Germany

Infection rates are on the rise in Germany – but the big debate in the country right now is about Easter holidays. I have a confession: I’m writing this column on a plane from Palma de Mallorca back to Germany, ready to join the country’s heated debate about… Mallorca. The island’s tourist industry is ready to […]

TANIT KOCH on just how close the Green Party are to power in Germany… and how they could throw it all away. Remember the many Britons who got hold of an EU passport after the 2016 referendum via the odd Irish granny? You may be among them. If you could now make that work vice versa, there’s a huge […]

TANIT KOCH on what the Germans are only just learning about their country under the long rule of Angela Merkel. Most Germans (ven not engaged in ze race for pole pool positions) will have come across one phrase in those heady days when we could actually go on holiday: “You’re lucky, you’ve got Merkel.”  Britons, […]

JAMES BALL on Europe’s very uneven vaccine rollout. With so much riding on the vaccine rollout across Europe, it is perhaps unsurprising it has been quite so tempestuous and bad-tempered. Governments have been accusing one another of irresponsibility, of cheating on supplies, or botching their rollouts. Last week, Italy even stopped a shipment of vaccines destined for […]

A new era of advertising in the air is being tested in Germany A new era of advertising in the sky is being tested in Germany, where a squadron of planes flying in formation has written ‘Hallo Berlin’ and ‘Hallo Hamburg’ at an altitude of 3,000m above the cities. The messages are the work of […]

STEVE ANGLESEY brings you some of the recent stories you might have missed from the continent. A man who used a blow-dryer to thaw a frozen water pipe set his home in southwest Germany on fire, causing 300,000 euro (£262,000) worth of damage. Police in Kämpfelbach-Ersingen said they believed the dryer had been left unattended […]

A German minister has hit back at comparisons between the EU and the UK over coronavirus vaccines – by pointing to the death and infection rate in the country. German economy minister Peter Altmaier – an ally of Angela Merkel – claimed there had been “endless suffering” in Britain because of the government’s handling of […]

Remembering the group of Conservative MPs that their own leader dubbed the ‘Glamour Boys’ and threatened with deselection. In the 1920s and 1930s of buttoned-up Britain, homosexuality was an illicit act, and would remain that way until 1967 when the law changed in England and Wales. Even though gay culture was vibrant, it existed mostly underground, its […]

A German MEP has warned the UK is acting like Donald Trump over the coronavirus vaccines. Dr Peter Liese was speaking to the BBC’s Newscast podcast when said the UK appeared to be echoing the former US president’s “US-first policy”. He said: “If it’s true what some say that the UK had a ‘UK first’ contract – […]

Berlin has been long been seen as the European capital most understanding – and indulgent – of Russia. But that’s  changing, says CATHRIN SCHAER. For several years now, German newspapers have been proclaiming the next new low in the German-Russian relationship. There was 2015’s Russian hacker attack on the German parliament that started the decline. Then the assassination […]

JOHN KAMPFNER on Armin Laschet – the man now lined up as Angela Merkel’s successor. It was the ‘Merkel Machine’ which helped secure the close victory. After a lacklustre campaign, Armin Laschet hobbled over the line for the leadership of Germany’s largest party, the CDU, thanks to some last-minute lobbying and arm-twisting from the chancellor and […]

JASON WALSH reports on Europe’s varying fortunes on vaccination roll-outs. The European Union performs many roles for its citizens. The most important – if one of the least-discussed – is to keep them safe from harm. And that is the issue causing grave concern across the continent right now, as the EU and its member states try desperately […]

German chancellor Angela Merkel has criticised Twitter for permanently suspending Donald Trump’s account. Merkel’s spokesperson said that while social media platforms need to prevent being flooded by “hatred and lies”, the politician believes freedom of opinion should not be determined by the website bosses. “The fundamental right to freedom of opinion is a fundamental right of […]

Forty years ago this month was a fateful meeting that led to one of the history’s greatest hoaxes. RICHARD LUCK reports. Some scoops can be weeks, months or even years in the making. It can take a long, long time for a reporter to finally bring their story into the public domain, for all the […]

As the Merkel era nears an end, CATHRIN SCHAER profiles the three candidates vying to take her place at the heart of German, European and global politics The Angela Merkel era is almost over. The German chancellor, who’s been running the country since 2005, won’t stand for office again and has withdrawn as head of […]

A German newspaper columnist has described his “anger” surrounding Brexit as he hit out at the “liars and amateurs” in Britain that took over the running of the country. Nikolaus Blome, writing for Der Spiegel, said Boris Johnson and the Brexiteers were “an eternal shame for all conservatives” as he explained to his newspaper audience […]

