As the pandemic has forced the cancellation of most large gatherings, many institutions including the Auschwitz-Birkenau memorial museum in Poland, Yad Vashem museum in Israel and the US Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington DC are marking Holocaust Remembrance Day this year with online events
Continue reading...Category Archives: Germany
Germany expected to tighten borders to control spread of Covid variants
Interior minister says danger posed by recent mutations ‘requires drastic measures’
The German government is expected to announce tighter border controls after warnings from leading virologists that the move is vital to control the spread in the country of more contagious variants of Covid-19.
Angela Merkel, the chancellor, is widely reported to have told a meeting of her CDU party colleagues that air travel in particular needed to be restricted “to the extent that you simply can’t get anywhere any more”.
Continue reading...Why experts say there is no basis to claims in Germany about efficacy of AstraZeneca vaccine
Analysis: Drug company and scientific partners at Oxford University have strongly pushed back against German press report
A row has broken out after German newspapers suggested the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine might have a lower efficacy among the over-65s. Below we take a look at the claims, and whether we should be concerned.
Continue reading...German lockdown to remain in place despite drop in infection rate
As deaths mount, health minister says measures are intended to prevent Covid situation worsening
Germany’s health minister, Jens Spahn, has called for understanding of a continuation of harsh lockdown conditions in Germany, saying they were necessary to prevent a “considerable worsening” of the current situation despite a slowdown in the rate of infections.
Germany’s death toll rose to over 51,000 on Thursday, having been increasing at an average of 1,000 deaths a day for several weeks.
Continue reading...EU could ban travellers from Britain to contain Covid variants
Movement restrictions at EU internal borders will also dominate debate between 27 chiefs
The European Union could ban travellers from Britain and restrict movement at the bloc’s own internal borders under proposals to be debated by leaders at a videoconference summit.
The need to clamp down on the spread of the new variants of coronavirus will dominate discussions between the 27 heads of state and government on Thursday evening.
Continue reading...European leaders hail ‘new dawn’ for ties with US under Biden
Leaders say Europe again has a friend in the White House but differences with US will not disappear
European leaders have voiced relief at Joe Biden’s inauguration, hailing a “new dawn” for Europe and the US, but warned that the world has changed after four years of Donald Trump’s presidency and that transatlantic ties will be different in future.
“This new dawn in America is the moment we’ve been awaiting for so long,” Ursula von der Leyen, the European commission president, told MEPs. “Once again, after four long years, Europe has a friend in the White House.”
Continue reading...Raw, brave, wild and honest: why Germany is Europe’s greatest artistic nation
Germany became a unified state 150 years ago this week – and no other country has produced such original, provocative and powerful art since, from Richter to Klee, from Dix to Höch
Situated on the edge of the Alps, Neuschwanstein Castle may not look like the birthplace of modern art. Best seen from a perilously crowded footbridge across a vertiginous gorge, it floats in misty rains, a cloudy dream of white spires and battlements. Yet this 19th-century colossus is an architectural homage to one man: a composer who inspired the avant garde to make the leap to modernism.
Richard Wagner’s music so enflamed King Ludwig II of Bavaria, he built this magnificent medieval vision in honour of the composer. But, in artists across Europe, Wagner’s musical might released much more futuristic impulses. The abstract leitmotifs and unearthly symbolism of his operas fascinated artists from Aubrey Beardsley to Paul Cézanne. The impressionists, too, were entranced: Renoir travelled to Palermo, Sicily, to portray Wagner when he was composing Parsifal.
Continue reading...Germany weighs up mandatory FFP2 masks in shops and on transport
Respiratory masks already compulsory in Bavaria over fears of coronavirus mutations
Germany is weighing up following Austria and Bavaria’s lead in making it compulsory to wear full protective filter masks on public transport and in shops, as the country remains on high alert about the impact of possible coronavirus mutations.
The Austrian chancellor, Sebastian Kurz, announced on Sunday that wearing single-use filtering facepiece respirator, or FFP2, masks would become mandatory on public transport and in shops from 25 January, as the Alpine state moves to extend its national lockdown until 7 February.
Continue reading...Merkel’s successor faces uphill struggle to unite his party
Analysis: centrist Armin Laschet, the new leader of Germany’s CDU, will need to deliver on promises of reconciliation
The election of Armin Laschet as the new leader of Germany’s Christian Democratic Union has been welcomed by those hoping for a smooth transition after the imminent departure of Angela Merkel from political leadership. But his detractors have warned he faces an uphill challenge to unite not just his party but also the country in the event that he becomes chancellor, at a time of national crisis and division.
Laschet, who is now in line to succeed Merkel as chancellor after the parliamentary elections in September, secured victory at the weekend despite the odds having been on Friedrich Merz, a prominent conservative and investment banker. Norbert Röttgen, chair of the Bundestag foreign affairs committee, dropped out after the first round, prompting many of his supporters to back Laschet. The digital vote must still be confirmed by a postal ballot.
Continue reading...Germany: Merkel’s party chooses Armin Laschet as leader
New leader of centre-right CDU will run for chancellor in September, or have a big say in who does
Angela Merkel’s continuity candidate, the centrist conservative Armin Laschet, has beaten one of her longest-standing rivals in the contest to lead Germany’s Christian Democratic Union.
