Germany

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 The German chancellor, who’s been running the country since 2005, won’t stand for office again and has withdrawn as head of […]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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

Angela Merkel’s power has taken a blow in the wake of the German election. Here Tony Paterson reports from Berlin on the new shape of German politics. Angela Merkel may have been responsible for the worst German conservative general election performance in almost 70 years but she is not showing much remorse about it. In […]

The myth of Friedrich Nietzsche as the godfather of Nazism was created by his sister Elizabeth – but is that the full story? SUNA ERDEM explores a century-old case of fake news Friedrich Nietzsche is widely considered one of the greatest and most interesting philosophers of all time. The 19th century German thinker challenged accepted […]

Germany is seen as Europe’s dull but stable backbone. But for how much longer, asks JASON WALSH? It should have been a resounding victory, and looked at through squinted eyes, perhaps it is. Angela Merkel will be re-appointed chancellor of Germany, leading the country for a fourth term – something that has only happened once […]

In recent decades, Germany has shied away from being too assertive in its foreign policy. But growing global uncertainties mean that – regardless of Sunday’s election result – that is changing. Policy expert EMILY MANSFIELD analyses exactly where the country (and by extension the EU) is heading German foreign policy is currently in a transitional […]

Angela Merkel may be on course for victory but her campaign for the German chancellorship is not the stately procession it might seem from afar. TONY PATERSON joins her on a decidedly bumpy election trail Earlier this year the twin political earthquakes of Brexit and Donald Trump prompted shaken Europeans to dub her the last […]

When Muslim feminist SEYRAN ATES opened a liberal mosque in Berlin this summer she was met with a barrage of death threats and fatwas. But she says she is undeterred in her campaign to use enlightenment values to defeat extremism – in all forms I have been beaten up in the street, received death threats […]

IAN WALKER looks at the complex legacy of Germany’s first post-war chancellor, a man who helped unify Europe and rebuild West Germany but who left a nation divided not only between East and West but also between the war generation and the baby boomers who came after In April 1933 Konrad Adenauer, the former mayor […]