this month for the right to play in this group , while st . vincent eliminated puerto_rico and st . kitts . two of the top teams in each group will advance to the final stages of the region . the united_states , which is in a group with costa_rica , guatemala and trinidad and tobago , will begin competing nov . 3 with a game against guatemala , at robert f . kennedy stadium in washington . testing in england professional players in england will face random breath tests after matches and training sessions , the football association , england 's governing body announced yesterday . soccer notebook

has a location of japan

president_clinton , concerned that the global climate change conference now under way in kyoto , japan , will adopt more stringent pollution targets than the united_states is willing to accept , announced today that he was sending vice_president al_gore to the meeting to argue the american position forcefully . the choice of mr . gore as the senior united_states representative at the conference came after months of intense debate within the administration and was made public after the 10 day meeting had already begun . mr . gore will spend only one day in kyoto , next monday , during which he will present the american policy in a speech and meet briefly with members of other delegations before returning to washington . as recently as last week , administration officials had said that mr . gore would not attend the kyoto meeting because other governments would be represented by lower level officials . but as the momentum for a sweeping declaration from kyoto for reducing climate warming emissions as grown in recent days , white_house officials decided that mr . gore needed to attend to prevent the united_states position from being shouted down . the president said at a white_house picture taking session today that the american policy was ''aggressive and achievable , '' setting realistic targets for reducing gases that trap heat in the atmosphere . he warned delegates from more than 150 nations now meeting in kyoto against ''promising to do something that neither we nor others can do . '' mr . clinton was alluding to a european position that calls for cuts in production of so called greenhouse_gases far beyond anything that american businesses or the clinton_administration believe can be achieved in the next 10 to 20 years . mr . gore said he and the president ''are perfectly prepared to walk away from an agreement that we do n't think will work . '' he added , ''so it should be crystal clear to all the parties there that we 're going to present the u.s . position forcefully and clearly . '' mr . gore has much at stake in the global_warming debate , having been one of the first american politicians to raise an alarm about the problem . mr . gore was a central figure in the administration debate and only reluctantly accepted the compromise position that is far more modest than the prescriptions he offered while in the senate and in his book , ''earth in the balance . '' mr . gore will not lead the united_states delegation to the climate talks , nor will he negotiate with other nations on what commitments the conference will make . those jobs remain with stuart e . eizenstat , the under secretary of state . this fall , the clinton_administration pledged that the united_states would cut emissions to 1990 levels in the next 10 to 15 years . this would be achieved with tax incentives , subsidies for clean energy production and conservation , and by trading pollution permits among industries . mr . gore said that the american proposal would bring a 30 percent reduction in greenhouse_gases in the united_states by the year 2010 . he called that a ''huge change'' that can be achieved without significant economic pain . and he said , ''whether there is an agreement in kyoto or not , the united_states is prepared under president_clinton 's leadership to unilaterally take the steps that we believe should be taken in order to deal with this problem . ''

has a location of japan

lead japan has decided not to finance construction of a 500 mile highway through the amazon rain forests in brazil , a senior republican senator said today . japan has decided not to finance construction of a 500 mile highway through the amazon rain forests in brazil , a senior republican senator said today . senator robert kasten of wisconsin said he had received assurances from japan 's ambassador to the united_states , nobuo matsunaga , that japan would not finance the 300 million highway project , known as br 364 . many environmentalists oppose the project because they fear it will hurt the rain_forest . ''the ambassador assured me the japanese are not considering any proposal to fund this highway , '' mr . kasten said in a statement thursday . he is the senior republican on the foreign operations subcommittee , which has jurisdiction over american funds to multilateral development banks . the planned road , which would link existing road systems in western brazil and neighboring peru , would open up large tracts of rain_forest that are largely undisturbed . brazilian officials have been trying to negotiate japanese financing .

has a location of japan

surrounded by the debris of his home and business , kanji ioka spent the weekend in the same way as many other victims of last month 's earthquake in western japan poking through the rubble of the past and spinning dreams about the future . mr . ioka is 64 , but his plans have nothing to do with retirement . instead , he intends to rebuild his woodworking business " it 'll be even bigger and better than before " and so he gingerly pried apart the remains of his partly collapsed home and business to extricate lathes , saws , chisels and other tools . nearly three weeks after the earthquake ripped through the kobe region , the area is frenetic with the hum of demolition and reconstruction . residents like mr . ioka are energetically trying to reassemble the jigsaw puzzles of their lives , even if quite a few pieces seem unlikely ever to turn up , and the pace of the recovery is dizzying . it seems as if every bulldozer in japan is at work in kobe , knocking down leaning and collapsed buildings and carting the rubble out of town or onto a baseball field in the center of the city . many stores and schools are reopening , railroad workers are repairing tracks and gradually relinking kobe with the rest of japan , and construction teams are assembling prefabricated houses on parking_lots and other spare bits of land . in ancient japan , most homes were rickety shacks that were easily destroyed in typhoons or earthquakes but were repaired and rebuilt just as easily and almost as quickly . this time it is a bit more complicated kobe is full of office towers and apartment blocks that would give a fright to the leaning tower of pisa . but the dangerous buildings are now roped off , and demolition crews are at work all over the city . the death toll in the jan . 17 earthquake stands at 5 , 250 , with 26 , 800 injured . some 270 , 000 people are living in refugee shelters because their homes collapsed or are unsafe . estimates of the total repair bill range on both sides of the 100 billion mark , with a leading business group , the federation of economic organizations , saying the damage could exceed 130 billion . such numbers suggest that the earthquake was one of the most costly natural_disasters in history . in addition , japan 's infrastructure remains a mess , with bullet_train service disrupted at least until may and the country 's biggest container_port kobe , gateway to 11 percent of japanese trade out of commission for perhaps months to come . kobe was the sixth busiest port in the world , but it may take a year to repair the damage completely , and by then kobe may have lost some business permanently to ports in south_korea or hong_kong . to be sure , many economists believe that the extra spending will enliven the japanese economy helping growth rates even if valuable assets were destroyed . but the forthcoming economic stimulus did not help two young men who carted seven boxes of men 's underwear to kobe today and tried to sell the underpants to passers by . " we 're thinking of giving up and going back to osaka , " complained one of the men as they huddled shivering against a wall behind their merchandise while temperatures hovered a little bit above freezing . " they 're giving away free underwear in the refugee shelters , so some folks do n't want to pay money for it . " they said they had sold only 50 pairs of the 2 , 500 they had brought , and their refusal to give their names seemed to have less to do with concern about being seen as opportunists than with embarrassment at their lack of financial acumen . the funeral products sector might seem a sure bet to thrive after such a calamity , but hirokuni hamada , the head of the largest funerary goods company in the kobe area , said glumly that it was not so . his shops suffered 3 million in damage , he said , and his most expensive buddhist altar on sale a 280 , 000 showpiece lined with gold_leaf fell entirely apart in the earthquake . " no one buys these altars now , " mr . hamada said , waving his hand to other wooden altars , which range up to the size of a chest of drawers and are intended to contain the dead person 's name and an urn of ashes . " survivors have no money , and their minds are full of problems of daily life . they ca n't think about buying good altars . " but most factories and shops are reopening or preparing to do so . kawasaki steel corporation , a major steel mill in the kobe area , resumed operations on saturday at many of its sites . public services are also being restored . electricity has returned virtually everywhere , and many homes again have running water . mail carriers face special challenges , since entire blocks have been burned to the ground , but residents post notices over the rubble with their forwarding addresses . the letter carriers jot down the instructions and go to the refugee shelters to try to find the addressees' new homes . " there was a notice saying that this fellow is living here , " said shigetaka fujimoto , a mailman carrying a sheaf of letters for a man whose old address no longer exists . mr . fujimoto parked his motorcycle beside the refugee center and searched for the right classroom so that he could deliver the mail in person . aside from memories of those who died , the biggest concern for many survivors is the nagging uncertainty about what comes next . " my daughter 's school is a shelter , so it has n't opened and i do n't see how it can open , " said toshiko taira , 32 , whose house survived the earthquake intact . she had taken her daughter , itsuki , 8 , to a playground , and the girl seemed perfectly content with the extended vacation . " i like it , " she said . " i spend my time playing . " yoshiko yamamoto , 54 , camping out in a schoolroom turned refugee_camp , acknowledged that she was afraid of the future and of another earthquake . but the only thing to do , she said , is to press on with life . " we want to be optimistic , " she said . " we 'll start our lives over from now , even though that means we 'll have to work very hard . lots of my friends died , so i 'm going to have to live for them too . "

has a location of japan

one quiet saturday morning in new jersey , 7 , 000 miles from an alter_ego appearing on television dribbling basketballs for beer or gas or shoes , yuta tabuse was just a gardener 's son playing a game . practicing next to him on the court at continental arena , his phoenix_suns teammates shawn marion , amare stoudemire and even steve nash towered over him . tabuse , listed at 5 feet 9 inches but closer to 5 7 , had become the first japanese born player in the n.b.a . a lightning quick third string point_guard , tabuse made brief appearances in two of the suns' first three games before phoenix put him on the injured list with a strained quadriceps in order to add forward bo outlaw . but tabuse 's no . 1 jersey continues to sell , marketing opportunities for the suns are developing , and their web_site feeds the frenzy of japanese interest . ''i want to be the pioneer for japanese people , '' tabuse , 24 , said last week in new jersey . ''i just want to keep playing hard . i want to play for myself . '' the last goal seems a tall order . the news_media and potential advertisers have tracked tabuse ( pronounced ta boo say ) since he led his high_school in yokohoma to three national titles . since then , he has been followed to division_ii brigham young hawaii , to his rookie of the year season in the japan super league , to his preseason stint in denver last year , and to a season in which his team , the long_beach jam , won the american_basketball_association title . thirty three reporters from japan were in phoenix for opening night on nov . 3 as tabuse scored 7 points in 10 minutes in a 30 point rout of atlanta . it was a media blitz usually reserved for baseball stars like ichiro_suzuki . tabuse made the front page of the major daily newspapers in japan . ''the guy can play he 's not a novelty , '' suns coach mike d'antoni said . ''he 's a great story , and it 's something we can all get caught up in . but we do n't keep him because he 's a great story . '' although the suns insist that tabuse is not on the team for marketing purposes , it does not hurt the team or the league when such opportunities arise , in phoenix and in japan . in japan , television stations want to broadcast more suns games , said hideki hayashi , n.b.a . japan 's managing director , who said tabuse was photogenic and had an easy going personality . the suns are in discussions with japanese based companies for advertising agreements , according to an official in the league with knowledge of the negotiations . the suns also receive royalties from sales of tabuse jerseys . ''it 's nice that people want to buy my jersey , but i want a chance to play in the games , '' he said . ''i 'm making the team now . but at this level , staying on the team is very hard . '' the suns are one of the surprises in the western conference , which has more to do with nash than tabuse , the other point_guard with a mop of hair . tabuse played baseball growing up but said he never found real joy as a catcher . in 1988 , when he was 7 , he watched magic_johnson and the showtime lakers outshine the detroit_pistons in the n.b.a . finals and was hooked . after not losing a game in high_school , tabuse was steered to the united_states by someone who had an affiliation with nike , said b.y.u . hawaii 's coach , ken wagner . tabuse redshirted the first year , spent the second recovering from back surgery , then helped the team to a 19 10 record in 2001 2 . tabuse averaged 7.6 points and a_league leading 6.5 assists a game . wagner recalled how a japanese telephone company showed up at the university unannounced to shoot a commercial with tabuse , only to be turned away because of n.c.a.a . rules . wagner said he expected tabuse to leave early for a professional opportunity , but he said tabuse might have developed into a better shooter had he played one more season in hawaii . after trying out with dallas , then being cut by denver before the season last year , tabuse has impressed the suns with his work ethic and his quickness in getting the ball upcourt . ''he 's a good decision maker , a great passer , '' nash said . d'antoni said , ''it 's about him getting confidence and him having a presence on the court and not letting his rookie ness , his height and his novelty affect him in any way . '' tabuse has a two year contract , but it is only partly guaranteed . if the suns decide that it makes sense to keep him past jan . 10 , they will guarantee his contract for the rest of the season . ''yuta deserves a shot whether it 's a long term or short term , time will tell , '' the suns' president , bryan colangelo , said . faces from afar

has a location of japan

lead an earthquake shook the tokyo area today , rattling buildings and interrupting train lines , but there were no immediate reports of injuries or damage . meteorological agency officials said the quake measured 5.3 on the richter_scale . an earthquake shook the tokyo area today , rattling buildings and interrupting train lines , but there were no immediate reports of injuries or damage . meteorological agency officials said the quake measured 5.3 on the richter_scale .

has a location of japan

the federal constitutional court , the country 's highest court , paved the way for tuition fees at german universities by ruling that states could regulate higher_education on their own and could demand such fees . some states intend to impose a fee of about 650 a semester . students , who for decades have paid just a modest registration fee , vowed protests against the ruling . victor_homola ( nyt )

has a location of germany

after years of disputes over security and national pride , germany and the united_states signed an agreement today to build a new american embassy on the prominent empty lot where the old one stood before world_war_ii . the site is next to the city 's symbol , the brandenburg_gate , and the spot where berlin 's holocaust memorial is to be built . when both are completed , the historical center of reunited berlin will look less like the outskirts of a suburb , one reason that the germans pressed so hard for this agreement . the difficulty has been security requirements imposed by congress after the bombings of the american embassies in kenya and tanzania in 1998 . the city objected to a 30 meter security zone , about 33 yards , between the building and the street , arguing that it would break up the historic architecture of berlin and require that an important road be closed . but the countries worked out a compromise endorsed by secretary of state colin l . powell that will move the road and narrow the security zone by five yards , making up for the smaller zone with a stronger building design . berlin agreed to move the road about nine yards washington will pay the cost and officials with the holocaust memorial agreed to cede a small part of its site to allow for the road . ''it is a day that some questioned might never come , but here it is , '' said the american ambassador , daniel r . coats , after signing the agreement with mayor klaus wowereit . mr . wowereit 's predecessor , eberhard diepgen , had been upset by the american demands for special security treatment not sought by other countries that were building embassies in the same area , including britain and france . the russian embassy is also nearby , as well as significant german_government buildings , including parliament .

has a location of germany

a german computer technician who killed and ate a willing victim he found through the internet was convicted of manslaughter on friday , in a ruling that reflected the legal ambiguities of a case that has , by turns , fascinated and repulsed people here . a court in kassel , about 90 miles north of here , sentenced the man , armin meiwes , to eight and a half years in prison for killing bernd j rgen brandes , who responded to an internet posting by mr . meiwes seeking someone willing to be ' 'slaughtered . '' the three judge court rejected the prosecution 's plea for a murder conviction and a life_sentence . ''both were looking for the ultimate kick , '' said the chief judge , volker m tze , after reading the verdict . ''this was an act between two extremely disturbed people who both wanted something from each other . '' the conviction on a lesser charge means that mr . meiwes could be released in less than five years . harald ermel , a lawyer for mr . meiwes , said he would appeal the verdict . mr . ermel had argued that his client was only guilty of ''killing on request , '' an illegal form of euthanasia that carries a maximum jail term of five years . ''he 's a model prisoner , '' mr . ermel told reporters at the courthouse . ''he will voluntarily undergo psychiatric therapy to get away from his fetish for men 's flesh . i 'm sure he wo n't do anything like this again . '' that is not likely to calm the nerves of people in rotenburg an der fulda , the secluded village south of kassel where mr . meiwes , 42 , lived in a rambling half timbered house . he played host there to four other men who responded to his web posting , before finding the 43 year old mr . brandes in march 2001 . what followed was an evening of sexual role_playing and violence , much of it videotaped by mr . meiwes . in the end , he stabbed mr . brandes to death with a kitchen knife , hung the corpse on a meat hook , and carved it up , storing pieces of flesh in plastic bags in his freezer . ''with every piece of flesh i ate , i remembered him , '' mr . meiwes said during his trial . ''it was like taking communion . '' it was hard to reconcile the placid , well dressed defendant in the courtroom with the grisly testimony . yet it was the legal dilemma , as much as the lurid details of the case , that consumed the court . convicting mr . meiwes of murder would have been difficult , according to legal experts , because the victim consented , even pleaded , to be killed . but confining mr . meiwes to a psychiatric_hospital would also have presented problems because a court appointed psychiatrist testified that he was not suffering from ' 'diminished responsibility'' at the time of the killing .

has a location of germany

after a long dispute , a berlin court has ruled that the city 's 35 , 000 muslim children will be allowed to receive islamic religious instruction in schools for the first time . the decision , long resisted by the city government , opens the way for the islamic federation , a group representing many of berlin 's 220 , 000 muslims , to give lessons on the koran and islamic tradition . up to now no such instruction had been available , although classes in the roman_catholic and protestant faiths were offered . ''we delayed this much too long , and the result was the decision ended up in court , '' said barbara john , the city 's commissioner for foreign_affairs . ''the fact is , there is a growing phobia about islam in european_countries linked to television images of iraq , algeria and iran , and that fear is gravely misplaced . '' the decision reflects germany 's gradual and painful reconciliation with the fact that it is a multi ethnic state with by far the largest population of foreigners more than seven million in europe . last month the new social_democratic government agreed on draft legislation that would make it easier for these foreigners , who include about 2.2 million turks , to become german . in a country where religious education is generally obligatory , berlin is one of only three federal states that have made religion a voluntary subject . the others are bremen and brandenburg . the authorities here have left it primarily to the catholic and protestant churches to organize classes and curriculums in two free hours provided every week . about 40 percent of pupils have chosen to attend . but under the pretext that no suitable organization existed to represent the city 's large muslim population in drawing up a syllabus , berlin had barred islamic instruction despite a campaign by the islamic federation that lasted more than 10 years and ended up in court . ''we had been forced to send our children to mosques'' to receive instruction in their spare time , said bekir durak , the chairman of the federation 's executive committee . ''the problem is that the media have often portrayed us as radicals , although our ideals are tolerance and understanding . '' still , some doubts persist about the nature of the federation , which is generally regarded as the most radical of three large islamic groups in berlin . the others are the turkish islamic union and the islamic cultural centers . ''it is unfortunate that the court identified only one organization , and the one seen by other groups as closest to the fundamentalists , '' ms . john said . ''but this is the result of our own failure to come up with a different solution earlier . '' the turkish islamic union has in the past complained that the federation is close to the welfare party , the populist islamic movement in turkey that is now banned . but mr . durak said that such allegations were unfounded and that the federation was prepared to work with the other two islamic groups to agree on an educational program . of berlin 's muslim population , about 70 percent are turks , with other large communities from bosnia and lebanon . the city has 70 mosques . in a statement issued today , the berlin city_council said that all classes on islam in the city should be taught in german , and it urged the three main islamic organizations to ''form a joint association with the aim of defining the framework of lessons . '' classes are expected to begin next summer .

has a location of germany

after a decade of increasingly fraught debate over the place of memory in a society now two generations removed from the nazi_era , the german_parliament approved a plan today for the building of a vast memorial in the heart of this city to the six million jewish victims of the holocaust . the vote opened the way for the construction near the brandenburg_gate of a project designed by the new york architect peter eisenman . it will combine a field of more than 2 , 000 stone pillars with a building that is officially being called a ' 'documentation center'' but will have many of the attributes of a holocaust museum . ''we are not building this monument solely for the jews , '' said wolfgang thierse , the speaker of parliament . ''we are building it for ourselves . it will help us confront a chapter of our history . '' in fact , that confrontation has been going on for many years , often with a wrenching honesty . so insistent has reflection on hitler been that many germans have become impatient with it . indeed , the country 's protracted difficulty in reaching agreement on what sort of memorial , if any , to build in the berlin now being reborn as the capital of a united germany clearly reflected a tension between remembrance and a growing desire among young germans to emerge from history 's long shadow . but the debate on those issues had become increasingly circuitous and the vast site reserved for the memorial between the glistening , newly built potsdamer platz and the reopened reichstag had become a growing embarrassment . as other empty stretches of land were filled with new buildings , the 4 . 9 acre vacant lot began to resemble a hole in the city 's heart . since taking office eight months ago , the center left government of chancellor_gerhard_schroder has pushed for a decision , and its top cultural official , michael naumann , has led the quest for a compromise . the efforts evidently paid off today as parliament voted by 314 to 209 , with 14 abstentions , to approve mr . eisenman 's ambitious project . in many ways , the memorial 's size and position insure that it will be a central element in the emergent city of refurbished or newly built ministries and embassies mushrooming where the berlin_wall once stood and where hitler once presided . the vote backed a compromise reached between mr . eisenman and mr . naumann last january . the agreement involved reducing the number of stone pillars to about 2 , 000 from close to 3 , 000 and adding a building that will house an extensive archive , an information center and an exhibition space . in effect , the compromise reflected a desire to combine the purely artistic expression of remembrance and remorse with a center that would be accessible and useful . mr . naumann called the idea a ' 'superb synthesis . '' ''the 10 year discussion has at last reached a successful conclusion , '' said andreas nachama , the head of the berlin jewish_community . ''now the plans can finally be implemented . '' but it was evident in parliament today that strong reservations persist , particularly in berlin itself . mayor eberhard diepgen , a christian democrat , denounced mr . eisenman 's project for its ' 'monumentality'' and said it would have no resonance for future generations . mr . diepgen is known for his intimate sense of this city 's mood , and with elections later this year , he clearly took a position that he believes will be well received locally . in theory , city authorities could still stall the construction , now set to begin next year , but that seems unlikely given parliament 's clear message today that the time has come to get on with it . the mayor had backed a plan for a far smaller stone memorial inscribed simply with the words ''thou shalt not kill'' proposed earlier this year by a berlin theologian , richard schroder , saying that its ''precision , dignity and modesty'' gave it more power than mr . eisenman 's project . but the parliament voted today to reject that idea . one evident problem with the inscription ''thou shalt not kill'' is that it appeared to reflect the mood of the germany of the postwar years with its insistence that ''only peace'' would go out from german soil , rather than the germany that has recently been at war in the balkans and has now sent thousands of peacekeeping troops to kosovo . confronted by the conflict of two basic principles of the postwar german state ''no more war'' and ''no more auschwitz'' chancellor schroder 's government has sided with the latter , explaining its decision to join the nato bombardment of kosovo in terms of the need to stop ethnic persecution . before approving mr . eisenman 's plan , the parliament voted by 325 to 218 , with 8 abstentions , to support the building of a memorial specifically dedicated to the jews , rather than one to all victims of the nazis . one german jewish leader , solomon korn , expressed_regret over the decision . ''the bundestag made a mistake by voting for a memorial that commemorates only the jewish victims of the holocaust , '' he said . ''by doing so , it creates the impression that there is a hierarchy among the victims . '' but in general germany 's small but growing jewish_community swelled recently by the arrival of thousands of jews from russia expressed satisfaction at the outcome .

has a location of germany

bent over books once held by goethe and schiller , workers in white lab coats brush away ash and creeping mold , doing their best to salvage the centuries old victims of a recent fire that devastated one of germany 's cultural treasures . about 2 , 000 books are stacked on tables behind the workers in a large room at the center for book conservation here . the books are a small portion of the 62 , 000 heavily damaged in a fire at the anna amalia library in weimar in september . ''i was pretty crushed , because i know the library , '' said manfred anders , the center 's director and chief executive , as he thumbed through brittle pages . ''i know what sorts of books are in there . the value of the collection is in front of your eyes . '' in the weeks since the sept . 2 fire , mr . anders has served as a sort of nurse to the books rescued from the flames and water . about 10 percent of the library 's collection of a million books has been irreparably damaged , library officials say . but the 600 piece bible collection , including martin_luther 's 1534 copy , and the huge faust and shakespeare collections have been saved or only slightly damaged . and between 25 , 000 and 30 , 000 other rare books are presumed lost , listed like missing persons in a databank on the library 's web_site . ''the texts in weimar were of a special nature in that they had their own history , '' said michael knoche , the library 's director since 1991 , emphasizing their personal connections with the greats of german literature . ''they were used by goethe , schiller and wieland . they wrote on the book covers , or margins . '' geothe was himself administrator of the library , which was established in 1691 . the fire , which the police blame on an electrical short in the 473 year old building , started in the upper two floors and devastated the 18th_century rococo salon built by the library 's namesake , duchess anna amalia of saxony weimar . before firefighters could control the flames , most of the duchess 's personal musical collection , thousands of books from the 16th to 18th_century and 33 oil paintings were gone . those damaged by the fire and water were quickly shipped off to mr . anders 's center , one of the largest in the world . in the last few weeks , specialists there have dried and ' 'stabilized'' them . now , mr . anders and library officials are preparing for perhaps an even bigger challenge holding the interest of the government and the public long enough to help finance the tens of millions it will cost to rebuild the damaged collection . ''i am very worried about that , '' mr knoche said . he was among those in the human chain formed to pull books out of the library even as the roof continued to burn . ''the reaction we received after the fire , it was overwhelming , '' he said , adding that he feared that in the three years it is estimated the building restoration will take , at a cost of more than 12 million ( 10 million_euros ) , the public will have lost interest . and no one is ready to talk about how long it will take to restore the cultural treasures the building contained . in the week after the disaster , trucks filled with books arrived daily at the center , situated in a bland office complex on the outskirts of leipzig . about 34 , 000 had suffered heavy water damage and another 28 , 000 both fire and water damage . it will be up to mr . anders , mr . knoche and a team of book restoration experts to determine just how great a blow the fire was to europe 's cultural legacy . clearly , the scope of the disaster has not been lost on literary fans abroad , or on the residents of weimar , many of whom seem to have almost a personal attachment to the city 's treasures . more than 2 million has so far been donated to the library , either from benefit concerts or private donations . but the amount is not nearly enough , experts say . complete restoration of a single book , depending on how great the damage , can cost between 491 and 3 , 194 . with an estimated 62 , 000 books with various degrees of damage , the total could reach more than 73 million . a_4 . 9 million pledge from the state and federal governments will go to reconstructing and renovating the baroque library . the 1 . 8 million devoted to book restoration is only intended for immediate first aid brushing the books clear of debris and mold and forcing them back into their original shapes . that done , the books are wrapped in plastic bags and stacked in a large freezer at minus 68 degrees_fahrenheit . they are finally transferred to a gigantic freeze drying machine that evaporates the ice into gas , so that the books do n't suffer additional water damage . ''first we dry them , and then the question is what is possible , '' said mr . anders , a chemist by training . ''and that question is not necessarily dependent on the technology , but the financial possibilities . '' he said that when it comes to the country 's cultural legacy , german public officials are more inclined to invest in building preservation than in the written treasures contained inside . book restorers say their trade is a small but growing industry in germany ultimately limited by how much spare cash individual donors , foundations or governments have . ''restoration is a preventative measure for the future , '' said helmut bansa , a retired professor and publisher of the trade publication restaurator . ''like in other areas , it is often cut in order to save money , to the disadvantage of future generations . '' following the floods along the elbe river in germany in 2002 , book restorers saw a spike in interest in their work , but that curiosity ebbed . for the last several weeks , reporters and photographers have descended on mr . anders 's center asking for interviews and filming portions of the 80 tons of soaked and blackened books being pulled out of boxes . mr . anders is grateful for every photo_op , knowing that his business often depends on the free publicity . spun off of the german national library in 1998 , the center for book conservation has seen the number of contracts it receives sink in recent years , but it still has one from the library of congress in the united_states to work on 10 , 880 pages of american newspapers from the 1940 's and 1950 's to extend their lifespans . the weimar state agency responsible for the library estimates that the first books will not be restored until the end of 2005 at the earliest . to raise money for this work , a number of events are planned , including an exhibition of the art saved from the fire . ''at the moment , we have no other choice but to keep people talking about us , '' mr . knoche said . thousands of books , stabilized for the time being by the center , have already made their way back to weimar . the deliveries will continue at the rate of roughly 2 , 000 a week until the middle of 2005 . the library already has an underground storage_facility in which it had planned to hold the collection ahead of its move to a new building . it was five weeks before the move that the fire broke out .

has a location of germany

lead bush_administration officials said today that the situation in east_germany was unstable and unpredictable because the steps taken by the country 's new leaders were inadequate to end the turmoil there . bush_administration officials said today that the situation in east_germany was unstable and unpredictable because the steps taken by the country 's new leaders were inadequate to end the turmoil there . the state_department reacted coolly to measures announced by egon krenz , the east_german leader , that would allow east_germans to travel outside their country for up to 30 days a year . ''it does seem to signify a liberalization when compared to existing travel rules , '' said richard a . boucher , the deputy spokesman at the state_department . ''nonetheless , the changes are still far from full freedom of movement , one of the basic human_rights which we 've always called for and always supported . we 'll just have to see whether this proposed new law will satisfy the wishes of the east_german population . '' american officials said they had no reason to believe that mr . krenz would emerge as an advocate of economic and political change in the mold of mikhail s . gorbachev , the soviet president . ''gorbachev shows native curiosity , '' said herbert s . okun , an expert on eastern_europe who served as the united_states ambassador to east_germany from 1980 to 1983 . ''he likes give and take . krenz is leaden , heavy and plodding . '' a state_department official said ''the outlook for east_germany is quite dim . it will be difficult to stanch the flow of people out of the country . i foresee increasing social_unrest , and there is an existential problem , too . if the leaders make the necessary reforms , they may reform themselves out of existence . they may self destruct . the regime has been illegitimate , and has been perceived as illegitimate , for a long time . '' on friday , mr . krenz announced the dismissal of five senior members of the politburo . but administration officials said they would not praise that move until they saw who the replacements were . john edwin mroz , president of the institute for east west security studies , a research center in new york , said , ''there is a real question whether east_germany can remain a viable state . ''you have a revolution from below , '' mr . mroz said . ''it 's an explosion in east_germany , whereas there was a gradual process of evolutionary change in hungary and poland . the east_german leadership has a salvage operation , and they are following , not leading , the people . '' he said it was ''inconceivable that the soviet_union would allow a total breakdown of law and order in east_germany . '' president_bush 's national_security adviser , brent_scowcroft , and other administration officials said washington stood ready to help west_germany if the flow of east_german emigres became unmanageable . but the united_states does not appear to have concrete plans , and administration officials said they would not provide such assistance unless bonn requested it . 'we have not been approached' ''we would have to be approached by the west_german government with a specific request for assistance , '' mr . boucher said . ''at this point , we have not been approached . we also expect the west germans would first approach the united_nations_high_commissioner_for_refugees , since the high_commissioner has primary responsibility for such international assistance . '' marlin fitzwater , the white_house spokesman , said ''although we see large numbers of people leaving , the rate of entry into west_germany appears manageable at this time . we believe west_germany is doing an excellent job of handling this flow of people . '' on the cbs_news program ''face the nation , '' mr . scowcroft said sunday that the orderly exodus of east_germans could become chaotic if ' 'something unexpected'' happens . the situation is complicated because ''there 's no east_german nation , '' mr . scowcroft said . the east_germans ' 'distinguish themselves only by their political and economic system , '' he said . so ''to the extent they reform'' that system , ''they undercut their reason for existence , '' he said .

has a location of germany

when fereshta ludin completed her training to become a grade school teacher six years ago , she seemed to be laying the groundwork for a classic immigrant success story . after coming to germany at age 14 , ms . ludin , an afghan born muslim , sailed through the education system , married a german , and earned , at 24 , the credentials to teach in the country 's public schools . she was even qualified to teach the german_language . but education officials prohibited her from taking a public job because she wears a head_scarf . the officials , from the southern german state of baden w rttemberg where ms . ludin received her qualifications , contended that the head_scarf could have a negative religious influence on schoolchildren . ms . ludin sued . now , after being rejected by three lower courts , her case is before the constitutional court in karlsruhe , germany 's highest court . the dispute has divided public opinion and become a touchstone for anxieties about the country 's growing islamic minority . experts say that the court 's decision , which is expected as early as july , could affect german integration policy for years to come . ''the head_scarf has become a symbol for the issue of what role islam can have in germany , '' said mathias rohe , a professor of law and an expert on islamic minorities in europe at the university of erlangen . on paper , ms . ludin 's high_court challenge hinges on the extent to which freedom of belief and equal right to public employment do not interfere with the concept of a secular_state . ms . ludin contends that her head_scarf is a matter of personal preference and has no bearing on her ability to teach . baden w rttemberg 's education minister , annette schaven , contends that ms . ludin 's head_scarf violates ''the strict neutrality of public schools in religious issues . '' but ms . schaven , a christian democrat , has made clear that her primary concerns are about islam . in denying ms . ludin a job in 1998 , the minister argued that a head_scarf was ''understood as a symbol of the exclusion of woman from civil and cultural society . '' both conservatives and many on the left here contend that the head_scarf is merely a device of social control in islamic cultures where women do not enjoy equality with men . in an essay in der_spiegel last week , alice schwarzer , a prominent feminist , wrote that a decision in favor of ms . ludin could lead to ''parallel worlds'' in which a small minority was allowed to practice islamic_law and establish a restrictive social system within germany 's borders . ''the woman 's veil has been the flag of islamic crusaders , '' she wrote . ms . ludin , who now teaches at a private islamic school in berlin , responds that the german school officials , not her faith , have limited her professional aspirations . ''it amounts to a ban on employment because of my beliefs , '' said ms . ludin , now 31 , in an interview . ''as a teacher , i am supposed to educate children to become literate and tolerant . but how can i do this when i have to renounce my own identity , and in a democracy where tolerance is considered a cardinal virtue ? '' as ms . ludin 's supporters point out , she makes an unlikely candidate for islamic crusader . she is the daughter of a diplomat and a schoolteacher . she spent parts of her early childhood in germany where her father was briefly stationed and in saudi_arabia , before immigrating as a teenager to germany . by ms . ludin 's own account , she surprised her family when , as a young adult in germany , she started wearing a head_scarf . she describes the decision as a free choice based on her personal faith . ''i am just as against the oppression of women and inequality as any other german , '' she said . ''if the head_scarf were a political symbol , i would be the first to take it off . '' baden w rttemberg officials acknowledge that there is no evidence that ms . ludin is trying to bring political islam into the classroom . ''we believe that she does n't want to be a missionary and that she shares our democratic values , '' ferdinand kirchof , the legal representative of baden w rttemberg , told the constitutional court this month . ''it has to do with the image that is projected . '' the separation of church and state is not as strictly defined in germany as in the united_states . churches are financed by state administered taxes , and religious instruction takes place in most german public schools . nonetheless , the constitutional court has placed limits on the use of religious symbols . in a landmark 1995 case , the court forbade hanging a crucifix in a public classroom . but that ruling , experts point out , related to religious symbols on public buildings , not to personal attire .

