Category Archives: Germany

The Hanau terror attack shows the need for honesty about racism in Germany | Mithu Sanyal

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Angela Merkel using the word ‘racist’ to describe the murders was a quantum leap, but I dont trust others in her party

I have to admit that when I heard the news my first thought was: “I hope the perpetrator wasn’t a migrant.” The press would surely go at us hammer and tongs again, warning about the danger posed by immigration in general and Muslims in particular. There would be endless articles and talk shows discussing the threat. My second thought was: “Thank God it is a white guy.”

On 19 February, Tobias Rathjen went into two shisha bars in the town of Hanau, near Frankfurt, shooting people he described as “foreign”. In his “manifesto”, if you can call such a rambling text a manifesto, he stated he wanted to cleanse Germany from … us. Two weeks on from the carnage in Hanau, I wonder how I could have felt relieved.

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Naomi Seibt: ‘anti-Greta’ activist called white nationalist an inspiration

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German teenager spoke at an event at US rightwing conference CPAC

A young campaigner who has been hailed by climate sceptics as the right’s answer to Greta Thunberg has previously described a white nationalist who appeared to promote “white genocide” theories as one of her “inspirations”.

Naomi Seibt, a 19-year-old from Münster, Germany, who styles herself as a “climate realist”, has also had to deny she made remarks that could be seen as antisemitic following an attack on a synagogue last year.

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Coronavirus: Lufthansa imposes hiring freeze as Diageo profits suffer

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Airline offers unpaid leave, beverage firm fears £200m hit and Danone also voices concern

Lufthansa has announced a hiring freeze and is offering employees unpaid leave as part of a range of cost-saving measures to attempt to limit the financial impact of the spread of the coronavirus.

The German airline, which has already cancelled all flights to China until the end of March, also said it will expand part-time work options and cancel flight attendant and other personnel training courses from April onwards. Those that are already on courses will not be hired. The company said it aimed to offer affected trainees “employment contracts in the long term”.

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Children among the injured after car drives into German carnival

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Police refuse to rule out deliberate attack on parade in town of Volkmarsen

Dozens of people have been injured, some of them children, after a local man appeared to deliberately drive a car into a carnival parade procession in the central German town of Volkmarsen, police have said.

The driver was arrested but police could not immediately provide details about the man’s motives, although Bild newspaper cited a spokesman, Henning Hinn, as saying they were “working on the assumption that it was a deliberate act”.

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Far-right AfD faces exit from Hamburg parliament after election flop

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Exit polls suggest AfD fell below 5% threshold as voters also gave Merkel’s CDU thumbs-down

Four days after a racist gun attack in the German town of Hanau killed 10 people, the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) were set to be ejected from the Hamburg parliament in a state election on Sunday.

Exit polls indicated that AfD would fall just short of the 5% threshold. “Nazis out,” shouted supporters of the victorious Social Democrats (SPD) and Greens as they celebrated in the northern city.

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Auschwitz Memorial criticises Amazon for Hunters show and antisemitic books

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  • Prime show stars Al Pacino as head of band of Nazi hunters
  • Memorial wants books by Nazi Julius Streicher removed

The Auschwitz Memorial criticised Amazon on Sunday, for fictitious depictions of the Holocaust in its TV series Hunters and for selling books of Nazi propaganda.

Related: Outcry after MSNBC host compares Sanders’ Nevada win to Nazi invasion

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On Hanau’s streets, shocked migrants fear causes of the attack run deep

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Political pledges of action to deal with far-right terrorism are met with scepticism

Days after terror struck in the heart of its community, something like normality returned to the streets and cafes of Hanau yesterday. On Freigerichtstrasse on the eastern side of town, people once again gathered in one of the multifunction spaces that act as sports bars, betting shops and shisha stores, to have a smoke or a hot drink with friends.

“Am I scared? I guess it is scary,” said the Romanian woman who runs the venue. “But more importantly, would you like a cup of tea?”

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‘Who is there to protect us?’ Far-right murders in Hanau spark anger and fear

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Many in traditionally diverse area believe security apparatus is not tackling far right with full strength

As the people of Hanau rallied together in the wake of a deadly and racist assault on its community, there were not just whispers filled with fear but also cries for help and shouts of anger.

“We are going through a very difficult time,” said Hidir Karademir, 65, one of more than 5,000 who had gathered at the town’s market square, just streets away from the shisha bar where a racist gunman took the lives of nine people.

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‘A step away from hell’: the young male refugees selling sex to survive

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Photographer Heba Khamis spent a year and a half documenting the lives of ‘black birds’: the male Afghan and Iranian sex workers in Berlin’s Tiergarten

  • All photographs by Heba Khamis

The allure of romance is never far away in Berlin’s Tiergarten park, a vast 520-acre expanse home to manicured lawns, dense forest, a picturesque boating lake and the city zoo. As families lay out picnics and millennials fire up barbecues, those seeking something more illicit head to the park’s wooded north, where young male Afghan and Iranian refugees can be found selling sex to the hundreds of buyers who pass through Tiergarten each day.

