Germany marked 35 years since the Berlin Wall fell with festivities on Saturday under the theme “Preserve Freedom!”, against the sombre backdrop of conflicts in Gaza and Ukraine and fears that democracy is under attack around the world.

The liberal ideals of 1989 “are not something we can take for granted”, Chancellor Olaf Scholz said on Friday, just days after his governing coalition collapsed.

“A look at our history and at the world around us shows this,” added Scholz, whose three-party alliance imploded the day Donald Trump was re-elected US president, plunging Germany into political turmoil and towards new elections.

November 9, 1989, is celebrated as the day East Germany opened the borders to the West after months of peaceful mass protests, paving the way for German reunification and the collapse of Soviet Communism.

That “joyful day” underlines the sombre fact “that freedom and democracy have never been a given”, Berlin mayor Kai Wegner told a commemoration service at the Berlin Wall Memorial on Saturday.

One Berliner who remembers the momentous events, retiree Jutta Krueger, 75, said it was “a shame” Germany’s political crisis had erupted just before the anniversary weekend. “But we should still really celebrate the fall of the Wall,” she said, hailing it as the moment East Germans could travel and “freedom had arrived throughout Germany”.

Saturday’s event at the Berlin Wall Memorial, which was attended by President Frank-Walter Steinmeier, honoured the at least 140 people killed trying to flee the Russian-backed German Democratic Republic (GDR) during the Cold War.

Enduring relevance

In the evening, a “freedom party” with a music and light show was to be held at Berlin’s iconic Brandenburg Gate, on the former path of the concrete barrier that had cut the city in two since 1961.

On Sunday, the Russian protest punk band Pussy Riot was to perform outside the former headquarters of the Stasi, former East Germany’s feared secret police.

Pro-democracy activists from around the world have been invited for the commemorations — including Belarusian opposition leader Svetlana Tikhanovskaya and Iranian dissident Masih Alinejad.

Talks, performances and an open-air art exhibition will mark what culture minister Claudia Roth called “one of the most joyous moments in world history”. Replica placards from the 1989 protests are on display along four kilometres of the Wall’s route.

Among the art installations will be thousands of images created by citizens on the theme of “freedom”, to drive home the enduring relevance of the historical event.

Berlin’s top cultural official, Joe Chialo, said the theme was crucial “at a time when we are confronted by rising populism, disinformation and social division”.

Axel Klausmeier, head of the Berlin Wall Foundation, said the values of the 1989 protests were “the power bank for the defence of our democracy, which today is being gnawed at from the left and the right”.

‘Populism and division’

The fall of the Berlin Wall — a symbol of the Cold War and the division between an Eastern and a Western Bloc — contributed to the collapse of Communism in eastern Europe and the reunification of Germany a year later.

The 155-kilometre “wall of shame” was erected around West Berlin in 1961 to end an exodus of citizens from the Western Bloc enclave in Communist East Germany.

Most East Germans are grateful the GDR regime ended but many still have unhappy memories of the perceived arrogance of West Germans, and resentment lingers about a remaining gap in incomes and pensions.

These sentiments have been cited to explain strong support for the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) in eastern Germany, and for the Russia-friendly, anti-capitalist BSW.

Strong gains for both at three state elections in the east in September highlighted enduring political divisions between eastern and western Germany, more than three decades after reunification.

This weekend also marks a darker chapter in German history.

During the Nazis’ Kristallnacht or Night of Broken Glass pogrom of November 9-10, 1938, at least 90 Jews were killed, tens of thousands were sent to concentration camps, countless properties were destroyed and 1,400 synagogues torched in Germany and Austria.

“It is very important for our society to remember the victims […] and learn the correct lessons from those events for our conduct today,” government spokesperson Christiane Hoffmann said on Friday.

Her comments came just days after several members of the AfD, which is anti-immigrant and anti-Muslim, were arrested as suspected members of a racist paramilitary group that practised urban warfare drills.

For the last 17 years, a worldwide army of online sleuths obsessively tried to figure out the title of what has been dubbed “the most mysterious song on the internet.” 