has a location of germany

with the end of the millennium threatening to provoke storms of banalities , why not ask the erudite and enlightened to offer some profundities to guide us into the unknown ? that , at least , is one inspiration for an international essay contest that has just been announced in weimar , germany . another is that weimar will hold the rotating title of european cultural_capital in 1999 and would like the world to take note . in the 18th and 19th_centuries , european academies of sciences and arts frequently challenged the best minds to wrestle with the philosophical concerns of the day . indeed , jean jacques rousseau was himself ' 'discovered'' in 1749 when he won an essay competition on the question of ''whether the re establishment of the sciences and arts has contributed to the purification of manners . '' these competitions , need one add , were treated with utmost seriousness . kant participated on several occasions , and schopenhauer won a royal norwegian society prize in 1839 with his famous treatise ''about will in nature . '' in 1780 , frederick ii of prussia , vetoing a topic proposed by the berlin academy , decreed the question to be whether ''it is useful that the people be deceived , either by being allured into new errors or by being confirmed in their present ones . '' this time round , the scope of the contest is much broader in that original contributions are being sought from all over the world and can be presented in any of seven languages . on the other hand , the chosen subject , while both topical and universal , could easily have been taken from a philosophy examination paper in any university ''liberating the past from the future ? liberating the future from the past ? '' still , to have agreed on a question is already an achievement . the organizers , weimar 1999 and lettre international , a european literary_magazine , invited some 900 philosophers , historians , scientists , artists and assorted luminaries from around the world to propose topics . in september , a cabal of experts sifted through 113 replies and eventually picked ''liberating the future from the past ? '' from a french philosopher , michel surya , although adding the same question in reverse . participants have until nov . 30 , 1998 , to present their papers unsigned , but with their names in accompanying sealed envelopes in german or in any of the six official united_nations languages english , french , russian , arabic , chinese and spanish . the maximum permitted length varies slightly with each language , but with english it is roughly 10 , 500 words . sub juries will be formed for each language , with a maximum of 49 essays presented to the final jury , which will pick the winners in october 1999 . the authors of essays placing first , second and third will receive prizes worth 28 , 500 , 16 , 950 and 11 , 300 ( at current exchange_rates ) . these and other selected essays will eventually be published in a book . details on the rules of the contest can be found on the internet site www . weimar1999 . de essay contest the organizers of the contest appear to be taken with the concept of globalization , which no doubt accounts for their global invitation . they also say that true knowledge today must be ''international , interdisciplinary , multilingual and multicultural , '' as they put it in an explanatory note . but can thought be global ? only an overview of essays written from divergent historical , racial , cultural and philosophical points of view can answer this question . more relevant perhaps , will ordinary mortals understand essays written and judged by superior minds ? the contest 's organizers , evidently pleased with their chosen topic , explained ''it is hoped that this question will prove sufficiently ambivalent in embracing associations ranging from nietzsche 's 'untimely' critique of historical formation to the surrealistic disassembly of the continuous universe . '' excuse me , can you repeat that slowly , please ? topics not chosen here are some of the topics suggested ( but not chosen ) for an international essay competition and their proponents why does intolerance persist ? ( stephen bronner , political_scientist , united_states ) europe source of the highest and font of the worst , of humanism and of barbarism . ( george steiner , literary critic , britain ) should we welcome or fear a revival of religion in the 21st_century ? ( hans magnus enzensberger , essayist and novelist , germany ) how does global civilization preserve the identity of each culture ? ( yanh lian , poet , china ) globalization will it threaten or enhance human freedom ? ( elemer hankiss , sociologist , hungary ) are there today areas of knowledge whose exploration should be restricted ? ( roger shattuck , literary critic , united_states ) think tank

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new allegations about activities of the former east_german secret_police have deepened a scandal that already casts an unwelcome shadow over german political life . on tuesday , a federal_prosecutor , alexander von stahl , ordered the arrest of five former agents of the stasi , as the secret_police agency was known . he said that in the 1980 's , they conspired with a west_german guerrilla group , the red_army_faction , to attack an american_army base and kill an american general . the news came only days after a secretary to anke fuchs , a senior member of parliament , was arrested with her husband on charges they had spied for the stasi . and here in schwerin , capital of the eastern state of mecklenburg western pomerania , a number of legislators have been charged with ties to the stasi in a dispute that threatens to bring down the state government . reports of underground group although the stasi was officially dissolved after the collapse of east_germany 's communist government last year , tens of thousands of former agents , and an even larger number of paid informants , are living normal lives in both eastern and western germany . prominent anti stasi campaigners complained this week that a secret organization of former agents called red fist is trying to intimidate them . many of the most spectacular charges against the stasi have to do with activities it carried out in past years , such as its reported support for the red_army_faction . according to statements by prosecutors this week , stasi agents trained red_army_faction members to use the anti tank grenades they fired in a failed attempt to kill gen . frederick kroesen , commander of american_forces in europe , in september 1981 . the stasi is now also believed to have trained red_army fighters who bombed the american air base at ramstein around the same time , wounding 17 people . among the five arrested on tuesday in connection with the attacks was gerhard neiber , who was one of the top stasi officers . erich mielke , the former stasi chief , who is already in a berlin jail facing trial on other charges , was also named as a defendant . shocking though such charges are , they concern past actions by an agency that no longer exists . more disturbing to human_rights campaigners are indications that some former stasi agents have adapted to new political conditions and made their way back into positions of power . investigation in eastern state no one knows how successful these former agents have been in reasserting their old authority . some indication may come next month , when a cryptic drama now unfolding here reaches its denouement . in mecklenburg western pomerania , as in other parts of eastern_germany , voters went to the polls late last year to choose a new state legislature . the 66 elected members , in one of their first acts , took a bold step that no other legislature has taken . they voted to ask germany 's chief stasi investigator , hans_joachim gauck , to certify that all of them were free of any taint of collaboration with the stasi . mr . gauck submitted his report to legislative leaders last week . it has been kept secret , but each legislator has been told what it says about him or her . according to press reports , mr . gauck found that at least 10 legislators had worked for or in some way collaborated with the stasi . the implicated legislators were quietly given four weeks to quit their posts . none have yet done so . expulsion is suggested it is not clear what will happen to those who refuse to step down . there have been suggestions that they be denounced in public and then expelled from the legislature . " the clock is ticking , " said gottfried timm , a clergyman turned legislator who is a social_democratic_party leader here . " people are having to confront their own past . and we as a legislature are on trial before the voters . " " to me it 's awful that we have former stasi people in our midst . it means that some of us are the same people who were oppressors for 40 years . if that 's true , then we do n't have the moral legitimacy to govern this state . " social_democratic legislators have decided to demand new state elections if it turns out that more than 10 of their colleagues are implicated as stasi collaborators . not all legislators here are as insistent as mr . timm and his supporters . the president of the legislature , rainer prachtl , said in an interview that he did not see why former stasi agents should be banned from the legislature .

has a location of germany

last year , when oliver schwarz and his partner , bertram hesse , founded their internet software start up in berlin , they needed a name for the company . mr . schwarz and mr . hesse , both from the east_german town of jena , brainstormed with their core team most of whom were also originally from the former east_germany and found themselves rejecting cyber sounding names like ''sitesprint , '' one of their earlier choices , in favor of terms from the communist era . they settled on subotnic . it 's from ''subbotnik , '' which means ''working on saturday for free , '' explained mr . schwarz , who left east_germany , which was formally known as the german_democratic_republic , for political reasons in the early 1980 's . ''subbotnik was a russian term used by the g.d.r . to get people to work on saturdays 'for the freedom of the socialist revolution , ' or something like that . '' part inside joke about the nature of a start up , which generally entails working saturdays , and part ironic reinterpretation of a socialist term for the internet age , the name subotnic is also a play on the computer terms ''su'' ( super user ) ''bot'' ( shopping bot ) and ''nic'' ( network information center ) . ''everybody from the east gets it , '' mr . schwarz said , grinning . subotnic , which developed a proprietary system for managing content on the internet , did not keep its name for long in august , intershop a.g. , a successful east_german internet software start up , bought subotnic . but subotnic , now intershop berlin , did keep its east_german edge . founded in 1995 in jena , intershop is ( also not without irony ) named after intershops , which were stores in the former east_germany that sold high quality goods to western visitors or privileged east_germans for west_german marks . the sale of their start up secures a spot for mr . schwarz and mr . hesse in the ranks of former east_german high technology entrepreneurial success stories a category essentially created by intershop 's founder , stephan schambach . mr . schwarz said he met mr . schambach in the mid 90 's through mr . hesse 's connections in jena 's technology community . ''we have similar roots , '' said mr . schwarz about the two companies . ''we have matching cultures , so we felt very good about selling our company to intershop at such an early stage . '' according to soren schuster , an investment manager in the leipzig office of 3i germany , a division of 3i , the venture_capital_firm based in london , the former east_germany with its tradition of quality technical higher_education , its dearth of competitive old economy industry , and new role models like mr . schambach of intershop will see more and more high tech start_ups in the future . earlier this year , 3i germany acquired technologieholding , the venture_capital_firm that funded intershop in 1996 technologieholding also funded subotnic in 1999 . entrepreneurship is a recent phenomenon in germany , which has a history of large , corporate business structures in the west and socialism in the east . mr . schuster of 3i germany said that high tech business people from former east_germany have certain advantages over their west_german counterparts when it comes to adopting entrepreneurial attitudes . but while former east_germans typically have had less ready cash to seed their companies and a smaller professional network than the west germans , mr . schuster said , coming from east_germany is an opportunity , too . ''the intershop guys did n't know too much about the western_world when they started , but that meant that , unlike many west germans , they were n't blinded by the ways of the old economy . '' mr . schwarz also attributes his high tech success in part to his east_german roots people who grew up in a very secure situation in the west often want to wait for perfect professional situations before they act . he observed , ''in the new economy , you ca n't wait for the perfect situation you need to deal with improvised situations and make decisions that are n't perfect . that 's certainly something i 've had experience with in my own history . '' now 35 , mr . schwarz said that when he was a teenager in jena in the early 80 's , he was part of a group of dissident artists . at age 18 , angered by the government 's restrictive policies toward artistic expression , he said that he wrote a letter of protest to erich_honecker , the former president of east_germany . as a result , mr . schwarz said , the stasi ( the east_german secret_police ) ransacked his apartment and , finding his handwritten draft , arrested him . mr . schwarz said he was sent to prison for two years together with his girlfriend at the time and a dozen other artists who had signed the letter . of his time in prison , he said , ''it was hard , but you work and you sleep . at first it was all criminals , but then there were more and more political_prisoners , so we made our own group . '' while mr . schwarz was in jail , dissident friends who had already left east_germany for the west publicized his group 's arrest and lobbied the west_german government for their release . after six months of political negotiations between the two countries , mr . schwarz and his girlfriend were freed and moved to west_berlin his friends were also released . in west_berlin , mr . schwarz studied art , art_history and media design subjects that he had been prohibited from studying in jena , and that would provide a segue into multimedia art and , then , internet business . in 1988 , he received a grant to go to california institute of the arts , near los_angeles . there , he spent a year working in an apple computer lab and learned english . he happened to be in berlin for a visit when the wall fell and decided to stay in germany instead of going back to los_angeles . after finishing his degree in media studies and design in germany , mr . schwarz worked in berlin as a multimedia artist and curator . in 1997 he founded a web consultancy with mr . hesse . for a meeting with their first potential client , the two asked their friends to come to their office ( in mr . schwarz 's apartment ) and to bring their laptops . ''they all sat down with their laptops , like they were working . we wanted it to look like we were already big , like we were already 20 people , '' mr . schwarz said . ''i guess it worked we got the client . '' while working as web consultants , mr . schwarz and mr . hesse came up with the web content management system that was later the basis for subotnic . ''things are always happening in your life , '' mr . schwarz added . ''you just have to be aware of the opportunities . '' online overseas

has a location of germany

the fiasco over the appointment of a new managing director for the international_monetary_fund has caused serious damage to the critical german american relationship and revealed deep personal rifts within the governing coalition of gerhard_schroder , the social_democratic chancellor . with accusations flying between berlin and washington over one aborted german candidacy and another whose fate remains unclear , two things are evident germany 's new political assertiveness makes the united_states uncomfortable , and the german perception of america is increasingly critical . michael steiner , the chief diplomatic adviser to mr . schroder , said ''it has been quite an experience trying to hit this moving target set by the clinton_administration . we have discovered that the superpower sees its global role not only in the military area but also in setting the rules of globalization through the i.m.f . '' he added , ''the superpower in washington grew stronger , but europeans are also gaining consciousness of themselves and cannot share the view that the role of the i.m.f . is simply to transport the philosophy of the superpower . '' his words reflected a strained moment in a german american relationship that has stood at the core of germany 's postwar growth into a european power . ''the fight with america'' was the unambiguous headline in the influential paper die_zeit this week over a lead article that was a chronicle of discord . chief among the disputes , for the moment , is that surrounding the fund . the collapse of the candidacy of caio koch_weser , germany 's deputy finance minister , after it was rejected by the united_states has left a bitter residue marked by charges and countercharges as to who misled whom and who really made the mess . the atmosphere was not improved when the government of social democrats and greens this week proposed a more conservative official , horst kohler , and the clinton_administration scarcely rushed to embrace him . mr . kohler , the german president of the european bank for reconstruction and development , appears likely to gain at least the formal approval of european_union finance ministers on monday . but italy is known to have strong private reservations , and the position of the united_states remains unclear . the affair has proved particularly poisonous because mr . schroder habitually a follower of the all politics is local school with little taste or instinct for international affairs chose to make a personal crusade of the german quest to head the fund in washington . ''this was the chancellor 's step into the foreign_policy arena , '' said a member of the cabinet . ''and now he is angry with the united_states , angry with joschka_fischer and angry with himself . '' the chancellor 's irritation with mr . fischer , the green foreign_minister , has some of its roots in the fact that he remains much more popular than mr . schroder . but it has been immeasurably compounded by mr . fischer 's evident decision , in the words of the cabinet member , ''to disappear into the bushes on the i.m.f . matter . '' the foreign_minister , whose taste for the cameras is normally little short of irrepressible , has been conspicuously quiet , and if his much vaunted closeness to madeleine k . albright , the united states secretary of state , is real , it has proved of no evident usefulness to germany in its quest to lead the fund . there is little love lost between mr . fischer and mr . steiner , the modern day representatives of an old german rivalry between the foreign ministry and the chancellery over the control of foreign_policy . always simmering , this friction has now been revived with a bang . to american officials involved in the debacle , the overall impression has been one of german inexperience , mismanagement , clumsiness and ineptitude . this view , naturally , is not appreciated in berlin . ''the german approach was to say , now we 're grown up , we 're going to show you we 're grown up , and we 're just going to do it , without prior consultation , without lobbying , without involving our embassies nothing , '' said one american who has played a central role in negotiations . certainly , germany feels it is grown up . mr . schroder 's government has been at pains to make clear that it views itself as the initiator of a new phase in german history , one in which the period of postwar tutelage is over , a ''berlin republic'' has been born , and the country is ready to drop all adolescent coyness and call itself ''a great european power . '' as die_zeit put it this week in trying to explain why so many tensions with the united_states exist over the monetary fund , over american plans for a national missile_defense system , over capital_punishment , over the european role in nato and over much else ''past are the times when one was afraid of one 's own courage and rather hid differences under the carpet . '' but while the united_states pays lip service , and perhaps a little more , to the view that germany 's assumption of new responsibilities is healthy , it finds this more abrasive germany unsettling . especially when , as american officials put it , the country manages to mishandle a sensitive diplomatic quest to such an extent . mr . steiner said germany 's quest to lead the international_monetary_fund had been handled as ''professionally as could have been done . '' he added that he had documentary evidence that germany had initially been misled by the united_states . the thrust of this ''evidence'' appeared in today 's issue of the respected frankfurter_allgemeine_zeitung , which published an elaborate , unsourced account of how the united_states had told germany that it would accept any consensus candidate of the european_union , before changing its view at the last moment . germany had therefore played exactly by the rules in putting forward mr . koch_weser and gaining formal backing for him from the european_union , only to be let down in berlin 's view by an unreliable clinton adminstration wielding american power with all the subtlety of a sledgehammer . ''first , the europeans just had to agree , '' mr . steiner said . ''then we had to agree on somebody with the so called necessary strengths . well , nobody can think about reproaching mr . kohler for being weak . nobody can even think about reproaching him for not knowing his job . and mr . clinton himself has now said a german managing director would suit him . '' the president has indeed expressed interest in a german head of the fund . but even quick american approval of mr . kohler and it is far from assured will not rapidly set right the battered german american bond that remains the bedrock of america 's security interests in europe .

has a location of germany

at his most recent meeting with secretary of state madeleine k . albright , the german foreign_minister , joschka_fischer , was astonished to be presented with a diagram showing the american view of europe today . ''it showed circles intersecting with other circles that intersected with still more circles in a rather bamboozling way , '' said andreas michelis , a foreign ministry spokesman . ''the american question was where do we turn among all these elements ? '' the circles in question represented national governments , the european_union , the new office of europe 's ''high representative'' for foreign and security affairs and other institutions . as president_clinton starts a three day visit to berlin on thursday , they also provide an apt image of the uncertain flux in the american relationship with germany and its european partners . that an era has passed is clear . this is the first visit by the president to berlin since the government moved here from bonn and so brought down the final curtain on the decades of postwar allied tutelage of germany . less apparent , however , are the focus and equilibrium of a relationship set adrift by the end of the cold_war . at a recent meeting with a handful of correspondents here , chancellor_gerhard_schroder complained that the united_states constantly pressed the ''new germany'' to assume responsibilities commensurate with its size , but whenever germany raised its voice , the old misgivings about german power reared their heads once more . the chancellor was speaking in the aftermath of the debacle over the choice of a new managing director for the international_monetary_fund , an appointment pursued and won by germany with a bludgeoning vigor that shocked officials in washington . but his point was a broader one about the awkward transition in trans_atlantic relations . the clinton_administration , under pressure from congress , wants germany to do more send thousands of troops to kosovo , increase its defense spending , stimulate its big economy through deregulation just as it wants several other european allies to assume broader responsibilities . but when germany and its european partners try to coordinate that defense spending , develop their own military identity within nato through the formation of a 60 , 000 strong rapid reaction corps , and generally sketch a partial emancipation from american strategic dominance , washington gets uneasy . ''the united_states says it wants a clear phone_number for a europe with some real cohesion , '' said jurgen chrobog , the german ambassador to the united_states . ''but when we try to give it one , we have problems . '' a nato diplomat , speaking on condition of anonymity , said the main american concern was that the european_union 's push to develop a military capacity within nato would multiply committees and bureaucracy , increasing confusion but not effectiveness . ''and in the end , if the european_union takes on its own collective defense , you would have to ask what nato is for , '' he added . at the root of the american unease lies the fact that , having completed their economic_union through the introduction of the shared euro currency , germany and its european allies have embarked on a determined push for political and military integration . this european road is fraught and will certainly be long . britain is by no means the only place where resistance to further integration exists . but europeans have already done something that now distinguishes the essence of their nationhood from that of the united_states given up a huge slice of sovereignty by surrendering control of the currency to a transnational european institution . ''any major german interest now requires multilateral action , whether it 's the euro , or security concerns over russia , where we deal through the european_union and nato , '' said karl kaiser , a political_scientist . ''but that is not the case in the united_states , and this can cause tension . '' the most recent instance of such tension has arisen over american plans for a limited missile_defense system that germans see as a doubtful defense against ''rogue_states'' whose real menace is widely questioned . mr . clinton sought to allay these concerns today by saying the technology would be shared with ''other civilized nations'' a reference to allies in europe . but however this debate is handled , it has already illustrated divergent views between the united_states and a europe increasingly ready to speak with one voice on a strategic issue . ''you have an overwhelming superpower on the one hand and an emerging europe learning to articulate its interest on the other , '' said a close aide to mr . schroder . ''that is the delicate post cold_war equation we face . '' the shifting nature of that equation is evident in the fact that some people here have taken to saying that a more accurate name for the new ''berlin republic'' would be the ''brussels republic . '' brussels is the headquarters of the european_union . ''we have learned that the more we press our interests multilaterally through europe , the more we in germany get for ourselves , '' said josef joffe of the respected weekly die_zeit . ''this will not change . '' how far germany will be able to combine this strategy with its traditional role as chief european bridge to washington is the long term question facing a country that still feels deeply beholden to the united_states for its post_war recovery . during his stay , mr . clinton will receive the international charlemagne prize , presented annually to a person who has worked for european unity . the choice of the president suggests the hope that , despite much evidence to the contrary , america and european_nations have an identical interest in the forging of a united states of europe .

has a location of germany

lead in less than a month , with a new school year , the doors of 7 , 124 schools will open for east_germany 's 2.6 million pupils . and a new and largely unfamiliar world will unfold . in less than a month , with a new school year , the doors of 7 , 124 schools will open for east_germany 's 2.6 million pupils . and a new and largely unfamiliar world will unfold . their new world will include geography lessons that are no longer restricted mainly to communist countries foreign language instruction that gives english priority over russian , and social_studies that neither begin nor end with the ideas of marx and lenin . this does not mean that communist doctrine and the communist teachers who taught it will have vanished entirely from a country where marxist leninist teaching reigned supreme for 40 years until last autumn . the transition to democracy agreed on between east and west_germany last spring as the basis for unification has been moving too swiftly to achieve that by the beginning of the school year on sept . 3 . old teachers to return instead , at secondary_schools and in east_germany 's 54 universities , the young will find nearly all their old teachers and professors back at their desks . the majority of these instructors were members of the communist_party , in many if not most cases by compulsion . in the case of the east_german school principals , nearly all have been dismissed because they were the most committed communists in the system , say the west_german education authorities . in addition , the young east_germans will have to go on for a while using some of the textbooks composed under communist_party pedagogical guidelines , although west_germany has for months been providing their schools with non communist textbooks and other teaching materials . there are simply not enough new textbooks to go around , said eberhard jobst , a senior counselor in the ministry of education and science in bonn . english instruction is one area where enormous changes are about to take place . in the last school year east_german pupils could take english starting only in the seventh_grade . in september , 200 , 000 pupils will start english in the fifth grade using books supplied free by five west_german publishers . publishers have their reasons the publishers acknowledge that their motives for the gift shipments are not entirely altruistic , since they expect that a number of east_german schools will order their texts for higher classes in english once they become familiar with the beginner textbooks . the beginner east_german textbook in use until now has an ideological cast . its introduction said it should serve ''as a means of communication in the cause of socialist patriotism and proletarian internationalism . '' similarly , the accompanying guideline for teachers said english should be used to explore ''the characteristic manifestations of a capitalist social system ( such as unemployment ) . '' honoring the diploma the west_german government has committed 19 million for the initial purchase of textbooks for history , geography and literature for east_german schools and universities . east_german schools are also free to choose the textbooks they want from a list of over 600 west_german titles . ''we asked the german_democratic_republic people to tell us where their biggest needs lay , '' dr . jobst said . ''we did n't tell them which books to order . '' some of the 600 available west_german texts take account of east_germany . for instance , one for 11th_graders called ''german poetry in epochs'' includes 100 pages of west_german writing and 100 pages of east_german writing . a history textbook for ninth_graders deals with ''the emergence of the east west conflict as well as the division of germany and the development of the two german states . '' beyond this , west_german universities have agreed to recognize the east_german abitur , or high_school_diploma , even though east_germans graduate after 12 years , while west germans are required to spend 13 years in school to earn an abitur .

has a location of germany

lead contemporary works by 14 young west_german photographers will be on view through sept . 6 at the international_center_of_photography , 1130 fifth avenue , at 94th_street . the show , which features about 100 photographs , was organized by the museum folkwang in essen , west_germany . shown with the exhibition will be screenings of west_german video art made since 1976 . contemporary works by 14 young west_german photographers will be on view through sept . 6 at the international_center_of_photography , 1130 fifth avenue , at 94th_street . the show , which features about 100 photographs , was organized by the museum folkwang in essen , west_germany . shown with the exhibition will be screenings of west_german video art made since 1976 . weekend hours are today , noon to 5 p.m. , and tomorrow and sunday , 11 a.m . to 6 p.m . admission is 2 ( 1 for students and the elderly ) . information ( 212 ) 860 1777 .

has a location of germany

more than 15 years after the fall of the berlin_wall , the german capital 's senator for culture has presented a long awaited blueprint for a memorial that would unite the remaining sections of the wall into a coherent concept . the plan includes a main museum and memorial at bernauer strasse , the scene of several escape attempts from east to west_berlin . parts of the wall that were not torn down would be integrated into the memorial through bus or walking_tours offering multimedia features like video and audio guides . but it is not yet clear when the memorial might be built and how much it would cost the city , which has struggled in recent years to preserve its cultural institutions . kirsten grieshaber

has a location of germany

germany has been seized by a national mood of morbid fascination since last week , when prosecutors arrested a man in a ghoulish case that involved the internet , homicide and cannibalism . the story has dominated the newspapers here for days , eclipsing reports about the dismal economy , the political travails of chancellor_gerhard_schr_der and even crippling strikes by transportation workers . the facts of the case are beyond lurid , according to the news release from the state prosecutor in kassel , a central german city not far from where the crime took place . ( in keeping with standard german practice in homicide cases , the full names of those involved were not revealed . ) a 43 year old microchip designer , identified as bernd j rgen b. , sold his car and responded to an internet advertisement , described by german newspapers as saying ''wanted well built man for slaughter . '' b . is believed to have presented himself at a dilapidated half timbered house in the river town of rotenburg an der fulda that is the home of the suspect , a 41 year old software technician identified as armin m . m . surgically removed the victim 's genitals , according to a prosecutor 's statement , which said the two men then ate them . later , m . stabbed b . to death as a video_camera recorded the event . he carved up the victim and stored parts of the body in a freezer for occasional consumption , burying other parts in his garden . news coverage of the grotesque details has reflected most people 's reaction of numb , almost uncomprehending , shock . ''it is all so unreal , '' said the munich paper , suddeutsche_zeitung . ''so haunting that one thinks such a case would only happen in the movies , perhaps in america , but not in germany , not in rotenburg . '' suddeutsche and other papers have focused on the psychology of cannibalism and the role of the internet in connecting people from the fringes of society . bild , a tabloid , has reveled in the gory details , with an odd foray into analysis . franz_josef wagner , a bild columnist , put part of the blame on hollywood , which he said had turned a cannibal into a box office franchise with the ''silence of the lambs'' and its sequels . ''the cult star of the film world in 2002 was hannibal lecter , who ate a human brain to the music of vivaldi , '' he wrote . psychologists and experts on violent_crime dismiss such explanations , saying cannibalism is rooted in basic human pathologies that have little to do with national boundaries or popular_culture . much about the case remains shrouded in mystery . prosecutors are not certain that the victim 's killing was consensual , as the suspect claims . they believe it occurred in the spring of 2001 , shortly after b . disappeared . prosecutors are scrutinizing his videos for more clues . the police arrested m . after he recently posted another advertisement on the internet seeking more volunteers . he is to be charged with murder . the prosecutor said the suspect was fit to stand trial , which some legal experts question . in the meantime , germans are left to puzzle how two successful , professional men could have engaged in such an act . a photo of m. , printed repeatedly in papers here shows a well dressed , smiling man , savoring a cigarette and glass of wine at what looks like a dinner table . ''it 's a twice in a century case , '' said lorenz b llinger , a professor of criminal_law at the university of bremen . ''it 's very , very rare , and it attracts such attention because it breaks the ultimate taboo . ''

has a location of germany

lead it was unusual and surprising for the secretary of state to quote word for word and at some length from a cablegram by the united_states ambassador to east_germany , since such messages are customarily treated as secret by the state_department . it was unusual and surprising for the secretary of state to quote word for word and at some length from a cablegram by the united_states ambassador to east_germany , since such messages are customarily treated as secret by the state_department . but the reading of the cablegram in washington last weekend by secretary of state james a . baker 3d was an acknowledgment of the authority of its author , richard c . barkley , one of the state_department 's few remaining specialists on german affairs , expertise that in the heyday of the cold_war was held by scores of foreign service officers . ''yes , everyone is surprised when a cable is quoted , '' he said in a brief interview on monday . ''but i was pleased because i thought i was right . '' as dramatic changes sweep east_germany and raise the prospect of german_reunification and a transformed europe , mr . baker has evidently depended to no small degree on mr . barkley 's perception of events as they unfold on the ground . a western diplomat here said it was a recommendation by mr . barkley 's embassy that persuaded secretary baker to travel to the east to meet prime_minister hans_modrow in potsdam on tuesday . when mr . baker disclosed the contents of mr . barkley 's cablegram last weekend , he did so apparently to counter reports that the country might be turning so chaotic that there was a threat of soviet intervention . the ambassador wrote that ' 'despite the disorder born of change , the east_german government still runs , the people work and the economy produces . '' ''demonstrations continue peacefully amidst rumors of potential violence , '' it continued . ''the pace of this revolution is breathtaking . '' a 'balanced' ambassador the language of the cablegram is the mark of the man , calm and collected , precise and concise . ''balanced'' is how dragan rancic , the east europe correspondent of the yugoslav newspaper politika , described mr . barkley . ''he is the man who makes you rich when you talk with him , '' he said . mr . barkley , who turns 57 on dec . 23 , is the sixth american ambassador to serve here since diplomatic relations with the communist government in east_berlin were opened in 1974 . this is his third tour as a diplomat in germany , in addition to service in west_germany in the army in the mid 1950 's and study at the university of freiburg . he entered the foreign service in 1962 . only 8 full fledged diplomats the american embassy here is rather small , with a staff of 100 in a five story building , but only 8 of them function as full fledged diplomats at a time when east_germany is in the throes of its greatest political crisis since it was founded in 1949 . still , it is probably a larger staff than that of the american embassy that was closed in december 1941 , when hitler declared war on the united_states . that building , situated two blocks west next to the brandenburg_gate , was destroyed by bombs in world_war_ii , and the land was sold to east_germany when diplomatic relations were opened . mr . barkley , a native of chicago , lives with his wife , nina , and their 4 month old child , katharina , in an almost palatial red brick house that probably belonged to an industrialist in the niederschonhausen borough on the northern edge of the city . the barkleys have close contacts not only with past and present east_german political leaders , but also with writers , artists , dancers and musicians . unlike current and past ambassadors to bonn or east_berlin , his german is fluent and finely nuanced . now , with east_germany on the american political map for the first time in a big way , the barkleys have also had to play host to a half dozen or so congressional delegations , with more on the way . ''they have all been good , '' mr . barkley said diplomatically of the ones that have already been here . mr . barkley graduated from michigan_state_university in east lansing in 1954 and later earned a master 's degree in european history at wayne state university in detroit . his foreign service postings have included finland , the dominican_republic and south_africa , in addition to bonn and west_berlin . asked to describe the essence of his job , he replied ''this is really unknown territory for most americans , and we are just finding our way to each other . most americans are amazed and at the same time impressed by the resolve of the east_german people . ''

has a location of germany

germans are expected to invest 4 billion to 6 billion in american real_estate over the next three years , according to a survey of 60 german investment groups by jones lang lasalle , a real_estate services and management company . assuming that the equity investments would be leveraged by mortgages of 50 to 60 percent of the total value of a property , the company estimated , that could mean that the investors could acquire 10 billion to 15 billion in property by the end of 2003 . the investors have been particularly interested in office buildings in manhattan , acquiring such properties as 1211 avenue of the americas and 95 99 wall_street , according to jones lang lasalle . the company also noted that in recent months rfr holding , an american company with german financial backing , has added the buildings at 1328 broadway , 390 park_avenue , 17 state street and 521 and 608 fifth avenue to its portfolio . in recent years , said jones lang lasalle , the surveyed german investment groups have had heavy cash inflows and that regulations require them to invest more than half their funds in real_estate . it also noted that a 1989 agreement exempts german investors from paying taxes in their country on earnings from investments in the united_states as long as they have paid the usually lower tax in the united_states .

has a location of germany

six years ago , the army had to fly in 17 , 500 soldiers from the united_states and deploy 7 , 000 armored_vehicles and nearly 1 , 100 tanks to practice the kind of epic battles the nato alliance would have to fight if world war iii broke out . just the damage nato forces caused tearing around the german countryside cost 23 . 4 million then , and since unification in 1990 germany has severely_restricted ground and air maneuvers . generals since napoleon have used sandboxes and even wooden soldiers to model their battle plans , but this year 7 , 600 american and allied soldiers here did their maneuvering by computer . in this era of shrunken defense budgets , commanders mostly stared at screens and video simulations , clomping between electronic stations in the combat_boots and fatigues they used to wear to roar around the range at this sprawling training base in bavaria . " this exercise costs me less than the maneuver damage for 1988 , " gen . david m . maddox , commander of the 74 , 000 united_states soldiers still in germany , said with a laugh . he expects to spend 15 . 8 million . saving money was not the only reason for the change . this exercise was intended as preparation for the kinds of missions that have arisen in europe since the cold_war ended for example , a large peacekeeping force in a country like bosnia where ethnic tensions have boiled over . although the prospects for a peace accord in bosnia now appear dim , the army has sent nearly 22 , 000 soldiers on crisis missions to 30 countries since the persian_gulf_war . and because threats to european security and stability did not end with the soviet_union in 1991 , 100 , 000 americans from all branches of the service will remain on this side of the atlantic after the end of next year , down from 314 , 200 in 1990 . " we are not going to be doing many things in the future by ourselves , " general maddox said . " our operations are going to be multinational . " so the recent exercise here was designed to practice both diplomacy and military skills in a nato task_force with troops from the united_states , britain , france , the netherlands and germany . the scenario involved an imaginary island off europe 's west_coast divided between two ethnically separate countries with a disputed bosnia like province in the middle . in the exercise , nato tries to use diplomacy to help its ally fend off a threat from its northern neighbor , which finally seizes the disputed province in an invasion that the allies mobilize to defeat . " we built an exercise that deals with the realities of the world as it is now , " said col . thomas machamer , the army 's chief exercise designer in europe . although the geography of the island was developed by carving it out of france and renaming the towns , the 462 soldiers from the french seventh armored division did not seem to mind . diplomats borrowed from the state_department and allied foreign ministries set up ground rules to protect civilians in the battlefield and negotiated with the bellicose north titanian prime_minister , played by brig . gen . james darden of the 87th army_reserve division from birmingham , ala . they will do so again when they rehearse post hostility talks at the end of the month . " we were told to go for the throat and inflict as much pain as we could to stimulate some very real decision making by the commanders on the other side , " general darden said . to help the soldiers here simulate the logistics of sending in thousands of imaginary troops , tanks and supplies , the army brought in 260 american civilian computer technicians from a san_diego defense_contractor , the cubic corporation . the computer displays were graphic and detailed . in one simulated commando raid on a missile battery on a peninsula far behind enemy lines , a small team of saboteurs zapped enemy targets with machine_guns and missiles , then called in nato aerial gunships to blast more as they flitted across the screen . what the players behind computer screens see is only as much as they would see in a real battle . the accuracy of weapons on either side is figured into the computer program , which in this case let nato players hit their targets more often than their less well armed adversaries .

