Checkpoint

By November 1989, rumors had long been flying that change was inevitable in communist East Germany. Citizens were turning their backs in droves on the politically and economically bankrupt state. Week after week in Leipzig, thousands demanded the right to tr…

Her little body curled tightly against her father, Peggy playfully lifted her finger to her lips in the inky darkness of the cramped car boot as if to say Hush. Hans-Peter Spitzner couldnt see the seven-year-olds gesture, or the smile he guessed went with it…

Thirty years ago on Nov. 9, 1989, the Berlin Wall fell. A remark by East German government spokesman Guenter Schabowski at a news conference that evening sent first hundreds, then thousands of people to the Walls east-west border crossings. Schabowski had a…

Peter Keup can still remember how it felt to hold deutsche marks in his hand. “It was special to even touch this money,” he recalls. “It felt solid. The East German mark was thinner, flimsier.” As a boy growing up in East Germany, he was sometimes sent West …

Business owners in Europes largest economy were holding their collective breath this week, wondering whether clarity would finally come on Oct. 31 after three years of uncertainty over Brexit. The answer was a resounding no. It is high time that we conclude…

BERLIN, Germany (AFP) — A packed bus approaches Checkpoint Charlie, the Cold War’s most famous border crossing, as grim-faced East German guards whisper among themselves about whether to hold you for questioning. After a few heart-stopping minutes, you and y…

BERLIN – A packed bus approaches Checkpoint Charlie, the Cold War’s most famous border crossing, as grim-faced East German guards whisper among themselves about whether to hold you for questioning. After a few heart-stopping minutes, you and your fellow pass…

A packed bus approaches Checkpoint Charlie, the Cold War's most famous border crossing, as grim-faced East German guards whisper among themselves about whether to hold you for questioning. After a few heart-stopping minutes, you and your fellow passengers ar…

BERLIN: A packed bus approaches Checkpoint Charlie, the Cold War's most famous border crossing, as grim-faced East German guards whisper among themselves about whether to hold you for questioning. After a few heart-stopping minutes, you and your fellow passe…

TALLINN After a nightmarish experience last year crossing the paranoid Ukraine-Russia border, I was nervous about driving alone from Moscow to Estonias capital, Tallinn early September to sell my Peugeot, which I had bought there five years ago. Estonia is a …