Now, they have the answer after a chance discovery by one intrepid researcher who triumphantly reported his breakthrough on online forum Reddit: it is called “Subways of Your Mind” and was recorded by a little-known 1980s German band called FEX.

The former band members are “absolutely overwhelmed” by the news, 68-year-old Michael Haedrich, who played keyboard and guitar and sang back-up vocals for FEX, told Der Spiegel magazine.

The band had been oblivious to the online phenomenon, he admitted.

How the mystery unfolded

The mystery began in 2007, when a German brother and sister uploaded a track online that they had digitized after originally recording it as teenagers on a cassette from the radio. As Rolling Stone reported in 2019, the tape mostly featured songs from popular bands like XTC and The Cure, as well as one particular song that remained a mystery — until now.

The German siblings asked for help to identify it and audiophiles soon took up the challenge.

The track did not show up in any music databases, but online sleuths tried to work out what instruments could be heard and analyzed the lead singer’s accent.

Initial attempts to identify the song, soon classified by many as being in the 1980s’ “New Wave” genre, yielded little.

It was only when the track was uploaded onto Reddit in 2019 that global interest exploded.

A Reddit subforum called “r/TheMysteriousSong” attracted tens of thousands of members, and the hunt was reported on in German media and beyond.

The big breakthrough finally came earlier this week when a user called “marijn1412” said he had identified the song as “Subways of Your Mind.”

He said he came across former FEX members while researching an event for up-and-coming bands that had been organized in the 1980s by a public broadcaster in northern Germany.

The Reddit user wrote that he had reached out to members of what was a four-piece outfit from the northern city of Kiel, who sent him a version of the mystery song, and revealed its long-sought-after name.

Marijn1412 wrote: “After I emailed him back that the song is actually quite a famous ‘lost song,’ he asked me not to go public with it until he spoke with his old band members. In the meantime, though, the song did get registered at [the German performance rights organization] GEMA and people found out about it. But I’m happy to say that the band members agreed for me to go public with it.”

Haedrich, who is still a musician, told Spiegel that it was the first time he had heard about the massive search effort.

“I thought it was amazing that someone was interested in music by a band that was only successful regionally, if at all, and that was over 40 years ago,” he said.

Haedrich, who lives in Munich, said the band members now want to reissue “Subways of Your Mind” and are trying to track down the original recording of the song.

Their success may have been decades in the making, but he said “for us, it has just come suddenly.”

CNN
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A Syrian who arrived in Germany as a refugee in 2015 has won a mayoral election in the southwestern German state of Baden-Württemberg.

Ryyan Alshebl, who left his hometown of As Suwayda in Syria eight years ago, ran as an independent in the municipality of Ostelsheim. He won 55.41% of the votes on Sunday, beating two German candidates, Marco Strauss and Mathias Fey.

Locals cheered the 29-year-old when he welcomed his win, a victory he described as “sensational,” German local broadcaster SWR reported Monday.

“Today, Ostelsheim sent an example for broad-mindedness and cosmopolitanism for the whole of Germany,” he said, according to to German public broadcaster ZDF. “That’s not something that can be taken for granted in a conservative, rural area.”

Alshebl’s first call after his victory was to his mother in Syria, who was thrilled with the news, SWR reported.

The Association of Municipalities of Baden-Württemberg said Alshebl is the first man with Syrian roots to run for and win a mayor’s office. He will start his role in June.

Ostelsheim residents have welcomed their incoming mayor. “The fairy tale has come true, and the right man has become our mayor,” Annette Keck, who lives in the village, told SWR.

Strauss, one of his opponents, congratulated Alshebl. “I wish you good luck and at the same time ask for support for Mr. Alshebl, for our shared Ostelsheim,” he said on Facebook.

The state’s Integration Minister Manne Lucha said that Alshebl’s victory showed that diversity is a natural part of Baden-Württemberg. “I would be very pleased if Ryyan Alshebl’s election encourages more people with a migration history to run for political office,” he said.

