17jährige glauben, Adenauer war Kanzler in der DDR

Am 25. Juli flatterte mir diese Nachricht ins (elektronische) Haus.

dradio-newsletters: Deutschlandradio 20 Uhr Nachrichten

Studie belegt: Schüler haben mangelhafte Kenntnisse über die DDR.

Viele Schüler haben laut einer Studie der Freien Universität Berlin nur mangelhafte Kenntnisse über die DDR. Die Mehrzahl der Befragten wusste etwa nicht, ob die DDR durch demokratische Wahlen legitimiert war. Jeder Vierte, im Osten mehr als jeder Dritte, vermutete, die Bundeskanzler Adenauer und Brandt hätten in der DDR gewirkt. Befragt wurden 5.200 Schüler im Alter von 16 und 17 Jahren in Bayern, Brandenburg, Nordrhein-Westfalen und Berlin. Der Ost-Beauftragte der Bundesregierung, Verkehrsminister Tiefensee, rief in der "Stuttgarter Zeitung" die Eltern auf, ihren Kindern die Wahrheit über das Leben hinter Mauer und Stacheldraht zu vermitteln.

Karadzic in custody

Now this must be the top news of the year. The 12 year hiding of one of the most notorious war criminals in recent times is over. Radovan Karadzic was caught by Serbian security forces tonight. He will be extradited to the International Criminal Court in The Hague which indicted him for war crimes and genocide over the Srebrenica massacre in 1995.

In the Bosnian War, when Karadzic was President of the Bosnian Serbs, 100.000 people lost their lives. His war time general Ratko Mladic remians at large.

Read the Srebrenica Genocide Blog.

Travelling in the UK

I have realised that I have not travelled a lot since arriving in the London in November 2005. Travelled within the UK that is. That needs to change.

I would like to see the Klimt exhibition at Tate Liverpool. So I check nationalrail.co.uk for fares to Liverpool. I have learned that is Sunday is definitely not day to travel. So I check Saturday 23rd and 30th August. The fastest connection? 5 hours 5 minutes. Leaving Euston at 7:00. If you don't want to stay overnight you probably want to take the 16:55 back to London which arrives at 23:01. That's 6 hours 6 minutes. So that would be a journey of more than 11 hours. For £62.60.

Bus then? National Express takes you there for only £24. Bargain. The journey takes 10 1/2 hours. Ridiculous.

London is about as far from Liverpool as is Frankfurt from Hannover. The journey with Deutsche Bahn takes 4 1/2 hours. Return that is. The ticket costs £50. Oh yes, did I mention that it is a direct train?