This week in history

Kaiser Wilhelm II. Photo: DPA

Kaiser Wilhelm II faces pan-European war

On December 8th 1912, Kaiser Wilhelm II summoned his senior officers to his palace in Potsdam to discuss how to deal with a war on two fronts against France, Britain and Russia. READ

17/10 How good are you at German history? »
05/08 How World War I changed Germany forever »
04/08 Gauck and Hollande mark WWI anniversary »

Rapeseed. Photo: DPA

Rapeseed spill causes oil slick on A8

A truck lost its load after a fire broke out on board on Thursday morning, dumping 25 tonnes of rapeseed on the A8 motorway and causing in a 15-kilometre traffic jam. READ

Budapest's Gellert Baths are usually home to much more wholesome activities. Photo: DPA

Salesmen's sex orgies find home in museum

Leipzig's Haus der Geschichte has included evidence from a case in which insurance salesmen were rewarded with an all-expenses paid sex trip to Budapest in an exhibition on changing sexual morals. READ

10/12 Expo fetes Berliner who put 007 in space »
27/11 Leipzig police seek testicle biter »
19/11 Bewigged robbers hit Aachen bank »

Spending-happy consumers are keeping the economy buoyant. Photo: DPA

Economists predict stronger growth in 2015

Economists at the Ifo Institute boosted their growth forecasts for 2015 in an opinion published on Thursday. READ

Ralph Giordano. Photo: DPA

Author and Holocaust survivor dies aged 91

Best-selling German author and Holocaust survivor Ralph Giordano, whose writing offered a moral compass for the nation in the post-war period, died Wednesday aged 91, his publisher said. READ

05/12 A very Weltkrieg Christmas »
02/12 Most-wanted Nazi dead, say Holocaust hunters »
24/11 Swiss museum accepts art looted by Nazis »

Tschüssi Wowi! Photo: DPA

'And that's a good thing': goodbye Wowereit!

A chapter in Berlin's political history has closed as long-time mayor Klaus Wowereit has stepped down and the city senate has elected Michael Müller to be the capital's new helmsman on Thursday. READ

Photo: DPA

Germans love EU but question free movement

A poll from YouGov released on Thursday showed that while Germans still believe in the European project, they share other nations' worries about free movement of workers. READ 11 comments

German soldiers on the original training mission. Photo: DPA

Germany wants to escalate Isis fight aid

The German parliament wants to up the ante in its mandate on Iraq in the fight against the terrorist political group Islamic Stata (Isis) and send armed members of the German national army (Bundeswehr) into the war zone, various media outlets reported on Thursday. READ

Photo: DPA

Weak demand for loans threatens ECB grief

The European Central Bank will again offer banks a chance to get cheap long-term loans on Thursday, but disappointing uptake could put it under pressure to find other ways of kickstarting the Eurozone's moribund economy. READ

Good luck with those 150,000 letters Santa! Photo: DPA

To Santa, care of Himmelpfort post office

It's last call for seasonal letters to Saint Nick's official German post office if you want to get a reply before you see what's under the tree this year. READ

Features

Fall of the Wall - 25 years

A mural of Schumann's and Meixner's escapes from East Berlin at the East Side Gallery. Photo: Nick Allen

Escaping of the 5,000 from East Berlin

They swam, crawled through sewers, flew in balloons, dug tunnels and rammed through the Berlin Wall. The courage and ingenuity of the 5,000 East German escapees later inspired novels, movies and one of the world’s longest tunnels. READ 5 comments

Opinion

Photo: DPA

'What next? A tourist tax on pavements?'

A road toll targeted at foreign drivers is a rare backward step for Germany. Anti-European, anti-open borders, anti-tourism; it is a terrible way to fill the black hole in the infrastructure budget, argues Tom Bristow. READ 21 comments

Fall of the Wall - 25 years

Ringing the bell to cross the Wall. Photo: Hendrik Pastor

Berlin Wall? Ring the bell and come through

More than 150 kilometres of concrete, wire and guard towers ringed West Berlin from 1961 to 1989. But it’s not easy to carve up a city - and construction of the Wall threw up many freak instances. READ 5 comments

Fall of the Wall - 25 years

David Hasselhoff signs a model Trabant in Berlin. Photo: DPA

East German retro: A slap in the face?

