Category Archives: Germany

Germany returns 21 Benin bronzes to Nigeria – amid frustration at Britain

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Artefacts looted in 19th century by UK soldiers and sold on, with many more still held by the British Museum

Twenty-one precious artefacts that were looted by British soldiers from the former west African kingdom of Benin 125 years ago have been handed over by Germany to Nigeria amid laughter, tears, and some audible frustration with the ongoing silence of the country that first stole them.

The objects from the haul of treasures known as the Benin bronzes, including a brass head of an oba (king), a ceremonial ada and a throne depicting a coiled-up python, were taken from the sacked city during a British punitive expedition in 1897 and later sold to German museums in Berlin, Hamburg, Stuttgart and Cologne.

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‘I was a nobody’: Boris Becker gives first interview since leaving UK prison

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Former Wimbledon champion tells German broadcaster he learned a hard lesson and experience was ‘worthwhile’

Boris Becker has given his first interview since leaving prison in the UK and being deported back to Germany earlier this week, telling German viewers: “In prison I was a nobody.”

The former Wimbledon champion, appearing slimmed down and sporting a new hair colour and style, told the broadcaster Sat 1 that as an inmate he was not called by his first name, and “no one gave a shit” about his champion status.

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Former Nazi camp secretary found guilty of complicity in 10,500 murders

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Irmgard Furchner, 97, who worked at Stutthof concentration camp during the second world war, is given a two-year suspended sentence

A 97-year-old former secretary at a Nazi concentration camp has been found guilty of complicity in the murder of more than 10,500 people imprisoned there, and handed a two-year suspended sentence.

Irmgard Furchner, who has been on trial in the northern German town of Itzehoe for more than a year, spoke to the court on one occasion earlier this month to say she was sorry for what had happened, but stopped short of admitting her guilt.

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Germany pauses buying Puma tanks after mass breakdown

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All 18 tanks on exercises suffer problems in blow to German contribution to January Nato force

The German government has said it will pause purchases of new Puma tanks after a mass breakdown during exercises, lamenting a “harsh setback” as Berlin seeks to overhaul its military.

The armoured infantry vehicles – which were supposed to form part of Germany’s contribution to a Nato force – suffered problems that left all 18 of those in the exercises unfit for operations.

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EU energy ministers reach agreement on gas price cap

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Months of talks end with ‘dynamic cap’ deal after Germany persuaded by global reference-price condition

EU ministers have agreed a plan to cap the price of gas, ending months of argument over how to handle the cost of soaring energy prices after Russia cut gas supplies to Europe.

“Mission accomplished,” said the Czech minister for trade and industry, Jozef Síkela, who chaired talks between energy ministers, adding that negotiations had not been easy.

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German police recover 31 items stolen in 2019 Dresden jewel heist

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‘Considerable portion’ of priceless treasures from Green Vault museum recovered amid trial of suspects

German authorities said they have found a “considerable portion” of items stolen in a spectacular 2019 robbery of priceless 18th-century jewels from a state museum.

The authorities retrieved 31 individual items in the capital, Berlin, the police and prosecutors said.

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Weather tracker: cyclone drags pollution towards Sri Lanka

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Particulate matter, which is hazardous to lungs, has been pulled in from India by Cyclone Mandous

In Sri Lanka, schools were forced to close on Friday last week owing to high levels of pollution pulled in from India via Cyclone Mandous. The cyclone was situated in the Bay of Bengal, with winds blowing anti-clockwise around the central low pressure, sweeping the polluted air from India across the Palk strait into Sri Lanka. Subsequently, this merged with Sri Lanka’s local air pollution, leading to unhealthy pollutant concentrations that created a haze across parts of the country, including the capital, Colombo.

Most people are aware of air pollutants, such as carbon dioxide and methane, and the impacts they have in contributing to global warming. However, other air pollutants pose a more immediate threat to human health. Particulate matter refers to tiny particles or droplets in the air, and is split into two categories depending on diameter; up to 2.5 microns (0.0025mm, PM2.5) or up to 10 microns (0.01mm, PM10).

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Twitter’s suspension of journalists sets ‘dangerous precedent’, UN warns

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Pressure grows on Elon Musk as EU says social media platform could face sanctions over suspensions

The United Nations is “very disturbed” by Twitter’s abrupt suspension of a group of US journalists, a spokesperson has said, warning that the move sets a “dangerous precedent” – as the EU said the social media platform could fall foul of forthcoming digital regulations.

Stéphane Dujarric said on Friday the UN was “very disturbed” by the barring of prominent tech reporters at news organisations including CNN, the Washington Post and the New York Times who have written about Musk and the tech company he owns.

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Huge cylindrical aquarium housing 1,500 exotic fish bursts in Berlin

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Two people injured by broken glass as 1m litres of water pour out of 14-metre-high tank

A freestanding cylindrical aquarium housing about 1,500 exotic fish burst in Berlin on Friday morning, causing a wave of devastation in and around the tourist attraction.

Glass, chairs, tables and other debris were swept out of the DomAquarée complex, which includes a Radisson hotel, a museum, shops and restaurants, as 1m litres of water poured out of the 14-metre-high (46ft) tank shortly before 6am.

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Nosferatu at 100: Berlin exhibition examines vampire classic’s enduring appeal

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Show takes a deep dive into story of 1922 film that spawned an entire genre – with free entry for blood donors

It was a nightmare born out of a pandemic: a silent killer that arrived from a faraway land, rapidly spreading a delirious fever across the domestic population and leaving its hosts in an anaemic stupor.

