Current Affairs German fans cheer for Litvinov - or is it
Oberleutensdorf?  27-10-2005 14:46 | David Vaughan  The Czech-
German border is one of history's fault lines, for centuries a
place of tension between the German and the Slav worlds. For
many people the events of 1938, when Hitler annexed the Czech
border regions are still in living memory, and after the war
almost the entire German minority of Czechoslovakia was forcibly
expelled. But although we often hear about Czech-German
tensions, on the ground things today are very different. Once
closely guarded borders are open and cross-border relations are
friendly and for the most part break the stereotype. A case in
point is in the northern Czech industrial town of Litvinov -
once known in German as Oberleutensdorf - famous for its
chemical works and its ice-hockey team, and just ten kilometres
from the border. David Vaughan went along to the Ivan Hlinka
Hockey Stadium, to meet some rather unusual Litvinov fans.
Download: RealAudio  German fans of Litvinov