2004: Looking Back

Completing the reconstruction of Dresden's landmark Frauenkirche that was destroyed during World War II, the domed copper roof and the golden cross were lifted to the top on June 22. The cross was a donation from Great Britain.

A naked German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder, characterized as a puppet on a carnival float, is seen here shocking an elderly member of his Social Democratic Party (SPD) on Feb. 23 during a Carnival procession through Düsseldorf.

German carmaker Opel, a subsidiary of General Motors, announced in October that it planned to cut up to 10,000 jobs at its factories.

Tens of thousands of Germans, like this crowd in Leipzig on Aug. 16, went to the streets this summer to protest against the government's social welfare reforms. The law changes were passed nevertheless and are set to take effect on Jan. 1.

Germany's Chancellor Gerhard Schröder (left) and Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer (right) sign the Treaty and the Final Act establishing a Constitution for Europe in the Degli Orazi and Curiazi hall on Capitoline Hill in Rome on Oct. 29. Lithuania is the only country that has ratified the document so far.

On July 19, The world's largest luxury liner, Queen Mary 2, arrived for a one-day stop in the port of Hamburg.

On Sept. 2, the roof of the Rokoko room in the Anna Amalia Library in Weimar went up in flames, destroying much of the historic building as well as 30,000 highly valuable and historical books.

On Aug. 29, the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens ended with a big fireworks display in the Olympic stadium. Germany collected 14 gold, 16 silver and 18 bronze medals and came in sixth in the overall medal tally.

Two people injured by an explosion in a train wait for aid outside the train station of Atocha in Madrid, Spain, on March 11. Close to 200 people were killed in three Madrid train station blasts. While Basque terrror organization ETA was originally blamed for the bombings, the al Qaeda network was later held responsible. The bombings also led to a government chance with socialists gaining power shortly after.

A Palestinian woman walks through the mist to pay her respects at the grave of the late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, in the compound of his former headquarters in the West Bank town of Ramallah, Monday, Nov. 22. Arafat died in a French hospital on Nov. 11.

A special forces soldier carries a baby and a woman carries a child after being released by militants in Beslan, North Ossetia, on Sept. 2. The hostage crisis was eventually resolved but more than 320 people died.

German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder walks through the war cemetery at Ranville, France, on June 6 on the 60th anniversary of the Allied landing in the Normandy. Schröder became the first German head of government to participate in D-Day ceremonies.

Horst Köhler (center) gets applause in the Reichstag following his election as German president on May 23.

German President Johannes Rau and his wife Christina wave from a train in Hungary during Rau's last official foreign state visit on April 21. He stepped down from office on June 30 and was succeeded by Horst Köhler, the former head of the International Monetary Fund, on July 1.

Germany's handball players celebrated after winning the final match of the European Handball Championship, in Ljubljana, Slovenia, on Feb. 1. Germany defeated Slovenia by 30 -25.

Possibly already anticipating their subsequent acquittal, Deutsche Bank chief executive Josef Ackermann (right) flashed a victory sign to former CEO of Mannnesmann, Klaus Esser (left) prior to the start of their trial on charges of improper executive severance payments on Jan. 21. The trial focused the nation's attention on boardroom behavior.

20,000 predominantly Turkish citizens marched with flags through Cologne on Nov. 21 for a demonstration of "peace against terror." The demonstration was organized by the Turkish-Islamic Union and sparked by clashes between Muslims and Christians in the Netherlands following the assassination of a filmmaker critical of Islam.

Then German national soccer coach Rudi Völler, Michael Ballack and Oliver Kahn ( from right) walked from the pitch at the end of the Euro 2004 Group D soccer match between Germany and the Czech Republic at the Jose Alvalade Stadium in Lisbon, Portugal, on June 23. Germany lost the match 2-1 and were eliminated from the event. Surprisingly, Greece went on to win the championships under its German coach, Otto Rehhagel.

A supporter of Western-leaning Ukraine opposition leader Viktor Yushchenko inflates a balloon with Yushchenko's orange campaign color near the Ukrainian parliament in Kiev. The November presidential run-off elections were declared invalid because of voter fraud and will be repeated Dec. 26.

Sudanese refugee children walk past a dead donkey on March 3 in the desert outside Tine in eastern Chad bordering western Sudan. Fighting in western Sudan's Darfur region forced more than 600,000 people to flee their homes.