By channelling contemporary fears around infectious diseases in the wake of the 1918-20 influenza pandemic, the 1922 expressionist masterpiece Nosferatu founded an entire genre of vampire horror movies and inspired claw-fingered monsters that would spook generations to come, from Freddy Krueger to the Babadook.

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European MPs seek to publicise plight of jailed Iranian protesters

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Politicians particularly in Germany taking responsibility for lobbying for the safety of individual prisoners

Politicians from Europe have begun sponsoring jailed Iranian protesters in the hope that by highlighting individual cases of injustice, the authorities will be forced to step back from handing down lengthy jail sentences or carrying out executions.

The executions of two demonstrators and threats to kill others suggest Tehran is set on the use of repression and fear to quell the protests.

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Linz to rename Porsche Street after investigating Nazi past of car creator

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Austrian city also intends to rename three other thoroughfares bearing ‘tainted’ names after commission’s report

The Austrian city of Linz has announced plans to rename a street honouring the founder of the luxury carmaker Porsche after a commission investigating controversial names found his Nazi past “problematic”.

The renaming of streets and other public places is still a hotly debated issue in Austria – Adolf Hitler’s birthplace – which Nazi Germany annexed in 1938 and which long cast itself as a victim.

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Germany at risk of gas shortages as consumption cutting target missed

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Country has scrambled to open up new sources of energy since start of Ukraine war

Germany is saving less gas than necessary to rule out shortages this winter, the head of the German grid agency has said, as the country missed its crucial target of a 20% cut in consumption last week amid dropping temperatures.

Germany, which used to draw about half of its natural gas needs from Russia before the start of the Ukraine war, has scrambled to open up new sources of energy during the last ten months.

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German aid worker freed after kidnapping in Niger four years ago

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63-year-old Joerg Lange’s employer, humanitarian organisation Help, did not say how release secured

A 63-year-old German aid worker, Joerg Lange, has been freed more than four years after he was kidnapped in western Niger near the Malian border, his employer, humanitarian organisation Help, said in a statement on Saturday.

Armed men on motorcycles kidnapped Lange in April 2018 near the Nigerien town of Inates in borderlands where militant groups, some with links to al-Qaida and Islamic State, have carried out frequent attacks for years.

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Suspect died during Dresden hostage operation, German police confirm

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Two apparently uninjured people safe after incident in which shots were reportedly fired

German police said on Saturday that a man suspected of killing his mother and later taking two people hostage in the eastern city of Dresden has died.

Authorities had urged people to avoid an area in the city centre and ordered Dresden’s Christmas market to remain closed while the police operation to free the hostages was under way.

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Celebrity chef among suspects in Germany rightwing coup plot

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Ex-police officer once tasked with protecting Jewish communities also linked to foiled Reichsbürger plan

A celebrity gourmet chef whose daughter is the girlfriend of the Real Madrid footballer David Alaba and an ex-police officer once tasked with protecting Jewish communities from terror attacks are among the latest figures to have been linked to the foiled Reichsbürger coup plan in Germany, with further arrests expected as investigations continue.

Details emerging after the biggest ever national police operation against rightwing extremism indicate that suspects may have been informed in advance of the raids, in which 3,000 police officers targeted more than 150 addresses across Germany, and in Austria and Italy, making 25 arrests.

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Germany assesses credibility of rightwing coup plot amid further arrests

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Number of suspects revised upwards to 52, 23 of whom are currently in custody, and more police raids are planned

Germany is trying to get the measure of how imminent a threat to the state was posed by the rightwing terror ring exposed on Wednesday, as police made further arrests in connection with the coup plot.

In their biggest ever raid targeting rightwing extremists, German authorities arrested 25 people suspected of plotting to overthrow the government, install a shadow regime led by a 71-year-old aristocrat, and seek talks with Russia to renegotiate its post-second world war settlement.

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Reichsbürger: the German conspiracy theorists at heart of alleged coup plot

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Despite description of alleged plotters by prosecutors as a ‘motley crew’, the threat was considered very real

At 6am on Wednesday, German special forces stormed a house in the Berlin lakeside villa quarter of Wannsee and arrested a former MP of the far-right Alternative für Deutschland (AfD), Birgit Malsack-Winkemann. Three minutes later, they entered the Waidmannsheil hunting lodge in Bad Lobenstein in Thuringia. Simultaneous raids took place in 30 other locations, including a car repair shop and a carpenters’ studio, as well as in the Austrian ski resort of Kitzbühel and the Italian city of Perugia.

Twenty-five people were arrested, and by lunchtime eight of them were in police custody, among them a serving soldier of the elite KSK unit, a lawyer, a pilot, a gourmet chef and a prince, the alleged ringleader who had led the plans to overthrow the German state and replace it with a “monarchistic order”.

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German police raids target far-right extremists ‘seeking to overthrow state’

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Thousands of officers search 130 sites across country in operation against Reich Citizens plotters

Twenty-five people including a 71-year-old German aristocrat, a retired military commander and former MP for the far-right Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) have been detained in Germany on suspicion of a terrorist plan to overthrow the state and renegotiate the country’s post-second world war settlement.

Thousands of police carried out a series of raids across Germany on Wednesday morning in connection with the far-right ring.

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German trains to offer coffee in porcelain cups to cut waste

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Deutsche Bahn passengers will be able to opt for reusable cups, plates and bowls for their food and drink from next year

Deutsche Bahn passengers will be able to get their coffee in a porcelain cup from next year, the German rail operator has announced, as it seeks to cut waste.

Travellers would be able to choose a “high-quality porcelain or glass” option when ordering food and drink on its intercity and high-speed services, the company said in a statement.

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