Category Archives: Germany

Prosecutors to appeal after Madeleine McCann suspect acquitted in separate rape trial

Posted on by

Christian Brückner found not guilty in Germany of three charges of aggravated rape and two of sexual abuse

The main suspect in the disappearance of the British toddler Madeleine McCann is likely to be released from prison next year after he was found not guilty of all charges in a separate rape and sexual abuse trial.

Christian Brückner, who is serving a seven-year sentence for rape, was acquitted by the district court in Braunschweig, northern Germany, of three separate charges of aggravated rape and two of sexual abuse of children in Portugal between 2000 and 2017.

Continue reading...

Interpol campaign to identify remains of women in Europe expands to 46 cases

Posted on by

Police forces in France, Italy and Spain join cold-case initiative after launch last year of Operation Identify Me

Police have expanded a cold-case campaign aimed at identifying dozens of women who were murdered or who died in suspicious circumstances across Europe, taking in three new countries and more than doubling the number of cases.

The international policing organisation Interpol said on Tuesday that forces from France, Italy and Spain had joined those in Belgium, the Netherlands and Germany, which last year launched Operation Identify Me to help name 22 female victims.

Continue reading...

Germans decry influence of English as ‘idiot’s apostrophe’ gets official approval

Posted on by

Linguistic body has relaxed rules on use of apostrophe to show possession, not traditionally correct in German

A relaxation of official rules around the correct use of apostrophes in German has not only irritated grammar sticklers but triggered existential fears around the pervasive influence of English.

Establishments that feature their owners’ names, with signs like “Rosi’s Bar” or “Kati’s Kiosk” are a common sight around German towns and cities, but strictly speaking they are wrong: unlike English, German does not traditionally use apostrophes to indicate the genitive case or possession. The correct spelling, therefore, would be “Rosis Bar”, “Katis Kiosk”, or, as in the title of a recent viral hit, Barbaras Rhabarberbar.

Continue reading...

How remigration became a buzzword for global far right

Posted on by

Electoral success of parties in Germany and Austria backing mass deportation linked to the term’s growing use by mainstream politicians, say experts

They poured on to streets across Germany in the tens of thousands, wielding placards that read “Nazis out” and “Never again is now”.

Appalled by revelations that some among the far-right Alternative für Deutschland had attended a meeting in Potsdam at which “remigration” had been on the agenda, the protesters offered a powerful rebuttal to the idea that the mass deportation of migrants – including those with German citizenship – was a valid policy option for any decent politician.

Continue reading...

Europe’s exhausted oyster reefs ‘once covered area size of Northern Ireland’

Posted on by

Study uncovers vivid and poignant accounts of reefs as high as houses off countries including UK, France and Ireland

Only a handful of natural oyster reefs measuring at most a few square metres cling on precariously along European coasts after being wiped out by overfishing, dredging and pollution.

A study led by British scientists has discovered how extensive they once were, with reefs as high as a house covering at least 1.7m hectares (4.2m acres) from Norway to the Mediterranean, an area larger than Northern Ireland.

Continue reading...

Prosecutors call for 15-year sentence for McCann suspect in unrelated rape trial

Posted on by

Prosecutors say Christian Brückner, main suspect in the Madeleine McCann case, should be kept in preventive detention

German prosecutors have called for a sexual offences conviction and 15-year prison sentence for a man who is also under investigation separately over the disappearance of British toddler Madeleine McCann.

The 47-year-old German national, who has been identified by local media as Christian Brückner, is on trial at the Braunschweig state court in northern Germany over offences he is alleged to have committed in Portugal between 2000 and 2017.

Continue reading...

German far-right politician accused of using political prisoners as cheap labour in Belarus

Posted on by

Reports of dissenters working for £4 a day on onion plantation owned by Saxony state parliament AfD member Jörg Dornau

Midway through Nikolai’s shift sorting onions alongside other political prisoners in a warehouse in western Belarus, a tall and bald foreigner entered the building.

“He arrived in a car with German license plates. Then he came over and greeted us warmly,” Nikolai*, recalled in an interview with the Observer.

Continue reading...

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

Posted on by
  • 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.

Continue reading...

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

Posted on by

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.

Continue reading...

Anti-immigration mood sweeping EU threatens its new asylum strategy

Posted on by

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”.

Continue reading...

Three men charged in Germany over Michael Schumacher blackmail plot

Posted on by

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.

Continue reading...

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

Posted on by

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.

Continue reading...

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

Posted on by

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.

Continue reading...

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

Posted on by

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”.

Continue reading...

JCB profits rise despite faltering demand in UK and Germany

Posted on by

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.

Continue reading...

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

Posted on by

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.

Continue reading...

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

Posted on by

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.

Continue reading...

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

Posted on by

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.

Continue reading...

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

Posted on by

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.

Continue reading...