has a location of germany

lead president mikhail s . gorbachev of the soviet_union sowed the wind last october when he signaled that it was time for the old east_german leadership under erich_honecker to go . now , perhaps long before he expected it , he may reap the whirlwind of german_unification . president mikhail s . gorbachev of the soviet_union sowed the wind last october when he signaled that it was time for the old east_german leadership under erich_honecker to go . now , perhaps long before he expected it , he may reap the whirlwind of german_unification . in separate meetings over the last two weeks with the leaders of east and west_germany , mr . gorbachev appears to have accepted the inevitable absorption of east_germany , where 400 , 000 soviet_troops are still stationed , by the more powerful and populous west_germany , where more than 200 , 000 american_troops are posted . but if the general outcome is already preordained , the form and conditions of unification are not . whether a united german state will be neutral and demilitarized , as soviet policy since stalin has insisted , or remain aligned with the west as a member of the north_atlantic_treaty_organization , as the united_states and the west_german government insist , will be decided in a flurry of negotiations leading to an anticipated meeting in the fall of the 35 nation conference on security and cooperation in europe . mr . gorbachev , like president_bush , seems to have realized that he cannot veto that process , but he can shape it . on saturday , chancellor helmut_kohl of west_germany agreed in several hours of talks with mr . gorbachev in the kremlin that while unification was for the germans to decide , it could not take place against ''the legitimate interests of our neighbors , friends and partners in europe and the world . '' exactly what either moscow or the germans mean by that is uncertain . some diplomats think a neutral demilitarized germany is what mr . gorbachev wants . but even if his abandonment of mr . honecker last fall was a clever ploy to bring that about , few here believe he has been in control of the situation since . power over east_german events the west germans have more power over events in east_germany these days than soviet or east_german officials do . once the east_german border was opened in november , east_germans were free to move to west_germany , and 2 , 000 to 3 , 000 a day have been doing so ever since . as the drain continues , local government authority , public services and civic morale in east_germany have been steadily undermined , and west_german politicians and political_parties have moved into the vacuum . mr . kohl acknowledged that in their talks this weekend , he and mr . gorbachev discussed the subject of west_german politicians' interference in the campaign for parliamentary elections in the east on march 18 . ''i pointed out that among them were a number of personalities who are very well known here willy brandt , for instance , and egon bahr and that strengthened their understanding here , '' mr . kohl said at a news conference saturday night . mr . brandt , the former west_german chancellor , and mr . bahr , his former foreign_policy adviser , are highly respected as the architects of west_german reconciliation with moscow and eastern_europe in the 1970 's . both are also members of mr . kohl 's social_democratic opposition . with their help , the new east_german social_democratic_party is expected to emerge as the winner of next month 's elections there , and if it does , mr . kohl could face a stiffer challenge from the west_german social democrats in his own elections in december . but will east_germany still exist as a separate state by then ? at the end of last month , its caretaker communist prime_minister , hans_modrow , got mr . gorbachev to acknowledge that german_unification was , indeed , on the international agenda , dropping opposition expressed after the opening of the berlin_wall on nov . 9 . soviet officials gave cautious backing to the ''modrow plan'' for unity by stages , with both german states gradually dissolving from their respective alliances and becoming demilitarized . but events in germany are rushing ahead so fast that the modrow plan wo n't be discussed when the east_german leader meets mr . kohl in bonn on tuesday , the west_german chancellor said saturday . a new emergency has arisen the possibility of financial collapse in east_germany . so mr . kohl and mr . modrow will discuss a west_german plan for replacement of the largely worthless east_german currency by the west_german mark . the reason , the chancellor implied , was to shore up the failing confidence of the east_german people in their economy and encourage some of them to stay put instead of fleeing to west_germany in search of a better life . ''we are in an unbelievably dynamic process , '' mr . kohl said . ''a process that we are n't accelerating , but that people in the g.d.r . are accelerating , day by day . '' but the dynamic is also complex . pronouncements by west_german officials in bonn about imminent insolvency in east_germany can easily be self fulfilling . and only officials in bonn have the means to stave it off . access to western technology the soviet_union has vital economic interests in germany . western diplomats here speculate that if mr . gorbachev is willing to see east_germany go under , one reason is that a united germany would offer him far greater access to western technology , investment , trade and credit than it now has . east_german foreign trade with the soviet_union , equally divided between imports and exports , is nearly three times as much as west_germany 's , and includes long term contracts for deliveries of machine_tools and other heavy industrial products vital to the soviet economy . mr . kohl said saturday that even if all those factories soon became absorbed into the west_german economic system , ''we can arrive at an agreement satisfactory to the soviet_union . '' he gave the same answer to the question about what would happen to the soviet_troops stationed there now . but both problems will not be easy to resolve . over the coming months , mr . kohl and foreign_minister hans_dietrich_genscher and their east_german counterparts will be holding a continuous round of consultations with the soviet_union , the united_states , britain and france the four occupying_powers who defeated hitler in world_war_ii . and this fall , some kind of framework for german unity seems likely to be discussed at a summit meeting of the conference on security and cooperation in europe . idea of a neutral germany some of mr . genscher 's recent statements imply that standing bodies of the conference could eventually replace the warsaw_pact and the nato alliance , and provide the security guarantees that neither mr . gorbachev nor mr . kohl was willing to spell out in public this weekend . eventually , a united germany would have to negotiate a peace treaty with the 80 countries that had declared hostilities by the end of world_war_ii . and some of them , a western diplomat speculated , would not be comfortable with the soviet idea of a neutral germany , a country of 78 million people demilitarized or armed , like neutral switzerland . perhaps for that reason , mr . gorbachev did not publicly insist on it in his talks with mr . kohl , who said later , ''from german soil should emanate not war , but peace . '' ''german unity has always been an academic question for the soviets , '' an east_german diplomat said the other day . ''i think now they do n't quite know what to do . they 're just trying to keep up with developments , and save what little they can . '' upheaval in the east_german whirlwind

has a location of germany

when george w . bush lands in berlin on his first visit to germany as president , he might wonder at his reception in a country that is one of america 's closest allies . mr . bush will be here barely 20 hours , the first stop on a european_tour that takes him to russia , france and italy , but german demonstrators plan three days of protests . many older germans and those born just after world_war_ii remain grateful to the united_states for helping the country rebuild after the nazi_era . political leaders are turning somersaults to show their friendship and solidarity with the united_states , mr . bush and the campaign against terrorism , at least so far . chancellor_gerhard_schr_der has said that ''the president is a good friend of germany and therefore very welcome , '' and president johannes rau , warning demonstrators to behave in the face of an enormous police presence , said he hoped that mr . bush ''will feel how close is the solidarity between our two countries . '' while an anti bush banner hangs from a berlin church reading ''peace for the world , pretzels for bush , '' the famous brandenburg_gate , under renovation , has a new pro american covering , showing the white_house standing behind it . across western_europe , the sharp criticism of the bush_administration 's perceived unilateralism that predated sept . 11 and was then replaced by solidarity and shared mourning has returned , resurgent . after sept . 11 more than 100 , 000 germans demonstrated in support of the united_states at the brandenburg_gate . now , the estimated 50 , 000 who will demonstrate against mr . bush will be kept from that symbol of berlin by intense security around him and the largest police operation here since world_war_ii some 10 , 000 men on duty . today , 20 , 000 people were active in three demonstrations , the smallest of which , with several hundred , being a pro american rally . those who organized and took part in the two others , run by the former communist_party and the greens , said they opposed bush policies , not america or americans . claudia roth , a leader of the greens , called the protests ''an expression of friendship , of critical solidarity with the americans . '' an invasion of iraq , she said , ''would spell the end of the international coalition and polarize the world . '' fran_ois heisbourg , a french analyst at the foundation for strategic research in paris , said ''there is a deep worry about americans running off the multilateral reservation . and the prospect of an invasion of iraq at the end of the year makes people uneasy . they have n't taken it on board yet . they find it so outlandish they do n't see the evidence in front of their faces . '' to the pre sept . 11 bill of indictment , which included the scrapping of the kyoto environmental treaty and the pursuit of national missile_defense , europeans have added the supposed spurning of nato offers of military support , the new american tariffs against european steel , the american treatment of taliban and al_qaeda prisoners at guant_namo and the american contempt for the new international_criminal_court . ''so what happened since last fall ? '' the berliner_zeitung wondered . ''almost nothing . or more precisely , as opposed to the common assumption that 'everything is different now after sept . 11 , ' almost everything has stayed the same , albeit in sharper relief . '' after sept . 11 , the newspaper said , the bush_administration ''used the opportunity to strengthen its selfish superpower position . '' ''never has a president of the united_states been so foreign to us , and never have german citizens been so skeptical about the policies of their most powerful of allies , '' the newspaper concluded . even senior german officials want to be reassured that mr . bush does not intend to make war on iraq in the name of antiterrorism . a senior german official , briefing foreign reporters today , spoke of solidarity with washington , then added , ''we are interested in hearing from president_bush himself what his intentions are concerning iraq . '' the conservative challenger to mr . schr_der in the september elections , edmund_stoiber , has said that neither he nor germans see iraq as a present danger . condoleezza_rice , the american national_security adviser , told german television on monday that german leaders should isolate iraq and educate their public . ''we also expect german support for the story that we are telling about this terrible man who has tried to acquire terrible weapons his entire life , '' ms . rice said of president saddam_hussein . another senior american official expressed impatience at ''european whining , '' saying ''this president expects support from his allies on issues of importance like iraq . if there is useful advice that helps him achieve his goals to defeat terrorism and eliminate weapons_of_mass_destruction getting to terrorists , he wants to listen . '' after russia , mr . bush will go to france , a country in transition , awaiting legislative elections on june 9 . he will visit the re elected president , jacques_chirac , then go to normandy 's d day beaches to deliver a memorial day speech . patrick jarreau , writing in le_monde , said the image washington and its european allies had of each other had deteriorated since last fall . while americans approve of mr . bush , europeans perceive americans as ''arrogant , bellicose and deaf to all criticism , '' he wrote , and believe that washington is being too generous to the israeli prime_minister , ariel_sharon , at the expense of palestinian lives . in washington , he said , ''the accusation of anti_semitism is being used to disqualify european disagreement especially french with the policies of mr . bush . '' america has entered a new period , with a return to ''american messianism , '' mr . jarreau suggested . after sept . 11 , he said , the mr . bush who arrives in europe has changed ''his unilateralism is no longer defensive . he has become a missionary . ''

has a location of germany

lead responding to a soviet threat to retain some short range nuclear_missiles banned by a 1987 treaty , the state_department said today that moscow should think ''long and hard'' before taking such an ''outlandish'' step . responding to a soviet threat to retain some short range nuclear_missiles banned by a 1987 treaty , the state_department said today that moscow should think ''long and hard'' before taking such an ''outlandish'' step . the soviet foreign_minister , eduard a . shevardnadze , said saturday that if nato did not abandon its plans to triple the range of its lance short range missiles to more than 250 miles , the kremlin would respond by developing a new short range rocket or by retaining some ss 23 missiles , which have a range of just over 300 miles . mr . shevardnadze made the remarks on a trip to west_germany , which is resisting the plan to upgrade the nato missiles . the treaty on intermediate_range nuclear forces , which was signed in 1987 and went into force last june , called for the elimination of united_states and soviet nuclear_missiles in the intermediate_range from 300 to 3 , 500 miles including the ss 23 's . ''we think shevardnadze 's remarks are an outlandish statement , '' a state_department spokesman , richard a . boucher , said today . statement 's tone of pique some administration officials said they considered the soviet threat little more than a bluff . but the state_department appeared to be trying to exploit it in order to puncture some of the publicity that the soviet leader , mikhail s . gorbachev , has been receiving for his announcement of a unilateral withdrawal of 500 short range nuclear_weapons from eastern_europe . ''one day the soviets announce small unilateral reductions , the next day they are talking about breaking recently concluded treaties , '' mr . boucher said . ''i would hope the soviets would think very long and hard before they actually did something like this . '' the tone of pique in the state_department 's statement appeared to reflect mounting frustration in the administration over criticism that mr . gorbachev upstaged secretary of state james a . baker 3d on his initial visit to moscow last week . that same tone , in fact , was much in evidence this afternoon , when mr . baker spoke to a seminar organized by senator christopher j . dodd , democrat of connecticut , for some constituents and supporters . in his opening remarks , mr . baker said a prudent approach to moscow was justified because mr . gorbachev ''is singing out of our hymn book , '' meaning that his initiatives were a response to the strength of the nato alliance and western economies . exchange on soviet initiatives in the question and answer period , however , a member of the audience , dan berk , who identified himself as a hollywood filmmaker , had this exchange with mr . baker mr . berk america has been a leader throughout this entire century . why are we waiting to see what happens instead of taking the initiative ? mr . baker on some of the issue areas we are . i have just said to you that we are re engaging across the full range of our relations . the russians are coming our way . mr . berk it just seems that we 're singing out of their hymn book . mr . baker , firmly they 're singing out of our hymn book . you are totally wrong . i mean , they are unilaterally reducing . we have been calling on them to do this for years . they are acknowledging the failure of their system . they are saying that their economic and political system has failed . they are having elections . they are trying to open up politically and economically . clearly they are coming in our direction and we ought to welcome that . mr . berk , his voice rising it seems we are n't taking any initiative they are doing it unilaterally . mr . baker , slightly exasperated that 's wonderful , that 's wonderful . that 's what we want them to do . because they have a significant imbalance in their favor of short range nuclear forces , an imbalance in their favor in conventional weapons , so they 've got this little grab bag here that they can take out and throw these things on the table every couple of weeks or months , and that 's wonderful . we ought to say thank you very much and accept it . mr . berk then asserted that the bush_administration was coming up only ''with old proposals'' and asked why it could not come up with something new . ''well , one reason we wo n't do that is because it is the policies we 've pursued the last 40 years that have kept the peace and brought the soviets to the point where they are in fact singing out of our hymn book , '' mr . baker said . ''they are in fact coming forward and trying to emulate us . ''

has a location of germany

lead chancellor helmut_kohl 's ruling coalition agreed today to endorse soviet american moves to eliminate missiles with a range of over 300 miles from europe . chancellor helmut_kohl 's ruling coalition agreed today to endorse soviet american moves to eliminate missiles with a range of over 300 miles from europe . after weeks of bitter dispute , the coalition decided to accept at least the basic outline of what has become known as the ' 'double zero solution , '' which would eliminate both medium_range and shorter_range_missiles . the move lifted a major potential barrier to progress at the american soviet arms reduction talks in geneva . while mr . kohl 's government and the other north_atlantic allies had long agreed on supporting the removal from europe of all american and soviet missiles with a range of over 600 miles the first ''zero'' they had divided over moscow 's recent proposal to also eliminate shorter_range_missiles , those with a range of 300 to 600 miles the second ''zero . '' to go to parliament a statement by leaders of the coalition after meeting in bonn today was expected to be the basis for the formal government position that mr . kohl is to present to parliament on thursday . while endorsing the double zero idea , the center right coalition insisted that bonn be allowed to keep 72 aging pershing 1a launchers with a range of about 450 miles . the missiles belong to the west_german air_force , but their nuclear_warheads are under american control . the proviso , which had been expected , reflected west_germany 's position that it , like france and britain , should be able to keep its national weapons outside arms agreements between the united_states and the soviet_union . moscow has agreed to keep the french and british nuclear_missiles out of the geneva talks , but has said the american warheads for the german missiles are american weapons . clears way for talks but western diplomats said the issue was not expected to loom large , at least in the immediate future . they said the more important fact was that the german decision cleared the way for serious talks in geneva on the middle range missiles . mr . kohl and hard_liners in his christian democratic_party , as well as the conservative leader of bavaria 's christian_social_union , franz_josef_strauss , had opposed getting rid of the shorter_range_missiles because this would leave west_germany as the only nato member to have ground launched nuclear_weapons nuclear_artillery shells and missiles with a range of less than 300 kilometers deployed on its territory . the bonn government feared that such a situation would invite a nuclear exchange restricted to german territory , and might create a new gap between west_germany and its american and european allies . mr . kohl 's other coalition partner , the liberal free democrats led by the foreign_minister , hans_dietrich_genscher , had argued strongly and pub licly in favor of the double zero plan . mr . kohl also found himself coming increasingly under quiet pressure from washington and other north_atlantic allies , and from the german public , which in opinion_polls and in regional elections showed a strong preference for mr . genscher 's stance . by the time the coalition gathered today , it was generally known in bonn that mr . kohl had recognized his isolation on the issue and had abandoned the position he had so strongly argued before . the other hard_liners , including the defense minister , manfred worner , a christian democrat , evidently concurred , although mr . strauss reportedly left the meeting today grumbling , ''the whole thing means , of course , an uncoupling of the americans from europe . '' the christian democratic floor leader in parliament , alfred dregger , who had been a vociferous champion of the hard line , said in a terse statement that the decision was one the coalition ''could live with . '' decision is greeted the secretary general of the free democrats , helmut haussman , by contrast , said he greeted the decision ''with great satisfaction . '' the west_german resistance to the idea of leaving battlefield weapons behind once other medium_range_missiles were dismantled was reflected in a passage in today 's statement declaring that the government was in favor of the superpowers negotiating a step by step reduction of all soviet and american land based systems with a range of under 600 miles , as well as conventional forces and chemical_weapons . the clause seemed particularly to reflect bonn 's irritation with an idea floated by britain , and apparently favored in washington , that after eliminating shorter and medium_range_missiles from europe , nato should seek a ''firebreak'' at 300 miles . the choice of term itself caused some stir , with the notion of a firestorm being restricted to germany . but the statement did not link this demand to the negotiations on the medium and shorter_range_missiles . a first step toward the broader goal , it said , would be an agreement by the united_states and the soviet_union not to have any missiles in the 300 to 600 mile range . in contrast to the shorter range question , the ruling coalition was reportedly in accord on its demand to keep the 72 pershing 1a launchers , and had been supported on this by washington . even with their nuclear_warheads under american control , the missiles were seen to give west_germany some autonomy in its defense , giving it at least a semblance of parity with france and britain , which have independent nuclear forces . the soviet side has verbally rejected the idea that the the 72 warheads can remain in west_germany . but western diplomats said moscow was obviously aware that the germans would not publicly part with their missiles , and so was not likely to let the issue block negotiations . united_states welcomes move washington , june 1 ( special to the new york times ) administration officials today welcomed the west_german move , saying it would lead to a unified western position and encourage progress in geneva . the prevailing view within the administration is that there is sufficient political will on both sides to resolve the remaining differences . but difficult problems remain . one remaining problem is verification . the two sides have a long way to go in agreeing on monitoring measures . in addition , the united_states is still refining its technical verification provisions , which are to be outlined in a proposed protocol to the treaty . american counterintelligence officials are said to be concerned that far reaching verification provisions will provide the russians with opportunities for gathering intelligence in the united_states . another possible problem may be the soviet position on short range missiles . it is not clear whether the russians will agree to the elimination of shorter_range_missiles in the asian part of the soviet_union as well as europe . the soviet_union has about 140 launchers for its short range missiles . about a third of these are in asia . nato is also expected to stress the importance of new negotiations to reduce conventional_arms . but administration officials generally do not believe that such talks will be productive and progress in this area will not be a prerequisite for a new missile accord .

has a location of germany

at a ceremony marking the 10th anniversary of the fall of the berlin_wall , chancellor_gerhard_schroder made very clear today which germans deserve special praise , saying , ''the wall fell from east to west , pushed down by brave and fearless east_germans . '' mr . schroder , addressing parliament in the presence of former president george_bush , seemed at pains to assuage the feelings of bitterness felt by some eastern_germans over the alienation and high unemployment that have accompanied unification . he called their ''civil courage'' a lesson to germany . but the rev . joachim gauck , a leading protester in 1989 who was hurriedly added to today 's ceremony after complaints that former east_germans had been excluded , had a grimmer view . ''after reunification , many of us felt like strangers in our own country , '' he said . ''we dreamed of paradise and woke up in north_rhine_westphalia . '' the chancellor 's reference to ''zivilcourage'' was particularly resonant on a day that also marks the 61st anniversary of the nazi rampage against the jews known as kristallnacht . mr . schroder clearly wanted to suggest that more acts of conscience and courage like those in east_germany a decade ago might have hindered or halted hitler . the word zivilcourage has become a rallying cry of modern german identity , a shorthand for ''never again'' to the destruction and burning of synagogues and jewish stores on nov . 9 , 1938 , and the holocaust , which followed . ''november 9th is a day of joy , but also a day of shame and a time of reflection , '' mr . schroder said . ''it is a day of euphoria but also a day , in 1938 , that led to an abyss of inhumanity . '' this being germany , it was perhaps inevitable that light and dark should so mingle a decade after europe 's division was ended and half a continent was set free . few public expressions of emotion or pride , it seems , ever contrive to be altogether unclouded by hitler 's long shadow . but in general it was celebration that prevailed as the former soviet leader , mikhail s . gorbachev , and former chancellor helmut_kohl joined mr . bush in the refurbished reichstag , home once again to the german_parliament . mr . bush said there had been many difficult moments in his presidency , among them the military campaign against iraq , but ''in many ways no situation was as dicey as the one we all faced on nov . 9 , 1989 . '' on a television in the study next to the oval_office , mr . bush watched a decade ago what he called the ' 'surreal sight'' of east_germans streaming through the breached wall . his joy , he said , was tempered by concern over a backlash like the one that quashed the prague spring democracy movement of 1968 . ''some of our leaders on capitol_hill suggested that i come over here to the berlin_wall and dance on the wall , '' mr . bush said , conjuring up an altogether unlikely image . ''in my view that would have been an open provocation , tantamount to sticking our fingers in the eyes of the soviet_military . '' the former president , made an ''honorary citizen'' of berlin on monday , was clearly at pains to defend his cautious initial statement that he was ' 'very pleased'' by the fall of the berlin_wall . at the time , the path that would lead from the wall 's breach to german_unification 11 months later was by no means charted . indeed , there was no sign that the soviet_union was prepared to accept the unification of germany , particularly in such a way that germany remained within nato . mr . kohl reminded the parliament that it was not just russia that viewed a united germany with suspicion a decade ago . ''mr . bush saw that a free germany , a sovereign germany would have to be a united germany , and that was important because many others were very difficult to convince , '' he said . the skeptics included francois_mitterrand , the former french president , who was fond of the old quip that germany was such a splendid place , it was a good thing there were two of them . margaret_thatcher was equally hesitant . the absence of a british or french leader at today 's berlin ceremony was striking . mr . gorbachev , looking wan after the recent death of his wife , raisa , recalled the intense sparring between himself , mr . bush and mr . kohl over whether germany should remain in nato . he suggested that the contribution of the east bloc , and particularly east_german politicians , to peaceful unification within nato had been unfairly belittled . ''there are some undercurrents in your life that i just do not understand , '' he said . ''it is strange that right now you are sentencing those very people from the east_german leadership who decided to make the world transparent . '' egon krenz , the former east_german leader who ruled for six weeks before the berlin_wall fell , lost an appeal on monday of a six and a half year sentence for his role in the shootings of people who tried to escape over the wall . more than 450 people were killed during the wall 's 28 year existence . mr . gorbachev 's criticism was met by a frosty silence in the reichstag building , but in general the mood was self congratulatory and festive as mr . schroder painted a picture of ''a second chance for germany and europe'' that should lead to a united continent at peace . ''ten years after the fall of the wall , europe must not be divided by a 'prosperity border' between the european_union and its eastern neighbors , '' he said . nor , mr . schroder continued , ''can europe any longer accept the trampling of human_rights , as the kosovo campaign shows . '' the chancellor said germany would work energetically to bring countries like poland into the european_union . in fact , well before the ''civil courage'' of east_germans became manifest , it was the poles and their solidarity union that set europe on the road to ending the cold_war . mr . schroder acknowledged this , thanking poland and other central_european countries for helping germany out of its postwar division . the unification that came on oct . 3 , 1990 , brought initial euphoria , but was followed by what mr . gauck , who is now in charge of analyzing and releasing the six million files of the east_german stasi , or secret_police , for east_germany 's 17 million people , today called ''feelings of helplessness and disappointment'' in the eastern part of the country . unemployment soared in the east , growing to more than double western levels . humiliated and feeling worthless , some ''ossis'' came to see ''wessis'' as arrogant in their wholesale takeover of the country ''wessis , '' in turn , started to resent large transfers of public money eastward . but alongside those resentments , a staggeringly rapid transformation took place , bringing modern telecommunications , new industries , new roads and new possibilities to a once decaying , gloomy eastern landscape . mr . schroder insisted that berlin should remember those achievements and today live ''a moment of joy . '' concerts , light shows , parties and fireworks were among the attractions offered to express that joy in a city still searching through light and shadow to make itself one after a century of almost relentless trauma .

has a location of germany

for decades the bronze inscription on the reichstag , the seat of the german_parliament here , has been an awkward reminder of this country 's troubling past . the dedication says dem deutschen volke , or to the german people , and it has often been associated with the racist policies that led to the holocaust . but the inscription was created in 1916 , long before hitler came to power . it was intended to assert the values of parliamentary democracy . and though few people know it , the bronze lettering was produced by a successful jewish company , s . a . loevy ( pronounced luh vee ) . ''as a child i knew vaguely about the inscription , but it did n't mean anything to me then , '' said ruth kopf , 82 . a new yorker who fled nazi_germany with her family when she was 17 , ms . kopf is the granddaughter of albert loevy , who ran the firm with his brother , siegfried , when the project was commissioned . the story of the loevys is central to an exhibition that opened at the jewish museum berlin on march 21 and runs through june 15 . ''dem deutschen volke the story of the loevy bronze foundry from berlin'' traces the loevys from their arrival in berlin in the mid 19th_century to their persecution under the nazis . ''our family never talked about it , '' said ms . kopf , who was in berlin for the exhibition with her cousin renate soybel , 74 , also of new york . added mrs . soybel , ''we had a very traditional berlin childhood and were protected from family business matters . '' the loevy family had a typical success story of late 19th and early 20th_century berlin . they came to berlin from east prussia and established the foundry in 1855 . within two generations the foundry had become one of the top names in the business and was receiving commissions from leading architects like peter behrens , walter gropius and bruno paul . s . a . loevy took on the reichstag commission in 1916 after kaiser wilhelm ii gave his belated approval to dedicating the 22 year old parliament to the citizens of germany . the concept had been proposed in the early 1890 's by paul wallot , the building 's architect , but no agreement was reached on the wording . nothing progressed until 1915 , when a newspaper article argued that the dedication would reconcile the kaiser with an increasingly disgruntled populace . the inscription ( behrens designed its gothic script ) was bolted to the frieze above the portico entrance to show the democratic dimension of the german reich . produced from two bronze cannons captured in battle and melted , the dedication was also conceived as a rallying point for the nation in the throes of world_war i , in which loevy family members served for germany and one , peter loevy , died . ''the great irony is that the loevys were ordinary members of the german bourgeoisie , like so many other berlin jews , '' said armin steuer , a writer and filmmaker whose research on the family over the last decade provided the impetus for the exhibition . ''they belonged completely to 'the german people , ' and they were kicked out , excluded from the nation . '' after the nazis took power they took over the foundry , and the loevys had to emigrate or go to concentration_camps . the exhibition points out that family members who were most assimilated or who had been in mixed marriages stayed in nazi_germany , believing they would not be persecuted . ''but then we woke up and things happened , '' recalled mrs . soybel , who was 10 when the war started . although some escaped including ms . kopf and mrs . soybel branches of the loevy family died at auschwitz , chelmno , majdanek and theresienstadt . after the war , the reichstag , which was badly_damaged in the 1933 fire that coincided with hitler 's rise to power , was not used by parliament for a half century . the words ''to the german people , '' meanwhile , had taken on a different meaning . because of its use in nazi racial ideology , the term volk was associated with the worst elements of nationalism . ''there was a lot of talk about tearing down the building , or at least the inscription , '' said michael s . cullen , a berlin historian who has written extensively about the reichstag . ''a lot of people were bothered or scared by it . '' in the 1980 's , while writing a book about the reichstag , mr . cullen discovered an obscure reference to the loevy firm 's production of the bronze letters in 1916 . that reference , which mr . cullen included in his book , spurred mr . steuer to research the loevy family . ''when i first called the german_parliament about the inscription , they did n't have any information and were n't interested , '' mr . steuer said . but after the reichstag was refurbished and became the seat of parliament again in 1999 , mr . steuer 's work on the loevys caught the attention of several politicians . two years later , a small plaque commemorating the family was added to the building . ms . kopf and mrs . soybel express a mixture of interest and perplexity regarding their connection to the reichstag . ''it 's another town in another country , '' ms . kopf said . still , speaking alternately in german and english , the women acknowledged that their german heritage had left a mark on their lives . ''inside me it is a part of what i am , '' mrs . soybel said in reference to ''the german people'' of the inscription . ''i was raised in germany and i still identify strongly with berlin . ''

has a location of germany

in the united_states , alain platel is just a name , if that . maybe he 's been heard of , maybe even fleetingly seen , but he 's hardly known to the general dance public , let alone the general public . what it says about culture in america that so many major choreographers and dancers saburo teshigawara , lloyd newson , mr . platel and more rarely appear there , i cannot say . perhaps we do n't care about or want them perhaps they do n't want us . but they regularly tour europe , where they are major stars . mr . platel was trained as a teacher of children with learning_disabilities , rather like robert wilson in that respect , but soon gravitated to his own particular form of dance theater . he founded les_ballets contemporains de la belgique in ghent two decades ago , a name soon shorted to les_ballets c . de la b . by now , like most european companies , it is wildly international in its makeup . mr . platel 's piece for 2006 , ''vsprs , '' was commissioned by a host of major festivals and companies and is being presented by them and in many other cities . friday night it was the turn of the ruhr triennale , one of the commissioners , with the first of five performances in a theater within the gargantuan bochum jahrhunderthalle ( centennial hall ) , carved out of a former steel mill . the ruhr triennale is an annual arts festival the term triennale seems to refer to the three year terms of its directors . founded to attract tourism to this fading industrial region of western germany , it rotates performances about the various closely knit cities of the ruhr and is devoted to determined avant gardism in all the arts . there is , however , a curiously strong connection with the once tradition laden salzburg festival in austria . the triennale 's founding director was gerard mortier , fresh from salzburg and on his way to the paris_opera . his successor was the stage director and arts administrator j rgen flimm , now appointed the new head of salzburg . this is mr . flimm 's second ruhr season he is busily preparing his third , as well as his first season in salzburg next summer . ''vsprs'' is short for vespers . the 90 minute piece is for 10 dancers and 10 onstage musicians , who play a jazzish arrangement by fabrizio cassol of monteverdi 's 1610 vespers for period winds and brass , soprano , violin , saxophone , electric guitar , string bass and drums , all amplified . a striking set , by peter de blieck , looks like ice floes rearing up at the back of the flat stage . it is covered with torn up white underwear , which is also scattered about the perimeter of the stage . dancers scramble up the walls of the set , crawl up its ridges , promenade along the top clinging to guide ropes like woodcuts from ''the ship of fools . '' toward the end , the set glows from within . the musicians are dressed in white , the dancers in fancifully varied everyday clothing . each dancer has a personality , with signature movements , although there is no narrative as such . pina_bausch 's revue aesthetic hovers in the background . one woman looks like the pop star madonna , another like the 60 's model jean shrimpton , yet another sternly spanish . there are an agile contortionist , two striking asian men , a man with dreadlocks , and so forth . each is vivid all move brilliantly , although sometimes mr . platel 's vision is clouded by individual display , as if he had not quite shaped his dancers' inventions . his vision seems to be a commentary on religion today , especially at its despairing , ecstatic extremes . most of the time , the dancers look like inmates of a lunatic asylum , holy fools or maybe mr . platel 's idea of everyday existence . electric shock spasms are the default mode of movement sometimes the dancers work themselves into a mass frenzy . usually they remain detached from one another , alone in their loneliness . toward the end sexual hysteria pervades the scene , with everyone apart and masturbating ( although there is no nudity ) . from the depths of this desperate depravity arises mr . platel 's most moving image . as monteverdi , now sounding mostly from behind the set , in the far distance to which the musicians have disappeared , the dancers struggle up an incline , dragging their fellows . they have n't made it to the top as the light fades , but at last humanity has come together , in its pained aspiration for something higher than itself . alain platel 's ''vsprs'' continues in bochum tonight , tuesday and wednesday , and again at the lyon biennale de la danse from sept . 26 to 28 . the ruhr triennale continues until oct . 15 ruhrtriennale . de , biennale de lyon . org . dance review

has a location of germany

a frieze of rabbits and dogs runs round the top of a wall papered with elephants , pandas , monkeys and palms . a pig and a squirrel share a tiny settee , and a teddy_bear drives a small car across the floor . this is the nursery of the goldschmidt rothschild children in berlin , two years before the coming of the third reich . their toys were captured in this state of implausible tidiness by a photographer named marta huth in the winter of 1931 , along with their father 's priceless collection of dutch paintings and french furniture downstairs . all were shortly to go under the hammer . erich goldschmidt rothschild had decided to pack it all in and go traveling as early as 1930 . the tiergarten villa was sold , nazified in 1933 and destroyed by bombs in 1943 . garden and foundations now lie under the middle of a six lane highway made necessary by the postwar zoning of the city and the building of the berlin_wall . a berlin story , one of countless like it , for this remains a haunted city of layers , disappearances and trails that come to nothing in the shallow local sand . the goldschmidt rothschilds left germany in time . erich is recorded in rome and america after the war , and presumably died ( unless he is 102 ) , but when and where ? this is one of many unsolved mysteries raised by an exhibition of the huth photographs at the bauhaus museum in berlin until nov . 17 . marta huth managed to take her 283 heavy negative plates with her when she moved to the united_states in the late 1930 's , settling in chicago with her husband , hans , who worked at the art institute . when she died in 1984 in carmel , calif . , where she and her husband had retired , she left the plates to a local charity , which sold them back to berlin . in a city that has tried to rebuild its metropolitan credentials for 50 years and is passing through a traumatically transient phase as it prepares to be a capital once more , the human diversity revealed by the huth archive has been welcomed as vital evidence from the past . this is not photojournalism these pictures were set up . huth was invited to photograph rooms in the homes of 27 financiers , doctors , writers , artists , heiresses , publishers and connoisseurs who contributed to the civilized image of berlin in the 20 's . some bore famous names max liebermann , the painter paul mendelssohn bartholdy , a banker and a descendant of the composer carl zuckmayer , a playwright , and emil lettre , a jeweler . many but not all were jews . most were avid collectors of porcelain , picasso , early musical instruments , italian primitives , tapestries , rare books and nearly all are known to have survived the war . of their villas , apartments , bungalows and palaces , however , only a handful remain . there are no people in these airless , scrupulously posed interiors . there is nothing more animate anywhere , in fact , than the odd aspidistra , spider plant and perfectly placed plum . yet the rooms are full of expectation , and the photographs speak volumes about the men and women who invited marta huth in . they mostly loved sunshine , for one thing , and they loved art . hermine feist ( 1855 1933 ) was perhaps the most exotic . she was the daughter of a coal and steel magnate and married into a dynasty founded on german champagne . she went bust spending all her money on china , particularly meissen , and rebuilding a large villa in fashionable wannsee to contain it . what remains of the feist collection in the modern kunstgewerbemuseum ( museum of applied arts ) gleams with a beauty and wit that suggest this must indeed have been the greatest private assembly of meissen in the world . feist favored rococo rooms and furniture to show off her collection . the painter fritz wildhagen hung viols all over his walls , leading the eye carefully through a half open door into the next room . victor hahn , who was viennese , shut out the vulgar kurfurstendamm completely and turned up the spotlights on rooms so stuffed with medieval treasures that you might think he was preparing for a visit from his acquisitive contemporary and fellow newspaper proprietor , william randolph hearst . none of this had much to do with the parvenu city of weimar berlin pulsing with new ideas outside , but not all huth 's subjects played with the melodrama of the past . some threw all their curtains and furniture out the window and commissioned mies_van_der_rohe or marcel breuer from the bauhaus to design a minimalist setting , something to clear their heads the minute they walked in after a bad day . there was modernist bravura , too , in the eye of the storm at the depth of the depression one banker took a 2 floor , 10 room apartment in charlottenburg and had it done over by ernst freud , son of sigmund , whose views on clutter were as severe as those of mies . since 1979 , walter gropius 's brilliant white , many funneled bauhaus museum has stood like an ark of hope between the tiergarten and the landwehr canal it is a shrine to the modernism that is already classic and a promise , always , of new things to come . as a setting for this show it is perfect , for several of huth 's ghosts lived only minutes away , along the southern edge of the tiergarten on roads then colonized by diplomats and private wealth . apart from the restoration of the old japanese embassy as a cultural center a few years ago , it has been a melancholy and neglected district since the 40 's , when most of the remaining trees in the tiergarten were cut down for fuel . ( the park was replanted , but few trees today are more than 40 years old . ) there is still more wilderness on and around tiergartenstrasse than in most of the old central west_berlin . look for the french and german libraries in hans furstenburg 's villa , and you will find a mormon church , to whom furstenburg sold the ruins and garden in the late 50 's . try to find the house where hanns heinz ewers lived with his books , buddha , italian majolica and chinese carpets , and you will stare through a wire fence into a dappled birch grove . there is no house only the plasterwork paneling of the bedrooms on the outside wall of the derelict villa next door . tiergartenstrasse now leads straight to the huge potsdamer platz building site and the heart of the reunified city . the whole area is coming to life again as landowners develop their wilderness . the biggest of these is , of course , the german_government . in 1915 the mendelssohn bartholdys stylishly completed one of the last palaces in berlin near the reichstag , on the other side of the park . the house was later requisitioned by albert speer and vanished , like everything round it , after less than 30 years . the new federal chancellery will be built on the site . michael ratcliffe is a former theater critic and literary editor of the observer in london .