Not everyone has been so warm to the 29-year-old. ZDF reported the Syrian received hateful comments on the campaign trail.

The young politician went from house to house, promoting his election program, and “the experiences were predominantly positive,” but there was also a minority of far-right fringe voters in Ostelsheim that did not want to accept him due to his Syrian roots, Alshebl told ZDF.

Born to a schoolteacher and agricultural engineer in Syria, Alshebl described his life as carefree until the age of 20, according to his campaign website.

At the time, protests against the Syrian government that began in 2011 soon devolved into chaotic war. The fighting and later rise of ISIS forced 10.6 million people from home by late 2015 – about half of Syria’s pre-war population.

Alshebl faced the dilemma of being drafted for military service with the Syrian army or leaving the country, according to his website.

While many Syrians were displaced internally or fled to countries in the region, others like Alshebl made the dangerous journey to Europe. He was 21 years old at the time, and said he crossed from Turkey to the Greek island of Lesbos in a rubber dinghy.

Former German Chancellor Angela Merkel had implemented a brief open-door policy in 2015 that saw the country take in about 1.2 million asylum seekers in the following years, including Alshebl.

The move sparked a backlash in Germany and the sudden growth of the far-right, anti-immigration Alternative for Germany (AfD) in the wake of summer 2015.

Once in Germany, Alshebl lived close to Ostelsheim and said at the time he felt “there is only one thing you can do: get back on your feet quickly and start investing in your own future quickly.”

For the last seven years he worked in the administration of Althengstett town hall, in a neighboring town. He drew from his experience, he said in his campaign, and made digital access to to public administration services one of priorities. Flexible childcare and climate protections are also on his agenda.

Alshebl, who is a member of the Green Party and now has German citizenship, pledged during his campaign that once elected as mayor he would move to Ostelsheim.

CNN
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Four-time world champion Sebastian Vettel will remain in Formula One after signing a deal with the Racing Point team, which will rebrand itself as Aston Martin from next season.

There had been some doubt as to whether the German would continue in F1 after Ferrari announced in May that McLaren’s Carlos Sainz would be taking his seat.

However, Sergio Perez announced on Wednesday that he would be leaving Racing Point at the end of the current season, despite having a deal until 2022, opening up a space on the grid.

“I’m extremely proud to say that I will become an Aston Martin driver in 2021,” Vettel said in a statement. “It’s a new adventure for me with a truly legendary car company. I have been impressed with the results the team has achieved this year and I believe the future looks even brighter.

“The energy and commitment of Lawrence [Stroll, Racing Point part-owner] to the sport is inspiring and I believe we can build something very special together.

READ: Ferrari records worst home qualifying performance since 1984

“I still have so much love for Formula 1 and my only motivation is to race at the front of the grid. To do so with Aston Martin will be a huge privilege.”

Vettel won four consecutive world titles with Red Bull between 2010 and 2013, but his driving has been plagued by errors in recent times. In 2018, several mistakes in the second half of the season saw Vettel squander the championship lead and Ferrari’s chance of a first world title since 2007.

The 33-year-old was signed by Ferrari with the aim of ending that championship drought, but the emergence of exciting young driver Charles Leclerc eventually meant Vettel was no longer considered the number one driver.

Vettel is 13th in the drivers’ standings, having recorded just 16 points so far this season, and sits 29 points behind teammate Leclerc.

READ:Ferrari implodes as Leclerc and Vettel collide

However, in terms of victories, Vettel is the third most successful in the sport’s history, behind only Michael Schumacher and Lewis Hamilton,

Racing Point said the Vettel deal “is a clear statement of the team’s ambition to establish itself as one of the most competitive names in the sport.”

“Everybody at Silverstone is hugely excited by this news,” Team Principal Otmar Szafnauer said in a statement. “Sebastian is a proven champion and brings a winning mentality that matches our own ambitions for the future as Aston Martin F1 Team.

“On a Saturday or Sunday afternoon, Sebastian is one of the best in the world, and I can’t think of a better driver to help take us into this new era. He will play a significant role in taking this team to the next level.”