Havel honoured for role in unification of Germany and Europe

Former Czech president Václav Havel has received a German award for his part in the unification of Germany and Europe. Mr Havel was presented with the Point-Alpha Prize at the German Embassy in Prague on Tuesday. It is named after a Cold War era US military observation post on the border between East and West Germany. Mr Havel led the Velvet Revolution in Czechoslovakia and became president of the country in 1990.

On Tuesday, Prague’s Germany Embassy also marked the 19th anniversary of the first wave of East Germans fleeing to the west through the embassy in 1989.