has a location of germany

the american sculptor richard serra has abruptly pulled out of a project to design a massive and much debated holocaust memorial in berlin . mr . serra , who had joined with the american architect peter eisenmann to submit a design that was strongly favored by germany 's chancellor , helmut_kohl , said he had quit for ''personal and professional reasons'' that ''had nothing to do with the merits of the project . '' the surprising announcement by mr . serra , whose giant abstract works have both enraptured and infuriated people for decades , was yet another twist in the troubled efforts by german leaders to build a memorial to jewish victims on a site at the heart of hitler 's third reich , and almost on top of the line where the berlin_wall once stood . though mr . kohl and other german leaders had hoped to build a memorial to the holocaust in berlin by the time the city resumed its role next year as capital of the reunited germany , the project has been dogged by philosophical and political battles . though german leaders have not officially decided on a design , the proposal by mr . serra and mr . eisenmann , one of four competing proposals , has been the clear favorite of mr . kohl and of the nonprofit_organization that has led the decadelong effort to build a memorial . as envisioned by the two americans , the memorial would feature a forbidding labyrinth of 4 , 000 huge pillars that would sprawl over an area of 180 , 000 square_feet . it would be built between berlin 's brandenburg_gate and potsdamer platz , where a huge new commercial and office complex is being built on what used to be the no man 's land between east and west_berlin . echoing the years of debate in the united_states over building the memorial to vietnam veterans in washington , the proposal for a berlin memorial has brought endless argument and infighting over both details and fundamental philosophical issues . german leaders almost selected an entirely different design for the memorial that consisted of a huge tilting slab of concrete that was to have been covered with the names of 4.2 million known victims of the holocaust . chancellor kohl vetoed that design in 1996 , and a new competition led to the selection of the four competing designs , including that of mr . serra and mr . eisenmann . but the arguments did not end . many critics argued that the design should include names of victims , as well as the numbers of people killed and the places where the killings occurred . several months ago , a group of leading german intellectuals , including germany 's best known writer , gunter grass , argued that the monument should be abandoned . opponents of a memorial argued that no artistic monument could represent the full horror of the holocaust , and that it would be an ''abstract installation of oppressively gigantic proportions'' that would be ''neither a witness to the past nor a sign to the future . '' the letter said the memorial should remember other groups persecuted by the nazis , including as gypsies , homosexuals , soviet prisoners of war and the disabled . others are proposing that instead of building a monument , berlin should rename potsdamer platz ''juden platz'' or ''jews' place . '' it remained unclear today whether mr . serra 's unexpected withdrawal would lead to further delays in the memorial . in a statement issued by mr . serra 's dealer , the gagosian gallery in soho , the sculptor said he continued to support the design . mr . eisenmann said he would proceed on his own and that the design was nearly complete . ''as far as we 're concerned , the project is more than either richard serra or peter eisenmann , '' the architect said . ''in 50 years , nobody will remember who the artist and the architect were , '' mr . eisenmann added , dismissing the matter as ''a tempest in a teapot . '' lea rosh , head of the nonprofit_organization that has lobbied for a holocaust museum since 1988 , said mr . serra 's decision would not cause a problem . ''what is important is that eisenmann stands by his proposal and that his design is finally put on display , '' ms . rosh said today . a decision on the memorial has already been delayed for several months , and proponents are now hoping to reach a final agreement by the end of june . chancellor kohl is still insisting on numerous changes , but mr . eisenmann has indicated he can accommodate the requests . berlin 's mayor , eberhard diepgen , remains opposed to all four of the final designs and is supposed to have a say in the ultimate decision . mr . diepgen , who has been lukewarm about the project all along , recently questioned whether any monument could ' 'deal with this horror artistically . ''

has a location of germany

the bush_administration praised the soviet legistature 's passage today of a long anticipated free emigration bill , but the white_house said it wanted to read the fine_print before it decided to grant moscow the trade benefits that were conditioned on the bill 's passage . the white_house also said it was considering but had not yet decided how to respond to an appeal from the soviets to join directly in drafting and financing a plan for economic and political reform that mikhail s . gorbachev , the soviet president , wants to discuss with the leaders of the major western industrialized_nations at their mid july summit conference in london . passage of the soviet emigration bill , and the latest economic proposals , coincided with the arrival in washington of gen . mikhail a . moiseyev , the soviet chief of general staff , for negotiations with senior administration officials aimed at resolving the last disputes holding up the conventional_arms reduction agreement for europe . general moiseyev held daylong talks with an american delegation headed by reginald bartholomew , under secretary of state for security affairs . president_bush , after meeting with the german chancellor , helmut_kohl , said " not much progress " had been made in the arms talks . but he made it plain that if that hurdle could be cleared , he was eager for a summit meeting with mr . gorbachev . new level of cooperation these various developments , while seemingly unrelated and involving both economic and arms control issues , are in fact part of a series of tradeoffs that the white_house and the kremlin are hoping to make , not only to pave the way for wide_ranging talks between mr . bush and mr . gorbachev , probably in moscow in late june or early july , but also to take soviet american cooperation to a new level . the soviets seem to be turning increasingly to the united_states to help dig them out of their economic depression , and the administration is having to decide how far it wants to go and what recompense it might seek . mr . bush agreed at his summit meeting in washington in 1990 to give the soviet_union most favored nation trading status , which would enable the soviets to export their goods to the united_states at lower tariffs . the status was contingent on the emigration bill . today the state_department spokeswoman , margaret d . tutwiler , adopted a cautiously_optimistic approach about the next step . " we have not seen the text of the legislation or the implementing resolution as passed , and would prefer to withhold judgment on specifics until we have been able to review it in detail , " she said . " the very fact that procedures once subject to the arbitrary application of unpublished regulations are now established in law in our view is a positive development . " the new law gives most soviet citizens the right to travel abroad but does not state when travel restrictions would be lifted . the supreme soviet approved a separate resolution establishing a target date of jan . 1 , 1993 for the law to take effect . the bill also requests that the cabinet report within two weeks on whether some elements of the law can take effect earlier . " obviously , we would prefer to see it implemented faster , " said miss_tutwiler , " but that does not detract from something that we have been fighting for for two decades , and that is why we also want to have more clarity and understanding concerning the step by step implementation . the other part of this that we understand was passed also , we have not yet seen the detail and fine_print in that . " on the visit from general moiseyev , white_house spokesman marlin fitzwater said the administration was not looking to cut any deals with the soviets but rather to convince the general to abide by the treaty as written . " we want compliance with the original treaty , " he said . the dispute is over four naval infantry regiments , equipped with 1 , 100 tanks , armored_personnel_carriers and artillery_pieces . the soviets have argued that this equipment , which is restricted by the treaty , should be free of limitations . the soviets contend that , because the treaty deals only with ground forces , such forces under naval command should not be limited . this interpretation is not shared by any other signatories , and it reflects the disgruntlement of the soviet_military over political leaders' failure to insist that the treaty limit naval forces , where the west has superiority . washington was expected to agree that the equipment of these naval infantry units could be excluded provided a similar amount of ground equipment from their regular army forces was withdrawn or destroyed instead . a similar compromise formula was used to resolve an almost identical dispute raised by the soviet_military over its coastal defense units , which it also wanted excluded from the treaty . general moiseyev is to meet tomorrow with secretary of state james a . baker 3d in an effort to resolve the dispute , which has strained relations between moscow and washington . on the question of the president gorbachev 's request to attend the economic summit , mr . fitzwater said the president " will be consulting with " leaders of the other industrialized_nations , " but we have not resolved this matter now . " a senior state_department official said the british , as hosts , would take the lead in deciding the question , and mr . kohl and mr . bush both left the matter open when they met reporters in the white house rose garden this evening after their talks . nor would either leader make any substantive comment about the new soviet economic proposals , which were discussed today in cambridge , mass . but a senior state_department official said that mr . kohl had insisted that any western participation in drafting or financing the program should include a large measure of what he described as " self_help " by the soviets and not just grants from the west . mr . bush was also said to be opposed to large new credits at this time .

has a location of germany

lead president_reagan said today that he was ''heartened'' by prospects for an arms agreement banning intermediate_range missiles , and announced that the united_states had formally agreed to a key element of a compromise advanced by the soviet_union . president_reagan said today that he was ''heartened'' by prospects for an arms agreement banning intermediate_range missiles , and announced that the united_states had formally agreed to a key element of a compromise advanced by the soviet_union . the announcement today , said marlin fitzwater , the president 's spokesman , indicates ''continued momentum'' toward an arms accord . ''i think it 's fair to say that it provides us with a very optimistic foundation for continued talks and for an agreement , '' he said . the basic concession made by washington is to accept soviet suggestions that all missiles and launchers covered by a treaty would be destroyed . thus , they could not be transferred to third countries or altered in such a way as to escape terms of the treaty . u.s . signaled acceptance the united_states informally signaled acceptance of this compromise approach when it was initially proposed in geneva last month by col . gen . nikolai f . chervov , the soviet arms control expert . the statement today made the administration 's position official . but mr . fitzwater acknowledged that at least one major issue continued to pose obstacles the soviet demand that american warheads on west_germany 's 72 pershing 1a missiles be destroyed . the germans have steadfastly resisted such a move , saying that the elimination of other missiles in europe would leave them vulnerable to invasion by the superior conventional forces of the warsaw_pact . the president and his aides are openly eager for an arms agreement and see it as the best opportunity for mr . reagan to end his presidency on a note of achievement . they hope that a pact could be signed at a summit meeting between mr . reagan and mikhail s . gorbachev , the soviet leader , by the end of the year . that way , there would be sufficient time for ratification before the 1988 political_campaign heated up . ''there is still much to do in geneva , '' mr . reagan said at a scientific meeting here today . ''but i 'm heartened that the climate is now receptive to an historic proposal of this type . the united_states is proud to be in a position to make this proposal . '' moscow offers a compromise as part of the same compromise , the soviet_union has agreed to ban all intermediate_range missiles deployed by the two superpowers anywhere in the world . moscow originally demanded the right for each country to retain 100 missile warheads , but mr . gorbachev said last week that the soviet_union was dropping its demand and would accept a total ban , frequently described as a ''zero zero'' option . as part of the same compromise , moscow also agreed on a worldwide ban on shorter_range_missiles , with a range of 300 to 600 miles . the soviet_union called for a special negotiating session in geneva on wednesday to make an ''important proposal . '' a spokesman for the american team said the united_states hoped the russians would use the session to advance a proposal dealing with strategic or long range missiles . president_reagan noted today that the united_states had already offered its own plan for controlling long range missiles and added ''we hope the soviet_union will do likewise . '' a few weeks ago , administration officials were expressing gloom about soviet attitudes at the geneva talks , saying that prospects for a fall summit meeting were fading . one cause for their apparent pessimism was the refusal of moscow to set a date for a meeting between foreign_minister eduard a . shevardnadze and secretary of state george p . shultz . the administration confirmed a report today in the new york times that mr . shevardnadze had now agreed to such a meeting , probably in mid september , just before the opening of the united_nations_general_assembly . on the issue of the west_german pershing 1a 's , moscow insists that because the nuclear_warheads for the pershings are under american control they should be part of any united_states soviet bargain . mr . fitzwater repeated the american position today when he said ''the german pershing 1a 's are not , and have never been , and will not be a part of these negotiations . '' in the administration 's view , the russians are stressing the pershing issue as a way of ''whipsawing'' the alliance and causing frictions between bonn and washington . 'major point of difference' mr . fitzwater acknowledged that the german weapons remain ''a major point of difference'' in the geneva talks , but administration officials are still not sure whether the soviet_union will allow the issue to block an agreement . max m . kampelman , the chief american negotiator , said at a news conference in geneva that the united_states would not press the germans to give up their weapons . ''this is a decision for the federal_republic to make for itself , '' he said .

has a location of germany

lead under pressure from some nato allies , the bush_administration appears to be softening its opposition to western_european financial support for the soviet_union and is considering expanding its own technical aid to moscow . under pressure from some nato allies , the bush_administration appears to be softening its opposition to western_european financial support for the soviet_union and is considering expanding its own technical aid to moscow . president_bush and the state_department remain reluctant to give american cash aid directly to the soviet_union in the absence of major economic changes in which the centrally planned economy would be put firmly on a free_market path . but the administration has begun looking for more ways to provide technical economic assistance , particularly in the form of experts to help transform soviet economic institutions . for instance , the administration is considering a proposal to send experts to help the soviets develop and operate a private housing industry . other proposals include technical help on private_banking , a stock_market , management training , accounting programs , various forms of entrepreneurial advice , and support for soviet membership in the international_monetary_fund . the administratioon is also adopting a more tolerant attitude toward west_germany and other european_countries that are prepared to grant or loan moscow some of the 15 billion to 20 billion it is seeking . behind the change in attitude behind the administration 's shift , officials said , are pressures from west_germany to give moscow economic aid in return for its accepting the idea of a united germany joining nato and pressures from other european allies for the west to back its professions of good will for mr . gorbachev 's liberalization program with cash . mounting concern in washington that a collapse of the soviet economy could weaken the fledgling democracies of eastern_europe has also contributed to the administration 's change in attitude , the officials said . last march , when the house majority leader , representative richard a . gephardt , democrat of missouri , suggested that the united_states consider economic aid to the soviet_union , president_bush dismissed both the proposal and mr . gephardt by saying , ''maybe he 'll come on a good idea one of these days . '' three months later , though , the bush_administration is no longer dismissing such proposals out of hand . 'the west can help' the state_department spokeswoman , margaret d . tutwiler , said today , ''we believe the success of perestroika depends fundamentally on soviet choices , but the west can help the soviets through this difficult period . '' the west , she said , shares ''a common interest in the success of political and economic_reform in the soviet_union . '' ''we expect there will be a discussion on this subject'' with the european_community and at the july 9 economic summit meeting in houston , she added . with that in mind , discussions have begun within the administration on whether the western allies can reach understandings that allow west_germany and france to give financial aid or credits to moscow while the united_states and others limit their help to technical assistance . administration officials want to avoid a split within the western alliance on this issue and take the attitude that if the germans are prepared to give cash aid in return for soviet backing for their membership in nato , then why not ? as one official put it . a senior administration official remarked , ''the united_states cannot be in a position of being isolated on this issue'' or it could lose its leadership position in the alliance . differences in attitude there already appear to be subtle differences among senior administration officials on the issue . secretary of state james a . baker and the president have cited the political and economic difficulties of granting aid to moscow , but have clearly gone out of their way not to rule anything out . on the other hand , secretary of defense dick_cheney has emphasized that as long as moscow is spending ''enormous amounts of its national wealth on military hardware'' it would be a mistake for the west to give economic assistance . the germans and french disagree . chancellor helmut_kohl of west_germany asked his 11 colleagues in the european economic community tuesday to consider a 15 billion western aid_package to help mr . gorbachev get through his current political and economic crisis . he was backed by president_francois_mitterrand of france , but strongly opposed by prime_minister margaret_thatcher of britain . the european leaders decided to study soviet needs and make proposals for short term credits and longer_term support for economic restructuring . in the united_states , however , there is less political support for aid at a time when the administration is under pressure to hold down spending . also , until the soviets enact legislation freeing emigration , various american laws prevent the government from providing trade benefits , government guaranteed credits or export_import_bank loans to moscow .

has a location of germany

after assuring its allies that it represents continuity , the new government of chancellor_gerhard_schroder is using a bold , often challenging directness that is a radical departure from other postwar german adminstrations . gone are the unquestioning solidarity with a european_union seen as the guarantor of german stability , the reluctance to challenge nato on basic points of doctrine and the deference to the united_states that reflected a historic debt and an enduring sense of vulnerability . in their place mr . schroder has bitterly attacked what he called germany 's unfairly high contributions to a wasteful european_union budget . foreign_minister joschka_fischer has suggested that nato change its nuclear policies . and finance minister oskar_lafontaine has made clear that american style global capitalism is not to his taste . ''strange sounds can be heard from germany these days , '' the munich newspaper suddeutsche_zeitung said on its editorial page this week . ''where is fischer 's humility toward our big american ally ? where are schroder and lafontaine 's consideration and sensitivity toward their european partners ? where , in fact , is the feeling for history ? '' the answer , perhaps , is that germany 's feeling for history has shifted with the arrival in power of a new generation that , as mr . schroder has said , believes that the country should show ''the self confidence of a nation that has come of age . '' in a sense , the government 's directness is a refreshing liberation , a breath of fresh_air for germany 's ponderous political culture . young germans , particularly , felt stifled in the latter years of mr . schroder 's predecessor , helmut_kohl , and many are enthusiastic about the new government 's freewheeling style . but the shock to the united_states , and to european allies gathered today for a summit meeting in vienna , has been palpable . ''what the government fails to realize is that when germany raises questions about nato strategy , people raise questions about germany , '' said one western official . ''they are begging us not to make too much of fischer 's remarks , but the fact is he is not building trust and he is causing irritation . '' mr . schroder 's ''red green'' coalition of social democrats and greens is still finding its feet , and there have been indications of confusion in the coalition 's ranks . the ministers' statements may be scattershot attempts to satisfy important party constituencies as much as coordinated government policy . mr . fischer , for example , is facing a green_party congress this weekend , and his call for nato to renounce the first use of nuclear_weapons is certain to go down well there . ''fischer warmed up a rather shallow green soup just enough to let it bubble through the weekend , '' said one government official , ''but the coalition does not want to push this idea with any lasting conviction . '' but whatever the follow up to mr . fischer 's stand , american officials are concerned that his call for a review of nuclear policy will prove a distraction as nato grapples with other aspects of redefining its post cold_war mission . there is also widespread concern in western capitals that mr . schroder appears unable or unready to assert his authority particularly over his bustling finance minister , mr . lafontaine and so give a single voice to the coalition . but the social_democratic chancellor seems determined to support the various statements from his ministers . his consistent message has been that germany should no longer bear any complexes . ''today , '' mr . schroder said last month , ''we are democrats and europeans , not because we have to be , but because we want to be . '' in a speech this week about germany 's place in europe , though , he seemed to break startling new ground , adopting an almost thatcherite tone as he lambasted the european_union for draining germany 's resources . ''we cannot and do not want to continue a policy that buys the good will of our neighbors with net payments that will become a burden to our country , '' mr . schroder declared . ''we cannot solve europe 's problems with the german checkbook . '' his attack was focused on germany 's net contribution of 13 . 2 billion to the european_union budget , far more than those of other countries , many of which receive large net payments every year in the form of various subsidies . why , mr . schroder asked , should germany pay when rich countries like luxembourg , denmark and belgium receive money from the 100 billion european budget ? the unspoken answer has long been precisely that germany should buy the good will of its neighbors , because it had a historic debt to them and because the european_union provided germans with an environment in which to grow rich again without appearing threatening . several allies , including france , are certain to be troubled by mr . schroder 's words , even as another ally , britain , has been angered by calls from mr . lafontaine for a harmonization of european tax levels to reflect the imminent introduction of a common european currency . after a storm of protest in london , mr . lafontaine retreated a little , calling for the ''coordination'' of taxes rather than their ''harmonization . '' many in britain see the latter term as a faint disguise for the imposition of uncompetitive tax levels by the european_union . but the german finance minister has stuck to calls for ''target zones'' for international curencies and for greater controls in what he has called the ''casino'' of international capitalism . american officials , in general , have not been pleased . mr . schroder has offered measured support to mr . lafontaine , saying he would work during germany 's approaching presidency of the group of seven industrial nations for a ''financial architecture'' that ' 'should prevent entire economies being ruined by financial speculation . '' all this amounts to a marked change , but it was for change , after all , that germans voted 10 weeks ago . in the same article that alluded to the ' 'strange sounds'' from germany , suddeutsche_zeitung applauded the government 's readiness to confront problems long concealed behind ''facades of harmony . '' but those facades , if that is what they were , also constituted central elements in germany 's relations with its allies . nobody today believes that germany is turning its back on america or the european_union . but an adjustment of those relationships appears to be under way , and it may eventually involve far reaching shifts in the european and trans_atlantic order .

has a location of germany

secretary of state condoleezza_rice did what was expected , many people in europe said tuesday , after her meetings with chancellor angela_merkel and other german officials . she gave reassurances that the united_states would not tolerate torture and , while not admitting mistakes , promised to correct any that had been made . she accompanied that with an impassioned argument for aggressive intelligence gathering , within the law , as an indispensable means of saving lives endangered by an unusually dangerous and unscrupulous foe . did anybody believe her on this continent , aroused as rarely before by a raft of reports about secret prisons , c.i.a . flights , allegations of torture and of ' 'renditions , '' or transfers , of prisoners to third countries so they can be tortured there ? ''yes , i did , '' karl theodor zu guttenberg , a conservative member of the german_parliament , said in a telephone interview on tuesday . ''the thing i believe is that the united_states does obey international_law , and mrs . merkel said that she believes it too . '' not everybody here is of that view , to say the least . indeed , it would be hard to imagine a more sudden and thorough tarnishing of the bush_administration 's credibility than the one taking place here right now . there have been too many reports in the news_media about renditions including one involving an lebanese born german citizen , khaled el masri , kidnapped in macedonia in december 2003 and imprisoned in afghanistan for several months on the mistaken assumption that he was an associate of the sept . 11 hijackers for blanket disclaimers of torture to be widely believed . ''i think what she means is , 'we do n't use it as an official way to do things , but we do n't look at what is done in other countries , ' '' monika griefahn , a social_democratic member of parliament , said in regard to ms . rice 's comment on torture . ''and that 's the problem for us . '' ms . griefahn also expressed skepticism about ms . rice 's assurance that where mistakes are made presumably in mr . masri 's case the united_states will do everything in its power to rectify them . indeed , bush_administration officials said nothing about rectifying mistakes before reports of mr . masri 's kidnapping . ''i do n't believe they wanted to do anything to rectify the al masri case , '' ms . griefahn said . in britain , members of parliament from both parties reacted with even greater skepticism to ms . rice 's statement , saying it had neither answered their questions nor allayed their concerns about american policy . ''it 's clear that the text of the speech was drafted by lawyers with the intention of misleading an audience , '' andrew tyrie , a conservative member of parliament , said in an interview . mr . tyrie is chairman of a recently formed nonpartisan committee that plans to investigate claims that the british_government has tacitly condoned torture by allowing the united_states to use its airspace to transport terrorist suspects to countries where they are subsequently tortured . parsing through the speech , mr . tyrie pointed out example after example where , he said , ms . rice was using surgically precise language to obfuscate and distract . by asserting , for instance , that the united_states does not send suspects to countries where they ''will be'' tortured , ms . rice is protecting herself , mr . tyrie said , leaving open the possibility that they ' 'may be'' tortured in those countries . others pointed out that the bush_administration 's definition of torture did not include practices like water boarding in which prisoners are strapped to a board and made to believe they are about to be drowned that violate provisions of the international convention against torture . andrew mullin , a labor member of parliament , said he had found ms . rice 's assertions ''wholly incredible . '' he agreed with mr . tyrie that ms . rice 's statement had been ''carefully lawyered , '' adding ''it is a matter of record that people have been kidnapped and have been handed over to people who have tortured them . i think their experience has to be matched against the particular form of language the secretary of state is using . '' to a great extent , the latest trans_atlantic brouhaha reflects a very real division between europe and the united_states , reminiscent of the arguments that took place over the iraq_war two years ago . in the view of the bush_administration and its supporters , the europeans' moral fastidiousness reflects a lack of realism about the nature of the terrorist threat and what needs to be done to defeat it . the view of europeans , by contrast , is that they understand the terrorist threat perfectly well , but that the bush_administration 's flouting of democratic standards and international_law incites more terrorism , not less . ''i resent the fact that my country is foolishly being led into a misguided approach into combating_terrorism by this administration , '' mr . tyrie said . ''european_countries have a far greater experience over many decades dealing with terrorism , and many of us have learned the hard way that dealing in a muscular way can often inflame the very terrorism you 're trying to suppress . '' in mr . zu guttenberg 's view , the reports filling both the german and american news_media these days and fostering a surge of renewed indignation against the bush_administration are based on unproved allegations and rumors that have been transformed into established fact . ''what 's important is that the balance between democratic principles and secret services needs to be maintained , '' mr . zu guttenberg said . ''i take it as a reaching out of the hand when she says mistakes have happened and we have to rectify them . '' to some americans at least , the way the charges about secret prisons and c.i.a . flights have gained currency illustrates the readiness of many europeans always to believe the worst about the united_states . more than one commentator over the last few days has referred to the secret prisons as a gulag archipelago , even though romania and poland , the countries where the prisons are said to be situated , have denied their existence . moreover , their total prison population would be at most a few dozen compared with the hundreds of thousands that were confined in stalin 's real gulag archipelago . the bush_administration 's treatment of imprisoned suspected terrorists , coupled with the problems the united_states continues to encounter in iraq and vice_president dick_cheney 's resistance to congressional curbs on the handling of prisoners , has not made ms . rice 's job of persuasion any easier . ''the europeans lack of realism is a big problem , but i 'm also frustrated with the inability of the united_states to behave like a successful big power , '' said john kornblum , a former american ambassador to germany and now director of the investment_bank lazard fr res in germany . he added that ''the europeans do have this propensity'' to put the worst possible interpretation on american actions , ''but unfortunately , we have given credibility to that sort of behavior . '' to some extent , the comment by ms . rice that seems to have had the most effect in europe was her statement made in washington on monday that many governments have cooperated with the united_states on intelligence gathering . that remark did not so much reassure european commentators that the united_states was abiding by international treaties as it has led them to accuse their own governments of hypocrisy , silently acquiescing in american practices while publicly criticizing them . ''if the european services knew , '' the italian daily la_repubblica said tuesday , referring to the reports of secret prisons and c.i.a . flights in europe , ''how is it possible that the governments and the parliaments , which these services must answer to , were n't informed ?

has a location of germany

lead sometime this autumn , west_germany will send a new ambassador , jurgen ruhfus , to washington to replace gunther van well , who is retiring . sometime this autumn , west_germany will send a new ambassador , jurgen ruhfus , to washington to replace gunther van well , who is retiring . mr . ruhfus , 57 years old , who holds a law degree , brings a distinction with him he understands and apparently likes journalists . he developed this quality , somewhat unusual among german diplomats , as press spokesman for the foreign_office from 1966 to 1970 . since then mr . ruhfus has served as ambassador to kenya and britain . despite these postings his english has a tinge of an american accent , something he picked up as a graduate student at the university of colorado in the 1950 's . washington talk briefing

has a location of germany

when president_kennedy visited west_berlin in 1963 , the more than one million berliners who turned out to greet him were the largest crowd he had ever seen . so large , in fact , that mr . kennedy said that when he left office he was going to leave his successor a sealed letter to be opened only when things got really bad at home . the letter would read , " go to germany . " times have changed . what has been striking about mr . clinton 's trip through europe this week , including berlin , is how muted the response has been . from latvia , to poland , to italy , to germany , the crowds have been substantial at times , but never huge , always embracing but hardly ecstatic . the explanation , though , seems to have little to do with mr . clinton . it is much more a statement about this moment . to put it simply the cold_war era , when cheering an american president in berlin was as much an act of defiance against the soviet_union as an expression of affection for the united_states , is over . the euphoria is over and the euphoria of the immediate post cold_war world is also over the days when an american president could whip a crowd into a frenzy by describing that land of milk and honey that lay ahead once europe was free of the communist yoke . today is the post post cold_war era , when the main questions being debated are " who takes out the garbage ? " and " what have you done for me lately ? " as the cold_war was coming to a close , those who lived under communism in eastern_europe had enormous expectations about what lay ahead , and they were eager to hear from an american leader about what it looked like on the other side of the hill . well , they are now on the other side of the hill . they know what it looks like , and it looks complicated . the view takes in bosnia , free_markets with all of their opportunities and uncertainties unemployment , inflation and a western_europe that is hesitant to open its markets to their products or nato to their armies . maybe that is why a young russian born latvian named paul reacted to president_clinton the way he did in riga last week . paul is a 25 year old married to a latvian woman , but was being denied latvian citizenship because of his russian ancestry . as he listened to mr . clinton extol the virtues of democracy for latvia , paul just shook his head and said , " i 'm not buying it . " leaders seem to have shrunk what mr . clinton seems to have discovered on this trip is that in europe he has inherited a moment when most of the heroes of the cold_war have ridden off into the sunset , the credits have rolled and america is neither protecting europe nor liberating it anymore . in the eyes of the public , everyone seems to have shrunk three sizes . when aides told president_clinton that the approval rating of president lech walesa of poland had sunk to 5 percent in polish public opinion_polls , mr . clinton responded , " five percent ? no one can be that low ! " much has been made of the fact that because mr . clinton has focused his presidency on domestic policy , he has deprived himself of one of the traditional sources of presidential authority foreign_policy . that is true enough . but what this latest tour underscores is that even if mr . clinton had chosen to concentrate more on foreign_policy , it is questionable whether it would have given him the authority boost it has other presidents . if harry s . truman and dean acheson were " present at the creation " of the cold_war world , bill clinton and warren_christopher are " present at the adaptation " of the post cold_war world . that is , they do not have the challenge , or the opportunity , of building institutions from scratch like nato or the general agreement on tariffs and trade . they must try to adapt these institutions at a time when the europeans have a much stronger say in what should go into them , when economic resources are scarce and when there is no soviet enemy over the horizon to nudge the european allies into line . if the world is now safe for small wars , it is also safe for greater discord among the allies . an embarrassing moment when mr . clinton offered a proposal at the naples economic summit meeting to begin talking about the issues not dealt with in gatt like financial_services he was spurned by the six other leaders , who thought the idea premature . the president was forced , rather embarrassingly , to take his proposal off the table . throughout this trip mr . clinton cajoled the western europeans to open their economies to more exports from eastern_europe , as america has from mexico . otherwise , he said , capitalism will never take root in poland or ukraine . but the west european_countries have soaring unemployment , and their leaders made clear to mr . clinton that they were reluctant to allow imports that could cost them a single job at home . when president_kennedy went to west_berlin , the dollar was firm and strong . today it fluctuates wildly against the german_mark and japanese_yen . the era of fixed exchange_rates is gone . the cold_war world was characterized by governments dominating their economies , and no government was more dominant than america 's . the post cold_war world is characterized by free_markets . it is the markets that dominate the governments today . it is a time when all governments can do less , not more . theme of civil courage no wonder , then , that the little noticed theme that ran through mr . clinton 's speeches here was a call for a new kind of courage , one that draws its energy from mundane daily acts of individuals a civil courage . " the challenges our generation faces are different than those our parents faced , " mr . clinton told the polish parliament . " they are problems that in many cases lack pressing drama . they require quiet and careful solutions . and if we meet them well , our reward will not be stunning moments of glory , but gradual and real improvements in the lives of our people . " we must find the will to unite around these opportunities of peace , as previous generations have united against war 's life or death threats and oppression 's fatal grip . to the courage that enables men and women to drop behind enemy lines , face down rumbling tanks or advance freedom 's cause underground , we must add a new civil courage the energy and optimism and patience to move forward through peaceful but hard and rapidly changing times . "

has a location of germany

the last time president_bush visited this country , his seven hour stopover in the western city of mainz had all the warmth of a legal deposition . he was on frosty terms with then chancellor_gerhard_schr_der and a jittery police force virtually sealed off the city , shutting six highways and halting river traffic on the rhine . this time , the vibe is palpably better . angela_merkel , mr . schr_der 's successor , has gotten along well with mr . bush , and on her last trip to the united_states she invited him to visit this seaside town in northeastern germany , where she began her political career 15 years ago . yet , with mr . bush and the first lady , laura_bush , scheduled to spend thursday with chancellor merkel here before the two heads of state attend a summit meeting in st . petersburg , russia , the town is undergoing a modest version of the security lockdown imposed on mainz . on tuesday , workers were welding shut manholes in the shadow of st . nicholas church . police said they would cordon off only part of the medieval old town , which the bushes will tour , disrupting 4 , 000 residents rather than the tens of thousands put out by the visit in early 2005 . while eastern_germans are no better disposed toward mr . bush than those in the west anti bush demonstrators said several thousand people would rally on the outskirts of stralsund residents seem generally open to the president 's visit , if mostly for reasons of self interest . ''some people may not consider the bushes as friends , but they are our guests , and we must treat them well , '' said rolf peter zimmer , a retired engineer and the president of the city parliament . more to the point , he said the publicity would attract tourists to stralsund , a charming but economically fragile town of 58 , 000 . although it was designated a unesco world heritage site in 2002 , it has not been able to capitalize on its rich history as a trading port in the hanseatic league , an alliance of merchants that controlled trade on the baltic_sea in the late middle ages . people here are also giving the benefit of the doubt to mrs . merkel , a physicist turned politician who has represented this part of the state of mecklenburg west pomerania in parliament since shortly after german_reunification . she keeps close ties to stralsund , visiting every month . some view mr . bush 's trip as proof that she looks out for her constituents . commentators have likened her invitation to the much coveted weekends for world leaders at the president 's ranch in crawford , tex . mrs . merkel is even throwing a barbecue featuring a wild boar shot by a local hunter in a tiny village near here , trinwillershagen . ''i think she is proud of stralsund , '' said birgid wacks , the head of the tourist office . ''she 'll be able explain to bush what it was like during east_german times and how it has changed since . '' in fact , the few cobblestone blocks that mr . bush will see are more evocative of 14th century commerce than 20th_century communism . handsome gabled houses , built by prosperous merchant families , line the streets . the drab concrete housing_projects that blight this town , like most in eastern_germany , are built in outlying areas and are not on mr . bush 's itinerary . still , stralsund carries the burdens of its history . the unemployment rate hovers above 20 percent , prompting young people to flee to western germany for jobs . their exodus , combined with a low birth_rate , has resulted in a dearth of children . stralsund has closed two schools recently . mrs . merkel won her seat as a christian democrat , and her party dominates the municipal government . but mecklenburg west pomerania is governed by a coalition of social democrats and the left party , which includes elements of the old east_german communist_party . ministers from the left party have said they will march in the protests against mr . bush . the protesters unhappy that mrs . merkel has pursued closer ties with the president plan to take aim at both leaders . monty sch del , a local organizer , noted that the german_government had locked arms with the united_states in the nuclear standoff with iran a stance , he implied , that could lay the groundwork for another war . ''we 're saying not only that they should stop waging wars , but that they should stop planning wars , '' mr . sch del said . mr . bush will probably not hear the message . stralsund 's old town is largely surrounded by water , and the police plan to block the few causeways leading into it . that will keep the protesters at a distance . perhaps the hottest issue is the matter of who should pay for the visit . with 12 , 500 police officers deployed , security will cost more than 15 million , and german newspapers have reported that mecklenburg west pomerania , one of germany 's poorest states , is to foot the bill . mr . zimmer said that the matter had not been decided yet and that the left party was exploiting it for political gain . as workers erected stands for pre screened residents to greet mr . bush , nearby shopkeepers said they would close their doors on thursday . but even they sounded more resigned than resentful . ''we can live with being closed for a day , '' said sybille riedel k tz , an antiques_dealer . ''very few people have ever heard of stralsund . if bush makes more people aware of it , then it 's worth it . '' stralsund journal

has a location of germany

chancellor angela_merkel of germany arrived in the united_states on thursday for her first official visit , determined to improve the german american relationship . but she will have to thread her way carefully between that goal and the widely held view among germans that the united_states is doing a lot of things wrong in the world . mrs . merkel , who is scheduled to meet with president_bush on friday , is seen as friendlier to the united_states than her predecessor , gerhard_schr_der , whose vehement opposition to american policy in iraq led to the worst crisis in relations in many decades . at the same time , she has expressed her disagreement with the bush_administration on some matters , saying last week , for example , that the detention camp at guant_namo should eventually be shut down . the bush_administration sees her as a strong potential partner who can help to bridge differences between the united_states and europe . ''there is no question that washington is meeting angela_merkel with a positive bias following the conflicts with former chancellor schr_der , '' karsten voigt , the foreign ministry 's coordinator of relations with the united_states , said in an interview with a german radio_station . mrs . merkel , the first german chancellor from the former communist ruled eastern_germany , is known to have been critical of mr . schr_der 's blunt public criticisms of american policy , believing that major differences should be expressed instead through quiet diplomacy . but in an interview this week with the magazine der_spiegel , she expressed her own disagreement with the bush_administration 's effort to curb terrorism , in particular over the prison camp at guant_namo_bay , cuba , which many germans contend exists outside the framework of international_law . ''an institution such as guant_namo in its present form cannot and should not exist in the long term , '' she was quoted as saying . ''ways and means must be found to handle prisoners differently . '' in washington on thursday night , mrs . merkel did not mention guant_namo , but told nearly 200 guests at the german ambassador 's home that she looked forward to a ''lively debate'' on issues like the balance between freedom and security in both germany and the united_states . ''there will be differing opinions in certain areas , '' mrs . merkel said , but they can be addressed in a spirit of friendship and cooperation . her two day visit is part of a series of trips since she took office late last year . they have so far included most important european capitals as well as brussels , the headquarters of nato and the european_union . but clearly the relationship with the united_states is central to german foreign_policy , and relations have been slowly improving even as german public opinion remains unfriendly and suspicious . ''this trip represents the next step in going back to functioning and reliable german american relations , '' eberhard sandschneider , president of the german council_on_foreign_relations , said in a telephone interview wednesday . the trip , in this sense , is a continuation of improved relations noted when president_bush came to germany last year , meeting mr . schr_der in mainz . ''bilaterally we have few problems , '' said mr . voigt of the foreign ministry . ''it 's mostly a matter of how germany and the united_states can work together in order to solve problems on europe 's perimeters , such as in the balkans , or how they think about russia or ukraine , how they view the middle_east , and how to address iran 's ambitions to possess nuclear_weapons and the scandalous statements by the iranian leadership in regard to israel . '' iran , which broke an agreement it made with european negotiators a year ago by resuming nuclear work that the united_states and most of the europeans believe is aimed at building nuclear_weapons , is certainly high on the agenda . germany is also cooperating with the united_states in afghanistan , where it maintains 2 , 400 peacekeepers , and is training iraqi_police officers in the persian_gulf . but mrs . merkel 's comments on guant_namo suggest that the visit will not , as mr . sandschneider put it , ''be all smiling faces . '' germans have been deeply influenced by reports accusing the united_states of misdeeds , from condoning torture in prisons it controls to the kidnapping of a german citizen of arab descent , khaled al masri , in what appears to be a case of mistaken identity . another case bedeviling the relationship concerns a german born turkish citizen , murat kurnaz , who was seized by the pakistani police in pakistan four years ago and has been held in guant_namo almost ever since , despite findings by the german police that there is no evidence that mr . kurnaz has ever supported terrorist groups . there have been german press reports that mrs . merkel intends to bring the matter up with mr . bush . ''for president_bush , friday will be a success , '' the german paper tagesspiegel editorialized over the weekend , adding that ''he only needs positive pictures to show his people that the germans are being good to him again . '' ''but merkel on the other hand has to be careful , '' it continued . ''she has to balance out the pictures of trusting closeness with a touch of critical distance so that she does n't share the same fate'' that prime_minister tony_blair of britain suffered , being harshly_criticized at home for his closeness to president_bush . mr . sandschneider said ''the german_government will try hard to improve the american image in europe , and guant_namo is one of those important topics marring that image , in europe and across the world . it cannot be in the german interest to see the american image suffering , especially in places like the middle_east , where we face threats . ''

has a location of germany

lead one of the rituals of the atlantic alliance is the official expression of gratitude to the united_states for holding a protective military arm over western_europe for four decades at the expense of european taxpayers . one of the rituals of the atlantic alliance is the official expression of gratitude to the united_states for holding a protective military arm over western_europe for four decades at the expense of european taxpayers . so it is something new to find west germans pooling their resources and raising about 800 , 000 in corporate money to form a private organization dedicated to raising consciousness about the value of ''european american cooperation as the foundation of our security and well being . '' the group , calling its initiative ''friendship in freedom , '' made a presentation of its plans yesterday to members of congress who are concerned with european affairs . one of the group 's co founders , gunter diehl , the west_german ambassador to the united_states who is a former state secretary in the bonn government , said that while the main target was younger west germans , the first activity would be an advertising campaign in major american and west_german newspapers with such headlines as ''nato 's greatest victory is forty years of peace . '' the house democratic leader , representative tom foley of washington , and senator richard g . lugar , republican of indiana , said they were particularly impressed that theirs was a private initiative . washington talk briefing correction_october 7 , 1988 , friday , late city final edition because of an editing error , a report on tuesday in the briefing column of the washington talk page misidentified gunter diehl . he is the former west_german ambassador to india and to japan , not to the united_states .

