euro|topics - Brigitte Fehrle

09/01/2009

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Fehrle, Brigitte

2 articles of this author have been cited in the European Press Review so far.

Die Zeit - Germany | 08/11/2007

Brigitte Fehrle on remembering Germany's unification

Eighteen years after the fall of the Berlin Wall on 9 November 1989, the German Bundestag is to vote on the construction of a monument to "unity and freedom". Brigitte Fehrle questions why all that was a genuine reminder of those times has been torn down in the years since the collapse of Communism. "Long before the West realised with what kind of a country it had reunified, the symbols had disappeared, beginning with the Wall. Naturally it had to come down, but was it right to tear it down completely? Then there's the Lenin Monument in Berlin. What could serve better to illustrate the fatally misguided direction the GDR took? Or the Palace of the Republic - a place that could have showcased life the rise and fall of the GDR, now reduced to a sombre steel skeleton. And the drive to obliterate continues. Many would love to see the Stasi records authority with its unique archive disappear. Yet this institution, with all its faults and shortcomings, is the most vivid monument to the GDR and the glory of unification."

Frankfurter Rundschau - Germany | 06/10/2006

Germany's grand coalition in crisis

The healthcare reform was supposed to be "a great success, the reform of the century. The grand coalition even used it to legitimise its right to govern," writes Brigitte Fehrle. "The argumentation was that only the two major parties together could solve this society's biggest problems. But one thing's for sure: this government has failed as far as the health service reform is concerned, as was to be expected. After all, we only had the government's word for it that a compromise had been reached between the Social Democrats' concept of a "citizen insurance" and Angela Merkel's concept of a flat monthly premium to be paid by everyone, regardless of income. But that's what the government said, so now it must be judged accordingly."

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