arts in exile

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• 1 March 1996

  The "Law for Mandatory Conditions for Cross-Border Service Provision" (known as the "Posted Workers Law") comes into effect.
  This law intends to ensure that foreign employees who are sent to work in Germany by their employers, are paid a pre-determined minimum wage.
• 10 September 1996

  In the Berlin Regional Court, six former commanders of the East German border guard are sentenced for the first time for the fatal shooting of East Germans attempting to cross to the west.
• 25 October 1996

  The Education Ministers' Conference issues recommendations for "intercultural education in schools".
  The recommendations did not provide for special treatment of migrant children, as had previously been the case, but was rather defined as a type of "new, general" education. 
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  German Chancellor Helmut Kohl (left) and the Minster President of the Czech Republic, Vaclav Klaus, sign the German-Czech Declaration in Prague.

  Bundesregierung / Photographer: Christian Stutterheim

  21 January 1997

  German Chancellor Helmut Kohl and Czech Prime Minister Václav Klaus sign a declaration of reconciliation between Germany and the Czech Republic.
• 1 September 1997

  The Dublin Convention comes into effect
  The convention is an international legal agreement with the stated aim of preventing refugees from being shunted from one state to another. In accordance with the agreement, the state responsible for processing the asylum request is the asylum seeker's first state of entry.
• 2 October 1997

  Signing of the Amsterdam Treaty 
  The agreement seeks to establish closer cooperation between EU member states as relates to migration, asylum and immigration policy.
• 10 October 1997

  The exhibition Exile - Escape and Emigration of European Artists 1933 - 1945 in the Neue Nationalgalerie in Berlin seeks to present the issue of exile in the Nazi era from a pan-European perspective.
• 1 September 1998

  Court sentences from the Nazi era are revoked
  All verdicts passed during the period of Nazi rule that are of a political, military, racial, religious or ideological nature are nullified with national effect. This serves as a formal recognition of the victims of the Nazi legislature but does not provide for claims for legal damages.
• Fall 1998

  Establishment of the Amadeu Antonio Foundation
  The stated aim of the foundation is to confront right-wing extremist culture on a day-to-day basis, and to highlight, in the public sphere, the issues of xenophobia and right-wing extremism. This involves the strengthening of small, local initiatives.
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  Facsimile of the Maastricht Treaty (agreement pertaining to the European Union), which was signed on 7 February 1992 in the Dutch city of Maastricht by the European Council. Photo taken on 1 October 1996.

  Bundesregierung / Photographer: Engelbert Reineke

  1 May 1999

  The Amsterdam Treaty comes into effect
  This serves to expand on the framework of the Maastricht Treaty, with the goal of creating a community area of freedom, security and justice. Asylum, refugee and immigration policy is formulated at EU level.