has a location of germany

when fereshta ludin completed her training to become a grade school teacher six years ago , she seemed to be laying the groundwork for a classic immigrant success story . after coming to germany at age 14 , ms . ludin , an afghan born muslim , sailed through the education system , married a german , and earned , at 24 , the credentials to teach in the country 's public schools . she was even qualified to teach the german_language . but education officials prohibited her from taking a public job because she wears a head_scarf . the officials , from the southern german state of baden w rttemberg where ms . ludin received her qualifications , contended that the head_scarf could have a negative religious influence on schoolchildren . ms . ludin sued . now , after being rejected by three lower courts , her case is before the constitutional court in karlsruhe , germany 's highest court . the dispute has divided public opinion and become a touchstone for anxieties about the country 's growing islamic minority . experts say that the court 's decision , which is expected as early as july , could affect german integration policy for years to come . ''the head_scarf has become a symbol for the issue of what role islam can have in germany , '' said mathias rohe , a professor of law and an expert on islamic minorities in europe at the university of erlangen . on paper , ms . ludin 's high_court challenge hinges on the extent to which freedom of belief and equal right to public employment do not interfere with the concept of a secular_state . ms . ludin contends that her head_scarf is a matter of personal preference and has no bearing on her ability to teach . baden w rttemberg 's education minister , annette schaven , contends that ms . ludin 's head_scarf violates ''the strict neutrality of public schools in religious issues . '' but ms . schaven , a christian democrat , has made clear that her primary concerns are about islam . in denying ms . ludin a job in 1998 , the minister argued that a head_scarf was ''understood as a symbol of the exclusion of woman from civil and cultural society . '' both conservatives and many on the left here contend that the head_scarf is merely a device of social control in islamic cultures where women do not enjoy equality with men . in an essay in der_spiegel last week , alice schwarzer , a prominent feminist , wrote that a decision in favor of ms . ludin could lead to ''parallel worlds'' in which a small minority was allowed to practice islamic_law and establish a restrictive social system within germany 's borders . ''the woman 's veil has been the flag of islamic crusaders , '' she wrote . ms . ludin , who now teaches at a private islamic school in berlin , responds that the german school officials , not her faith , have limited her professional aspirations . ''it amounts to a ban on employment because of my beliefs , '' said ms . ludin , now 31 , in an interview . ''as a teacher , i am supposed to educate children to become literate and tolerant . but how can i do this when i have to renounce my own identity , and in a democracy where tolerance is considered a cardinal virtue ? '' as ms . ludin 's supporters point out , she makes an unlikely candidate for islamic crusader . she is the daughter of a diplomat and a schoolteacher . she spent parts of her early childhood in germany where her father was briefly stationed and in saudi_arabia , before immigrating as a teenager to germany . by ms . ludin 's own account , she surprised her family when , as a young adult in germany , she started wearing a head_scarf . she describes the decision as a free choice based on her personal faith . ''i am just as against the oppression of women and inequality as any other german , '' she said . ''if the head_scarf were a political symbol , i would be the first to take it off . '' baden w rttemberg officials acknowledge that there is no evidence that ms . ludin is trying to bring political islam into the classroom . ''we believe that she does n't want to be a missionary and that she shares our democratic values , '' ferdinand kirchof , the legal representative of baden w rttemberg , told the constitutional court this month . ''it has to do with the image that is projected . '' the separation of church and state is not as strictly defined in germany as in the united_states . churches are financed by state administered taxes , and religious instruction takes place in most german public schools . nonetheless , the constitutional court has placed limits on the use of religious symbols . in a landmark 1995 case , the court forbade hanging a crucifix in a public classroom . but that ruling , experts point out , related to religious symbols on public buildings , not to personal attire .

has a location of germany

shortly before his death last winter at 83 , helmut newton found a way of closing the circle of his life . he created the helmut newton foundation in berlin , his birthplace and the city where he learned to be a photographer . he also picked a suitably symbolic home for the foundation , a former prussian army officers' club that stands beside the railroad station where , as an 18 year old jew , he boarded a train to flee hitler 's germany in december 1938 . newton , who died in a car crash in los_angeles on jan . 23 , did not see the opening of the foundation in june . but now more than ever it has become his memorial , and an eye_catching one at that . where stern portraits of bewhiskered generals once presided over the foyer of the officers' club at jebensstrasse 2 , near the berlin zoo station , five of newton 's trademark ''big nudes'' now proclaim his place as a pioneer of erotic fashion_photography . he is even more present in one of the foundation 's two opening shows , ''us and them , '' which he described as ''a kind of photographic diary'' of the life he shared for 56 years with his australian born wife , june , herself a photographer who works under the name alice springs . through self portraits and portraits of each other , including a remarkable photograph of june with the dying helmut , the exhibition speaks_volumes of the humor and affection of their marriage . the other show , ''sex and landscapes , '' which also runs through the end of this year , offers a better known helmut newton , with statuesque nudes displayed in the kind of quirky poses that earned him the sobriquet king of kink some of these images were until recently considered too risqu for public viewing . mixed among them , though , are less familiar still lifes , landscapes and seascapes , one showing a desert highway near las_vegas , another of breaking waves off monte_carlo . newton selected these opening shows when he was organizing the foundation last fall . he and his wife decided to pay for refurbishing the first and second floors of the jebensstrasse building to receive the foundation . ( they did not disclose the cost . ) they also made an initial permanent loan of 1 , 000 prints of their work , although after their deaths , as newton instructed , their negatives and archives as well as all rights , royalties and income from sales of prints will go the foundation . ''it is my wish that the helmut newton foundation be a viable and living institution , not a dead museum , that will financially exploit these archives , '' he noted late last year . thus the foundation will exhibit not only his pictures , but also work by other photographers , artists and designers . further , it plans to organize workshops and lecture series which , newton noted , ''gifted and poorer students'' can attend at reduced or no charge . berlin 's first museum of photography will eventually occupy the third floor of the building , but a museum devoted to newton will soon open on the ground floor . ''a whole museum , '' ms . newton explained in a telephone interview from her home in monte_carlo , ''not just cameras , but his cars , his whole office from monte_carlo , some of his clothes with photographs of him wearing them , 50 meters of posters , the evolution of his life . if we 're showing work by other photographers , visitors can still see his life . '' understandably , berlin 's cultural establishment has embraced the helmut newton foundation with enthusiasm , not only for its artistic merit , but also for the message implicit in a berlin jew 's decision to return home . in fact both the city 's mayor , klaus wowereit , and klaus dieter lehmann , the president of the prussian cultural heritage foundation , ardently wooed the photographer until they found a building that pleased him . ''we were led into the building , and more wonders it is in almost perfect condition , like it was waiting for me , '' newton wrote in his 2002 ''autobiography'' ( nan a . talese doubleday ) . ''from the windows i can see across the road to the railroad station to the quay , where i said goodbye to my parents 64 years ago to go out into the wide , wide , world . i am not a sentimental guy , but i could not suppress a certain frisson as that day came back to me . '' yet despite his flight and the painful separation from his parents ( they were able to escape to argentina ) , newton looked back fondly on his teenage years in berlin , where he not only discovered his love of women , but also served an apprenticeship with a photographer known as yva . the bond of sex and photography , which newton first exploited in singapore and australia and which later made his name in paris , was seemingly forged in berlin . ''when we first returned there in 1956 , he was not resentful , '' ms . newton recalled . ''he was n't a dramatic person . he did n't connect the past with the present . he had given me a copy of christopher isherwood 's book 'berlin diary , ' and we followed it like a map . it was a real trip back for him . he was a man of the world , but he was also a real typical berliner , with his wit , his sardonic humor . he took life as it came . '' this much comes through in ''us and them , '' a show of 110 images built around a 1999 book by the same name . three photographs of newton at 16 one with three girls , the others posing with cameras in yva 's studio convey the self assurance of a young man who , he readily admitted , was spoiled by his wealthy parents . in the ''us'' section that follows , newton is occasionally seen working with nude models , but most images are far more personal . he and his wife frequently photographed themselves and each other naked at rest , exercising , posing , joking , bathing , with the passage of time slowly recorded in their bodies . mirrors were often used camera in hand , newton is seen covered with wires during a 1997 medical check up . on occasions he simply reached out and snapped himself , as with his mischievous self_portrait only his glasses and hair are visible in front of courbet 's famously scandalous painting , ''l'origine du monde . '' in the ''them'' part of the show , newton and his wife each photograph the same person , although not on the same occasion . catherine deneuve , karl lagerfeld , birgit nilsson , anjelica huston and yves_saint_laurent are among the models and , in each case , newton 's theatricality contrasts with his wife 's more austere approach . in an introduction to ''us and them'' ( scalo ) , newton noted ''i can see the truth and simplicity in the portraits of alice springs . as for myself , i recognize the manipulation and editorializing in my photographs . '' yet perhaps the most extraordinary pictures , shown in public here for the first time , are not in the book . they were taken by ms . newton of her fatally injured husband lying in the cedars sinai medical center after he lost control of his car and crashed into a wall outside the chateau marmont hotel in los_angeles , where they spent every winter . after that , newton had one final unplanned journey to make . ''the city of berlin offered him an honorary grave , '' ms . newton said . ''it was a big decision for me to make . but i thought it quite an honor since he loved the idea of the foundation so much and berliners loved him so much . it seemed fitting that i should accept for him . '' on june 2 , two days before the foundation 's inauguration , newton 's ashes were laid to rest in the friedenau cemetery in berlin .

has a location of germany

germany 's conservative opposition , trying to regain its lead in the opinion_polls before national elections on sunday , opened a new front today , contending that the government of gerhard_schr_der was undermining national_security and the economy by letting in too many immigrants . mr . schr_der has revived his own supporters and earned a small lead in the polls by running hard to the left . his rival , edmund_stoiber , who has run a bland , centrist campaign , is making a last minute lurch to the right , trying to win back his own voters in a volatile climate . in a television interview this morning , mr . stoiber said he would throw out a government reform passed earlier this year intended to open germany to qualified immigrants with needed skills . ''when there are more than four million jobless , '' mr . stoiber said , ''then it is irresponsible to open up the job market to everyone . '' mr . stoiber 's spokesman on police and immigration matters , g nther beckstein , said today that the government was hurting domestic security and compromising germany 's economic future with its immigration_policy . mr . beckstein cited a greens politician who called the new law a step toward making germany ''a modern , multicultural land of immigration . '' mr . beckstein said , ''that is exactly what we do n't want . '' instead , germany must integrate the 7.3 million foreigners who live here and find work for the more than four million germans who do not have jobs , mr . beckstein said . he called for the deportation of any foreigner sentenced to prison for more than two years and for limits on the residence permits of immigrants on welfare . mr . schr_der called the new conservative strategy a sign of ''helplessness and aggressiveness , '' adding , ''it is a desperate attempt to find a topic with which one can arouse emotions , but i think the public will see through it . '' mr . schr_der has revived his chances to win re election through his handling of germany 's disastrous floods and his sharp message of opposition to a new , american led war in iraq . his campaign to preserve the peace in open and pungent opposition to the bush_administration has won him support , while making mr . stoiber seem wishy washy , unwilling to support the americans but also unwilling to rule out a war in iraq . while many had thought that mr . stoiber would run to the right , he had instead sounded moderate on social issues while hammering hard at the poor state of germany 's economy . but mr . schr_der has argued that unemployment and low growth are a result of global factors beyond his control not his inability to challenge his union supporters and make the labor market more flexible . in early august , polls indicated , mr . stoiber 's conservatives were between five and seven percentage_points ahead of mr . schr_der 's social democrats , who govern in coalition with the greens . now , with the vote on sunday , mr . schr_der has opened a small lead , and has the momentum . he has sought to capitalize on his own popularity and that of his foreign_minister , joschka_fischer , a green , by trying to run as a kind of personality ticket , highly unusual in a parliamentary democracy . mr . fischer , an elfin former radical , is germany 's most popular politician , with an approval rating of more than 80 percent in the polls , and both men are more popular than their own parties . so on sunday evening , mr . schr_der held an unusual joint rally in downtown berlin with mr . fischer , under a giant red and green poster that read , in english ''go on ! '' to another term with what is called his red green coaliton . ''i want this foreign_secretary and no one else , '' mr . schr_der said , pointing to mr . fischer . the foreign_secretary then returned the favor , saying ''i do not want to become chancellor . i want gerhard_schr_der to be the next chancellor . '' but as the immigration question returned to the political agenda , deutsche_bank said germany 's population could fall from 82 million to 65 million in 50 years with the work force shrinking by 27 percent , to 30 million by 2040 unless politicians allow more immigration and provide incentives to women to combine a career with child rearing . about 500 , 000 immigrants a year would be needed to prevent a decline in the working age population , the bank said .

has a location of germany

a firebomb badly_damaged a holocaust museum near the northeast german town of wittstock , the brandenburg state police said today . . police officials posted a_10 , 000 reward for information leading to an arrest in the attack on thursday on the belower forest museum . half the museum 's exhibition space was destroyed , and swastikas and anti semitic graffiti were painted in pink on a nearby monument 's walls . the museum 's spokesman , horst seserens , said ''we were quite lucky because the police were very fast and stopped the fire . a few minutes more and the whole building would have burned down . '' the vandals also painted an anti semitic slogan , ''jews have short legs , '' a twist on the german saying that ''lies have short legs . '' mr . seserens said the intended message was that ''the holocaust is a lie . '' the belower forest memorial is dedicated to the victims of the nazi death marches of the spring of 1945 , when the nazis emptied concentration_camps that were about to be liberated by the advancing soviet_army and forced some 45 , 000 inmates to march farther into germany . thousands died , just days before the camps were liberated by soviet and american_troops .

has a location of germany

a walk of fame planned for berlin will have to do without the name marlene dietrich . the dietrich family has barred the organizers from honoring the glamorous berlin born movie actress and singer ( 1901 1992 ) , left , because , it said , the proposed tribute , including an engraving of the star of ''the blue angel'' ( 1930 ) , does not do justice to her legacy . the site , including the hand imprints and autographs of german celebrities like ute lemper and caterina valente , is to open on sunday in front of the friedrichstadtpalast theater , on a site where dietrich performed in 1926 as a chorus girl . ''had the city of berlin initiated the project , this would have been a whole different story , '' said frieder roth , the dietrich family lawyer . ''however , this is a private matter of the friedrichstadtpalast , and therefore falls short of expressing significance of such a grand celebrity like marlene . '' the celebrity strip is berlin pflaster , translated as berlin sidewalk . kristen grieshaber arts briefing

has a location of germany

for some angry lawmakers in congress , the best punishment for germany 's refusal to back a war against iraq would be to scale back the number of american_troops stationed here . the pentagon , they were told recently , is weighing the idea . ask the residents of this german town what they think , and they say it cannot happen soon enough . neu isenburg , a well kept community of 36 , 000 , is carved out of the majestic forest south of frankfurt . it lies next to the rhein main air base , which was once a landing site for dirigibles , including the ill starred hindenburg , and is now a major hub for the united_states_air_force . since november 2001 , the night sky over neu isenburg has reverberated with the roar of c 5 galaxy cargo planes and other aircraft ferrying troops and supplies to afghanistan . with a new war in the persian_gulf looming , rhein main is gearing up for another wave of flights . ''to be honest , i would be very happy if they left , '' said kerstin harms , a sleep deprived mother of two young girls . ''when these galaxy planes pass by , the windows vibrate , the whole house shakes . '' horst m ller , a retired pharmaceutical worker who has campaigned against the flights , said some pilots were ''cowboys'' who reved their engines with little regard for the sleeping world below . ''when a galaxy takes off at 3 a.m . , '' he said , ''all of neu isenburg falls out of bed . '' like most people here , mr . m ller and mrs . harms insist that they do not resent the american military presence in germany . for mr . m ller , 69 , the soldiers stir memories of his first chocolate bar , given to him when he was 11 by an arriving g.i. , or his first cigarette , cadged from a soldier and smoked furtively in the woods near his home . but the incessant noise is testing their patience . and the discontent is not confined to this town . people who live near the much larger ramstein air base in southwestern germany also complain about the racket . a united_states_army training ground in the bavarian town of auerbach has drawn the ire of residents who say the sound of exploding artillery shells keeps them awake . ''it 's not just afghanistan , '' said the mayor of neu isenburg , dirk oliver quilling . ''it 's every crisis kuwait , bosnia , kosovo . this is n't a problem with americans . it 's a problem with military flights . '' once viewed as a potent symbol of cold_war vigilance eagles standing against the soviet bear the american_soldiers in germany are now seen by some people here as something approaching a nuisance . at the pentagon , some view them as a relic . the new commander for american_forces in europe , gen . james l . jones , has floated the idea of scaling back the 71 , 000 troops based in germany in favor of lighter , more mobile units that could jump from country to country on short notice . the plans , which are in an early stage , are part of a longstanding effort to rethink the deployment of united_states troops in europe since the end of the cold_war . despite the barbed comments in congress , military officials say the plans did not grow out of the recent rift between berlin and washington . the strained relations , however , are coloring the debate on both sides . antiwar_protesters plan to demonstrate in front of the rhein main base in the coming week , while mr . m ller and other people here said they regretted the anti american position taken by germany 's chancellor , gerhard_schr_der . the commander of the base , col . christine d . prewitt , said some local officials had even apologized to her . ''i tell them i appreciate the support , but i ca n't really do anything with it , '' she said . colonel prewitt is , however , trying to address the complaints about noise . she noted that the air_force had begun using more c_17 planes at rhein main , which are quieter than the c_5 's . she disciplined a pilot who veered off his landing path a year ago and flew low over the town . and she meets regularly with local officials to brief them on the missions being planned . among her frustrations is the stubborn belief among townspeople that the planes are carrying bombs or other weapons . she said the base was not equipped to load or unload munitions . colonel prewitt also said cargo planes bound for afghanistan had to take off in the middle of the night in order to land there in daylight . the need to supply troops in iraq may require further night flights . ''we ca n't ever promise a community that we wo n't fly over them , '' she said . ''the planes have to go somewhere . '' despite these irritants , colonel prewitt said relations between rhein main and its neighbors were decent . she recalls being stationed as a young pilot at the clark air base in the philippines from 1985 to 1988 . that base was eventually closed after anti american protests . ''in the philippines , you got the distinct feeling it was 'yankee go home' time , '' she said . ''you do n't get that feeling here . the circumstances are different , the people are different . '' she said rhein main had been downsized in 1995 , reducing its population from about 8 , 000 to under 2 , 000 . with fewer air_force troops , there are fewer links between the base and the surrounding towns . neu isenburg used to have an auto dealership and a pub that catered to american_troops . both are gone . unlike some german towns , neu isenburg does not depend on the base for economic sustenance . indeed , the air_force plans to close rhein main at the end of 2005 , transferring its last operations to ramstein . the move , however , is contingent on adding a runway and upgrading technology there . given the pentagon 's other obligations these days , residents doubt that it will meet that deadline . rhein main shares runways and taxiways with frankfurt 's mammoth international airport , which is just north of the base . airport officials already have plans to convert the base into a new terminal building . mayor quilling said his town might end up trading the roar of the c_5 's for more car traffic . ''there is a german expression , '' he said as he watched a lufthansa 747 ascend into the azure sky outside his office . ''we look at it with one eye crying and one eye laughing . ''

has a location of germany

lead bush_administration officials say they have given the soviet leadership a nine point plan designed to induce moscow to accept the presence of a united germany in the north_atlantic_treaty_organization . bush_administration officials say they have given the soviet leadership a nine point plan designed to induce moscow to accept the presence of a united germany in the north_atlantic_treaty_organization . the program , which brings together many different elements related to the future of nato and german soviet relations , was largely designed by washington and bonn and first presented to the soviet foreign_minister , eduard a . shevardnadze , in moscow in mid may and then reiterated for president mikhail s . gorbachev last week , the officials said . while virtually all elements of the plan have been discussed in public , the administration wanted to package them in one document to be presented to the soviets as part of the american strategy for convincing moscow that the west is seriously trying to address soviet concerns on german membership in nato . west will push on , anyway despite mr . gorbachev 's suggestion that the soviet_union may delay withdrawing its troops from eastern_europe if a united germany joins nato , bush_administration officials say they intend to press ahead with their plans to integrate germany into the western alliance . indeed , secretary of state james a . baker 3d left today for a gathering of european foreign ministers in copenhagen , the first of a series of high level meetings that administration officials see as critical for putting their german strategy into effect . the carrot in that strategy , officials say , is to keep offering moscow this package of nine military and political points designed to make a united germany 's membership in nato so nonthreatening in military terms and so economically beneficial to the soviet_union that it will eventually acquiesce . ''we have presented to the soviets nine points that summarize how we propose to deal with their legitimate interests , '' a senior administration official said . ''the message of these nine points is that we really want to deal with your concerns on germany sensitively . '' onus of the spoiler the stick , officials say , is to use the gathering momentum of german_unification and the broad european support for german membership in nato , to make prohibitive the diplomatic costs for moscow of seeking to block german_unification . these would involve alienating the german nation whose economic support will be badly needed in the coming years and generally playing the role of ' 'spoiler . '' ''we basically said that if you want to engage on these nine points , fine , '' the senior official said . ''otherwise , you are going to be isolating yourself and antagonizing the germans . but if you 're serious about having your concerns addressed , then we are ready to go a long way . '' these are the nine points a united germany will reaffirm its commitment not to develop nuclear , chemical or biological_weapons . after conclusion of a conventional_arms reduction treaty now being negotiated in vienna , the nato allies will be prepared to immediately conclude a follow up manpower accord that would limit the size of a united germany 's armed_forces . nato is prepared to advance the date of negotiations to limit short range nuclear_weapons in europe . nato will radically revamp its military_strategy and structure of forces to make them far less threatening to moscow . germany will renounce claims not only to polish territory , but also to former german territory now in the soviet_union , such as east prussia . no nato forces will be stationed in what is now east_germany . soviet_troops will be allowed to remain in east_germany for a transition period , with expenses paid by the german_government . the 35 nation conference on security and cooperation in europe will be institutionalized and expanded , as moscow has insisted , to make it a pan_european organization in which the soviets can play a leading role as the warsaw_pact disintegrates and nato remains intact . germany will offer moscow a variety of trade , lending and commercial arrangements to help the soviet_union in its transition to a market_economy . described as appreciative ''the nine points are concrete things , and gorbachev clearly appreciated them , '' a state_department official who took part in the summit meeting said . but ''i think what we learned from him at the summit is that he may also need some intangible things . ''gorbachev 's remarks on germany were never very clear , but what he seemed to be saying was that the very political nature of nato causes him problems , '' the official said . ''the nine points are telling him that nato will eventually change , but that 's a pig in a poke for him . he wants to see something now , have something to point to , to prove that nato is no longer the cold_war menace but just a grouping of western states which want constructive relations with the east . he also want to see more specifics on some of the nine points . '' in copenhagen on wednesday , mr . baker is to give an address to the european security conference foreign ministers , laying out some american ideas on the roles that this all european organization might play . from there , mr . baker will continue to turnberry , scotland , for a meeting of nato foreign ministers that will lay the basis for a nato_summit meeting early next month focusing on ways to make nato , as it absorbs a united germany , a less dangerous alliance to moscow . baker to see shevardnadze while in copenhagen , mr . baker will meet with mr . shevardnadze and try to develop with him some of the ideas floated at the summit for quickly transforming nato 's political image in soviet eyes . these include more frequent visits by soviet diplomats and generals to nato , possibly giving nato forces a non american commander , and possibly even drafting an agreement between nato and the warsaw_pact for new principles of relations . on july 1 , the two germanys will put into effect complete monetary , economic and social union , meaning that they will have one currency , one set of labor laws and , effectively , one economy . by autumn , all east and west_german political_parties will be merged and by sometime between december and next april , all german elections will be held . by then , the only thing holding up german_unification will be the completion of the so called ''two plus four'' negotiations , in which the two germanys and the four world_war_ii allies the united_states , the soviet_union , britain and france are supposed to dissolve their rights and responsibilities over germany , making final germany 's borders and concluding a treaty that would be approved at a summit meeting of the european security conference . to be sure , administration officials say , mr . gorbachev can simply refuse to withdraw soviet_troops from east_germany and hold up the whole matter , but for how long and at what price ? ''what are they going to do the day the representative of a united germany walks into nato headquarters in brussels and presents his credentials and it is done ? '' an american official asked . ''what happens when the three western powers say they are going to terminate their rights and responsibilities in germany and the soviets say no ? what do you think that is going to do for soviet german relations ? ''

has a location of germany

rolf hochhuth , the german playwright whose provocative dramas have been setting off political controversies for 30 years , has ignited another one with a play that some say seeks to justify the killing of a senior german official in 1991 . the official , detlev rohwedder , was president of the treuhand agency , which is charged with privatizing businesses formerly owned by the east_german state . in his new play , which opened in berlin last month , mr . hochhuth accuses the treuhand of " plundering east_germany " and condemns mr . rohwedder as " a useful idiot for speculators " who practiced " brutal economic darwinism . " " a person who does what rohwedder did to a defenseless population should not be surprised if he is shot , " mr . hochhuth said in an interview before the premiere of the play , " wessies in weimar scenes from an occupied land . " wessi is a slang term for a western german . top politicians have sharply rebuked mr . hochhuth and condemned his play . chancellor helmut_kohl denounced mr . hochhuth 's position as " a charter for murder . " the playwright insists he seeks not to legitimize mr . rohwedder 's killing , but to explain it . by accusing the treuhand of " overwhelming economic violence , " he is venting the deep frustration many easterners feel at the way their former " people 's property " has been sold off over the last two years . intense debate over the play 's political message was accompanied by a last minute backstage feud between mr . hochhuth and the director , einar schleef . mr . hochhuth said he was aghast at what mr . schleef had done to his work , including cutting large chunks of the original text and adding choruses of nudes who chant texts from goethe , schiller and brecht . " we have two very different artistic styles , " mr . hochhuth said at a news conference . " i do n't see how you can connect these things with what i 've written . " mr . hochhuth 's effort to block the berlin production was unsuccessful , but he has said that a version he considers faithful to the text will open this month in hamburg and then be staged in more than 70 cities and towns . challenging the political establishment is a familiar pursuit for mr . hochhuth . he first came to world attention in 1963 with " the deputy , " a play implying that pope pius xii acquiesced in the holocaust by refusing to try to halt or even speak out against the roundup of jews . chancellor konrad adenauer apologized to the vatican over the play . other works by mr . hochhuth have also been attended by controversy . " soldiers , " for example , was a 1967 play that accused winston_churchill of moral responsibility for the firebombing of dresden in world_war_ii and connivance in the death of wladyslaw sikorsky , the polish general and head of poland 's wartime government in exile , who was killed in a plane crash near gibraltar in 1943 . other works have accused american leaders of abetting the spread of chemical_weapons , and explored the nazi past of west_german officials , the latter leading to the resignation of a prominent politician in 1978 . agency often criticized many german commentators , as well as opposition members of parliament , had criticized the treuhand before the premiere of " wessies in weimar . " they said that by rushing to close factories that employed hundreds of thousands of people , the agency had helped to cut an entire society adrift from its moorings . the treuhand was created after german_reunification in 1990 and assigned to take over the thousands of factories , mines , shops , restaurants , hotels , farm cooperatives and other enterprises that had been state property under the communist east_german government . it has been steadily selling them off to investors , most of whom are outsiders . treuhand officials insist they have no reasonable alternative to their current policies . eastern_germany 's economy needs vast private investment , they say , and most people who live there have no way to raise the required capital . mr . hochhuth is giving voice , however , to a sense among some easterners that treuhand policies constitute a form of theft through disinheritance . in the opening scene of the play , a woman confronts mr . rohwedder in his study to complain about treuhand 's policies " you leave the east_germans 10 percent but steal 90 percent , and for that you will be executed . you steal from the people . they are being robbed for the second time . forty years ago , at the end of the war , by german communists in the service of the kremlin , and now through your treuhand . " mr . rohwedder replies " this sahel zone from rostock to erfurt is an ecological and industrial disaster area that can only be saved by selling it to foreigners , if it can be saved at all . " the accuser continues " an unprecedented act of violence , mr . president . you are practically giving away the best lands and properties , without giving local people the chance to bid on what used to belong to their country . something completely new in world history , a variant of colonialism that has never before been practiced against one 's own people ! " the scene ends with the accuser telling mr . rohwedder that he is engaged in " a predatory war that you will not survive . " then a shot rings out and mr . rohwedder falls dead . in real life , mr . rohwedder was killed by a sniper who fired at him through the window of his study late on the night of march 30 , 1991 . the far left red_army_faction took responsibility . last year chancellor kohl attended a ceremony in berlin at which the treuhand building , once the headquarters of the luftwaffe , was renamed in mr . rohwedder 's honor . in a debate arranged by a german television_station recently , mr . hochhuth confronted a treuhand representative , wolf schode , who sharply rejected his assertions . " you call the work of the treuhand violence , and say that those who commit acts of violence must reckon with an irrational violent response , " mr . schode said . " does your play make clear that hundreds of thousands of eastern_germans are working to build democracy in cities and towns , as labor organizers , politicians , entrepreneurs and managers ? " does it make clear that 99 percent of the people who have responsibility in eastern_germany are from that region ? does it make clear that 130 billion_marks is going to be invested there during this year alone ? does it make clear that the treuhand is legally responsible for streamlining and privatizing companies and that we have sold more than 2 , 000 of them to eastern_germans ? does it make clear that 80 to 85 percent of retail businesses have been sold to eastern_germans ? " mr . hochhuth replied by citing figures showing that 26 percent of formerly state owned property in eastern_germany has been sold to people from that region . " i find that extremely small , " he said . " twenty six percent of it is being given to the people who once owned it all . "

has a location of germany

the decision on monday by the german_government to buy back religious artworks stolen by an american soldier at the end of world_war_ii drew both sharply negative and cautiously approving reactions yesterday from arts administrators , dealers and lawyers . a settlement of the lawsuit was announced in london by lawyers representing the german_government and jack meador and jane meador cook , the siblings and heirs of joe tom meador , the american soldier who stole the treasures from a cave outside the medieval town of quedlinburg and took them back to his home town of whitewright , tex . one of the provisions of the settlement was the payment of 1 million to the meador family . the german_government also agreed not to challenge the meadors' right to 1 . 75 million paid to them last april . " it 's not so different from paying ransom to buy back your baby , " said constance lowenthal , executive director of the international foundation for art research , which specializes in tracking stolen art . described as 'blackmail' ms . lowenthal said the payments " constitute extortion because they 're buying back what they already own . " robert t . buck , director of the brooklyn_museum , called the settlement " blackmail , " and said it was " especially unfortunate at a time with pending u.s . participation in another international altercation . " " the timing is horrible as a lesson to every american g.i. " he continued . " this settlement says theft pays . you can sell whatever you steal . there 's a lot of art over there in iraq . " roland folter , director of h . p . kraus , the rare book and manuscript dealer , said " on one hand , i 'm pleased , but it does set a bad precedent . they took the easy way out . " " i think it 's unfortunate , " said brian m . cogan , a new york lawyer who is representing the government of the netherlands in an effort to recover property expropriated by nazi_germany , " when someone is the undisputed owner of valuable property that has been stolen and has to pay millions to get it back . " more tolerant reactions some museum officials around the country took a more tolerant view . " i encourage settlements , " said linda f . pinkerton , trust counsel of the j . paul getty trust . " when the courts are forced to make these decisions , they are very difficult decisions , and the wrong court decision would be something everybody would have to live with . " " museums are in a difficult position on this matter , " said richard r . brettell , director of the dallas museum of art , which will exhibit the quedlinburg treasures for two weeks in february or march before their return to germany . " there are an enormous number of artworks in museums that at one time were stolen or misappropriated . it 's easy to be moralistic and express opinions not based on a thoughtful review of the law . " the director of a major museum , who spoke on condition of anonymity , said " what may have been a theft 50 years ago is now , in the cycles of time , something else . one has to consider 50 years . the germans were right to pay something , even though this sounds like an enormous amount of money . " gilbert s . edelson , a lawyer and administrative vice_president of the art dealers' association , said , " as a lawyer , i can understand making a payment even if you think you should n't on principle just to get the objects back . " doubts about provision john b . davidson , a chicago lawyer with experience in the international art field , expressed concern about a provision in the settlement under which the german_government would inform the appropriate federal agencies that it did not want the united_states_government to take any action against the meador family . " it would be grossly inappropriate , " he said , " to seek to use a private agreement of this kind as a means of exerting diplomatic pressure to influence domestic law enforcement , if indeed that was the intent of the german_government and not just the meador family . " speaking by telephone from berlin , dr . klaus maurice , the secretary general of the cultural foundation of the states , the quasi_governmental agency that agreed to the settlement on monday , defended his actions " if we had pursued the lawsuit in dallas , the legal fees would have greatly exceeded the amount we agreed to pay yesterday . " the settlement will not set a bad precedent because there are no other collections of stolen objects comparable to the quedlinburg treasures existing in the united_states . the only great collections of art that disappeared during the war and are still missing are those from the berlin museums , and in those cases if we can catch a big_fish with a little fish , then this settlement will have turned out to be a wonderful idea . " dr . maurice said that the final decision to accept the settlement had been made by the rev . friedemann gosslau , pastor of the church of quedlinburg . " pastor gosslau told us that the 6th of january is epiphany , " dr . maurice said , " and we three representatives of the ministry of the interior , my foundation and his church are like the three kings bringing the treasures to the christ child . "

has a location of germany

lead a west_german official today briefed secretary of state james a . baker 3d on measures planned by bonn to prevent the export of equipment that could be used to make chemical_weapons . a west_german official today briefed secretary of state james a . baker 3d on measures planned by bonn to prevent the export of equipment that could be used to make chemical_weapons . the meeting between wolfgang schauble , the west_german minister for special projects , and secretary baker was viewed by state_department officials as an indication of the seriousness of the bonn government about the issue . washington has expressed concern over the role of a west_german company , imhausen chemie , in building a libyan chemical_plant that the united_states says is meant for the production of poison_gas . libya says it is a pharmaceutical plant . mr . baker was described by state_department officials as generally pleased with what the west_german envoy had to say , but they added that it was too early to say whether the measures contemplated by bonn were sufficient . among the measures , west_german officials said today , is legislation making it illegal for any west_german citizen , anywhere in the world , to cooperate knowingly or unknowingly in the construction of a plant making chemical or biological_weapons .