From spoof Communist comedy acts to Stasi bars, the GDR has generated a huge commercial culture since fall of the Berlin Wall. But is it disrespecting the East German regime's victims? READ 5 comments

JobTalk Germany

Not enough people to carry Germany's workforce. Photo: DPA

How to replace retiring baby boomers

German companies are battling labour shortages across all sectors thanks to the fast ageing population. From using robots, to immigration, to developing new job models, is there a solution? READ 9 comments

More News

Franz Gsell with his wife Tatjana. Photo: DPA

Two sentenced over death of plastic surgeon

A court in Nuremberg on Wednesday sentenced two men for causing the death of Nuremberg plastic surgeon Franz Gsell almost 12 years after they broke into and robbed his house. READ

The Davidwache police station in St. Pauli, Hamburg. Photo: DPA

Europe's smallest police precinct turns 100

Where blue lights meet red lights: The Davidwache by Hamburg's Reeperbahn is the country's most famous cop shop, immortalized in TV detective series and films, and is also a popular selfie snap location for visitors to the world-famous red light district. READ

Khalid al-Masri was abducted and abused for months by the CIA. Photo: DPA

CIA tortured German it mistook for a terrorist

A German citizen abducted and tortured by Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) agents in 2004 should never have been detained, a US Senate report published on Tuesday showed. READ 21 comments

Warning! Police checks will get you sooner or...later. Photo: DPA

Cops stop licence-less driver after 46 years

It took almost half a century, but police in Lower Saxony finally asked for a 77-year-old driver's papers this week - only to be duped one last time before he takes the rap. READ 4 comments

Photo: DPA

Teens put lid on binge drinking, report finds

Fewer teenagers are drinking enough to end up in hospital emergency rooms, figures from health insurers DAK showed on Wednesday. READ 2 comments

One of Adam's sets for the 1979 Bond movie "Moonraker". Photo: Danjaq, LLC and United Artists Corporation

Expo fetes Berliner who put 007 in space

A new exhibition in the German capital celebrates the set-building prowess of 93-year-old Sir Ken Adam, the Berlin-born designer who made volcanoes slide open and Fort Knox surrender its gold bullion. READ

Photo: DPA

Party like a German: 10 top tips

It's party season, and to help you seamlessly blend into German life and culture we've put together our top ten ways you can avoid embarrassment while you're keeping out the winter chill. READ 4 comments

Helge Achenbach arriving in court. Photo: DPA

Art dealer on trial for swindling Aldi heir

A German art dealer went on trial Tuesday accused of defrauding one of the country's richest families of tens of millions in the sales of paintings and vintage cars. READ

Trouble at the top? Photo: DPA

SPD leaders hit back at Merkel's record

Social Democratic Party (SPD) leader Sigmar Gabriel turned Angela Merkel's criticisms in her party conference speech back on her in media interviews on Wednesday. READ 2 comments

The main entrance to the underground work site. Photo: DPA

Bulldozer havoc at concentration camp site

Police in Saxony were on Tuesday searching for thieves who stole a bulldozer from a building site and crashed through a former concentration camp memorial site, causing thousands of euros worth of damage. READ

Read older articles »

From our other editions:

Photo: APA

House collapsing in Vienna shopping street

According to a police report on Saturday afternoon, a building at 178 Mariahilferstrasse has been evacuated due to risk of an imminent collapse. READ

Photo: AFP

Porn film spices up fare at McDonald's restaurant

McDonald’s is normally considered a safe place to bring children, so customers at one of the hamburger chain’s outlets in Switzerland were surprised over the weekend to see a porn film shown to diners on a large video screen. READ

Entrepreneurs in Denmark

Want to enter Copenhagen's startup scene? We talked to some key players to get their advice. Photo: Colourbox

How to get hired at a Copenhagen startup

The Local speaks to experts from the Copenhagen startup scene and beyond to find out how to get a job at a freshly-minted technology company. READ

Spanish police discovered a secret cocaine lab, the first of its kind to be found in the country. Photo: Guardia Civil

Spanish drugs cops bust 'Colombia-style' lab

12 people were arrested on Friday in the quiet Spanish town of Nijar as police seized 229 kilograms of cocaine as well as chemical equipment and firearms. READ

Demonstrators protest over the introduction of an ID card scheme for the homeless in Marseille. Photo: Anne-Christine Poujoulat/AFP

Outrage forces Marseille to bin yellow triangle IDs

France's second city Marseille has been forced to ditch a controversial initiative that saw homeless people handed ID cards adorned with yellow triangles prompting critics to accuse authorities of implementing a "Nazi-style" scheme. READ

The Local List

Spaghetti bolognese may be a classic 'Italian' dish abroad but you won't find it anywhere in Italy. Spaghetti bolognese: Shutterstock

Ten 'Italian' dishes that don't exist in Italy

Wherever you travel in the Western world, the chances are you’ll never be too far from a restaurant offering Italian food. But is it really Italian? Here, The Local speaks to an Italian food blogger and culinary tour guide - and dispels a few persistent food myths. READ

Paul Waaktaar-Savoy, Morten Harket and Magne Furuholmen of A-ha. Photo: Heiko Junge / NTB scanpix

A-ha! The Norwegian super-group is back!

One of Norway's most famous pop bands, A-ha, will reunite this summer for their 30th anniversary, the group announced on Thursday. READ

Election 2015

Fans of Sweden Democrat leader Jimmie Åkesson. Photo:TT

Support for nationalists swells in Sweden

The number of Swedes intending to vote for the anti-immigration Sweden Democrats has shot up according to a new poll by YouGov released on Monday. READ