In a digitally-held party congress, Laschet beat the conservative hardliner Friedrich Merz by 521 to 466 votes in a run-off vote, following a strong speech that emphasised social cohesion and held up recent scenes from Washington DC as a warning example of divisive leadership.
Continue reading...Simon Rattle decries Brexit as he applies for German citizenship
Conductor laments impact on UK musicians’ careers and describes application as ‘absolute necessity’
The conductor Simon Rattle, who announced this week that he was cutting short his tenure at Britain’s leading orchestra to return to Germany, has applied for German citizenship after Brexit.
The Liverpool-born musician lamented the barriers thrown up by Britain’s departure from the European Union to the careers of young musicians who had grown used to performing freely to the continent’s music-hungry public.
Continue reading...German Covid vaccine officials play name game to comply with data privacy laws
Authorities in Lower Saxony accused of overzealous interpretation of data privacy laws
German toddlers called Fritz or Adele could be invited for a Covid-19 vaccination while octogenarian Peters and Brigittes will not, as an overzealous interpretation of data privacy laws in one state has forced officials to guess people’s ages from their first names.
Authorities in the northern German state of Lower Saxony claim legal hurdles blocked them from accessing official records when trying to send a written invitation for a vaccination appointment to all citizens aged over 80.
Continue reading...Alexei Navalny ordered to be detained on return to Russia, say officials
Opposition politician has been in Germany since August following suspected poisoning by FSB
Russia’s prison service says it has orders to detain Alexei Navalny, a statement made days before the opposition politician is due to return to Russia after recuperating abroad from a suspected FSB poisoning.
Navalny could face prison time when he gets off the plane in Moscow on Sunday. Officials said they would take him into custody for failing to appear for parole reviews after he was attacked with a novichok-style poison in August.
Continue reading...Berlin airport’s baggage handlers suffer electric shocks in latest mishap
About 60 cases recorded of workers being hurt recorded at airport, which has been plagued with problems
Baggage handlers at Berlin’s new airport have reported receiving electric shocks from scanners in yet another problem to befall the troubled project, which is widely seen as an engineering catastrophe.
About 60 incidents of electric shocks have been reported since the airport opened its doors on 31 October last year, nine years behind schedule and more than €4bn (£3.6bn) over budget, according to the trade union Verdi. Affected workers have complained of significant pain, dizziness and numbness, and ambulances have been called on four occasions this month.
Continue reading...German CDU on verge of electing divisive figure to replace Angela Merkel
Millionaire lawyer Friedrich Merz is favourite to take centre-right into federal elections
When Angela Merkel steps down as chancellor this September, she will leave behind a conservative party that has been a practically unchallenged political force in Germany for 16 years and currently leads political polls by a towering 15 percentage points.
And yet the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) may thank her this Saturday by electing as its new leader one of her longest-standing political rivals, a man who represents a return to the pre-Merkel past not just in terms of ideological values but also style of leadership.
Continue reading...Ginger root and meteorite dust: the Steiner ‘Covid cures’ offered in Germany
The movement best known for its schools is firmly entrenched within the German health sector
In a pandemic where global leaders have peddled quack treatments and miracle cures, Germany has often stood out as a shining beacon for science.
It is the country that developed the first diagnostic test to detect the coronavirus, and the first vaccine approved in the west to shield people against the disease. It is a country whose physicist chancellor told parliament she passionately believes “there are scientific findings that are real and should be followed.”
Continue reading...The lives of others: Ute Mahler’s images of the real East Germany – in pictures
In 1974, the German photographer set out to convey the truth about how people really lived in the communist GDR – depicting her fellow citizens with a ‘timeless coolness’
Continue reading...Change in the weather: German storm names to be more diverse
Symbolic #WeatherCorrection is part of campaign for inclusivity in society
Move over, Siegfried. Ahmet is on the way.
A journalists’ group has named a low pressure system bringing low temperatures, dark clouds and snow to Germany after the boy’s name of Turkish origin in an effort to increase the visibility of the country’s increasingly diverse population.
Continue reading...As parts of UK enter third Covid lockdown, how does rest of Europe compare?
Rules vary from country to country but many European nations face severe restrictions
After a brief and partial relaxation of the rules over Christmas and New Year, many continental European countries have returned to the tough anti-Covid regimes that were imposed this autumn – with some tightening measures further.
According to the latest update from the World Health Organization, in the final week of 2020 the UK had a 14-day new-case notification rate of 720 for every 100,000 people, more than double that in France, Germany, Italy and Spain but lower than the Czech Republic, the Netherlands, Sweden and Denmark.
Continue reading...‘He’s a risk-taker’: Germans divided over Elon Musk’s new GigaFactory
The Tesla project will put Grünheide on the map, but some say it is doing ‘irreversible’ harm to the environment
For the past 10 months, Silas Heineken has been flying a drone over one of Germany’s biggest building sites and posting the images on YouTube.
The 14-year-old self-named “Tesla Kid” has built a significant following, as tens of thousands tune in each week to see the latest developments in Elon Musk’s GigaFactory as it emerges at speed from the sandy ground of Brandenburg, south-east of Berlin.
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