German Democratic Republic

Stasi files chief says GDR was more than spies

“I don’t exempt myself from this. I also ran along the prescribed route for a while. The vast majority were, like my parents, integrated people. They also preferred to keep quiet in certain situations. One could also say no. It is documented in the files that many people defied the Stasi; that many said no, refused to betray friends. One can be proud of that.” “I respect the work of these people,” he said. “But I cannot deny the fact that victims of the Stasi have told me that every former Stasi employee in the authority is a slap in the face for them. I understand this view of the victims and would like to help to heal their wounds. I would find it good if the former Stasi employees would help to set an example. No longer working in the authority would be such a sign – that one had understood ones own role in the machinery of repression, and respected the feelings of the victims.” “The better we understand the dictatorship, the better we can form democracy. I see the authority as a school for democracy. We can learn to treasure better the values of freedom by learning about the lack of freedom. This is a message above all to young people – what values are important to us today, why are tolerance and truthfulness so important? Which structures make people not free, force them to betray and fit in?

Sports fan: Germany_Women's world cup soccer 2011

Germany is Europe's most populous nation and remains one of the world's leading industrial powers, despite the economic demands of re-unification. Some 82 million people, including a settled population of approximately 7.3 million non-Germans, live in the 357,000 square kilometre country at the heart of the continent, sharing borders with nine other nations. Football for men and women is far and away Germany's most popular sport. The German Football Association (DFB), founded in 1900, boasts 6,563,997 members belonging to 25,856 clubs, far exceeding any other sport in the country. At 1,022,824 the number of girls and women registered with the DFB has passed the one million mark for the first time in the association's 108-year history. A state-of-the-art road, rail and air transportation network guarantees match-goers at the FIFA Women's World Cup 2011 a tournament of short distances. Overseas visitors, who chalked up 52.9 million overnight stays in the year of the 2006 FIFA World Cup™, have already learned to appreciate the country's excellent and extensive infrastructure.

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