Unions warn merger of two German lenders could put up to 30,000 jobs at risk
Deutsche Bank has confirmed it is in merger talks with rival Commerzbank, putting an end to months of speculation over a potential tie-up that stands to unsettle the German banking landscape.
While the move has been touted as a route to greater profitability for the troubled lenders, unions have warned that the merger could put up to 30,000 jobs at risk.
Continue reading...Gender-specific “Frauenticket” will be 21% cheaper than usual and available on 18 March in stunt to flag German pay gap
Women travelling on Berlin’s metro, buses or trams will pay 21% less than men next Monday in a stunt to boost the visibility of Germany’s gaping gender pay gap.
The city’s public transport operator, BVG, said its “Frauenticket” will be available on 18 March only, to mark Equal Pay Day in Germany. Under the slogan “Mind the pay gap”, it said its cut-price ticket was intended to flag the 21% difference between men and women’s average earnings, one of the biggest gender pay gaps in Europe.
Continue reading...Open letter hits back at demand for more gender-neutral nouns
A group of German authors, comedians and academics have added fuel to the flames of an increasingly bad-tempered culture war over language bias by calling for a fightback against “ridiculous linguistic constructions” designed to make German more gender-neutral.
In an open letter published by the Dortmund-based German Language Association, signatories including the philosopher Rüdiger Safranski, novelist Peter Schneider, comedian Dieter Hallervorden and the former head of the country’s domestic intelligence Hans-Georg Maassen, hit back against calls for more gender-neutral generic nouns.
Continue reading...Nicolás Maduro’s administration accuses Daniel Kriener of ‘crass’ and ‘unlawful’ meddling in Venezuelan affairs
Nicolás Maduro’s embattled government has declared the German ambassador persona non grata and ordered him to leave the country within 48 hours as Venezuela’s political crisis intensified on Wednesday.
The decision to expel Daniel Kriener – who has been based in Caracas since last year – was announced on Twitter by Venezuela’s foreign minister, Jorge Arreaza.
Continue reading...Ninety years ago, a harrowing account of warfare in the first world war was brought to an international audience by German veteran Erich Maria Remarque
All Quiet on the Western Front tells the story of Paul Bäumer, a young German soldier fighting on the western front during the first world war. Bäumer and several of his friends join the army voluntarily after listening to the patriotic speeches of their teacher, but soon become disillusioned after experiencing the horrors of the battlefield.
After being serialised in 1928 in the German newspaper Vossische Zeitunghe, Erich Maria Remarque’s book was first published on 31 January 1929, and instantly became a bestseller. In March 1929 it was translated into English and the following year was adapted into an Oscar winning Hollywood film. All Quiet’s sense of empathy for a putative enemy did not find favour with the German Nazi party and in December 1930 filmgoers were attacked at several early showings of the movie in Germany. When the Nazis came to power in 1933, the book was banned, along with the rest of Remarque’s works, and it became one of the most common books destroyed in the infamous Nazi book burnings.
Continue reading...Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer criticised for ‘disrespectful’ comment at carnival event
She was sold as a “mini Merkel”, a centrist in the same liberal mould as her predecessor as leader of Germany’s Christian Democratic Union. But Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer has worked hard to court the conservative wing of her party since taking the top job, leading to controversy over comments she made about gender-neutral bathrooms.
Entertaining an audience at a carnival event in Baden-Württemberg last Thursday, Kramp-Karrenbauer – who was voted “Miss Homophobia 2018” by an LGBT group last year – said such bathrooms were “for the men who don’t know if they are still allowed to stand or already have to sit down when they pee”.
Continue reading...EU negotiator frustrated at UK demands over Irish backstop but is considering adjunct to deal
Michel Barnier has told EU ambassadors that he is having to repeatedly rebut British demands for a time limit on the Irish backstop but that he is working on a legal add-on to the Brexit deal to help the prime minister.
During a meeting on Friday in Brussels, the EU’s chief negotiator expressed frustration with the British demands after the latest round of talks. “The UK side keeps on insisting on the same two things,” one EU diplomat said following Barnier’s briefing after the latest week of talks. “And we keep on explaining why it won’t happen.”
Continue reading...Mounir el Motassadeq flew to Morrocco with envelope containing thousands of euros
German prosecutors have launched an investigation into why a Moroccan man convicted of assisting the 9/11 suicide plotters was allowed to leave Germany with an envelope containing thousands of euros in cash.
Mounir el Motassadeq who was deported from Germany in October, having served 15 years in prison for his role in the plot as a member of a terror organisation, was handed the payment of €7,000 – the wages accumulated for the prison work he did, plus a monthly allowance of around €30 – before leaving the country.
