Word: firma
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...German Democratic Republic, he was required to shoot at fellow citizens trying to flee to West Germany. Later, he himself served a 17-month prison sentence for attempting to escape the GDR. Still, he's nostalgic for the old East, which is why he's a regular at "Zur Firma," an East Berlin pub whose theme derives from the GDR's feared secret police organization, the Stasi. "I feel snug in this place," says Hans-Holger. "Ostalgia is better than what we have today...
...With its orange walls and rustic interior, the small pub in the former working-class district of Lichtenberg may look like most other bars in the neighborhood, but where other establishments might sport a deer head, Zur Firma has a surveillance camera. Other appointments include old wiretap devices and what appears to be a 1970s interrogation room. And then there's the venue's name, which translates as "The Firm," a colloquial name for the Stasi used in the old East Germany. And also its slogan: "Come to our place - or we'll come to yours...
...Talking to the regulars at Zur Firma, however, it's clear that one of the main sources of "Ostalgia" is the economic disappointment experienced by many former residents of the GDR that followed reunification. Unemployment in the east is high and so is resentment at the insecurity and unpredictability of life under a competitive capitalist system, and this fuels nostalgia for a state that assigned a job to every citizen and took care of basic needs...
...Four record companies, have been getting more ink lately than its artists, which include the likes of Lily Allen and Coldplay. With EMI's slice of the world market under pressure - its share fell to 12.8% in 2006 from 13.6% the previous year - U.K. private-equity company Terra Firma acquired the firm for $6.5 billion last August. The new owner has been quick to make its mark: earlier this year EMI announced it was axing as many as 2,000 jobs in a bid to pare costs by $400 million a year. But the overhaul is not just a matter...
...taking on EMI is a different proposition altogether. Private equity firms, unlike the stars on EMI's books, prefer to toil in, well, private, dissecting a business well away from the glare of the media. Way before Hands took an axe to EMI's payroll, Terra Firma's management of the business was caught in the spotlights. Worried that Hands wouldn't know his A&R from his R&B, alt-rockers Radiohead severed ties with the label shortly after it was sold to the private equity firm, and took the radical step of allowing fans to download and name...