Category Archives: Germany

Jens Lehmann fined €135,000 for damaging neighbour’s garage with chainsaw

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  • Incident took place in German’s hometown of Starnberg
  • Lehmann also settles unpaid Munich airport parking fees

The former Arsenal and Germany goalkeeper Jens Lehmann has been fined €135,000 (£113,000) by a court in his hometown of Starnberg for damaging his neighbour’s garage with a chainsaw.

Lehmann, who was accused by the public prosecutor of sawing off a roof beam in the garage, was initially fined €420,000 (£351,000) over the July 2022 incident, which was reduced on appeal.

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Stock markets hit record highs after news of a fall in US inflation

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S&P 500 index of major US companies registers near 100% gain on year ago amid expectation of interest rate cuts

A fall in US inflation expected to pave the way for further cuts in interest rates pushed stock markets to record highs on Friday.

Ending a week of gains that began when the Chinese authorities approved a huge economic stimulus package, the S&P 500 index of major US companies soared above 5,750 to register a near 100% gain on a year ago.

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Anti-immigration mood sweeping EU threatens its new asylum strategy

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The bloc’s migration pact, finally agreed after a decade of talks, is already in peril as states outdo each other in efforts to get tough

In 2015, when more than 1.3 million people headed to Europe, mostly fleeing a brutal war in Syria, the response of Germany’s then chancellor, Angela Merkel, was to say “Wir schaffen das” (“We can manage this”), and open the country’s borders.

Less than a decade later, and faced with a flow of irregular arrivals less than 10% of what it was at the peak of the bloc’s migration crisis, EU capitals are increasingly saying, “No, we can’t”. Or, perhaps more accurately, “We won’t”.

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Three men charged in Germany over Michael Schumacher blackmail plot

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Chief suspect threatened to release private photos and demanded €15m from F1 star’s family, prosecutors say

German prosecutors are bringing charges against three men arrested this year over an alleged blackmail plot targeting the family of Formula One legend Michael Schumacher.

They said the chief suspect, a 53-year-old man from the western city of Wuppertal, had threatened to release private photos and videos and demanded €15m (£12.5m) from Schumacher’s family.

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UK economy to grow faster than Japan, Italy and Germany this year, says OECD

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Forecast upgrades UK to joint second after US but it is still expected to have highest inflation among G7 countries

The global economy is “turning a corner”, according to the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, which has upgraded the UK’s growth forecast for this year to faster than that of Japan, Italy and Germany.

The OECD’s latest outlook ranked Britain joint second among the G7 developed countries in its latest outlook for the world economy. However, the UK is still expected to have the highest inflation in the group.

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High-speed Paris-to-Berlin rail link to launch in December

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Daytime service will take about eight hours and will complement the night route that launched last year

A new high-speed train linking Paris and Berlin is to launch in December, operators have announced.

The daytime service will complement a popular night train route between the two capital cities that relaunched last year to much fanfare but has since been beset by technical problems.

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Germany and France call for Europe-wide deal with UK on migration

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Letter sent to EU said Brexit had gravely affected ‘the coherence of policies’ on asylum and migration

Germany and France have called for a Europe-wide deal on migration and asylum with the UK government, to capitalise on Labour’s more “constructive” approach to EU-UK relations.

In a letter to the EU home affairs commissioner, the German interior minister, Nancy Faeser, and her former French counterpart, Gérald Darmanin, said Brexit had gravely affected “the coherence of migration policies”.

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JCB profits rise despite faltering demand in UK and Germany

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Company owned by Bamford family benefits from strong US sales offsetting end of exports to Russia

JCB has reported an increase in profits last year as strong US sales made up for its exports to Russia ending and faltering demand in the UK and Germany.

The company, one of the largest manufacturers in Britain, said that pre-tax profits rose 44% to £806m last year, up from £558m in 2022, according to a summary of its accounts published on Monday.

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Show shines light on overlooked artist who made UK’s first Holocaust memorial

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Work of German-Jewish sculptor Fred Kormis, who fled Nazis in 1930s, is subject of exhibition in London

The work of an overlooked German-Jewish artist who created the UK’s first memorial to victims of Nazi persecution is to be the focus of an exhibition that shines light on the unreported aspects of his life.

Fred Kormis, who fled Germany in the 1930s and later became a British citizen, was described by the Wiener Holocaust Library in London as a forgotten émigré artist who played a unique role in Weimar culture and 20th-century British art.

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Social Democrats fend off AfD in crucial German state election, initial results show

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Olaf Scholz’s SPD made a late comeback after trailing far-right party throughout Brandenburg campaign

The far-right Alternative für Deutschland party has narrowly missed out on victory in an election in the German state of Brandenburg, according to initial results, three weeks after making historic gains in two other regions.

In what had been widely interpreted as a referendum on the federal government of Olaf Scholz ahead of next autumn’s general election, his Social Democratic party (SPD) appeared at the 11th hour to have clawed back its lead over the anti-immigrant populists who had been on course for months to seize victory in the state for the first time.