has a location of germany

the state_department said today it has denied a visa to markus wolf , who once ran communist east_germany 's foreign spy service , on the ground that he had in the past been involved in terrorist activities . the state_department said it had no plans to waive the law for mr . wolf as it has done for gerry_adams , leader of sinn_fein , the political wing of the i.r.a . mr . wolf , who had been seeking a visa to discuss the manuscript of his memoirs with his american publisher , said he would appeal . in denying the visa , the state_department cited a law that bars aliens " who have engaged in terrorist activities . " nancy beck , a spokeswoman , said that as deputy minister of state security , east_germany 's dreaded secret_police , mr . wolf " was in a decision making position " for the ministry 's activities , which included " preparing and planning terrorist activity . " mr . wolf denied the accusation today . " i have never had anything to do with terrorists or terrorist activities , " he said .

has a location of germany

the rain struck the windshield of the bus waiting outside the children 's aid society 's hope leadership academy on madison_avenue and 114th street . in the agency 's renovated basement , michael roberts , wearing baggy jeans and a loose fitting pullover , was commanding the attention of 16 teenagers , ages 14 to 18 , spread across three bright_yellow sofas and a round plastic table . ''o . k. , listen up if you want to call your parents , do it now , '' mr . roberts , the society 's 38 year old director of youth development services , advised . the society is one of seven agencies supported by the new york times neediest cases fund . the academy is a post_9_11 initiative promoting solutions to violence and community leadership . it was september , and mr . roberts and ernesto isaac , 34 , the academy 's assistant_director , were about to accompany a group of students on a trip to germany . mr . roberts ran through the drill ''stay together and stay positive , '' he said . ''it 's going to be a long trip . '' the students had met strict requirements , including being nominated by directors for outstanding participation in the academy 's programs , writing two essays about germany , and making a two minute presentation to their peers and mr . isaac . to qualify , students like robert jackson and calvin harris , both 17 and both from east_harlem , had to learn about world_war_ii and the holocaust . ashley knoll , 17 , of brooklyn , wrote about learning more about her family her grandfather is of german heritage . for the next 10 days , the teenagers would feel like royalty , staying in an 11th century castle , burg hohenzollern , in hechingen , which is partly owned by the princess kira von preussen stiftung foundation . the foundation was started after world_war_ii to foster american german relations . for the last three years , it and another group , atlantic br cke , have underwritten the visits as a way to reach out to new york 's underprivileged families affected by the sept . 11 terrorist attack . after the first year 's success , the organizations continued the program and extended it to all low income teenagers associated with the children 's aid society . this year , it cost 3 , 000 to 4 , 000 for each student . for many of them , it would be the first time they had left new york . for jasmine akins , 17 , of harlem , the opportunity was one she could not pass up . ''the chances of a kid from the ghetto going to germany is about as common as bill gates moving into my neighborhood , '' she said . through the application process , the students had learned a lot about their destination , but after mr . roberts 's briefing , their hands shot up for some practical questions . mr . roberts responded ''yes , you can drink the milk . it 's fresher . '' ''their water 's good it comes right from the mountains . '' ''there will be showers , but there is only so much hot water . it 's a castle , so we 'll have to make a morning and night schedule . '' in germany , with the castle as their base , they would go on daily excursions visiting the mayor of bisigen a fire department , for a barbecue a high_school a holocaust museum the city of stuttgart and a pasta factory in trochtelfingen . before leaving new york , each teenager had certain expectations . ''what i hope to get out of this is a sense of thinking beyond and outside this borough or that borough , '' ashley said . ''i want a sense of learning different things , eating different food , reading different books , you know , poetry . '' mr . roberts said the transformation of the young men and women who have taken part in the program has been remarkable . ''they really start reading more , paying attention to the news and thinking about careers differently , '' he said . he and mr . isaac spent months planning the trip . the most consuming issue was getting passports for first time travelers and , for those who are resident noncitizens , visas . ''it 's always a process , '' said mr . isaac , who noted that many parents did not have documentation like social_security cards or birth certificates . this year , five families could not afford the 90 fee for a passport . mr . roberts drew money that neediest cases had allocated to the children 's aid society . he used it to pay for five passports , as well as for the rapid processing of two of them . on that rainy day in september , the teenagers at the academy wheeled their black suitcases , each bearing a white children 's aid society logo , outside to wait under an awning until everyone was ready to board the bus to newark liberty international airport . ashley 's preflight jitters did not lessen her excitement . ''hopefully , '' she said , ''i can tell my children one day 'this is what i did . ' '' ten days later , after the group returned to new york , mr . roberts summed up the trip ''the world came into harlem for our young people . it has changed their walk . '' mr . roberts is now at work to bring young germans to new york . ''we are trying to raise money for them to come here , '' he said . ''it is time for them . it has been three years of them opening their doors for us they treat us like royalty . we want to do the same . '' how to help checks payable to the new york times neediest cases fund should be sent to 4 chase metrotech center , 7th floor east , lockbox 5193 , brooklyn , n.y . 11245 , or any of these organizations brooklyn bureau of community_service 285 schermerhorn street brooklyn , n.y . 11217 catholic_charities , diocese of brooklyn and queens 191 joralemon street brooklyn , n.y . 11201 catholic_charities of the archdiocese of new york 1011 first avenue new york , n.y . 10022 children's aid society 105 east 22nd street new york , n.y . 10010 community_service society of new york 105 east 22nd street new york , n.y . 10010 federation of protestant welfare agencies 281 park_avenue south new york , n.y . 10010 uja federation of new york church street station p.o . box 4100 new york , n.y . 10261 4100 donations may be made with a credit_card by phone at ( 800 ) 381 0075 or online , courtesy of nycharities . org , an internet donations service , at www . nytimes . com neediest or www . nycharities . org neediest . for instructions on how to donate stock to the fund , call ( 212 ) 556 1137 or fax ( 212 ) 556 4450 . no agents or solicitors are authorized to seek contributions for the new york times neediest cases fund . the times pays the fund 's expenses , so all contributions go directly to the charities , which use them to provide services and cash assistance to the poor . contributions to the fund are deductible on federal , state and city income taxes to the extent permitted by law . to delay may mean to forget . previously recorded 2 , 178 , 657 . 75 recorded thursday 18 , 287 . 00 total 2 , 196 , 944 . 75 last year to date 1 , 867 , 692 . 55

has a location of germany

with its lordly castle , legendary university and throngs of ice_cream eating tourists , heidelberg is one of germany 's most popular destinations for americans . but the reported plot to bomb a united_states military base shows how vulnerable american institutions in europe are to terrorism . terrorism experts and united_states military officials say the plot in heidelberg had a mix of ingredients that made it extraordinarily difficult to predict and stop . the jailed suspects are osman petneczi and astrid eyzaguirre , a turkish german man and his german american fianc e . they are suspected of having acted alone , making them difficult to spot . they lived unremarkable lives in the nearby village of walldorf , which has a large turkish population . ms . eyzaguirre , whose father was an american military officer , had a job shelving bottles of beer and liquor in the military run shopping_center that serves the 16 , 000 soldiers and their families who are stationed here . her fianc , mr . petneczi , allegedly stole chemicals to make a bomb from the factory where he worked . his potential targets the shopping_mall and campbell barracks , which houses the army 's european headquarters are both next to busy streets with unimpeded_access . ''the germans did not expect attacks on the anniversary of sept . 11 , '' said rolf tophoven , a prominent german terrorism expert who has been briefed by investigators since the arrests on thursday . ''what they did not rule out was an independent operator attacking a soft target . '' ''these cases , '' he added , ''are the hardest to prevent . '' only the day before the german police announced the arrests , the german interior_minister , otto schily , insisted that the government had no concrete evidence that terrorists were planning attacks in germany . employees at the shopping_center said ms . eyzaguirre had told a colleague not to come to work on sept . 11 because something bad was going to happen . the co worker reported the remark to the military_police , who told the f.b.i . in washington , which informed the german police . there are indications , however , that the german authorities already had suspicions about mr . petneczi . a prosecutor in stuttgart told the associated press that a witness reported in july that mr . petneczi was storing chemicals at his apartment . bureaucratic issues apparently delayed his arrest until last week . that is not likely to comfort people here . germans are only too aware that some of the hijackers who carried out the sept . 11 attacks incubated their plan in hamburg . in april , 13 german tourists were among 20 people killed in the bombing of a synagogue in tunisia by qaeda terrorists . in a new survey by the polling firm forsa , 62 percent of germans said they feared a terrorist attack . mr . schily urged his countrymen not ''to lapse into panic . '' the pentagon has not raised the security alert on bases overseas , which stands at force protection condition bravo , the second lowest of four levels . but officials acknowledge that the plot revealed the limits in its security , even after it was bolstered after the attacks last year . ''every time you allow someone to enter an installation , regardless of who it is , there is a risk , '' said col . don gemeinhardt , an air_force officer who oversees security on military bases in europe . ms . eyzaguirre 's background was routinely checked when she was hired , colonel gemeinhardt said . the military , however , does not monitor the private_lives of its civilian employees or contractors , who live off the base . many are not americans . co workers of ms . ayzaguirre , some of whom had known her for five years , said they had never met mr . petneczi . neighbors of the couple said nothing in his habits or manner aroused suspicion . the military can also do little to alter the layout of its bases , most of which were occupied by the united_states at the end of world_war_ii . campbell barracks , for instance , was built in 1937 as a base for a nazi infantry_regiment and taken over by the united_states in may 1945 . its design a phalanx of barracks surrounding a central parade ground offers little protection from a car or truck_bomb . it was attacked before , in 1972 , when the red_army_faction , a leftist group , set off two car_bombs inside the base , killing three soldiers and wounding others . ''in a perfect world , you 'd have facilities in different places with more standoff , '' col . gemeinhardt said , using a term that refers to the distance between a building and the street . ''you 'd prefer not to have roads leading directly into places , so you ca n't build up speed . '' military officials have had to confront those vulnerabilities since the attacks on united_states embassies in east africa in 1998 and the khobar towers , which housed american_troops , in saudi_arabia in 1996 . colonel gemeinhardt said the pentagon had spent a lot of money reinforcing the fences around campbell barracks . three soldiers with automatic weapons stand at the gate . a german police_car is parked there . the base in heidelberg is particularly vulnerable because it is small and situated in a well developed residential area of the city . ''you ca n't just say let 's move a city_block away , '' the colonel said . mr . petnezci 's turkish background also sets this case apart from other terrorism investigations . computer aided profiles put in place here after sept . 11 tend to focus on young arab men . two thirds of germany 's three million muslims are turkish . experts say they are not radicalized , aside from a small minority that includes followers of metin kaplan , a radical religious leader whose group has been banned under post sept . 11 security law . the arrests have shaken walldorf , a tranquil hamlet best known as the birthplace of john jacob astor , the property baron whose family built the waldorf_astoria , the new york hotel named after the town . at salt pepper , a turkish style kebab house , cengiz g lnez said ''i am ashamed of him because he ruined our reputation . if i could get my hands on the guy , i would do a number on him . '' threats and responses heidelberg

has a location of germany

lead president mikhail s . gorbachev has sent president_bush a message supporting the changes taking place in east_germany and expressing hope that the situation will remain ''calm and peaceful , '' the white_house spokesman said today . president mikhail s . gorbachev has sent president_bush a message supporting the changes taking place in east_germany and expressing hope that the situation will remain ''calm and peaceful , '' the white_house spokesman said today . marlin fitzwater , mr . bush 's press_secretary , disclosed the message , which was received on friday while the president was here to dedicate a memorial to soldiers killed in the vietnam_war . the cable from mr . gorbachev was described by mr . fitzwater as ''an informal message . '' although its text was not released , the spokesman said the soviet leader spoke of ''the importance of the changes'' in east_germany and ''expressed the hope that the situation will remain calm and peaceful . '' mr . gorbachev also told mr . bush that he supported the actions of the new east_german leadership to open its their country 's borders . u.s . response is promised mr . fitzwater said later that ''the president will respond , and he will repeat many of the things he said , as well as offering encouragement for the continuation of political and economic reforms . '' mr . bush , addressing thousands today at an emotional veterans day ceremony in which he dedicated a new vietnam_war memorial , said that the perforation of the berlin_wall shows ''a great truth shining brighter with each passing day . '' ''the quest for freedom , '' he went on , ''is stronger than steel , more permanent than concrete . '' recalling that his administration had not foreseen the suppression of blossoming dissent in china , president_bush said in an interview published today that he has acted with ''prudence'' toward the developments in eastern_europe because of concern that bolder action could ''contribute toward an unforeseen disorder'' in the soviet_bloc . inside view in the interview , conducted on friday with texas reporters , mr . bush said he was prepared to discuss ''a wide array of economic questions'' with mr . gorbachev . but , in his first detailed response to the rapidly unfolding events of recent days in east_germany and other nations of the warsaw_pact , mr . bush reflected the deep uncertainty within his administration about how much the united_states can become involved . he seemed frustrated both at criticism that he has been reluctant to take the kind of leading role in europe that the united_states has pursued for four decades and at the limitations on american action created by the current upheavals . mr . bush said his advisers believe that mr . gorbachev is irrevocably committed to his reforms . ''they ca n't go back to square one , '' the president said . but he and his aides are still uncertain , and debating among themselves , how the kremlin will respond to the growing rift amomg its neighboring countries . what about prague ? with friday 's change of leadership in bulgaria , mr . bush went on , the administration is eager to assess the possibilities for change in a remaining hard line communist country , czechoslovakia . mr . bush said that prague is now among ''the most egregious offenders of human_rights , those that resist change the most clearly . '' asked if he was concerned that the rapidity of events could lead to instability in europe , he said , ''i think that 's why i keep using the word like prudent . '' still , he said , ''i am convinced , given not just the events of yesterday , but the cumulative set of events that have taken place , that this change is real . '' the president and his advisers have repeatedly insisted that china and eastern_europe cannot be compared in political terms . but mr . bush would not disregard the chinese crackdown on dissent that culminated in hundreds of deaths in beijing in june , and he used that event to explain his seeming anguish over policy toward eastern_europe . 'keep our eyes open' ''i think many of us felt that what happened in china set back the relationship there , '' he said . ''i had n't seen anybody predict that was going to happen . '' ''and so we keep our eyes open , and we keep acting prudently so as not to exacerbate tensions but to encourage that democracy is whole and free . if we continue to do that , we can hopefully not contribute to an unforeseen disorder . '' mr . bush said he would like to return to berlin ''to see it with the wall down , not just with holes in it . '' but he said he did not plan to stop there after his meeting with mr . gorbachev on ships off the coast of malta on dec . 2 and 3 ''unless there were something that developed between now and then that would make the presence of the u.s . president catalytic for peace or for evolution of democracy . '' possible economic help turning to questions about economic aid , the area in which the administration has been especially reluctant to engage the soviet_union , mr . bush said ''i think the time is right , should the soviets want to discuss how to improve their economy , that we do that . i 'm perfectly prepared to talk to mr . gorbachev on a wide array of economic questions , and will be ready to do that . '' he added that he had had two ''interesting seminars'' with his advisers on economic issues to prepare for the meetings with the soviet president . despite some conflicting statements in recent weeks about the soviet american relationship , mr . bush said he and his advisers agree on the substance of policy toward the east bloc . still , they ' 'sit and argue back and forth how quick will this happen ? or , what will be next ? or , what do you think is going to happen to mr . a . or mr . b . '' ''will gorbachev remain committed to perestroika and indeed to glasnost ? '' mr . bush said . ''absolutely . ''

has a location of germany

lead speaking of mr . wright , on april 20 he was in berlin , on his way back from a trip to the soviet_union with a congressional delegation . in a speech celebrating the 750th anniversary of the city , he said ''and i shall tell you how we may know when real peace , real trust and true good will have returned to europe we shall know it when the wall comes down ! speaking of mr . wright , on april 20 he was in berlin , on his way back from a trip to the soviet_union with a congressional delegation . in a speech celebrating the 750th anniversary of the city , he said ''and i shall tell you how we may know when real peace , real trust and true good will have returned to europe we shall know it when the wall comes down ! '' last friday , on the west side of the brandenburg_gate in berlin , president_reagan concluded a speech with these words ''there is one sign the soviets can make that would advance dramatically the cause of freedom and peace . general secretary gorbachev , if you seek peace , if you seek prosperity for the soviet_union and eastern_europe , if you seek liberalization , come here , to this gate . mr . gorbachev , open this gate . mr . gorbachev , tear down this wall . '' aides described mr . wright as ''a little unhappy'' about the oratorical coincidence . but when the democrat was questioned , he said ''i do n't believe the president copied me . i 'm not going to sue him for plagiarism . '' briefing

has a location of germany

the lower_house of parliament approved creating an antiterrorism database to help find suspects by consolidating files from 38 police and intelligence agencies . the database is to be set up next year , listing basic personal information about suspects additional details about a suspect , like bank accounts , religion or trips abroad , will be available only after a specific query . victor_homola

has a location of germany

the cabinet of bavaria agreed today on a new bill ordering crucifixes to be hung in school classrooms after the german supreme_court ruled that the southern state 's current law was unconstitutional . the ruling in august by the federal constitutional court had outraged the strongly roman_catholic state . the court ruled that bavaria 's ordering that crucifixes be hung in classrooms violated religious freedoms in the constitution . the new bill notes the " historical and cultural character of bavaria , " and says , " a cross is to be put up in every classroom . " if parents or children oppose the crucifixes , school principals should reach an " amicable agreement " with them , it said . if that is impossible , the principal must make a decision respecting the beliefs of all pupils and " taking appropriate consideration of the will of the majority . " the bill needs approval by the state legislature , in which governor edmund_stoiber 's christian_social_union has a majority .

has a location of germany

the cold_war may be over , but ''the man without a face'' is still a man without a visa . markus wolf , who directed east_germany 's foreign espionage for 34 years , is trying once again to visit the united_states , this time for a book tour something once unthinkable for a man whose ability to evade scrutiny earned him his sobriquet . but for the second time in two years , the state_department has rejected mr . wolf 's application for a visa . although now a citizen of a unified germany , he was barred on the grounds that as the deputy of east_germany 's ministry of state security , or stasi , he ordered or abetted acts of international_terrorism . in a letter to mr . wolf last month , edward j . wehrli , general_counsel in the american consulate in berlin , noted that mr . wolf , 74 , had been ''involved in determining the policies and objectives'' of the stasi . ''and therefore , '' he wrote , ''you were responsible for actions that resulted from these policies . '' officials at the state_department declined to spell out the acts that led to his barring , but in the past the united_states has objected to his links to the palestine_liberation_organization . last week a court in germany convicted mr . wolf on three counts of kidnapping dating to the 1950 's and 60 's . he received a suspended_sentence . mr . wolf criticized the decision today . insisting he had never orchestrated a terrorist act , he said the united_states had set an impossible standard for him even as it allowed others once denied visas , like yasir_arafat , to come . ''it 's very difficult to prove that you have not done something , '' he said in a telephone interview from milan . the decision to deny a visa came on the eve of this week 's publication in the united_states and 14 other countries of mr . wolf 's memoir , ''man without a face the autobiography of communism 's greatest spymaster . '' the book is being published here by times books , a subsidiary of random_house . the publishers , including random_house 's chairman and chief_executive_officer , alberto vitale , appealed to secretary of state madeleine k . albright in april , but were rebuffed . mr . wolf can apply again , but one official , who spoke on condition of anonymity , said it was unlikely he would prevail . the state_department first denied mr . wolf a visa last year , citing the section of the immigration and nationality act that bars anyone involved in terrorism . ''this is a case by case judgment call , '' a department spokesman , john r . dinger , said . mr . wolf oversaw east_germany 's foreign intelligence from 1953 to 1986 , running a network of agents in the west . his work remained so secretive that counterintelligence agents in the west did not know what he looked like until an agent defected in 1979 with a photograph of him . since the fall of the berlin_wall , he has tried to burnish his image , insisting that he simply undertook the same tasks as his counterparts in the west . in 1993 , he was convicted of treason , but germany 's highest court absolved him . mr . wolf may have missed his best chance to get a visa in 1990 when , as he tells it , the central_intelligence_agency invited him to the united_states . in his memoir , he continues his campaign for credibility , portraying himself as a professional simply carrying out a necessary , even honorable role . ''i seek neither moral justification nor forgiveness , '' he wrote in the introduction , ''but after a great struggle it is time for both sides to take stock . any history worthy of the name cannot be written only by the winners . ''

has a location of germany

because of an editing error , an article in business day on thursday about a german court ruling that overturned a former compuserve executive 's 1997 conviction for distributing pornography on the internet misstated the dollar equivalent of the 100 , 000 mark fine he had paid . it was about 55 , 550 , not 180 , 000 .

has a location of germany

lead a senior reagan_administration official charged today that american allies , particularly west_germany , had ignored hundreds of diplomatic protests leveled by the united_states in recent years over exports of weapons technology to the soviet_union and the third world . a senior reagan_administration official charged today that american allies , particularly west_germany , had ignored hundreds of diplomatic protests leveled by the united_states in recent years over exports of weapons technology to the soviet_union and the third world . the former official , richard n . perle , addressing the senate committee on governmental affairs , said american complaints about the sales of equipment and material needed for ballistic_missiles and chemical , nuclear and biological_weapons had been ignored . mr . perle , who was assistant secretary of defense for international security policy from 1981 to may 1987 , is now a resident scholar at the american_enterprise_institute . bush_administration officials told a separate hearing before a senate armed services subcommittee today that they would push to expand a seven nation agreement to restrict exports of ballistic_missile technology . witnesses said some countries were barring missile exports only to countries with a nuclear_capability , and are continuing to allow shipments to nations with chemical_weapons . 'demarche mallows' government officials elaborated on mr . perle 's remarks in interviews , saying that the united_states had sent more than 100 complaints to west_germany alone in recent years about the sale to pakistan of equipment that could be used to make an atomic_bomb . senator jesse_helms , republican of north_carolina , said at recent hearings that the united_states had made more than 150 protests to bonn on the sale of chemical_weapons or related materials to iran , iraq , syria and libya . the protests are formally known as demarches , but mr . perle said they would more aptly be called ' 'demarche mallows . '' ''you cannot move the allies without the exercise of real leverage , '' said mr . perle in an interview after his testimony . ''you can only get so far with entreaties , prayers and arguments . '' mr . perle said a more effective approach would be such steps as the president barring any foreign concern involved in the illicit trade from acquiring american companies . u.s . laws also at issue at the hearing of the governmental affairs committee , members questioned present and former commerce_department officials about whether the united_states needs to toughen its own laws . paul freedenberg , a commerce_department official in the reagan_administration , said there were gaps in existing laws , particularly relating to the export of technology that could be used to make chemical_weapons . but james lemunyon , deputy assistant secretary of commerce for export administration , said he did not know of any plans to change the export laws relating to chemical_weapons .

has a location of germany

lead the bush_administration publicly called on east_germany today to undertake political and economic reforms as a way to halt the flood of its citizens to the west . the bush_administration publicly called on east_germany today to undertake political and economic reforms as a way to halt the flood of its citizens to the west . at the same time , a senior bush_administration official warned that if the east_german government does not liberalize its political system , the system might explode from within . in a departure from the administration 's normally reserved approach to eastern_europe , the state_department 's spokesman declared today , ''we believe that in order to remove the conditions which caused so many people to flee to the west , the german_democratic_republic leadership should institute reforms which will lead to a political and economic system responsive to the population . '' political eruption called possible alluding to the east_germans seeking refuge in west_german embassies in czechoslovakia and poland , the spokesman , richard_boucher , added ''the root cause of the situation is that these people do n't want to live in east_germany , and if you are going to have a way of resolving the situation in the long run there are going to have to be political and economic reforms in east_germany that will make it a more livable place . '' that message was echoed on capitol_hill , where the assistant secretary of state for european affairs , raymond g . h . seitz , told the house foreign_affairs subcommittee on europe that he ''could not rule out'' a volcanic political eruption in east_germany if its aging leadership does not move to open its rigid political and economic systems . ''i noticed just this morning that there was a demonstration in leipzig of some 10 , 000 people yesterday , '' mr . seitz said , when asked what might happen if the east_german government , once the anchor of the warsaw_pact , continues to resist change . the seitz and boucher statements , after several months in which the administration has adopted a very muted approach , reflect the degree to which both washington and moscow seem to understand each other 's interests and intentions in eastern_europe . 'we are not out to exploit' ''the soviets understand that we are not out to exploit any signs of trouble or weakness in eastern_europe , so they are comfortable in granting these countries a certain degree of freedom , provided they show sensitivity to the soviet_union 's security concerns , '' a top administration policy maker said . a state_department european expert said , ''the soviets are increasingly looking at the situation like us that reform is required for stability in eastern_europe . as that happens we feel emboldened to encourage the reform process . '' there is ''obvious soviet acquiescence to what is happening with the east_german refugees , '' the official added . ''they are trying to send the east_germans a message that the hemorrhaging of east_germany 's population underscores that the government needs to get on the reform bandwagon . '' democrats propose aid increase as administration officials discussed the east_german situation , house democratic leaders , dismissing president_bush 's 244 million in new assistance for poland and hungary as a woefully ''inadequate'' response to the historic changes underway in eastern_europe , today introduced their own aid program . it would spend 887 . 5 million over three years in food aid , private funds , peace_corps programs , trade credits , insurance loan_guarantees and technical training . about 415 million would be allocated in fiscal 1990 , which began sunday . this house aid_package is expected to be merged with a similar bill introduced by senate democrats and approved last month by the senate foreign relations committee . in addition , house speaker thomas s . foley , democrat of washington , and the senate_majority_leader , george j . mitchell , democrat of maine , invited lech walesa , the leader of solidarity , to address a joint meeting of congress on nov . 15 . mr . walesa , who had already announced plans to visit the united_states , is expected to accept .

has a location of germany

lead president_bush said today that he did not share the worries of some european leaders about the possibility of german_reunification , and he predicted major changes in germany 's status in the next decade . president_bush said today that he did not share the worries of some european leaders about the possibility of german_reunification , and he predicted major changes in germany 's status in the next decade . speaking on the morning after at least 150 , 000 people marched through the streets of leipzig pressing for political reform , mr . bush asserted that egon krenz , east_germany 's new leader , ''ca n't turn the clock back , '' because ''the change is too inexorable . '' the president also expressed confidence after a telephone conversation with chancellor helmut_kohl of west_germany on monday that bonn would not develop neutralist tendencies . ''and yet i do n't think we ought to be out pushing the concept of reunification , or setting timetables , or coming from across the atlantic over here making a lot of new pronouncements on this subject , '' mr . bush said in an interview in the oval_office . excerpts , page_a12 . ''it takes time , '' he added . ''it takes a prudent evolution . it takes work between them . and understanding between the french and the germans and the brits and the germans on all this . but the subject is so much more front and center because of the rapid changes that are taking place in east_germany . '' europeans voice fears leaders of european_countries that fought germany in two world wars prime_minister margaret_thatcher of britain and president_francois_mitterrand of france prominent among them have privately expressed concern about german_reunification , and commentators on both sides of the atlantic have voiced their anxieties in public . the soviet_union , which suffered the greatest losses in world_war_ii and which is committed to maintaining two germanys , has criticized those advocating reunification , something it views with great apprehension . but mr . bush , who was in relaxed and spirited form throughout the 30 minute talk , said , ''there 's a lot written on the fear of reunification that i personally do n't share . '' at the end of the interview , after the white_house stenographer and other aides had left , the president motioned to his interviewer and to his chief of staff , john h . sununu , to stay behind , and he turned to the subject of his leadership on foreign_policy . ''these changes we 're seeing in eastern_europe are absolutely extraordinary , but i 'm not going to be stampeded into overreacting to any of this , '' mr . bush said . ''democrats on capitol_hill have been calling me 'timid . ' i have other , better words , like 'cautious , ' 'diplomatic , ' 'prudent . ' we have a good team , well seasoned . we 're unified . '' mr . sununu interjected ''it 's like hooking a_20 pound fish on a two pound test line . react too precipitously , jerk the rod , and the fish will swim away . you have to play him carefully , keep a steady tension on the line . '' the president , apparently reacting to democratic leaders who have accused him of offering only niggardly aid to eastern_europe , commented bitterly that he was tired of ''taking hits'' from ''people who found poland on the globe about three weeks ago . '' on panama , where the united_states declined to intervene militarily to aid an attempted_coup this month against gen . manuel antonio noriega , president_bush rejected suggestions that the failure of the coup would make it harder for general noriega 's opponents in the panamanian defense forces to rise against him again in the near future . ''i think any time you have somebody that is as demonstrably evil as noriega and who is frustrating the will of the people , as he continues to do , there 's bound to be an upheaval , '' he said . ''his response post coup , in my view , has just shaken to the core the professionals in the p.d.f . that does not enhance his standing there or guarantee that they 'll put up with him forever . '' lessons of the coup episode while maintaining that nothing he has learned since would have changed his decision not to involve american_forces , the president conceded that ''i 've learned'' from the coup episode . ''i think maybe we can improve communications so that it 's all across the bureaucracy , '' he explained , adding that there was ''a disconnect'' a misunderstanding over whether the rebels would or would not , should or should not , hand over general noriega to the united_states for prosecution . mr . bush saved his sharpest partisan thrusts for the battle over the budget , which has led to automatic across the board spending cuts required by the gramm_rudman budget balancing law . the principal culprits in all this , the president insisted , were the congressional democrats , and especially their leaders . ''the perception out there is that it 's the fault of the congress , '' he added . ''and you can look to the leadership and ask them why that is the perception of the american people . '' economic situation 'not urgent' although he conceded that some americans felt frustration over ''this strange way of governing'' and blamed everyone in washington , mr . bush said most were not alarmed , because the ''economy keeps moving reasonably well , the percentage of gross_national_product in terms of the deficit is moving generally in the right direction . '' ''if you had a more difficult economic situation , '' the president said , ''then i think you 'd have a more urgent feeling . today it 's not urgent . '' recalling that he had campaigned for a capital_gains_tax cut in 1988 , he accused the democrats of resorting ''to this old gambit this man 's trying to help the rich and hurt the poor'' to prevent approval of a measure that he said the american people had endorsed by electing him , the house of representatives had passed despite its democratic majority and the senate would pass if allowed to by its democratic leadership . ''the votes are there in the senate for it , '' the president said . missed opportunities ? mr . bush was asked later whether he felt that he was missing chances during the first two years of his presidency , which historians consider the most propititious for new initiatives , because of financial strictures . he acknowledged that he felt somewhat ''boxed in'' in such areas as the war against drugs , aid to earthquake and hurricane victims and foreign economic aid , but he offered no suggestion that he would be willing at any point to raise taxes to get more money . ''i do n't want to leave you the wrong impression that if we just had tons more federal money , we could solve everything , '' the president said . ''i do n't think that 's the case . '' asked to explain , once and for all , his choice last year of dan_quayle as his running_mate , mr . bush demurred . but he vehemently defended mr . quayle 's performance as vice_president , said the former senator had ''gone the extra mile to help me'' and disclosed that he still kept in a file some of the newspaper articles mocking his vice_presidency under ronald_reagan . ''you 're talking to a guy that took it for eight years , '' he said .

has a location of germany

lead soviet_military personnel in east_germany detained a team of american military officers for seven and a half hours on the eve of president_bush 's meeting with president mikhail s . gorbachev , the pentagon said today . soviet_military personnel in east_germany detained a team of american military officers for seven and a half hours on the eve of president_bush 's meeting with president mikhail s . gorbachev , the pentagon said today . ''there were no u.s . or soviet injuries , '' said a pentagon spokesman , lieut . comdr . ken satterfield . ''u . s . personnel were released later that day . the incident is under investigation . '' commander satterfield , a navy officer , said the american team was part of the united_states military mission in potsdam , established under a 1947 accord that allowed the western allies and the soviets to set up such offices in each other 's occupied zones of germany . the team was observing installations in east_germany . it was not immediately clear how many united_states and soviet personnel were involved in the incident . clamor in europe

has a location of germany

anointed as this year 's ''cultural_capital'' by the european_union , the eastern german town of weimar is basking not only in the accomplishments of such estimable sons as goethe , schiller and bach but also in the avant_garde of the golden 20 's walter gropius 's bauhaus , the paintings of oskar kokoschka and max beckmann and the drawings of george grosz , the collaborations of kurt weill and bertolt brecht and the theatrical excitement generated by erwin piscator and max reinhardt and movies like ''the cabinet of dr . caligari'' and ''the blue angel . '' but if weimar wants to live up to the artistic reputation of that decade 's cultural elite , it may also have to live down their politics . for even while the young and frail german republic struggled to find a road between the former autocracy and looming fascism , many of germany 's foremost artists and intellectuals displayed indifference or outright antipathy to the embattled democrats . true , few avant gardists joined the resurgent nationalist forces in the party political battles of the 1920 's that culminated in the victory of nazism , but not many became champions of the republic either . disgusted with what they viewed as bourgeois squabbling , artists failed to see how much their own freedom to experiment owed to the unexhilarating operations of democracy . even thomas_mann , who in time became a supporter of democracy , had expressed a widely shared german scorn for democratic arrangements in his 1916 book ''reflections of a nonpolitical man . '' what became known as weimar culture ( although berlin and munich were its centers ) had its roots in turn of the century expressionism , which one student of the movement summed up as ''a mood of revolutionary discontent and radical rejection of bourgeois values . '' reacting to military defeat , economic distress and political disarray , practically all the new fashions in cultural life after world_war i , whether of the left or the right , were radical . the historian hans kohn summed up their mood ''they despised and rejected the middle road , reasonableness and common_sense , the live and let live , the practical art of politics , the foundation of democracy . '' none of the expressionist activists became firm supporters of the republic , and some became determined enemies . grosz was at his cruelest in his cartoons of politicians , and the popular novelist franz werfel had only contempt for politics and politicians . he wrote , ''the politician looks at life coldly the evil of power has triumphed over him . '' brecht , that champion of a marxist ideal , called for violence to destroy middle_class politicking . a chorus in one play exhorts , ''submerge in the filth , embrace the butcher , but change the world it needs it . '' the british historian a . j . ryder called brecht ''a literary stalinist'' who was guilty of the ''trahison des clercs , '' the apostasy of intellectuals . others were equally dismissive of bourgeois politics , with dire_consequences . professor ryder brought this indictment against them ''in their wholesale rejection of weimar germany as an inadequate society , in jeering where they might have helped , such critics unwittingly contributed to the tragedy which engulfed both it and them . '' the avant_garde 's disdain for democracy spilled over into scorn for the mass audience . it was reciprocated . whether their creators called themselves expressionists or objectivists or just modernists , their works found limited appeal . eberhard kolb , a chronicler of weimar , drew attention to the ' 'scarcely bridgeable gap between the artistic achievement of the avant_garde and the taste and mentality of a large part of the population , middle_class and otherwise . '' not an unfamiliar phenomenon , but in germany cultural divisions reflected political divisions . what artists viewed as progress was seen by many of their countrymen as an insult to tradition . and the blame was laid on the weimar democracy . in his study of weimar culture , peter gay wrote , ''while not all expressionists loved weimar , the enemies of weimar hated all expressionists . '' so the avant_garde remained largely aloof from the critical decadelong conflict between socialists and right wingers for political power . while conservative writers became a major force against the democratic republic ( though drawing the line at hitler ) , no equivalent pro republican intellectual force made itself felt . paul sethe , a writer who was sympathetic to the beset democratic politicians at the time , lamented ''they could have used help . all they got was scorn and laughter . '' the artistic achievement of weimar 's best and brightest was a handmaiden to political disaster . critic's_notebook

has a location of germany

an article yesterday about president_bush 's visit to germany referred incorrectly to the deputy speaker of the german_parliament , who voiced concerns about united_states foreign_policy and the possibility of an attack on iraq . the official , antje vollmer , is a woman .

