Tag: Germany

Volkswagen Weathers Pandemic With $10.7 Billion Profit

FRANKFURT, Germany—Volkswagen said Friday it made a better than expected profit of €8.8 billion ($10.7 billion) after tax in 2020 despite the pandemic. The world’s No. 2 automaker said the rapid recovery of China, its largest single market, and resilient sales of luxury vehicles helped the bottom line. The company gave an upbeat outlook for…


US Removes Man Who Served as Concentration Camp Guard in Nazi Germany

The United States on Friday kicked out a man who served as a concentration camp guard in Germany in 1945. Tennessee resident Friedrich Karl Berger, 95, was removed to Germany, according to the U.S. Department of Justice. A police spokesman told Reuters that the man, who authorities say lived in the United States since 1959,…


Vodafone Germany Suspends China TV From Cable

BERLIN—Vodafone Germany has had to stop distributing China’s state-owned CGTN television on its cable services as a result of a media row between Britain and China. The unit of British telecoms group Vodafone said on Friday it hoped to restore CGTN to its services, but that it currently did not have a valid license to…


Commerzbank CEO Finalizes Plans to Cut 10,000 Jobs, Close Branches

FRANKFURT—Commerzbank Chief Executive Manfred Knof on Feb. 3 finalized plans to cut 10,000 jobs and close hundreds of branches, a radical overhaul that came a month after he took the reins of Germany’s No. 2 bank. The bank also announced that it would post a net loss of nearly 2.9 billion euros ($3.5 billion) for…


German Regulators Seize $60 Million in Bitcoin but Fail to Find out Password

FRANKFURT—German prosecutors have confiscated more than 50 million euros ($60 million) worth of bitcoin from a fraudster, but they can’t unlock the money because he won’t give them the password. The man was sentenced to jail and has since served his term, maintaining his silence throughout while police made repeated failed efforts to crack the…


Secretary to Nazi Camp Commandant Charged With 10,000 Counts of Accessory Murder: Prosecutors

German prosecutors have charged the elderly secretary of the former SS commandant of Stutthof with 10,000 counts of accessory to murder.


Snow Melt, Rain Causing Widespread Flooding in Germany

BERLIN—Rivers around Germany continued to swell Thursday, fed by melting snow and regular rain and leading to widespread flooding and disruptions to shipping traffic. Residents in the eastern community of Burkhardtsdorf in Saxony, not far from the Czech Republic border, built sandbag barricades outside their homes as the Zwoenitz river that runs through the town…


Supreme Court: Descendants May Not Sue in US for Property Seized by Nazis

The heirs of art dealers whose property was taken in Nazi-era Germany cannot pursue lawsuits seeking compensation from the government of that country in the courts of the United States, the Supreme Court ruled unanimously Feb. 3. The ruling was a victory for the Trump administration, now out of power, which had opposed that legal stance,…


Germany Extends Existing Lockdown Until February

Germany will extend its ongoing lockdown measures until Feb. 14 amid fears of a new virus variant and continued attempts to bring infection rates down. The existing lockdown was supposed to expire at the end of the month. German Chancellor Angela Merkel met with the country’s state leaders on Jan. 19 to keep most “non-essential”…


German Lockdown Loopholes Criticized as Deaths Hit New High

Germany has too many loopholes in its coronavirus lockdown rules, the head of the country’s disease control agency said as figures published Thursday showed the highest number of daily deaths since the start of the pandemic. The Robert Koch Institute said 1,244 deaths from COVID-19 were confirmed in one day up to Thursday, taking the…