Bookmarks (17) clear filters

Germany’s Green party has named its co-chair Annalena Baerbock as candidate for chancellor in autumn’s federal election, as the party rides high in the polls and Angela Merkel’s conservative bloc squabbles over its own choice to succeed her.Baerbock, 40, viewed as a tenacious, down-to earth centrist with an eye for ...

Stephan Ernst given life sentence for killing CDU’s Walter Lübcke in June 2019A German neo-Nazi has been jailed for life for the murder of Walter Lübcke, a pro-immigration politician with Angela Merkel’s CDU.Lübcke, a regional governor for the centre-right governing party, was shot in the head on the terrace of his home in Wolfhagen-Istha, near Kassel, on the night of 2 June 2019, in...

Communication aid was altered in 1934 because original version was deemed ‘too Jewish’Germany is to scrap its phonetic spelling table introduced by the Nazis 86 years ago and temporarily replace it with the version the regime abolished because it was “too Jewish”.The table, in which codewords are assigned to each letter of the alphabet to aid communication and avoid confusion, particularly in radio transmissions...

A car drove at high speed into a pedestrian zone in the south-western German city of Trier on Tuesday, killing four people, including a baby, and seriously injuring 15, officials said. The driver, identified as a 51-year-old German man from the area, was arrested at the scene. 'We see these pictures again and again on television, and we always think that this cannot happen...

Berlin’s large-scale raids link last year’s robbery to giant gold coin theft in 2017The break-ins were old-fashioned in their execution, the loot extravagant in value.Now investigators have concluded that the perpetrators behind two of the most spectacular heists in recent German history probably hail from the same organised crime syndicate. Continue reading...

Children aged between one and eight were found dead in beds in case that has shocked countryGerman prosecutors have said they will charge a 27-year-old woman with murder after five of her young children were found dead at their home in the western city of Solingen.Heribert Kaune-Gebhardt, a prosecutor in nearby Wuppertal, told reporters that postmortem examinations on the dead children between the ages...

Yves Rausch had been on the run after allegedly pulling gun on police last SundayGerman police have captured a heavily armed suspect accused of stealing officers’ weapons, after a six-day manhunt for the “Black Forest Rambo”.The man, named by police as Yves Rausch, had been on the run since last Sunday morning, after holding up four officers and stealing their firearms in what his...

Schools closed and people told to stay indoors as search for man in combat gear continuesPolice in south-west Germany are searching for a man in combat gear armed with a bow and arrow, a knife and a handgun who held up four police officers and stole their weapons.Schools, nurseries and lidos in the town of Oppenau, in Baden-Württemberg, are to stay closed and residents...

MPs from Merkel’s party had previously voted with far-right AfD to oust Bodo RamelowA leftwing governor has been returned to office in the eastern German state of Thuringia, a month after state MPs voted him out of the job with far-right support and shook up Germany’s politics at the national level.Bodo Ramelow of Die Linke won 42 votes in the 90-seat state legislature, enough...

CDU and FDP may abstain or be absent from vote over choice between far right and far leftConservatives and liberals in the eastern German state of Thuringia are preparing to abstain from or boycott the election for a new premier after the decision by a far-right populist party to put up its most controversial figurehead as a candidate.Björn Höcke announced his candidacy for Alternative...

SPD bucks national trend, while support for Merkel’s CDU drops to historic lowGermany’s centre-left parties consolidated their governing majority in state elections in the northern city of Hamburg on Sunday, while support for Angela Merkel’s conservatives dropped to a historic low and the far right crossed the threshold for entering parliament only by the narrowest of margins.The Social Democratic party (SPD) bucked the national...

Police arrest suspect after incident in Rot am See Six people have been killed and several injured in a shooting in the south-western German town of Rot am See, police have said.A suspect has been arrested and no further suspects are believed to be at large, police from the nearby town of Aalen said. Continue reading...

Pair standing for party leadership say support for Angela Merkel’s CDU should be conditional on more spendingGermany’s centre-left Social Democrats (SPD) should seek a path out of the “neoliberal wilderness” and pull the plug on their support for Angela Merkel’s government unless it loosens its purse strings and seeks more investment in public services and infrastructure, the underdog duo vying for the leadership of...

Jan Böhmermann says he will be ready by next contest to lead Social Democratic party – which he predicts will soonGermany’s leading television satirist has joined the Social Democratic party, weeks after announcing his ambitions to become its leader.Jan Böhmermann, who has a weekly programme on public broadcaster ZDF and is notorious for sparking diplomatic scandals, has missed the deadline for the current leadership...

Strange case has so far involved a fatal car crash and a politician administering roadside first aidGerman police have arrested a TV vet over the murder of his mother-in-law in an unusual case involving a fatal car crash and a high-profile politician administering roadside first aid.Last Sunday, shortly before 11 am, three vehicles were involved in a collision on the A3 motorway near Nuremberg,...

On 15 September 1981, 10-year-old Ursula Herrmann headed home by bike from her cousin’s house. She never arrived. So began one of Germany’s most notorious postwar criminal cases, which remains contentious to this dayIn the Alpine foothills in the far south of Germany is a vast lake called the Ammersee. Its shores are dotted with centuries-old villages where wealthy families from Munich buy large...

Woman rolled to safety but boy, eight, was struck by high-speed train, say police in FrankfurtAn eight-year-old boy has died after he and his mother were deliberately pushed on to train tracks at Frankfurt’s main railway station, German police have said.The boy was hit by a high-speed ICE train and killed instantly. His mother was able to roll into a safe gap between two...