has a location of germany

time was , in this region , grandpa worked for krupp , dad worked for krupp , and if junior did not work for krupp too , everyone was aghast . here in the heartland of german heavy_industry , the big companies took care of you , and employment was for life . think again . the ruhr industrial area coal , steel , belching chimneys , grinding machinery , polluted rivers , great heaving motor of german postwar reconstruction and economic might is no more . many of the former pits and factories have been converted into museums of ''industrial culture'' where old compressors adorn chic cafes . in the place of the steel and coal men who made the ruhrgebiet , or ruhr_valley , an industrial legend , meet hard driving josef brewing , 37 . he heads a venture called electronic_commerce center , is given to talk of ' 'start up incubators , '' and is busy turning a 100 acre site occupied in cold_war days by the british rhine army into a new economy hub . ''this will be the biggest agglomeration of e_commerce companies in germany , '' said mr . brewing ( pronounced brer wing ) . ''we opened the first building less than a year ago and already have 17 companies with 300 employees offering everything from internet consulting to software development . within three years , we expect about 3 , 000 people to work here . '' of course , it is not easy to turn pittsburgh into palo_alto , and it is impossible to do so overnight . but the revolution taking place in dowdy dortmund reflects a broader one in germany . the land of social market consensus is giving way to a brasher place where young entrepreneurs are lionized as modernizing heroes . turn on the tv and chances are some high tech upstart like gerhard schmid of mobilcom is explaining how he made millions . stock_market reports are increasingly ubiquitous , restaurant banter is often about bargain shares . last year , the number of germans owning stocks jumped 11 percent to more than five million the trend is accelerating . ''the wealthy do n't have to hide in this country any more because they are no longer held up as examples of greed , '' said michael wolghat , an economist at deutsche_bank . ''germany is changing as shareholding spreads at a rapid rate . students now seem less interested in politics than in price earning ratios . '' nowhere is this transformation of europe 's biggest economy more dramatic than in the ruhr , the most concentrated industrial area of the continent and the place where marshall fund money first ignited the postwar economic_miracle . problems began many years ago because germany 's coal cannot compete with south_africa 's , which is cheaper to mine . in the last decade , 20 mines have closed . the unemployment rate , at 16 percent in dortmund , is still well above the national average of 10 percent the few vestiges of the coal industry are heavily subsidized and perhaps doomed . still , a change of culture is palpable . indeed , it is partly because he is widely seen as more capable of managing this reinvention of the ruhr that wolfgang clement , the social_democratic premier of north_rhine_westphalia , is expected to defeat his christian democratic challenger , jorgen ruttgers , in a state election on sunday . mr . ruttgers' anti foreigner message has played poorly in a state more inclined to the pragmatism of mr . clement , whose approach has not yet undone the sweeping social damage of pit closures , but who has already suggested that the new economy can bring prosperity to the land of krupp and thyssen . one representative of this change is rainer rudolf , 38 . he started his software and consulting company , adesso , two years ago and has more work than he can handle . in striking contrast to the ''herr doktor'' formality of the traditional german workplace , his 72 employees sit around in t shirts and open necked shirts munching pizza . adesso , based in the new dortmund e_commerce center , is working a lot with insurance_companies that want to sell car insurance and other policies over the internet but have little idea how to do so . this activity reflects a crucial change in germany during the last year old economy companies have understood they too must master new economy techniques . ''we 're swamped , '' mr . rudolf said . this is a country that takes a long time to move , but when it does , it tends to do so with a single minded determination and a somewhat startling speed . the blitzkrieg was a german invention . the current embrace of the internet shows some of the same characteristics . ''until a year ago , e_commerce was widely regarded as just electronic shopping , '' mr . brewing said . ''but in the last year , people have understood that it 's a way to rationalize your business and an essential route to new clients . the fact that we 're the accelerators of the old economy has been grasped . '' it took a while . the shift that has led to the emergence of companies like adesso and electronic_commerce center had its germ in 1986 with the creation , backed by the local government , of a ''technology park'' next to dortmund university . as coal and steel suffered , the plan was to ensure that inventions in the university could find expression in electronic and high tech industries . the idea has proved fertile in the end close to 25 , 000 people now work in software or microelectronic businesses in the dortmund area . about one quarter of german venture_capital is applied in the ruhr . the largest company , materna information and communications , a specialist in the software that provides short message services over mobile_phones , has about 1 , 000 employees . as for thyssen and krupp , they have merged into a slimmed down modern company and embraced the sale of steel on the internet . ''the change is happening very fast today , '' said kurt monse , who helps coordinate the ''media'' initiative of mr . clement , which provides financial support for the transformation of the ruhr . ''we provide one stop shopping for anyone , german or foreign , who wants to invest in our new internet economy . what mr . ruttgers does not realize is that one investment by an indian can provide 20 jobs for germans . '' mr . ruttgers , the christian democratic candidate , has become notorious for the anti immigrant electoral slogan ''kinder statt inder'' ''children not indians'' that he has since withdrawn . it was badly received in his party , and he appeared to have misread the mood of an area that might be unhappy with its large number of foreigners but seemed to have reached a consensus that there was scant future in being closed to the world . ''you 've got all the public_housing in essen taken over by asylum_seekers , and you ca n't find a german on a building site , '' said wilhelm wetzel , a miner who retired at 50 when his pit was closed in 1988 . ''it is not a good situation . but i do n't see how we can reverse this situation any more than we can reopen the mines . '' mr . wetzel works as an occasional guide at what was once the area 's largest mine , the zollverein in essen . the mine , which once employed 6 , 000 people , closed in 1986 . today , its functional , red brick , bauhaus inspired buildings have been converted for a variety of uses , including concerts and jewelry workshops . there is a design_museum , converted by the british architect sir norman foster a media institute graphic studios an art gallery a museum of the mine and a variety of small businesses . ''we even have guided_tours ending with a glass of champagne beneath the moon on the roof of the building where coal was washed , '' said marie mense , a coordinator of what is now called the zollverein foundation . from that roof , a fine view stretches away from the fabled ruhrgebiet , marked now by dormant chimneys and mounds of earth under which industrial waste lies . the zollverein has become a prominent part of the ''industriekultur'' road that takes visitors around disused plants , gas storage facilities and breweries , now all museums . ''we do n't have wines or cheeses in the ruhr , but we have a lot of industry , or rather ex industry , '' said eckhard albrecht , the director of the ruhrgebiet initiative that has financed these transformations . ''this remains a central part of our culture , our traditions , even if the attitudes of silicon_valley have now penetrated our world . '' correction may 16 , 2000 , tuesday an article on sunday about changes in the economy of the ruhr region in germany misspelled the surname of an economist at deutsche_bank who commented . he is michael wolgast , not wolghat .

has a location of germany

an international commission established in 1998 to settle insurance claims for holocaust victims and their heirs has reached an accord with a consortium of european insurance_companies on the procedures for people to apply for reparations , commission officials said today . the agreement frees up about 275 million that for two years has been awaiting procedures to accommodate claimants who have trouble producing the documentation normally required . israel singer , chairman of the world jewish congress , who helped negotiate the agreement , said it was accomplished after two years of difficult and often contentious negotiations . ''this is a great victory for justice , '' mr . singer said in an interview from new york . ''this is part of a massive effort at restitution that is very late but fortunately not too late for hundreds of thousands of holocaust survivors still alive , many of whom are in great need . '' under the agreement , about 100 million will be set aside for claims and claim related expenses . another 175 million will be put into a fund to be used in part to pay claims that have no documentation but meet relaxed standards . after those claimants are paid , most of that 175 million is expected to remain available to be given to various charities that benefit jewish holocaust survivors . lawrence s . eagleburger , a former secretary of state , was chairman of the international commission of holocaust era insurance claims , which conducted talks between the claimants and germany 's remembrance , responsibility and future foundation . the foundation , financed jointly by the german_government and german companies , was established in 2000 to compensate surviving holocaust victims for claims for insurance policies , slave labor , banking and property losses . mr . eagleburger said that the agreement today , which covers the insurance portion of the process , was ''a major step forward for many survivors and their heirs who previously had no readily available routes for pursuing valid german insurance claims . '' the agreement comes after complaints from some legislators that the commission was moving far too slowly to resolve the procedural issues . it also provides for the publication of a database of more than five million insurance policies issued to jewish residents of germany from 1933 to 1939 . ''we think this is the first opportunity for people to make crosschecks and make claims , '' mr . singer said . some 79 , 000 claims have already been made .

has a location of germany

an article on nov . 8 about klaus j . jacobs , a german born billionaire who is donating more than 250 million to the international university bremen , misstated the name of an institution that another german businessman , otto beisheim , endowed . it is the whu otto beisheim school of management in the rhine valley at vallendar . despite its use of the acronym whu , derived from german , it is not affiliated with the witten herdecke university in the ruhr_valley .

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lead when japan recently announced plans to place its first american japanese high_school in harrison , it became the second foreign government to claim educational territory in westchester . when japan recently announced plans to place its first american japanese high_school in harrison , it became the second foreign government to claim educational territory in westchester . a few miles away , the deutsche schule new york the german school new york is completing its eighth year of providing primary and secondary_education for 353 students under the authority of the federal republic of germany . the deutsche schule new york is one of only two such schools operating in the united_states and one of about 60 operated by the german_government worldwide . the deutsche schule new york receives additional financial support from both the austrian and swiss governments . occupying a building once known as the north street elementary_school in white_plains , the deutsche schule new york is preparing its first group of candidates for the prestigious abitur , or high_school_diploma . the diploma is awarded to the approximately one fourth of the german student population . those who successfully master their 13 year curriculum are guaranteed university placement . the opportunity to try for the abitur comes only after students master earlier steps in the demanding gymnasium , the seventh_grade to 13th grade secondary_school curriculum that includes at least two foreign languages in addition to german . biology , physics and chemistry , history , social_studies , geography and mathematics are also required . there 's also a high dose of art , music and sports , subjects that the principal , jurgen f . hildebrand , acknowledges are more heavily emphasized because of local american influences . the boys' soccer team did quite well in this , its first season , mr . hildebrand said proudly , losing by only one goal the championship game in the fairchester league , made up of private_school teams from westchester and fairfield counties . during a recent lunchtime break at the deutsche schule , children whose parents work for deutsche_bank , commerzbank , the goethe institute and the german diplomatic corps gathered on the playground to discuss their school . social isolation is a ''big problem , '' one young man said , adding , ''i do n't have any american friends . '' others disagreed . american friends are different , they said , and must be met on their own terms , in their own language and through their own sports . one young woman in the group , none of whom wished to be identified , said she was a ranked tennis_player in new england and she added , ''if you can concentrate on something , like tennis , you 'll make lots of friends . '' attending the german school is important , the students agreed , because it reduces the pressure about university acceptance , and , one student added , ''a german school reminds you of home . '' although german schools traditionally offer four types of secondary_education , mr . hildebrand said his school was so small that it could offer only a broad version of the most demanding course of study one for which some potential students cannot qualify . managing a school population that is constantly changing and that has outgrown its elementary_school space is not easy , mr . hildebrand said . fluctuation in the student population averages 25 percent a year , he said , adding , ''every four years , you have a new school , '' a reference to the four years german corporate executives traditionally serve abroad . ''next year , '' mr . hildebrand said , he expects to lose ''a sizable portion'' of his winning soccer team . ''you cannot count on anything , '' he said , ''but it 's the price you pay . '' mr . hildebrand also said he was concerned about the recent decision of the white_plains zoning board of appeals denying the school 's request for a zoning variance to add classroom space . although the deutsche schule completed a 1 million expansion in 1986 , school officials insist that the additional space is necessary to accommodate the demands of the german educational structure and not because of any plans to add students . however , neighbors said the expansion created the potential for more traffic . students accepted at the school must be completely bilingual , although mr . hildebrand said ''english is the language of choice'' within four months after a student 's arrival . ''they love to be in this country , '' mr . hildebrand said . ''they have an experience before them which they have accepted with joy , an acceptance that includes the country and everything that goes along with it . '' the deutsche schule represents an opportunity for children of transplanted foreign nationals to keep up with stiff academic requirements at home , requirements that once forced whole families to remain at home and threatened the development of west_germany 's economic_growth . ''it 's a typical european problem , '' siegfried a . kessler , the school 's founder , said recently from his retirement_home in hilton head , n.c . ''while access to universities in europe is free , it is also limited , '' mr . kessler said . 'numerus clausus , ' the latin term for closed enrollment , became a frequently heard cry at these universities , said mr . kessler , the retired chairman of the board of carl zeiss , the optical company , just as german companies were attempting to recover from world_war_ii and expand their trade relations with the united_states . the situation became so intolerable , he added , that 20 years ago , german parents , fearing that their children would be inadequately prepared and would fail to pass the examinations , began turning down foreign assignments . corporate demand for a german school in the new york area grew quickly . the second school is in washington . in 1978 , mr . kessler founded the german forum , a nonprofit_organization with the primary goal of establishing a school in the new york city area offering german speaking children an education recognized in their home country . the school would also serve as a forum for german_language and culture and , mr . kessler said , ''one that would contribute to improving relations between nations . how better to accomplish that than with the young . '' a group organized by mr . kessler and including top executives of several german companies operating in the united_states began planning for the school . the organizers included prince peter wittgenstein , president of the mannesmann capital corporation karl fried nordmann , president of mercedes_benz of north_america , and werner schmidt , president of em industries , as well as leading bank officials and lawyers . in september 1980 , the deutsche schule new york opened in white_plains with numerous corporate supporters , a 1 . 2 million loan from west_germany and a student enrollment of 64 . white_plains was selected , mr . kessler said , because most of the school 's organizers lived in the county , and space could be obtained for less money than in manhattan . eight years later , mr . kessler said , ''practically all german families with children coming to new york moved to the white_plains area in order to be near the school , '' an educational institution that also transports students by bus and private car from new jersey , connecticut and new york city . the students are from eight countries , including the united_states , and mr . kessler said a major goal of the school was to begin accepting american students who are not already bilingual . the other countries are austria , chile , switzerland , england , mexico and finland . classes are taught in english and german . mr . hildebrand is one of eight members of a staff of 40 whose salary is financed by the west_german government , which also provides yearly subsidies to the school , last year amounting to 350 , 000 . with this help and continued corporate support , tuition at the school is 3 , 000 to 3 , 700 a year . an 18 member board of trustees , including parents , founders and ''friends'' of the school administer the school 's 1 . 5 million a year budget . the board 's chairman is werner gerstenberg , senior vice_president of boehringer ingelheim pharmaceuticals . although mr . hildebrand does not know if the deutsche schule new york influenced the japanese government 's decision to establish a school of their own in westchester , students from the german school have exchanged visits with the japanese primary_school in queens . perhaps , mr . hildebrand said , ''they went back and said , we could do that , too . ''

has a location of germany

his lawyer describes him , rather implausibly , as a ''gentleman from the old school . '' but when armin meiwes stepped into a courtroom in this central german city the other day , legal binders tucked under his arm , there was no denying his nattiness . with a well cut suit and patterned tie , set off by a polished gold clasp , mr . meiwes looked like a member of his legal defense team rather than a man accused of killing and eating one of his houseguests . the trial of mr . meiwes , 42 , who confessed to a cannibalism ritual with a willing victim who answered his internet posting , has repulsed and riveted germans since it began this month . the killing , in march 2001 , is like a particularly dark fable from the brothers grimm , who wrote many of their fairy_tales in kassel , populating the thickly forested countryside around here with dwarves , goblins , and a witch who likes dining on children . german newspapers have been full of lurid details about the man they called hannibal of hesse and the cannibal of rotenburg , after the secluded village where mr . meiwes lived in a rambling half timbered house , casting an electronic net for young men willing to be ' 'slaughtered . '' beyond the grisly details and they are grisly enough for the most hardened of true crime devotees the case raises knotty legal questions that some experts believe will be settled only by germany 's highest court . at issue is whether mr . meiwes can be found guilty of murder even though his victim , 43 year old bernd j rgen brandes , consented and even pleaded to be stabbed to death and consumed . prosecutors concede that the victim was willing , but say he was mentally unbalanced . they say mr . meiwes , a computer technician , murdered his victim and ate him as a form of sexual gratification . cannibalism itself is not a crime in germany . ''it 's really complicated , because you have two people coming together with very similar , perverse fantasies , '' said arthur kreuzer , the director of the institute for the study of criminology at giessen university . ''one said , 'i want to kill you and eat you , ' '' mr . kreuzer said . ''the other said , 'i want to be killed and eaten by you . ' '' mr . meiwes 's lawyer , harald ermel , contends that his client is guilty only of ''killing on request , '' an illegal form of euthanasia that carries a maximum prison sentence of five years . a manslaughter conviction would put mr . meiwes in prison for up to 15 years . given all the legal ambiguities , mr . kreuzer said the case could end up in the federal constitutional court . the simplest way to keep mr . meiwes off the streets , mr . kreuzer said , would be for the panel of three judges to rule that he was suffering from ' 'diminished responsibility'' at the time of the killings and send him to a well guarded psychiatric_hospital for treatment . the trouble is , a court appointed psychiatrist has already said mr . meiwes is fit to stand trial . unless he reverses himself on the witness stand , the judges would find it difficult to confine mr . miewes to a hospital . ''if the forensic psychiatrist says he is responsible for his actions , there is no way to keep him away from society for a long time , '' said wolfgang retz , a psychiatrist at the university of the saarland . that prospect unsettles people who have turned up at the nondescript courthouse here twice a week to take in the proceedings . ''i think he would pose a great danger to the public , '' said manfred sch bel , a 58 year old retiree . ''this guy and his friends were engaged in some very strange behavior . it could happen again . '' mr . meiwes offered a glimpse into his netherworld in testimony on the first day of the trial . he said he had posted advertisements on the internet , under the pseudonym franky , which said , ''if you are 18 25 , you are my boy . '' he claimed to have gotten about 200 replies . four other men traveled to rotenburg to meet with mr . meiwes and , according to his lawyer , mr . ermel , engaged in sexual role_playing . when it became apparent that they did not want the high jinks to cross the line into physical violence , mr . ermel said , their host allowed them to leave . these witnesses testified on monday , but at their request the presiding judge closed the proceedings to the public . with mr . brandes , a microchip designer , mr . meiwes apparently found a person willing to go all the way . as mr . meiwes ran a video_camera , he stabbed his guest to death with a kitchen knife , before hanging the corpse on a meat hook and carving it . mr . meiwes said he had kept the skull and flesh in plastic bags in his freezer . every now and again he defrosted a bag and ate the contents . in all , he figured , he consumed about 44 pounds of flesh . ''with every piece of flesh i ate , i remembered him , '' mr . meiwes said , according to reuters . ''it was like taking communion . '' no wonder this trial has been riveting theater for courtroom regulars like manfred sch bel . he said most of the cases he watched involved burglaries or drug busts . for mr . sch bel , the hard part is squaring the horror of mr . meiwes 's story with his unthreatening appearance . ''he 's sympathetic , '' mr . sch bel said , adding with a nervous giggle , ''he looks like the nicest cannibal you could ever meet . '' kassel journal

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''it 's not just a peak it 's a treat , '' the brochure says , and to prove the easily provable point it shows snow capped mountain peaks rising over a pristine alpine landscape . you can golf , you can swim , you can raft in the summer , ski in the winter and even visit the ancient salt mines that gave this place its name upper salt mountain . the only flaw here is that the intercontinental resort berchtesgaden , an upscale hotel and spa due to open in the spring , sits on the very stained plot of ground where hermann g ring had his rural retreat , just over a rise from the berghof , the luxurious house with the big picture window where hitler contemplated the mists drifting over the face of the untersberg and is said to have plotted his deeds . and so , the question in germany is there something inappropriate , unseemly , gratuitous about having a pleasure palace for affluent vacationers seeking wellness on the very spot where hitler lived out his myths about blood and soil and racial regeneration , even as he consigned millions to concentration_camps and death ? ''it 's too late now , but i still think it 's wrong , '' josef d rr , the head of the parliamentary faction of the green_party in bavaria , the state where obersalzberg lies , ''because obersalzberg is famous in the world for being the idyllic place where hitler tried to rule the world . '' in fact , the issue as it has been debated over the past few years is not so much about building a hotel and spa against the mountain backdrop where hitler treated blond children to strawberries and cream , portraying himself as an affectionate man of simple pleasures . on a nearby hilltop is the famous kehlstein , or eagle 's nest , as the americans later called it , built as a birthday gift to hitler by a grateful nazi_party in 1939 . the issue is more that in the process of transforming obersalzberg into a holiday center which it already was in the 19th_century , until the nazis made it their private preserve pretty much everything that was left over from the third reich has been razed . most controversially , in 2000 , the bavarian authorities tore down the platterhof , the old hotel that was turned into a ''people 's hotel'' during the nazi years , and became an american recreation center after the war , when obersalzberg housed a united_states_army contingent . officially , the hotel was torn down because it was old and in bad condition , but the suspicion remains strong among some germans that its demolition was part of an attempt to obliterate anything that would spoil the atmosphere . ''the bavarian government has tried to erase the physical memories , '' mr . d rr said , ''and if you want the nazi_regime to be useful for our democracy now , you have to have the physical traces . you need the physical contact with the past . '' certainly , there is no physical contact with the past left in obersalzberg except for the eagle 's nest , now a mountaintop restaurant accessible by the same elevator , cut into the stone , that hitler used on his own rare visits to the place . the place where hitler 's house stood , bombed by the allies in 1945 and cleared away entirely in 1952 , is a patch of second growth forest . and yet , it would be wrong to say that the plans for a revived tourist_industry have been allowed to bury the memory of the nazis . ''the bavarian finance minister had a two column model , '' said albert a . feiber , a historian at the institute for contemporary history in munich , referring to kurt faltlhauser , who after the departure of american_troops in the mid 1990 's devised an overall plan for the renovation of the area . one column envisaged by mr . faltlhauser is the hotel , a two winged structure of 138 rooms that is virtually complete already . the second pillar , about 200 yards away , is the obersalzberg documentation center , a museum of the nazi_era created by the state of bavaria in 1999 . the museum is not huge , but its displays occupying three floors of a modern , shedlike building in no way shy away from the horrors of nazism . in fact , the documentation center has had some beneficial unforeseen consequences , not least that many germans who would otherwise come to this area of the bavarian alps only for a holiday now spend some time getting a vivid reminder of savage plans and demented theories that were concocted in part right here . gerhard w hrl , a vacationing policeman from kassel who was touring the museum the other day with his wife , said ''i do n't approve of a hotel . it 's not a good use of this site . but it 's impressive what they have here in the way of documentation . '' the museum was initially expected to attract some 30 , 000 visitors a year , said mr . feiber , the historian , who was at the center conducting a tour for visitors from munich . in fact , the museum draws four times that many , which has led to plans for an expansion to include new displays as well as seminar rooms and classrooms to be used by visiting schools . moreover , while obersalzberg was for years something of a magnet for neo_nazis , who reportedly used to make pilgrimages here to pay homage on hitler 's birthday , this phenomenon has diminished since the documentation center was built , mr . feiber said . so , while the demolition of the old platterhof still stirs discontent , the argument can certainly be made that restoring tourism to obersalzberg has been done in a historically responsible way . that , anyway , is what 15 year old franziska otto from rosenheim , about 50 miles away , seemed to feel . she was there with her father and brother as part of a study group that was spending the day not gazing at the mountains or the lakes or even visiting the eagle 's nest , but touring the documentation center itself . ''i want to learn about it , '' she said . obersalzberg journal

has a location of germany

a ban on muslim teachers wearing head_scarves in public schools must also apply to christian nuns , the federal administrative court in leipzig ruled . the court said a law passed this year in the southwestern state of baden w rttemberg was unfair because it was being applied solely to muslim women who teach . ''there can be no exception , '' the court said , for ''any form of religiously motivated clothing . '' nuns in the predominantly roman_catholic state , who often teach in the public schools , will now have to remove their habits before entering the classroom . legislators have said they will fight the ruling . victor_homola ( nyt )

has a location of germany

lead foreign_minister eduard a . shevardnadze of the soviet_union apologized today for the wounding of an american serviceman by soviet soldiers in east_germany . but the pentagon said it would insist on a fuller explanation of what it termed an unprovoked attack . foreign_minister eduard a . shevardnadze of the soviet_union apologized today for the wounding of an american serviceman by soviet soldiers in east_germany . but the pentagon said it would insist on a fuller explanation of what it termed an unprovoked attack . robert sims , the pentagon 's chief spokesman , declined to rule out unspecified ''further actions'' in response to the attack in addition to formal protests that were lodged thursday . mr . shevardnadze , appearing at a news conference at the soviet embassy here , acknowledged that soviet_military personnel had opened fire thursday after confronting a vehicle carrying two american servicemen attached to an accredited military liaison office in east_germany . but the soviet official insisted that the russians had fired only warning shots and that both sides were at fault . soviet response dismissed mr . sims dismissed those assertions , saying that the two americans had been fired upon with an automatic weapon from behind , and that they were outside any restricted area and had done nothing to violate the terms of the 1947 agreement that established the military liaison mission system . ''this was an obviously serious incident that had almost tragic results , '' mr . sims said . ''what we have done is protest this as totally unjustifiable . we 've said that we expect a full explanation for the reasons for the incident . '' mr . sims identified the two americans as air_force capt . bennett mccutcheon of scottsdale , ariz . , and air_force master sgt . charles l . barry of tucson , ariz . sergeant barry , a 15 year veteran and who was driving the vehicle , suffered a superficial wound to the left arm from a bullet fragment , the spokesman said . a defense_department announcement on thursday said sergeant barry was treated at a hospital in west_berlin and released . mr . shevardnadze said the two americans were ' 'very close'' to an area he described as being ''prohibited to members of foreign military missions . '' mission 'tried to flee' ''they were taking pictures of soviet_military aircraft and also were engaging in radio and electronic gathering near the soviet_military facility , '' he said . the soviet foreign_minister made no assertion , however , that the united_states servicemen had entered a restricted zone , nor did he try to explain why the americans were partly at fault . ''when soviet soldiers approached , the members of the mission tried to flee , '' mr . shevardnadze said . ''and therefore there was warning fire , small_arms fire . '' the incident thursday was the most serious since march 1985 , when a soviet sentry shot and killed maj . arthur d . nicholson . in that case , the united_states also charged that major nicholson had been in an unrestricted area and had been shot without provocation .

has a location of germany

lead the premier of the czech region of this country is to arrive in the united_states on friday in search of what he calls pluralism . the premier of the czech region of this country is to arrive in the united_states on friday in search of what he calls pluralism . the premier , petr pithart , does not mean a multiplicity of political_parties , which czechoslovakia has abundantly achieved since last autumn without foreign help . the premier will travel coast to coast , possibly even to alaska , to enlist american support and investment to counterbalance what he called ''terrible pressure'' from potential west_german investors . mr . pithart is not only the head of the larger of czechoslovakia 's two constituent republics . the 49 year old legal scholar and historian is also one of president vaclav_havel 's most trusted political strategists and , through his leadership in the civic forum mass movement , a close ally in the preparation and carrying out of the revolution that ended communist rule . mr . pithart said he understood the surprising degree of popular pessimism that has followed the peaceful triumph of democracy of last autumn and the landslide election victory that confirmed it last month . 'selling out the country' ''the main problem is that the federal_government and economists as a group are not united on a course of action , '' he said in an interview . ''there are no precedents , only the unsuccessful or at best half successful precedents of the old regime . ''the leadership and the people see a need to go as fast as possible . but when we are in a situation to resolve a problem , to choose a way , a lot of hesitation comes to their minds . and the advice from abroad is sometimes contradictory . we have no complete scenario of the logical steps to reform . '' mr . pithart , whose father was an ambassador of the communist government , and who was reduced in the 21 years between the revolutions of 1968 and 1989 from an academic post to many menial jobs , outlined in imperfect but carefully chosen english the quandaries that mr . havel and his associates must confront in the overriding task of making the stagnant , highly centralized economy advance toward western levels of productivity . the problem is not only economic , the premier said . ''the prevailing mood of czechoslovakia is an understandable fear of selling out the country , '' mr . pithart said . ''it is a curious reaction , arising from our poverty . it is to be understood psychologically , this pride of a people that is poor . role of foreign investors ''we do n't want to become the property of any western country . it 's like an architectural ruin . you either sell it to somebody who can restore it or you let it go on to certain destruction . what do you prefer ? there is no third way . '' reluctantly , mr . pithart said , he has come to the conclusion that in a country that has no sources of capital for the privatization of the obsolete and sluggish economy , foreign investors must be granted greater concessions than many czechoslovaks want to offer . ''at the beginning i shared their attitude , '' he said . ''but we have to be more open . '' does that mean 51 percent foreign holdings in an enterprise ? ''up to 100 percent , '' the premier replied . ''but the necessary precondition is pluralism of countries , '' he said . ''there is terrible pressure from west_germany . that is why we need america . '' 'a bolshevist state still' to achieve that aim , mr . pithart will try to enlist the support of the american czechoslovak community , which has been far less organized in political and economic support of their mother country than polish americans or hungarian americans . ''the czechs who are organized are mostly older people , '' mr . pithart said . those who came to america after the soviet led invasion of 1968 believe that only the surface has changed , he said , ''and we are a bolshevist state still . '' many czechoslovak economists and officials share concern over the fact that the bulk of the investment offers comes from west_germany . czechoslovakia is keeping options open . but mr . pithart said that by the end of the summer , volkswagen , for instance , is likely to own a controlling interest in skoda , the country 's largest carmaker . the premier said there was also indecision about how to introduce badly needed competition into the economy . resisting a purge ''we are doing our best to bring to the country elements of free_trade in a system in which the monopolies of the existing enterprises prevail , '' he said . ''how do you create an atmosphere of competition when most of the factories are monopolistic ? '' he said one way was to create what he called an ''artificial atmosphere of competition'' by opening the market wide to imports . ''this is a very costly way , '' he said , because to make czechoslovakia attractive , customs duties have to be pegged very low . ''a further reason for pessimism is that the old structures on the middle and lower levels are still in position , '' mr . pithart said . the government faces a quandary in how to renew the communist_party dominated economic and administrative structures without a political purge , which the havel leadership has forsworn . from the revolution 's start , civic forum has insisted against much popular opposition that to dismiss masses of people only because of party membership would be unjust . czechoslovakia underwent wholesale purges three times in the life of its older citizens under germany 's virtual annexation in 1939 , in the communist takeover in 1948 and after the 1968 invasion .

has a location of germany

lead president_bush called today for more research into the scientific and economic ramifications of global_warming linked to pollution , but several european officials attending a conference here argued for more concrete and prompt action as well . president_bush called today for more research into the scientific and economic ramifications of global_warming linked to pollution , but several european officials attending a conference here argued for more concrete and prompt action as well . the differences over how quickly to proceed highlighted the opening session of a two day conference called by the white_house to discuss research into the scientific and economic uncertainties surrounding the issue of the warming of the earth . in his speech , mr . bush urged environmental ministers and other delegates from 18 nations to consider the economic consequences while drawing up policies to deal with the problem . the delegates , mr . bush said , should ' 'sort out the science on this complex issue'' as well as explore ''the links between our environmental well being and our economic welfare . '' 'an excuse' for inaction but west_germany 's minister for the environment , klaus topfer , said in a statement today , ''worldwide action against the climatic threat is urgently required , even if the complicated scientific interrelationships of climatic change have not all been fully understood . '' he added , ''gaps in knowledge must not be used as an excuse for worldwide inaction . '' the disagreement comes at a potentially embarrassing time for the administration as several nations , including the united_states , focus on pollution and environmental issues in advance of earth day next sunday . in the last year , there has been considerable debate within the bush_administration over how quickly to respond to potential global_warming . william k . reilly , the administrator of the environmental_protection_agency , at first urged a specific commitment to reduce carbon_dioxide , which is produced by the burning of fossil_fuels and is thought to contribute to global_warming . but the white_house_chief_of_staff , john h . sununu , and other officials opposed such a move . at this point the entire administration , including mr . reilly , appears to have closed ranks behind mr . sununu 's more cautious approach . many scientists now predict that climate shifts will occur in the next century as the gases in the atmosphere retain radiation from the sun that would otherwise be reflected back into space . but in his speech to the conference , mr . bush made it plain that more research was necessary and that actions to deal with the situation should be weighed against economic consequences . ''environmental policies that ignore the economic factor , the human factor , are bound to fail , '' mr . bush declared . several officials of major european_nations attending the white_house conference on science and economics research related to global change , said it was time for action to reduce the pollution , mainly from carbon_dioxide , that is expected to cause the earth to warm in the next century . west_germany , the netherlands and france , disclosed their own plans for unilateral_action to reduce their emissions of carbon_dioxide . bert bolin , the swede who is chairman of the intergovernmental panel on climate change , said in an interview , ''this conference avoided bringing up certain issues such as how do you get an effective decision making process without too much delay . '' he said that while there was a need for research , ''it must be in parallel with action . '' in his remarks , mr . bush said the conference was intended to help speed the efforts of the intergovernmental panel on climate change , a panel of experts organized by the united_nations environmental program and the world meteorological organization . the panel has been given the task of assessing the state of science with regard to global_warming and to recommend possible international responses . other administration officials who addressed the plenary sessions held today , sounded similar themes . they included treasury_secretary nicholas f . brady michael j . boskin , chairman of the council_of_economic_advisers d . allan bromley , assistant to the president for science and technology michael r . deland , chairman of the council on environmental quality , and mr . reilly , the e.p.a . administrator . several noted that the united_states had committed 1 billion to research into global_warming and that mr . bush had agreed to act as host to a meeting to plan a framework treaty for international cooperation to deal with the problem . dr . topfer of west_germany said he had prepared a proposal for his government 's cabinet that would reduce his country 's emissions of carbon dioxid , by at least 25 percent by the year 2005 . he said the cabinet would take up the issue before its summer recess . per villinga , who is in charge of global_warming issues in the netherlands environmental ministry , said his country was planning to reduce its carbon_dioxide_emissions by 5 percent by the end of the decade . mr . villinga told reporters on monday that his country believed this conference should discuss policy as well as research and said that the economic problems may be exaggerated . brice lalond , the french environmental minister , said his country had set a goal of reducing per capita emissions of carbon_dioxide , now 2.3 tons a year per person , to 1.7 tons . he did not say when france hoped to achieve that goal .

has a location of germany

lead chancellor helmut_kohl of west_germany had a nostalgic final meeting today with president_reagan and then urged president elect bush to speed negotiations aimed at cutting long range nuclear_weapons . chancellor helmut_kohl of west_germany had a nostalgic final meeting today with president_reagan and then urged president elect bush to speed negotiations aimed at cutting long range nuclear_weapons . mr . kohl , who was in washington for a one day visit , had his farewell meeting with mr . reagan over lunch before he and his foreign_minister , hans_dietrich_genscher , met with mr . bush and senator dan_quayle , the vice_president elect . the meeting was the first of two farewell sessions mr . reagan had scheduled this week with the two west european leaders who have been his staunchest european allies . on wednesday , the president will receive margaret_thatcher , the british_prime_minister , at the white_house . mrs . thatcher arrived tonight at andrews_air_force_base in washington . appearing with mr . reagan on the south lawn of the white_house , mr . kohl referred repeatedly to the president as ' 'dear ron . '' he told the president , ''god bless you in all you do . '' warm praise from germany at a news conference later , mr . kohl said , ''i want to reiterate before the world how grateful we feel for all the sympathy and friendship that he has shown to us as a people and to me personally . '' mr . reagan reaffirmed ''the strong american commitment to berlin'' and to the american alliance with west_germany . rozanne l . ridgway , the assistant secretary of state for european and canadian affairs , told reporters that the meeting had been ''a general review'' of the american german relationship . asked if the two had simply ' 'schmoozed'' with each other , she replied , ''as world leaders do . '' mr . kohl , who met with the soviet leader , mikhail s . gorbachev , when he visited moscow in late october , said at the news conference that he had briefed mr . reagan , mr . bush and mr . quayle on his moscow visit . but he offered no details . mr . kohl said he had told mr . bush that he should ''rapidly pursue'' a treaty reducing strategic nuclear_weapons . shouldering the burden mr . kohl said he talked with mr . bush and mr . reagan about the need for the european allies to shoulder more of the burden for their defense . mr . reagan said he and mr . kohl ' 'reviewed the difficulties each country faces in doing more , but pledged we would each do our fair share . '' asked about that aspect of his discussions , mr . kohl said ''of course , we will have to rely in the future on the americans to help us with their conventional capabilities and nuclear capabilities . but we shall pay attention to the burden being fairly shared . '' the west_german government has been under some pressure from its allies , especially the british_government , to modernize its lance missiles , older , short range missile whose nuclear_warheads are controlled by the united_states . mr . kohl 's government has avoided making a commitment on modernization , which could be a politically troublesome move , and the chancellor avoided answering directly today when asked about the missiles . he said simply that he doubted that a decision would be announced on whether to update the missiles before next april .

