Peter Schneider

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Berlin's Fractious Unity

Europa

These days, Berlin is like a giant that is stretching its limbs and trying to find a new balance. For the first two decades after the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, the giant moved only its right foot and arm. No longer divided by a wall, Berlin was divided in other ways. Everything that was new and exciting was happening in the East.

Those first years were the time of sky-high cranes, the overnight birth of entire new urban districts where vast empty spaces had sat for years, when people seemed to prefer going to construction sites instead of the theater, opera or museums.…  Seguir leyendo »

Europa, ,

By the time I arrived in West Berlin, in 1962, the wall was a year old. The half-city was a hysterical, intellectually exciting place; the wall, whose construction began 50 years ago today, made it more so. From the East and West radio and TV stations you heard competing, mutually exclusive versions of every event. Worldviews counted more than facts. And there were spies everywhere. For fun, a journalist told me, he’d count the intelligence services operating in West Berlin; he stopped at 30.

I could sense the pain and anger unleashed by the wall. Families, lovers and friends were separated.…  Seguir leyendo »

EuropaInternacionalIglesia Católica,

Pope Benedict XVI’s strongly worded apology for the child-abuse scandal in Ireland, issued last week, left Germans like myself scratching our heads.

Where is the apology for the abuses in Germany? After all, even as the number of Irish abuse cases mounts, the depth and history of abuse in Germany is just now becoming clear — more than 250 cases are known, with more appearing each day. At least 14 priests are under investigation by the authorities.

Though Germany is a secular country and Catholics make up only a third of the population, the scandal has engendered a national debate — about religious education, about single-sex institutions and, above all, about the role of celibacy in the Catholic Church.…  Seguir leyendo »

Europa,

La actual campaña de las elecciones legislativas de Alemania es la que reúne más méritos para ganarse la calificación de la más aburrida en toda la historia de la República Federal. La reacción mayoritaria entre los comentaristas ante el único debate televisado entre la canciller Angela Merkel y su oponente, el ministro de Asuntos Exteriores, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, celebrado dos semanas antes de los comicios, fue un bostezo colectivo, lo que resulta tanto más notable en vista de los acontecimientos históricos que eclipsan estas elecciones.

Hace veinte años, el Muro de Berlín se desplomó, lo que desencadenó un cambio sísmico que trasladó las fronteras de la antigua República Federal y de la Europa Occidental en su conjunto a centenares de kilómetros más al Este.…  Seguir leyendo »