CHARLIE CONNELLY on an eerie German story and its remarkable creator. If anyone does Christmas well it’s the Germans. Glühwein, Stollen, the Christmas market; they even convinced the world bringing a conifer indoors once a year and covering it in stuff was a pretty neat idea. When it comes to the December festivities it’s fair […]

Scientists have warned that the easing of coronavirus restrictions over Christmas will cause a spike in infections, as experts encourage Boris Johnson to follow German chancellor Angela Merkel’s lead by rethinking proposals for the holiday. Germany has announced a national lockdown that will close shops and schools until at least January 10 – with restrictions on social […]

An EU official has confirmed that the bloc rejected a request from Boris Johnson to allow him to involve German chancellor Angela Merkel and French president Emmanuel Macron in Brexit negotiations.  The senior official said the request for a three-way call on Monday was rejected because negotiations were intended to go through the European Commission and not […]

A German ambassador has hit out at business secretary Alok Sharma after he claimed that Britain was leading “humanity’s charge against” the coronavirus by fast-tracking the vaccine. “In years to come, we will remember this moment as the day the UK led humanity’s charge against this disease,” Sharma claimed on Twitter, after celebrating the deployment of […]

Germany is often praised for a political system built on compromise, coalitions and consensus. But what happens when that model meets hard-ball-playing European authoritarians abroad and conspiracy-theorists at home? A few days ago in Berlin, police turned their water cannons on a crowd of protesters outside Germany’s parliament buildings. An estimated 7,000 locals were gathered […]

The world won’t miss Donald Trump when his presidency ends next year. But it will miss his polar opposite, Angela Merkel, who is also expected to leave office in 2021. PAUL KNOTT reports. Merkeln: a verb, meaning ‘to procrastinate, prevaricate & put off making a decision until the last possible moment’ is a tongue-in-cheek addition to the […]

Joe Biden is expected to call European leaders Angela Merkel and Emmanuel Macron early on as he speaks with politicians across the world in the coming days. Johnson is hoping to build bridges with Biden after a Democratic source claimed that there was “no special relationship with Boris Johnson” following the election win. But sources close […]

For both Brahms and the Beatles, Hamburg provided a hothouse to develop their talent and character, says SOPHIA DEBOICK. “I cling to my native city as to a mother” wrote Johannes Brahms in 1862. The devastating emotion of his German Requiem, inspired by his mother’s death three years later, proved this comparison was no small statement. […]

France and Germany have both taken the decision to go into national lockdowns to last throughout November as part of an attempt to slow the growth of coronavirus. President Emmanuel Macron has confirmed the “stay at home” order which will see non-essential shops, restaurants and bars close from Friday until 1 December with external borders […]

Readers have their say on politics in Germany, and make comparisons to Britain. The German people believe Angela Merkel will tell them the truth (“Trust helps Germany through its crisis”, TNE #215). The biggest issue with our government is a lack of faith.The trust in Boris Johnson and his uninspiring crew has been systematically undermined […]

Other than the group of shrieking conspiracy theorists who tried to break into the German parliament the other weekend after an anti-lockdown protest went awry, it seems most Germans do actually trust their government.All around the world, the pandemic has raised questions about how much voters trust their leaders – and by international standards, the […]

Each year sees more books being published in English about the Nazis, but then, when it comes to post-1945 history, this flood of books about German history suddenly dries up. There are a few English language history books about Germany and the Cold War, but much fewer about the country’s politics in the immediate post-war […]

Those caught up in the momentous events of the fall of the Berlin Wall recall its demise 35 years later

It did not take long for the optimism which greeted the fall of the Berlin Wall to be replaced by something gloomier. PAUL KNOTT explains why, to many East Germans, what followed felt like a hostile takeover No-one who witnessed it – even from a distance on TV – will forget the sheer joy of […]

Opera has a long history of shaping national identity – much to the annoyance of some. PATRICK SAWER looks at its impact in Italy and, perhaps more surprisingly, in the UK Arriving in Britain from his native Germany in 1710, George Frideric Handel wasted no time making an impression on what would now be called […]

The East German authorities hoped Bruce Springsteen might help bolster their ailing regime. Instead, as IAN WALKER explains, he doomed it It was the summer of 1988 and one of the last battles of the Cold War was about to take place in Berlin. Forty three years of useless division, of hostile, cynical realpolitik and […]