Continue reading...A team of volunteer firefighters were called to the scene of an unusual emergency in the western German town of Bensheim-Auerbach on Sunday after an oversized rat was found wedged halfway through a manhole cover
Continue reading...Overweight rodent found itself in trouble after it tried to squeeze through a small gap in a sewer cover
A multi-agency rescue operation has taken place in the town of Bensheim in Germany after a tubby rat became stuck in a manhole cover.
The rat, still plump with winterspeck – which translates literally as winter bacon and refers to extra pounds piled on in the colder months – became stuck after it tried to squeeze through a small gap in the sewer cover.
Continue reading...Concerns had been raised over project increasing German reliance on Russian energy
Donald Tusk, the president of the European council, called it a mistake, while the US president, Donald Trump, has branded it very inappropriate and a “very bad thing for Nato”.
The Nord Stream 2 pipeline to take Russian gas to Germany is arguably Europe’s most controversial energy project, drawing opposition from Ukraine, which it will bypass, and uniting the US, eastern EU states, and the European Commission which fears it will undermine the bloc’s ‘energy union’ plans.
Continue reading...Belgian parliament asks Berlin to stop payments to non-Germans who pledged allegiance to Hitler
Nearly 75 years after the second world war, Germany is still paying monthly pensions to collaborators of the wartime Nazi regime in several European countries including Belgium and Britain, according to Belgian MPs and media reports.
The foreign affairs committee of the Belgian parliament this week voted in favour of a resolution urging the German federal government to put an immediate stop to the payments and publish a full list of those receiving them.
Continue reading...UK foreign secretary visits Berlin after raising concerns about impact of moratorium
Jeremy Hunt, the British foreign secretary, will visit Berlin on Wednesday after urging Germany to exempt big defence projects from its efforts to halt arms sales to Saudi Arabia, or face damage to both its economic and European credentials.
Related: UK's arms export supervisor attacks NGOs over Yemen deaths
Continue reading...Germany will put fighters on trial, while Hungary says they should not be allowed back
Donald Trump’s demand that Germany, France and Britain repatriate and prosecute their citizens fighting in Syria has met a mixed response in Europe as countries baulk at the difficulties involved in taking back hundreds of alleged jihadis.
Germany pledged on Monday to put its foreign fighters on trial, but warned their repatriation would be “extremely difficult”, while France said it would not act for now on Trump’s call but would take militants back on a “case-by-case” basis.
Continue reading...EU regulations outlaw killing of wolves unless people are in danger or there is ‘no satisfactory alternative’
More than a century ago, wolves were hunted to extinction in Germany. These days, they’re back – and their presence is a source of political strife.
Wolf attacks on livestock increased drastically in 2017, according to government statistics released at the weekend: they carried out 472 attacks, an increase of 66% over the previous year. The number of killed, injured or missing livestock – mostly sheep and goats – rose 55%, to 1,667.
Continue reading...‘Homosexuality is not an illness,’ says health minister Jens Spahn
The German health minister, Jens Spahn, has said that he will seek to ban “conversion therapies” that claim to change sexual orientation. “Homosexuality is not an illness, which is why it does not need to be treated,” Spahn, who is gay himself, told the left-leaning Berlin daily Die Tageszeitung.
Related: ‘I still have flashbacks’: the ‘global epidemic’ of LGBT conversion therapy
Continue reading...Company says move is a precaution in case WTO tariffs apply to EU-UK trade
Porsche is asking British customers to sign a contract committing them to pay a surcharge of up to 10% of their vehicles’ purchase price if there is a no-deal Brexit.
Cars made in Europe could attract tariffs of 10% if imported to the UK under the terms of the World Trade Organization, the default trading relationship if the UK and the EU are unable to agree a transition period before 29 March.
Continue reading...Defence minister’s comments at Munich conference reflect deepening transatlantic rift
The Nato alliance is about decency and dependability, not just cash and contributions, Germany’s defence minister has said in a rebuke to Donald Trump over his insistence that European countries rapidly increase their defence spending.
Ursula von der Leyen told a gathering of defence ministers in Munich the alliance was about fairness in collective decision-making, and not just during military missions.
Continue reading...France reports 74% rise in offences against Jews and Germany records 60% surge in violent attacks
Antisemitism is rising sharply across Europe, experts have said, as France reported a 74% increase in the number of offences against Jews last year and Germany said the number of violent antisemitic attacks had surged by more than 60%.
Related: Hungary tells UK Jewish group to 'mind its own business' over antisemitism
Continue reading...Activist honoured decades after she was photographed fleeing naked in Vietnam war
Kim Phuc, known as the “napalm girl” after a well-known photo of her from the Vietnam war, has received an award in Germany for her work for peace.
Organisers of the Dresden prize say the 55-year-old, who lives in Canada, is being honoured for her support of Unesco and children wounded in war, and for speaking out against violence and hatred. She received €10,000 (£8,800).
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