Germany the DEAD MAN of Europe

German Finance Minister Hans Eichel (left) with Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder Photo credit; German Federal Finance Ministry (With German Unemployment In the Former Communist East As High As 20%, Many Germans Miss the Old Days of Full Employment.) German Unemployment Hits Post-WWII Record German unemployment at 'moment of truth', minister says In Germany You Are Dead At Age 50 .... Germans are good at statistics. As good or better as Americans are. This country of 82 million has over 5.5 unemployed. They do not count the 1.5 million additional that cannot find jobs and are studying or working part-time. Unlike the USA where you disappear from the statistics after your six months unemployment runs out, and unlike the USA where the self-employed that go bust do not show up either, Germany in future may include more unmentioned unemployed in the official tallies. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Quote: Bitterness mars Wall anniversary No big German celebrations, parades or fireworks By CNN Correspondent Chris Burns Tuesday, November 9, 2004 Posted: 1537 GMT (2337 HKT) SPD and CDU party leaders and Berlin's mayor lay flowers at the Wall memorial in Berlin Tuesday. BERLIN, Germany (CNN) - Germany marked a subdued 15th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, weighed down by bitterness over unification costs. The nation's leaders laid wreaths Tuesday at a memorial in the Berlin Wall's former death strip, part of somber and subdued ceremonies marking the 15th anniversary of the fallen wall. To the toll of a churchbell, the mayors of Berlin joined with leaders of Germany's major parties along with about 150 others in a quiet morning ceremony beginning with a church service. "Today is a high point and a low point of German history. We should not forget the victims," said Manfred Fischer, pastor of the Reconciliation Church. "The fall of the Berlin Wall was a worldwide sign of hope. It was a spring day in the middle of November for Berlin, for Germany, for Europe." The service was held inside a concrete chapel built in the death strip in the years since the wall fell. It replaced a church once destroyed by East German authorities. Names of some of the more than 1,000 Berlin Wall victims, some of whom died after jumping out of nearby buildings, were read. Few members of the German public attended, however, as many remain embittered by the process of unification, which remains a difficult marriage for East and West Germany. In former East Germany, unemployment is at least 20 percent. Western Germans, meanwhile, grumble about higher taxes, the proceeds from which finance reconstruction in the east. That reconstruction has cost more than $1 trillion since 1990. A recent poll indicated one in five Germans, including nearly one in four western Germans, would like to see the wall return. German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder said in a statement that while much in the country has been achieved since the wall fell, "we must not relent in our efforts to complete German unification." Stumble It!

Germany the DEAD MAN of Europe

German Finance Minister Hans Eichel (left) with Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder Photo credit; German Federal Finance Ministry (With German Unemployment In the Former Communist East As High As 20%, Many Germans Miss the Old Days of Full Employment.) German Unemployment Hits Post-WWII Record German unemployment at 'moment of truth', minister says In Germany You Are Dead At Age 50 .... Germans are good at statistics. As good or better as Americans are. This country of 82 million has over 5.5 unemployed. They do not count the 1.5 million additional that cannot find jobs and are studying or working part-time. Unlike the USA where you disappear from the statistics after your six months unemployment runs out, and unlike the USA where the self-employed that go bust do not show up either, Germany in future may include more unmentioned unemployed in the official tallies. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Quote: Bitterness mars Wall anniversary No big German celebrations, parades or fireworks By CNN Correspondent Chris Burns Tuesday, November 9, 2004 Posted: 1537 GMT (2337 HKT) SPD and CDU party leaders and Berlin's mayor lay flowers at the Wall memorial in Berlin Tuesday. BERLIN, Germany (CNN) - Germany marked a subdued 15th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, weighed down by bitterness over unification costs. The nation's leaders laid wreaths Tuesday at a memorial in the Berlin Wall's former death strip, part of somber and subdued ceremonies marking the 15th anniversary of the fallen wall. To the toll of a churchbell, the mayors of Berlin joined with leaders of Germany's major parties along with about 150 others in a quiet morning ceremony beginning with a church service. "Today is a high point and a low point of German history. We should not forget the victims," said Manfred Fischer, pastor of the Reconciliation Church. "The fall of the Berlin Wall was a worldwide sign of hope. It was a spring day in the middle of November for Berlin, for Germany, for Europe." The service was held inside a concrete chapel built in the death strip in the years since the wall fell. It replaced a church once destroyed by East German authorities. Names of some of the more than 1,000 Berlin Wall victims, some of whom died after jumping out of nearby buildings, were read. Few members of the German public attended, however, as many remain embittered by the process of unification, which remains a difficult marriage for East and West Germany. In former East Germany, unemployment is at least 20 percent. Western Germans, meanwhile, grumble about higher taxes, the proceeds from which finance reconstruction in the east. That reconstruction has cost more than $1 trillion since 1990. A recent poll indicated one in five Germans, including nearly one in four western Germans, would like to see the wall return. German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder said in a statement that while much in the country has been achieved since the wall fell, "we must not relent in our efforts to complete German unification."