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Hanau attack part of pattern of white supremacist violence flowing from US

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Experts in global extremism say gunman’s comments on his website paralleled several recent conspiracies popular with American far-right

The mass shootings targeting two bars in the German town of Hanau appear to be the latest in a series of global attacks motivated by white nationalist ideology, experts said.

The 43-year-old German man identified by authorities as the gunman also appeared to be obsessed with America, and with American conspiracy theories, according to online video and documents German police are investigating in connection with the attack.

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Local and global factors fuelling far-right violence in Germany

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Migration, lax security and foreign attacks contributing to Hanau-like terrorism

The deadly terrorist shooting in the German town of Hanau represents the latest in a string of far-right attacks and plots in what has long been considered one of Europe’s most stable countries.

The murderous actions of the gunman, identified in the German media as Tobias Rathjen, came only days after a dozen German men were arrested for allegedly plotting armed attacks on mosques around the country.

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Hanau attack reveals ‘poison’ of racism in Germany, says Merkel

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Gunman who posted manifesto online kills nine at shisha bars before shooting himself

Angela Merkel has said the murder of nine people in a shooting rampage by a suspected rightwing extremist has revealed the “poison” of racism and hate in Germany.

The man, identified as Tobias Rathjen, 43, carried out attacks at two shisha bars in Hanau, a commuter town near Frankfurt, before killing his mother, bringing the death toll to 10, and then himself, police said.

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Germany attack: gunman acted on rightwing, racist motives, says Merkel – video

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Chancellor says the circumstances of the attacks in Hanau need to be fully investigated but the shootings have exposed the ‘poison’ of racism in German society. She pledges to stand up against those who ‘seek to divide the country’. Nine people were killed when a gunman opened fire at two shisha bars. He then killed his mother and himself at home, police say

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German shisha bar attacks: what we know so far – video report

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A man has killed nine people after opening fire at two shisha bars in Hanau, near Frankfurt. He then shot himself and his 72-year-old mother at home, according to police. Investigators believe a racist motive was behind the attack and some of those killed had Turkish backgrounds

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Footage shows aftermath of deadly shisha bar attacks in Germany – video

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Several people have been killed and others seriously injured after two shootings at shisha bars in the western German city of Hanau, police say. At least nine people died in the attacks that took place on Wednesday night. The suspect and one other person were also found dead after police launched a huge hunt for the perpetrator

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Hanau shooting: 11 dead after attacks on shisha bars in German town

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Suspect and one other person found dead after nine killed in attacks earlier on two cafes 25km east of Frankfurt

At least 11 people have been killed – including the suspect – and others seriously injured after two shootings at shisha bars in the German town of Hanau, according to local police.

Nine people died in the attacks on the two bars at around 10pm on Wednesday night, police said.

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Germany: senior CDU figure announces surprise leadership candidacy

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Norbert Röttgen throws hat in ring to replace Merkel after Kramp-Karrenbauer steps aside

A senior German conservative politician, who was once seen as the brains behind Angela Merkel’s inner circle but was later sacked by the chancellor, has put himself forward as a surprise candidate to take over as leader of her Christian Democratic Union (CDU), further complicating the party’s chaotic succession planning.

Norbert Röttgen announced his candidacy for the soon-to-be vacant seat at the top of the CDU in a press conference on Tuesday, saying he had decided to run because he believed the party should strategically position itself as the “party of the centre”.

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Japan’s economy heading for recession, and Germany wobbles

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International trade slump and coronavirus outbreak combine to weaken consumer demand

Japan’s economy is heading for a recession this year after figures showed the world’s third largest economy slumped by an annual rate of 6.3% during the last quarter of 2019.

Germany, the world’s fourth largest economy, is also expected to stumble as the coronavirus epidemic and a slump in trade with China combine with weak consumer demand to drag growth lower.

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Macron sets out 10-year vision for EU with call for more integration

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French president says EU must have effective defence policy, larger budget and integrated capital markets

Europe’s middle classes will only remain reconciled to the European Union if it becomes more integrated, with an effective defence policy, a larger budget and integrated capital markets, and is shorn of vetoes that slow decision-making, the French president, Emmanuel Macron, has said.

Setting out his 10-year vision for Europe on Saturday, Macron said he still wanted to see the UK involved in defence, but urged European countries to recognise that in terms of social welfare, Europe had a different values to the US.

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Fears grow that CDU crisis in Germany could spread across EU

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Pressure mounts on Angela Merkel’s party to find new leader after AKK resignation

Pressure is growing on Angela Merkel’s troubled Christian Democratic Union to speed up the process of finding a new leader, amid warnings from senior party members that paralysis within the party could spread across the EU when Germany assumes the rotating presidency of the council of the European Union in the second half of the year.

The German centre-right has been in turmoil since Merkel’s designated successor, Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, resigned after CDU politicians in the eastern state of Thuringia defied instructions not to side with the far right in a state election.

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