Category: Germany

German Boxing Champion Musa Yamak Dies After Suffering Heart Attack During Match

Musa Askan Yamak, a 38-year-old professional Turkish-born German boxer, died after suffering a suspected heart attack during a match in Munich on May 14, according to reports. Yamak collapsed in the ring on Saturday when he was in the middle of a fight facing Ugandan veteran Hamza Wandera, RT reported. He collapsed and fell unconscious on the…


German Prosecutors Seek 5 Years for Alleged Ex-Nazi Guard

BERLIN—German prosecutors on Tuesday sought a five-year prison sentence for a 101-year-old man who is on trial for his alleged role as a Nazi SS guard at a concentration camp during World War II. The defendant is charged with 3,518 counts of being an accessory to murder at the Sachsenhausen concentration camp, where he allegedly…


Germany’s Conservatives on Track to Win Key State Vote

BERLIN—Germany’s conservative CDU party was on track to win a regional election in North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) on Sunday, but the Green party could emerge as “kingmaker” in a potential coalition with Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s Social Democrats and the FDP. An exit poll by infratest dimap, published by broadcaster ARD, had the CDU taking 35.7 percent…


German Teen Detained in Suspected School Attack Plot

BERLIN—A 16-year-old student was detained in Germany for allegedly plotting an attack on a local secondary school in the western city of Essen after police seized weapons and bomb-making materials from his apartment, authorities said Thursday. An overnight search of the suspect’s apartment yielded bomb-making materials and large amounts of right-wing extremist, antisemitic and anti-Muslim…


German Inflation Hits Record High at 7.4 Percent, Driven by Price Increases in Food and Energy

Inflation levels in Germany reached their highest level in more than 40 years in April 2022, according to figures released on May 11 by the country’s Federal Statistical Office, also known as Destatis. Annual inflation grew 0.1 percentage point to 7.4 percent, up from 7.3 percent in March, marking the second month in a row of record…


France Emerging as the Great Power of Continental Europe

Commentary For all its domestic chaos in the lead-up to the June parliamentary elections, France has reemerged as the great power of continental Europe. The 2022 Russia-Ukraine military conflict and the prospect of further Russian military action in Moldova’s autonomous (and pro-Russian) Transdniestria region bordering Ukraine may have stirred a shared panic and fear in the…


Germany Seen Tipping Into Recession as Factory Output Suffers Sharp Drop: Economists

Germany may be tipping into a recession amid a sharp drop in industrial production as many German firms faced difficulties completing orders due to supply chain snarls caused by ongoing pandemic restrictions and the Ukraine war. Data released on May 6 by Germany’s Federal Statistics Office showed that industrial output fell 3.9 percent month-over-month in…


Munich: Where Thirst Is Worse Than Homesickness

Heading for the Hofbräuhaus in Munich, I mention to my Bavarian friend, Friedrich, that I’d love to give this venerable beer hall some significance in my guidebook description. Unconvinced that “significance” is worth seeking at a beer hall, he quotes Freud: “Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar.” Stepping through its stubby stone arcade, we…


German Regulator Imposes Tougher Rules on Facebook Owner Meta

BERLIN—Germany’s cartel office said that Meta Platforms Inc., the owner of Facebook, has “paramount significance for competition across markets,” a classification which gives the regulator more leeway to curb digital companies’ market power. Under legislation introduced by German lawmakers in early 2021, the cartel office can ban what it deems to be anti-competitive activities. Meta,…


Far Fewer German Companies Fearing for Survival: ifo Survey

BERLIN—The number of German companies fearing for their survival has fallen significantly, despite the economic risks posed by the war in Ukraine, a survey showed on Monday. The Ifo institute said that 7.1 percent of the nearly 8,500 companies surveyed feel their existence is threatened, almost half the proportion found in the last survey in January,…