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Health and productivity losses from obesity ‘far outstrip weight-loss jab costs’

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Exclusive: £100bn-a-year cost of obesity to UK makes clear economic case for use of drugs such as Ozempic, says report

Spiralling healthcare costs and productivity losses from the global obesity crisis far outstrip the cost of new weight-loss drugs, according to a report, which also calls on governments to prioritise prevention by promoting a healthy diet and exercise.

In the UK, Germany and the Netherlands, there is a clear economic case for these medications, the report says, as the annual cost of the diabetes drug Ozempic is lower than the cost of additional healthcare needed by people with obesity. The cost of the weight-loss injection Wegovy is higher, but still dwarfed by the overall economic cost to society of obesity, according to the research by ING Bank, shared with the Guardian.

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Far-right AfD looking to make German history in Brandenburg state election

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Attention is focused on regional vote this Sunday that could determine the fate of the national government

Björn Höcke shielded his eyes from the bright lights as he peered from the stage into the crowds gathered on a square in front of a gothic church in central Cottbus.

Flanked by the slogans “It’s time for real change” and “It’s time to save our country,” the leader of the far-right Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) in Thuringia swept into Cottbus, the second largest city in the state of Brandenburg, for the party’s final rally before a regional election on Sunday that could determine the fate of Germany’s government.

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Berlin’s Watergate nightclub will close with New Year’s Eve last dance

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Upmarket Kreuzberg club blames economic pressures, a pandemic hangover and Berlin’s dated image as factors leading to end of 22-year party

Berlin’s Watergate nightclub, one of the institutions of the German capital’s nightlife, is to close down after 22 years, with its owners saying the night-time economy still hasn’t recovered after the pandemic.

In a statement, the club’s management said it had made the “difficult decision” not to extend its lease and close its premises after a New Year’s Eve party at the end of the year.

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Central Europe braces for further flooding as swollen rivers continue to rise

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Deadly Storm Boris has dumped up to five times average September rainfall in four days

As swollen rivers continued to rise, volunteers and emergency workers in towns and cities across a swathe of central Europe were reinforcing defences against floods that have killed at least 21 people in four countries.

Storm Boris has dumped up to five times the average September rainfall on parts of Austria, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Romania and Slovakia in four days, submerging entire neighbourhoods and forcing hundreds of thousands of people to evacuate.

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Unease as Russia-friendly ‘queen of the elections’ aims for more German poll success

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Some see Sahra Wagenknecht’s brand of ‘left conservatism’ as a bulwark against AfD but others see reasons to be wary

Sahra Wagenknecht is not even on the ballot in the upcoming state election in Brandenburg. But her face is plastered on billboards across the sprawling, largely rural northern state that surrounds Berlin.

There she hopes her fledgling Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance (BSW) will repeat the successes it enjoyed in polls in Thuringia and Saxony earlier this month, where it came third with vote shares in the double figures, performing so well that it is now a kingmaker for any possible coalition in either state.

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Germany reintroduces border checks to far-right praise as EU tensions mount

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Olaf Scholz’s government says ‘acute dangers’ led to decision but some EU criticise ‘unacceptable’ decision

Germany has reintroduced temporary checks at all nine of its land borders in a move that has drawn criticism from several of its European partners but praise from the far right.

The embattled coalition government in Berlin said last week that checks already being carried out on its borders with Austria, Poland, the Czech Republic and Switzerland would be extended to France, Luxembourg, Belgium, the Netherlands and Denmark.

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German border plan to stop ‘irregular migration’ unacceptable, says Tusk

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Polish PM calls for urgent consultations with European neighbours over controls he says will break European law

The Polish government is accusing Germany of acting unilaterally and unfairly over its “unacceptable” plans to introduce temporary controls into in the passport-free Schengen zone at all the country’s nine land borders, in what Warsaw says is a contravention of European law.

Donald Tusk, the Polish prime minister, said Germany had introduced a “de facto suspension of the Schengen agreement on a large scale” after the interior minister, Nancy Faeser, announced Berlin’s decision to confront what she called “irregular migration” by introducing spot controls along Germany’s 2,300-mile (3,700km) frontier after a recent spate of suspected Islamist attacks.

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BMW shares fall to four-year low as recall of 1.5m cars announced

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Mini and Rolls-Royce models also affected by potential braking system fault likely to cost BMW almost €1bn

Shares in BMW tumbled as the carmaker revealed it will have to recall 1.5m vehicles over a braking problem, costing it almost €1bn (£0.84bn).

The German manufacturer said its annual earnings would be considerably lower than expected, with the fault in the braking system now discovered to be far more widespread than first thought.

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Friedrich Merz looks likely to be Germany’s next leader but how will he defuse the AfD?

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The CDU chief has had a smooth lead but he must act to halt the march of far-right voters before the general election

• Everyone is terrified of a far-right return in Germany. Here’s why it won’t happen

Friedrich Merz, Germany’s mercurial conservative opposition chief and a passionate hobby pilot, should be flying high these days as the country’s hotly tipped next leader.

One year before the next general election, his Christian Democratic Union (CDU) has enjoyed a comfortable lead for months with about 32% support, nearly double the score of its nearest competitors, as the fractious government led by Social Democrat Olaf Scholz plumbs new depths of disfavour.

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