Subject: Re: eupen and malmedy<br/>
Date: Feb 24, 2005 @ 17:58<br/>
Author: Sascha (&quot;Sascha&quot; &lt;alqaszar@...&gt;)<br/>
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<div id="ygrps-yiv-667796692">The German Speaking Community of Belgium has a autonomous standing<br/>
according to the two other language groups of Belgium (Flemish &<br/>
French). The Belgian federative system is complex and suffers a lot of<br/>
the animosities that exist between the different language group. The<br/>
German speaking part ist part of the Wallonia region, which is at the<br/>
same time the French speaking part of Belgium. So there is a territory<br/>
controlled by the DG, the Deutschsprachige Gemeinschaft (German<br/>
Speaking Community). Informations can be found on www.dglive.be.<br/>
<br/>
On <a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="http://www.dglive.be/DesktopDefault.aspx/tabid-89/187_read-450/">http://www.dglive.be/DesktopDefault.aspx/tabid-89/187_read-450/</a> you<br/>
can see a map with the nine communes of the DG. As you can see, Weimes<br/>
and Malmedy are not part of the DG, as well they were part of Germany<br/>
before 1918.<br/>
<br/>
Especially the northern part of the DG is an attractive area to live<br/>
in for many Germans of the Aachen region. And it is actaully a kind of<br/>
tax haven since the Belgian rates are lower than the German and so<br/>
many rich people move to the DG from Germany, including two well-known<br/>
TV personalities. Many German TV stations are located in Cologne, and<br/>
this is just 1 hr ride on the autobahn from the northern DG. Just an<br/>
example.<br/>
<br/>
To stay within the media: A German radio broadcaster has set up a<br/>
commercial radio staion in the DG, aiming to an audience in Germany.<br/>
Due to restrictive media policy in Germany, the company never would<br/>
have had a chance to set up this station in this form on the German<br/>
side of the border.<br/>
<br/>
So concidering all those mainly economical items, the German speaking<br/>
poulation has no reasons to reintegrate their Belgian land back to<br/>
Germany, though there are some conflicts and problems with the Belgian<br/>
lingo-federative system.</div>