has a location of germany

lead for many years , west_german programs have also brought news to east_germany . since the fall of the old regime in east_germany , that country 's news programs have become sources of serious information , but most east_germans still tune in from habit to the evening west_german newscasts . for many years , west_german programs have also brought news to east_germany . since the fall of the old regime in east_germany , that country 's news programs have become sources of serious information , but most east_germans still tune in from habit to the evening west_german newscasts . in recent months , of course , the drive toward unification has been the dominant story , with extensive reports from east_germany . the major news programs are all the product of the two west_german state owned nationwide networks , a.r.d . and z.d.f. , each with two newscasts every evening . though owned and financed by the state , the two networks are generally independent of government control . news programs lack much of the glitz of their american counterparts , and the four major daily newscasts are serious , balanced and influential . one a.r.d . anchorman , hans_joachim friedrichs , has become a national figure somewhat in the walter_cronkite mold he is respected for the accuracy of his reporting , for a dry humor , for a deep and serious delivery and for a mane of white hair that lends an added air of credibility . he is in fact a veteran reporter who worked for years as a.r.d . 's washington correspondent . as the world turns , it's news with a spin

has a location of germany

ever since angela_merkel emerged on the political scene here , it has been widely assumed that if she ever came to power , german american relations would quickly become closer and warmer than they were under the departing chancellor , gerhard_schr_der . but now that mrs . merkel is on the verge of becoming chancellor in a coalition_government with her rival social democrats , experts doubt that on matters of practical policy , germany 's foreign relations , including relations with the united_states , are really going to change all that much . ''there will be a different tone , '' said claus leggewie , a professor of political_science at giessen university and a specialist on german foreign_policy . ''the form will change , but not the content . '' that was underscored thursday when the social democrats named as the next foreign_minister mr . schr_der 's chief of staff , frank walter steinmeier , a figure whom few expect to engineer major changes . karsten voigt , the coordinator of german american relations in the foreign ministry , recalled in an interview on thursday a trip to washington a few weeks ago . ''i knew that most people were crossing their fingers , hoping that merkel would be elected chancellor , and i knew that in foreign_policy circles , schr_der was not very popular because of his opposition to the iraq_war , '' he said . ''but i said at the time that even if mrs . merkel is elected , the substance of foreign_policy wo n't be that different . '' analysts cite several reasons for this , not least that german american relations have improved considerably since the angry dispute over iraq . even on this contentious and emotional issue , germany has given some support to the american effort by training iraqi_police officers elsewhere in the persian_gulf , and a meeting between mr . schr_der and president_bush in mainz in february struck a conspicuously cordial tone . ''when you look at substance , '' mr . voigt said , ''we have practically no serious bilateral problems . '' but another reason why many experts expect continuity is that mrs . merkel will not govern on her own but inside the coalition , which consists of her christian_democratic_union and its sister party , the christian_social_union , plus mr . schr_der 's social_democratic_party . thus , while mrs . merkel likes the united_states , there is no expectation in germany that she will do what mr . schr_der 's government was unwilling to do send german_troops to iraq , for example , or give automatic assent to american foreign_policy programs , especially if they involve the use or threat of force . a fundamental reason for that is that germany 's identity in foreign_affairs as a medium size power with an aversion to the use of force and a strong preference for multilateralism is widely accepted by a large majority of the german public . in this sense mr . schr_der is , as mr . leggewie puts it , mainstream , and even inside mrs . merkel 's party it is difficult to find influential figures who are willing to depart from that stance . mrs . merkel has criticized mr . schr_der for being too close to both president jacques_chirac of france and president vladimir v . putin of russia , arguing that he has aroused suspicions of german intentions elsewhere in europe , especially in britain and poland . it seems likely that mrs . merkel will put her stamp on foreign_policy by avoiding the impression , often given by mr . schr_der and mr . chirac , that france and germany form an axis in the european_union that , with russian support , aims at constricting american power . still , most specialists contend , relations with france and russia will , by necessity and custom , remain very important . ''any german chancellor has to have close relations with france , '' mr . voigt said . mrs . merkel is also unlikely to annul what some analysts feel was a deeper change in the schr_der years , namely the german determination to shed the constraints left over from world_war_ii and to behave like a normal country , able to pursue its own interests unapologetically . this had some beneficial effects on relations with the united_states , especially when germany sent troops to support the american led military action in kosovo in the late 1990 's and in afghanistan in 2001 , despite ferocious resistance inside mr . schr_der 's own coalition . german_troops are still the second largest foreign contingent after american_forces in afghanistan , and parliament recently approved an increase . germany also has an important military presence in the balkans and smaller contingents in the persian_gulf and sudan , all of which are highly welcomed by washington . at the same time , mr . schr_der stressed what he called ''eye to eye'' relations with the united_states , that is , relations between equal partners , not between a main partner and a secondary one . ''we will deal with the united_states on an equal footing , '' mr . leggewie said . ''we are not willing to follow the united_states at any price , and i think this will be the line of a foreign_policy of the grand coalition . ''

has a location of germany

lead for months , senior american officials have expressed confidence that president mikhail s . gorbachev would give way , if offered enough inducements , and agree to nato membership for a united germany , thus settling the most intractable issue facing moscow and washington . for months , senior american officials have expressed confidence that president mikhail s . gorbachev would give way , if offered enough inducements , and agree to nato membership for a united germany , thus settling the most intractable issue facing moscow and washington . but that confidence is fading fast . after three days of talks between president_bush and the soviet leader , which produced no real progress on the german question and the shape of post cold_war europe , top united_states policy_makers say they are beginning to believe that mr . gorbachev 's domestic political situation may be too delicate for him to make such a concession at any time soon , and that a protracted period of ambiguity may result . ''it may well be that the only way he can resolve his dilemma is to string the process out , let germany go ahead with political and economic reunification and stall on the military side , '' said an american official who played a significant role in the bush gorbachev summit conference here . ''west_germany would stay in nato and the soviet_troops would stay in east_germany . ''unfortunately , with so many security questions undecided , the situation might prove dangerous . '' fewer cheers at home in domestic political terms , mr . bush emerged from last week 's events with germany in doubt , lithuania unresolved and perhaps a few political problems on the trade agreement . but he will find that easy enough to live with , given his broad popularity . for mr . gorbachev , on the other hand , the acclaim he won in the streets of washington is unlikely to be repeated at home . his public_relations triumph here is not likely to ease his struggle for survival . at their news conference this morning , the two presidents made much of the relationship they have built , and a few white_house officials say they believe that personal chemistry will eventually dissolve the policy stalemate . mr . gorbachev promised not to ''put spokes in the wheels'' and said negotiations on germany would continue . the two pledged to meet on a regular basis . no doubt things have come ''a long , long way from the depths of the cold_war , '' as president_bush commented . but there are limits on personal diplomacy , even in an era of good feelings . between may 1972 and november 1974 four summit meetings took place , and after the fourth one , in siberia , gerald r . ford spoke hopefully of ''the spirit of vladivostok . '' but that proved inadequate to overcome fundamental disagreements the next summit conference did not come until 1979 and the ''constructive spirit'' of which mr . gorbachev spoke may not suffice in the weeks and months ahead . debate could be protracted a protracted debate about the rival visions of the new europe now seems highly likely , with a substantial possibility that progress in the negotiations in vienna on conventional forces will prove impossible to achieve and that the summit meeting of the 35 nation conference on security and cooperation in europe , now scheduled to take place late this year in paris , will be delayed . the united_states is ready to see that rather inchoate organization gain a more formal structure and a larger role . but the soviet_union , which belongs to no other important pan_european organization , wants to make it the centerpiece of the new europe , which is an entirely different matter . ''we are talking about building an all european security system and casting the issue of german_unification , its external aspects , within the context of that larger european security framework , '' vitaly churkin , a senior adviser to the soviet foreign ministry , said in an interview over the weekend . many western_european officials , as well as many here , see that idea as ''a trap that would give the soviets a veto like the one they have in the united_nations , in fact if not in law , '' as a ranking italian official argued recently . a british diplomat said that an organization with 35 members ''would quickly become a talking shop , incapable of making decisions . '' but there is some support , among politicians as well as policy experts , for the soviet idea , or some modified version of it . hans_dietrich_genscher , the west_german foreign_minister , has called for a pan_european ''conflict_resolution center , '' and president_francois_mitterrand of france supports a loose european confederation . u.s . role in europe leaders of the newly democratic east european_countries see the conference on security and cooperation as their only chance for a link to western_europe , so they too support the idea that something new , beyond nato and the moribund warsaw_pact , must be created to handle european security . in the current issue of world policy journal , malcolm chalmers of stanford_university argues for the creation of a european security organization , based on the conference on security and cooperation , with only a residual , transitional role for nato and the warsaw_pact . only such an organization , he says , would reassure the soviet_union , buttress german sovereignty and guarantee a united_states role in europe . nearly everything about the debate remains murky . one of the things the united_states has promised the soviet_union , to combat moscow 's fear that a unified germany would be joining an alliance hostile to soviet interests , is that nato will be transformed into a more political organization . revivifying nato giving it some reason for being other than defense against a threat from the east that is rapidly vanishing is a crucial matter for the united_states , mr . bush believes , because nato gives washington its sole institutional voice in europe . but every time in the past that nato has tried to agree on something other than the common defense against the soviet_union and the warsaw_pact , things have gone wrong whether the question was the suez invasion in the 1950 's or the overflight of united_states planes on the way to libya in the 1980 's . the perils of a deadlock the danger lurking down the road , in the american view , is not the application of a new soviet noose to berlin , or even a rancorous soviet decision to break off negotiations on the german question . the positive tenor of the conversations here seems to make those two eventualities unlikely , at least for as long as mr . gorbachev or another reformer remains in power . but a prolonged deadlock would carry its own sorts of perils . ''if moscow should refuse to leave germany , '' says michael mandelbaum of the council_on_foreign_relations , ''and its refusal became a major point of conflict with the west , this would , in effect , re create the political conflict on which the great east west rivalry of the postwar period was based . '' for moscow , the stakes are immense . in the century since 1890 , russia and germany , the two largest and strongest european_countries , have been almost constantly at odds . now the soviet_union , already economically weakened , faces the prospect of losing its military power in central_europe , with no compensating increase in political power , at the very moment when germany , already economically powerful , stands on the verge of reunification and greatly augmented political influence . ''it 's going to require tremendous finesse on our part to manage this kind of unsettled situation , '' said robert d . hormats , a former official of the state_department and the national_security_council . ''the analogy to germany , post world_war i , is very close . we ca n't afford to isolate them , leave them to brood about losing the cold_war , let their economy collapse . if we do , as a last resort , they 'll play on neutralist emotions in germany , which are already too widespread for comfort . '' summit talks end with warmth but fail to resolve key issues

has a location of germany

it billows in the wind , it glows in the sun , it is tailored as primly as a dress and engineered as heavily as a battleship . " wrapped reichstag , " by christo and his wife , jean_claude , is at once a work of art , a cultural event , a political happening and an ambitious piece of business . it has got berlin into more of a celebratory mood than anything since the fall of the wall five and a half years ago , and as the immense project of wrapping the 101 year old german_parliament building in more than a million square_feet of aluminum colored fabric nears its completion , crowds gather day and night to gawk , to cheer as sections of cloth are unfurled , and to watch for glimpses of the new york artist couple who are treated here like rock stars . the project has had numerous setbacks bad_weather , including winds so heavy that no work at all could take place today , has thrown tomorrow 's planned completion date into doubt , and the cost , originally estimated at 6 million , is now certain to exceed 10 million , say people close to the artists . the project is to be paid for by the artists , who say they will finance it largely out of the proceeds of the sale of the hundreds of drawings and collages of the wrapped reichstag they have made since the work was first conceived in the early 1970 's . christo and jean_claude for the last few years they have insisted on joint credit for their projects have stretched a 365 foot high curtain across a valley in colorado ( 1972 ) , surrounded 11 islands in biscayne bay , fla . , with pink fabric ( 1983 ) , and wrapped the pont neuf in paris ( 1985 ) . each of these has been an attempt to create art at monumental scale by temporarily transforming a natural or man made landmark . they have all been spectacular visually , although another of the christo projects 3 , 100 gigantic umbrellas installed in japan and california in 1991 turned disastrous when a california storm uprooted one of the 500 pound umbrellas , which crushed a woman to death . fickle weather is , of course , a serious issue here , although there is little that seems able to cause a tragic accident . the problem is more one of risks to the schedule . this enterprise , like all of christo and jean_claude 's efforts , requires intricate logistics and a huge staff there are 210 construction workers , including 90 specially_trained rock climbers 17 office workers , and 600 " monitors , " or guides , who answer questions and assist in crowd_control . the building is scheduled to remain wrapped only until july 6 , at which time the polypropylene fabric , the 17 , 060 yards of bright blue rope holding it tight and the 220 tons of steel structure to which the wrapping is attached will be dismantled and recycled . ( the steel is attached only to the roof and the interior , through the windows , and does not touch the ornate stone facade . ) when the wrapping comes off , work will resume on renovating the reichstag as the new home for the german_parliament when it moves from bonn at the end of the century . it was the fact of the reichstag 's pending renovation that made the project possible at all . it was first proposed in 1971 by michael cullen , a berlin historian who has written extensively about the reichstag and suggested to christo that the building , then little used except as an exhibition hall , would be an ideal place for him to realize his dream of wrapping a national capital . but cold_war tensions meant that there was little chance of getting the east_german government 's approval , and the project lay nearly dormant until the fall of the berlin_wall and the reunification of germany . when the reunified german_government decided in 1991 to return the capital to berlin , mr . cullen saw an opportunity , and working with the artists and with wolfgang volz , who later became the project 's technical director , he mounted an aggressive lobbying campaign that culminated in a close vote in parliament in february 1994 to approve the project . christo and jean_claude say that their art is as much about process as product it is no accident that the monitors wear t shirts with the legend " wrapped reichstag 1971 95 , " since the official view here is that the work of art began its existence when christo said yes to mr . cullen 's suggestion , and that every early sketch , every letter about the project to the german_government , every debate in the german press and every street corner argument about the merits of wrapping the reichstag is itself a part of the artwork . the artists think of the actual wrapping as only the final chapter in a 24 year work which is perhaps why the notion of leaving it up for only two weeks does not disturb them . the entire work , in their view , is as much a study in the way attitudes are transformed over time as a pure object in itself . yet none of this should deny the remarkable esthetic power the wrapped reichstag possesses . even today , with roughly three quarters of the facade wrapped , this immense stone hulk , a heavy , bombastic building that epitomizes german excesses of the late 19th_century , is rendered light , almost delicate . it takes on an ethereal beauty , and looks as if it could float away into the silvery , cloudy berlin sky . in no way , however , does the reichstag become insignificant , a fear that was expressed by many opponents of the project , including chancellor helmut_kohl , who argued that wrapping the building would trivialize it . indeed , this huge structure covered in silver gray fabric remains every bit as monumental as it was before perhaps more so , because the wrapping forces the eye to confront the reichstag anew . the building is shimmering where it once was solid , refined where it once was gross and heavy . but it has lost none of its power . the real transformation this work offers is not in any concept of the reichstag , but in the idea of monumentality itself . the wrapped reichstag makes lightness and softness , two qualities associated with intimate if not trivial objects , into characteristics of the greatest monumental power . it is a transformation that is particularly poignant right now in a country struggling over questions of identity with as much anguish , surely , as any nation in the world . if the architecture of the reichstag represents a kind of prussian hardness germany as it was the wrapped version can almost be seen as an ideal symbol of the new germany struggling to emerge from unification . in any event , there could not be a better moment in history to wrap the reichstag , if only because of the natural symbolism of unwrapping it now , a chrysalis out of which the new germany may emerge . though it was built only in 1884 to house the parliament of the recently unified german empire , it is as redolent of history as any building in berlin . the building was burned in 1933 by an arsonist thought to have been paid by the nazis , who blamed the fire on the communists and used it as an excuse to restrict civil_liberties . though nazis used the reichstag for propaganda exhibitions rather than as a capital , its capture by the russians became a symbol of the allies' victory in the battle of berlin that led to the german surrender at the end of world_war_ii . the surroundings of the reichstag are largely quiet , at the edge of the bleak void in the heart of berlin left by the wall . the building looms over the brandenburg_gate , more a shadowy mass in the distance than a part of the connective tissue of the city . not the least of the accomplishments of the wrapping is to bring the reichstag back into the mainstream of berlin . an auto free zone has been set up in the immediate area of the building , so the crowds are all on foot , making the area feel like a street fair . cars , usually banned from passing under the brandenburg_gate , are permitted to do so now to catch a distant glimpse of the wrapped building . all of berlin seems , in a sense , to have responded to this urban transformation . on the friedrichstrasse in the former east_berlin a cosmetic shop window display has a wrapped chair on which sit dozens of wrapped bottles of lotion all through the city there are billboards advertising berlin beer with a picture of wrapped bottles and the slogan " just another berlin masterpiece . " the advertising slogans prove , far more than the german_parliament 's grudging acceptance , that christo and jean_claude , who began as radical artists in the 1960 's , have now become figures of the establishment . so , too , does the size of the enterprise a large office and a buffet restaurant have been set up in an adjacent building that once served as hermann goring 's headquarters . one simple buffet offers free meals to the workers , while invited guests art collectors , museum curators and friends of the christos who seem this week to be pouring in from around the world can pay 80 marks ( roughly 60 ) for a more elaborate lunch . christo and jean_claude sit with invited guests , but make a point of getting their own food from the workers' line . most of the time , however , they are at the project site , driven in and out in a silver gray ford windstar minivan that is precisely the color of the reichstag wrapping on a cloudy day . ( the car is to give them some protection from the crowds , they say . ) they communicate constantly by walkie_talkie with the technical crews inside , and often go into the building to examine the intricate system of steel beams and cables that holds the fabric in place , or onto the roof to walk along the whitish snowscape that it has become . on wednesday , christo was ordering up pleats , nips and tucks in this huge object with the care of a tailor . the artists are sensitive to suggestions that the real work is done by the technical employees , and they do not want to be thought of as merely conceptual artists . " the newspapers always write that christo and jean_claude 's assistants will wrap the reichstag , " christo said yesterday . " do they write that i . m . pei 's assistants made the pyramid at the louvre ? i have redesigned this building , i have made a new shape and a new structure to house the fabric , and i decide every drop and every fold in the fabric . " jean_claude added " everything has an esthetic purpose , to allow the fabric to cascade down from the roof in a particular way . without this , it would be just a covered reichstag . it would not be by us . " correction june 24 , 1995 , saturday because of an editing error , an article in the living arts yesterday about the wrapping of the reichstag in berlin by the artist christo misidentified the government body that was first approached for approval , in 1971 . it was the parliament of west_germany , not east_germany .

has a location of germany

lead a senior soviet arms negotiator said today that moscow would consider a compromise to resolve differences over west_germany 's short range pershing 1a missiles . a senior soviet arms negotiator said today that moscow would consider a compromise to resolve differences over west_germany 's short range pershing 1a missiles . the soviet_union has called the missiles the main barrier to an agreement with the united_states to ban american and soviet medium_range and shorter range nuclear_armed rockets . until now , moscow has demanded that the american warheads for the west_german missiles be destroyed . last week , senior soviet officials said moscow would not retreat from that demand . invitation to the u.s . but today , a soviet arms negotiator , aleksei a . obukhov , appeared to invite the united_states to suggest a compromise in remarks on the nbc_news program ''meet the press . '' he indicated that the west_german pershing 1a 's and the american warheads could remain and that in return moscow could be provided with assurances that the aging missiles , once declared obsolete , would not be replaced with new american missiles . asked whether moscow would consider such a compromise , mr . obukhov noted that the united_states had not made such an offer . but he said moscow would consider it if an offer were made . ''we will listen to what ambassador kampelman is going to propose , '' he said , referring to max m . kampelman , the chief american arms negotiator , who also appeared on the program . ''we will study , and we will give our answer . '' contrasting remarks the remarks by mr . obukhov today were in sharp contrast with recent statments by senior soviet officials . although there had been reports out of geneva , where the arms talks are being held , that the soviet_union might be willing to consider a compromise , aleksandr a . bessmertnykh , the deputy foreign_minister , and col . gen . nikolai f . chervov , the head of the arms control directorate of the soviet general staff , sharply criticized the idea of a compromise in an interview last week in the washington_post . mr . kampelman declined to say if the united_states and west_germany would ultimately support such a compromise , but he described it as a possible option . ''i do n't even want to state what is possible and what is not , other than to say it 's obviously an option that we 've already been discussing'' with the soviet_union , he said . ''an option means that we 've been trying to examine it , what its implications are . '' a reagan_administration official said that mr . kampelman 's mention of discussions between american and soviet officials was a reference to a conversation on june 17 in geneva between general chervov and maynard w . glitman , the chief american negotiator on medium_range_missiles . general chervov reportedly asked questions that suggested that moscow might ultimately allow the 72 west_german pershing 1a missiles and the american warheads to remain . but officials stressed that general chervov did not propose , even informally , a compromise along these lines . global compromise ''chervov asked a lot of questions about modernization , '' one american official said . ''whether we would agree not to modernize the p1a 's . whether we would agree not to add to the 72 missiles or make similar arrangements with other countries . '' in his exchange with mr . glitman , general chervov also suggested a compromise plan for a global ban on american and soviet medium_range and shorter_range_missiles . that suggestion was later publically embraced by mikhail s . gorbachev , the soviet leader , and by president_reagan . on the question of the west_german missiles , american officials said that the reagan_administration had not decided whether it would support a compromise proposal . some senior american officials still believe that a compromise is not necessary and that the russians will back down . other officials also say a compromise is possible , but oppose formally including it in a new treaty . they say it may take the form of a statement by the west_german government that the missiles will not be replaced . drawing line on allies american officials oppose any treaty provision on the west_german missiles because it could set a precedent of including the weapons of western allies in future arms treaties . britain and france oppose that idea . ''we will not , in a bilateral_relationship between the united_states and the soviet_union , have a provision in that agreement which affects our allies , '' mr . kampelman said in his television appearance . the west_german government has formally rejected the soviet demand for the elimination of the american warheads , but there are fissures in the center right bonn coalition over whether to support a compromise . american officials stressed that the united_states would not apply pressure on west_germany , where some conservative officials are still bitter over american support for a ban on american and soviet shorter_range_missiles . some western_european leaders fear a ban on missiles could leave them vulnerable to superior soviet conventional forces . correction august 6 , 1987 , thursday , late city final edition

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the american embassy in berlin said it would tighten security measures at diplomatic and consular facilities in germany because of a ''heightened security threat . '' it also urged americans in germany to be more vigilant about their safety . an embassy spokesman , robert a . wood , declined to give specifics , but said american officials were responding to recent warnings by german authorities that the country faced ''an increased threat from terrorism . '' mark_landler

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after the fanfare of bilbao , the elegance of venice , the sweep of new york , the guggenheim foundation opens its newest branch on friday deutsche guggenheim berlin boasting a different theme modesty . berlin , modest ? the guggenheim , modest ? apparently , the answer dictated by limited space and the presence of existing major galleries in germany 's metropolis in the making is a qualified yes modest , but active , thomas krens , the guggenheim 's director , said today . he spoke at a news conference about the opening on friday of the berlin guggenheim 's inaugural exhibition , ''visions of paris robert delaunay 's series . '' ''we will play a very modest role in the cultural life of this community , '' mr . krens said . ''but it will be an active role , and it will be fun . '' the opening of the new guggenheim on the ground floor of the refurbished deutsche_bank building on the unter den linden reinforces a trend in which modern_art , once banished as degenerate by hitler , is making a comeback in the city 's artistic life . exhibitions that have opened here over the past year have included the berggruen collection of works by picasso , cezanne and other modernists , housed in the city 's former antiquities museum , and the hamburger bahnhof gallery 's display of works by artists including andy_warhol , cy twombly and joseph beuys . two other galleries have opened ambitious shows this fall ''art from a divided land'' at the martin gropius building , and ''exile the flight and emigration of european artists , '' at the neue nationalgalerie . the new guggenheim here is far less ambitious in architectural scope , budget and physical extent certainly than the titanium clad design of the 100 million bilbao guggenheim , which opened last month in spain . the soaring bilbao has some 112 , 000 square_feet of exhibition space and is displaying 247 works , while the berlin guggenheim measures just 3 , 800 square_feet and is 23 feet high . the delaunay show is a deliberately limited selection of works from three series painted between 1908 and 1914 the saint severin series , focusing on the ambulatory of the parisian church , the eiffel_tower series , and the windows series . but it is the very modesty of the physical surroundings and the tight focus of the exhibitions that the guggenheim foundation and deutsche_bank cite as virtues of the new gallery . they also mention the potential for commissioning artists to make works for the space inside the sandstone deutsche_bank building . ''smaller exhibits have a particular quality , and we want to use that , '' said rolf breuer , the chairman of the board of deutsche_bank , germany 's biggest bank , which plans to devote at least 1 . 3 million a year to what mr . krens called the ''project costs'' of setting up exhibits and commissioning work . the new guggenheim may well represent a curious symbiosis a modern_art museum bankrolled by a corporation that was a crucial financial_institution of the third reich . ''we look to the future , '' mr . krens said , however , ''not so much to the past . '' the works exhibited here will move between the various branches of the guggenheim network the delaunay show closes on jan . 4 and will be seen in the solomon r . guggenheim_museum in new york from jan . 16 through april 20 . similarly , work commissioned by the guggenheim foundation from james rosenquist for the bilbao branch will be displayed in berlin next year along with other work commissioned from the artist . three or four exhibitions are planned here annually . the two notions small shows and commissioning work by living artists were central to the appeal of opening the guggenheim in berlin , mr . krens said . ''the guggenheim sometimes tends to be associated with large projects , '' he said . ''and we were very interested in the notion of a small exhibit that focuses on very specific ideas . '' very little that happens in berlin can be separated from the city 's broader ambition to rival europe 's great capitals after the german_parliament moves here in 1999 . for both the deutsche_bank and the guggenheim , opening a new gallery on berlin 's most feted boulevard means having a slice of the action . ''we want the new capital to become a metropolis , and the difference between a capital and a metropolis is culture we want to contribute to that , '' mr . breuer said . the delaunay show has particular resonance here , according to mark rosenthal , the curator of 20th_century art at the guggenheim in new york . although the artist is often associated with france and the cubist era of picasso and braque , he said , ''the reality is that delaunay was most appreciated in germany , '' where he influenced kandinsky and the german expressionists august macke and franz marc . delaunay 's work figured in that group 's first exhibition in munich in 1911 , and his first solo exhibition was at der sturm , a berlin gallery , in 1913 . mr . rosenthal said the museum 's inaugural exhibition would illustrate delaunay 's ' 'special and unique vision'' and his ''accomplishments as an artist that have never been given their proper due . '' like many developments in modern day berlin , the new guggenheim is partly the fruit of the end of the cold_war . in 1993 , one year before the withdrawal of american_troops from the city , mr . krens said , he received a call from richard c . holbrooke , then the american ambassador . ''he pointed out that it might be a nice gesture to leave something behind , '' like a new guggenheim , he said . that idea took deeper root last year , when the deutsche_bank proposed the use of space at its refurbished offices for the latest guggenheim , which , mr . krens said , might well be the last . ''no more , either big or small , '' he said .

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a puckish question was raised on thursday night at new york_university ''was athanasius kircher the coolest guy ever , or what ? '' for those who have no idea who kircher was , let 's begin with the ''or what . '' the german jesuit athanasius kircher ( 1602 80 ) , a rough contemporary of descartes and galileo , was no ordinary man . he studied egyptian hieroglyphs and helped bernini with his fountain in the piazza navona . he made vomiting machines and eavesdropping statues . he transcribed bird song and wrote a book about musicology ( still used today ) . he taught nicolas poussin perspective and made a chamber of mirrors to drive cats crazy . he invented the first slide projector and had himself lowered into the mouth of mount vesuvius just as it was supposed to erupt . he proved the impossibility of the tower of babel and made a model of how the animals were arranged in noah 's ark . and he collected the objects that filled the museo kircheriano , rome 's first wunderkammer or collection of curiosities . kircher 's body is buried in rome . his heart is buried three hours away , at a shrine for st . eustace ( which he founded ) . and his star is on the rise . there have been recent conferences on kircher at stanford_university , the university of chicago and in rome . there was an exhibition of kircheriana , put on by david wilson at the museum of jurassic technology in los_angeles . on thursday , the new york institute for the humanities at new york_university threw a symposium for kircher 's 400th birthday . why the revival ? lawrence weschler , the head of the institute and the author of ''mr . wilson 's cabinet of wonders'' ( a book about the museum of jurassic technology ) , thinks it is because kircher is the premodern root of postmodern thinking . with his labyrinthine mind , he was jorge luis borges before borges . in the years before kircher 's death and for 300 years afterward , he was derided as a dilettante and crackpot . the rationalism and specialization of descartes had taken over . but now kircher 's taste for trivia , deception and wonder is back . wonder cabinets have become trendy . the j . paul getty museum recently had a show about wonder cabinets called ''devices of wonder'' and the new york public_library is opening ''a cabinet of curiosities'' in two weeks . the museum of jurassic technology , which is itself a modern day wunderkammer that includes replicas of kircher 's inventions , now has a small but fervent following . at thursday 's symposium , kircher 's postmodern qualities were evoked his subversiveness , his celebrity , his technomania and his bizarre eclecticism . ''in an age of polymaths , '' said anthony grafton , a professor at princeton_university , ''kircher was perhaps the most polymathic of them all . '' like other jesuits , kircher was a religious man and a world scholar trying to prove that aristotle and the bible were right . he knew hebrew , aramaic coptic , persian , latin and greek . but kircher was also ''a wild man , '' mr . grafton argued . he got away with all out heresy . one of kircher 's most daring acts was to write out a long list of egyptian kings , proving that egypt existed long before the world was even supposed to have been created . in a dry and sneaky way , kircher planted the idea that the bible was wrong . ''kircher found himself imagining deep time , '' mr . grafton said . and that was just the kind of thing that giordano bruno , the dogma hating metaphysician , was executed for . somehow kircher not only survived but continued to tweak authority in the open air of rome during the counter reformation . he made translations of egyptian hieroglyphs ( later discovered to be completely fanciful ) . he guided bernini in erecting an egyptian obelisk at the piazza navona and may even have helped him with the hydraulics for his fountain , which alluded subversively to kircher 's own ideas about the earth 's underground rivers . all that may not sound so radical , but in 17th_century rome it was an ''in your face'' thing to do , mr . grafton said . ''i used to think he was a fool , '' he added . ''and then i stood in the piazza navona . '' the folks in rome were n't the only ones kircher 's magic worked on . he had readers all over the world . paula findlen , a professor at stanford_university , says kircher was a celebrity in his own time , with a crazy fan club that extended all the way to the americas . kircher wrote some 60 volumes on astronomy , geology , magnetism , music and philology , in which he cited himself over and over again . kircher 's books were the first ''great coffee_table books , '' she said . people bought them to prove they were learned , to show that they were part of the international network of reading and writing . they did n't read so much as look at the pictures . one fan cut kircher 's picture out of a book and meditated on it to calm himself . another fan kept sending kircher chocolate in order to remain friends with him . kircher 's most ardent fan , a nun in mexico_city , decided to try to make herself over in the mold of kircher 's favorite goddess , isis , the mother of gods , the ruler of heaven and earth . she also transformed kircher 's name into a verb . kircherizing , she declared , is making connections among things . could such an astonishing man really have existed ? d . graham burnett of princeton_university demanded to know why no one in the audience was asking whether athanasius kircher , a master of deception , theatrics and play , was himself a fantasy . he got an answer . kircher would be nearly impossible to create , said michael john gorman , who is making an internet archive of kircher 's correspondence at stanford_university . if you wanted to make up kircher 's correspondence out of thin air , he suggested , you would have to write thousands of letters on 17th_century paper in suitable inks . the letters would be from 800 correspondents around the world writing in 30 different languages , including the universal language invented by kircher himself . and who else , mr . gorman asked , would think up such crazy machines as an organ driven by a drum that reproduces bird song , a fountain that lifts up a genie , a vomiting lobster , and a statue that pronounces delphic oracles ? what do these puzzling inventions have in common ? mr . gorman says kircher used them to explore and explode boundaries . take kircher 's talking statue , which is even trickier than it seems . it has a hidden intercom system . by standing in another room and speaking through a tube connected to the statue , you can make it appear to speak . or by putting your ear to the tube , you can overhear what the people in the other room with the statue are saying . kircher , mr . gorman said , was playing with ' 'deception and demonology , '' which was ''no laughing matter in the 17th_century . '' kircher also played on the boundary of decency . he made a magnetic jesus that would walk on water and embrace an image of peter . and a startling number of his machines do nothing but wretch and vomit . kircher was not beyond tormenting animals either . he planned a cat piano . if you struck a single key on this piano , a sharp spike would be driven into a cat 's tail , causing it to yowl . by arranging many cats according to the pitch of their yowls , kircher could make music . he produced a donkey choir on similar principles . one of kircher 's most cunning inventions was a catoptric box or chamber of mirrors , which could be used in a number of ways . if you put a coin in , you could watch people grab for the illusionary riches . or if you put a cat in , you could watch it chase the many reflections of itself until it would finally give up in a state of rage and indignation . kircher , mr . gorman said , ' 'made a spectacle of incivility , '' hoping that ''this theater of passions would reveal true natures . '' the last speaker of the evening was mr . wilson , the founder of the museum of jurassic technology . he credited kircher with inspiring a new kind of museum , one that evokes both wonder and skepticism . but is n't it possible that the ghost of kircher has seeped out of the museum 's walls ? mr . burnett says kircher did nothing less than set the terms for a new theory of knowledge , an epistemology based on deception and play . imagine that kind of approach to science . it is , mr . burnett said , ''a liberating way of thinking . '' or as the postmodern kirchenistas might put it , ''cool . ''

has a location of germany

to the editor a single quote says it all on werner heisenberg 's desire and effort to build an atomic_bomb for the third reich and hitler ( ''of physics , friendship and the atomic_bomb , '' march 21 ) . ''it would have been so beautiful if we had won , '' heisenberg said at an international conference in zurich in 1944 . this at a time when the war was already lost for germany while the frenzied pace of murdering european jewry continued . germany may have had the engineering knowledge and capacity to build the bomb , but because of the forced exodus of jewish and anti nazi scientists , the country no longer had the critical_mass of theoretical physicists and chemists to achieve the goal . instead , the major contributors of american effort included displaced scientists like enrico fermi , niels bohr , edward teller , lisa meitner and albert_einstein , many either jewish or with jewish spouses . while germany had sufficient technology to develop rockets of immense power that wrought indiscriminate carnage in england and sufficient engineering and chemical knowledge to murder efficiently six million jews , it was not scientifically capable of developing an atomic_bomb despite access to the needed raw_material . unfortunately the play ''copenhagen'' by michael frayn , though well constructed and intended , does not properly describe werner heisenberg for what i believe he was , a proud nazi , eager to contribute to the success of the third reich . nelson marans silver_spring , md .

has a location of germany