News: Germany

**2016**

1. A lorry slams into Berlin Christmas market . Kills    12. Driver - probably from Afghanistan. This is a revenge for what NATO is doing in Berlin, a mirror image.
2. Беженцы в Германии отказываются работать за 1 евро в час, а о них говорят, что они вообще не хотят работать.

**2014**

1. 2014 - Former Communists return to powerThe Left party is the successor to the former Communist Party of Germany
2. East and Germany compared, with charts"Berlin Wall fell 25 years ago, but Germany is still divided". This is statistical evidence that the two societies are different.

**2011**

1. Left-wing and anti-nuclear protests. The number of “political crimes” is on the rise in Germany. For example, on 14 November, 2011, BBC reported of a Nazi underground cell arrested which killed 10 Turkish immigrants http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-15727841

**2009**

1. Most East Germans say life was better in the DDR1. Child care2. Milk banks 3. Nudism 4. Sense of solidarity, not nationalism
2. "Why Former Stasi is Treated with Kid Gloves"In 2009 it was revealed that approximately seventy thousand current employees of the German government used to work for the Stasi
3. "The world from Berlin..."figures released earlier in the week indicating there were still around 17,000 ex-Stasi employees in Germany's civil service... some of them appear to be employed by the police or in various national or state offices of criminal investigation

**2003**

"After the Euphoria"

1) Unemployment in East Germany is 2X that in West Germany

2) Not only the police, but most East German teachers remained in place.

3) Top and middle-level managers also retained their positions.

While in the GDR employment had been guaranteed by the state, the unemployment rate in “unified” East Germany rose to 10.3% in 1991, compared with 6.3% in the West.  Women from the former GDR were often the first to lose their jobs.  The GDR expected and encouraged women to work as part of their responsibility to the state, and more than 90% of them did. After reunification, however, women in East Germany faced a 12.3% unemployment rate, as compared with an 8.5% rate for men.  Furthermore, the Western system did not recognize the qualifications of some East German professionals, especially the female-dominated professions such as teaching and nursing.  Hannelore Scheidler, an elementary school teacher in the former GDR, had to return to school to attain the necessary qualifications. Although she enjoyed attending university with her daughter, Antje, she expressed frustration over the lower quality of training in the Western system, particularly its lack of pedagogical courses.  Ultimately, Hannelore Scheidler was able to continue her work as a teacher after completing her western recertification courses, but she continues to argue that she was better trained in the GDR.

Women in the GDR received fully paid maternity leave 6 weeks before birth and 3 months after.  Childcare was readily available for children as young as 3 months old and cost little money.  “Basically you paid for lunch, which amounted to maybe one-twentieth of your income,” Jochen Scheidler explained.  In 1978, state policy changed slightly so that a parent could also take an additional year off work at 3/4 of her regular salary.  Today, a mother or father can take up to 3 years of leave, but without pay.  Most childcare centers are private institutions, offering few open spots and presenting high costs for young parents.

**1995**

"Education in the New Lander"

Although the old structure has been replaced, observers agree that the values and preferences internalized by parents, students, and teachers who came to maturity in the GDR can be expected to survive for many years. Because it lasted decades longer than nazism, the Marxist-Leninist influence on education in the new Länder will probably take far longer to overcome.