In a decision they may live to regret , the city airport authority said today that Berlin’s new airport will not be called Berlin-Brandenburg International Airport or BBI, as everyone has been calling it, but instead be called Willy Brandt airport.
This to honour the former West German chancellor and one time major of Berlin who was better known internationally for having built [...] Continue Reading…
The “Very-Long-Dong” is not a North Korean rocket, but rather a mural on the side of a Berlin office building.
Berlin artist Peter Lenk created the “mural” some months ago at the behest of the TAZ newspaper, as a “shot at the bow” so to speak and to mock the Bild, whose building is right across the street.
It is more specifically aimed at [...] Continue Reading…
To stop it falling into insolvency, the WestLB, based in Dusseldorf, will be the first German bank to use federal government aid.
A “Landesbank” is a German bank controlled by the regional state governments. The WestLB Bank is owned by the state government of North Rhine Westphalia and that state’s non-profit public savings banks.
It had at one time visions to become an international [...] Continue Reading…
A federal court in Germany has struck down rules allowing shops in Berlin to open all four Sundays before Christmas. It declared formerly approved Sunday shopping regulations as unconstitutional and thus handed the appealing churches a partial victory.
Stores in Germany are allowed to open only 4 Sundays per year- the local state or Lander determine which dates they wish to allocate.
In 2006 the city state of Berlin [...] Continue Reading…
The German cabinet Minister Franz Josef Jung, resigned today because of his “political responsibility” for the German military having withheld damning information on an Afghan airstrike which went terribly wrong and killed many civilians. In actual fact he misled the public.
Because dead people do not leave ID cards claiming they are/or are not members of the Taliban those supporting the military claim most [...] Continue Reading…
Germany – for what almost seems like the first time – has today publicly criticised Israeli plans to build settlements in the occupied West Bank. This a week before both countries’ leaders will meet in Berlin.
The modern Germany Federal Republic has a special bond with Israel and has always been extra careful to avoid any criticism of the country. The legacy of [...] Continue Reading…
The state court in Duisburg said prosecutors there have on Tuesday charged a 90-year-old former SS soldier with for the murder of 58 Jewish forced labourers near the town of Deutsch-Schuetzen in Austria on the last days of World War II.
The remains of the victims of the Deutsch Schuetzen massacre were found in 1995 in a mass grave by the Austrian Jewish [...] Continue Reading…
German low-fare carrier Air Berlin has indicated today, that the 2009 debt level it presently carries may be reduced by around EUR100 million if the company sells some of its aircraft before the end of the fiscal year.
It’s present debt is circa 550 million Euro, down from 760 million Euro at the same time in 2008.
Based in Berlin, the company reported net [...] Continue Reading…
A “reality-sandwich” was delivered to the German people earlier today by the leader of their government Angela Merkel. This after the last couple of days of euphoric international attention and celebration to commemorate the reunification of the two Germanys, 20 years ago. She did not mince her words when she addressed the German Parliament and gave a rather pessimistic review of the [...] Continue Reading…
The fall of the Berlin Wall was a positive event, but not all the hopes that arose after it came down were realized, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has told German media.
“The Berlin Wall was always a symbol of the division of Europe,” he said. “Its fall was seen as a continuation of the path to European unity.”
“The main thing is that the [...] Continue Reading…
Deutsche Bahn – known in Germany simply as Die Bahn or DB – the state-owned German national rail company is preparing itself for competition with its largest European rival the also French state-owned counterpart, the SNCF.
This comes after recent reports, from amongst others, Die Welt newspaper, that SNCF was intending to compete directly with DB on several city-pairs routes within Germany itself. [...] Continue Reading…
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