Germany

Germany’s Bundeswehr bears no resemblance to an actual army

31 May 2025 9:00 am

Confusion abounded this week when the new German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said that Ukraine could use western missiles to hit…

Texas is the perfect holiday destination

3 May 2025 9:00 am

Business travel isn’t quite the perk it is cracked up to be. For one thing, you have no say about…

Orphans of war: Once the Deed is Done, by Rachel Seiffert, reviewed

3 May 2025 9:00 am

Interlinked stories of displaced children in Germany in 1945 capture this devastating moment in history. But amid the pain and trauma there is hope and resilience, too

Can German cars survive Donald Trump?

30 March 2025 4:30 pm

In 2003, Donald Trump took delivery of a Mercedes-Benz SLR McLaren, a $450,000 German supercar that blended precision engineering with…

Portrait of the week: Foreign aid cut, Pope in hospital and King pulls a pint

1 March 2025 9:00 am

Home Before flying to Washington, Sir Keir Starmer, the Prime Minister, said: ‘We have to be ready to play our…

What Europe gets wrong about the far right

1 March 2025 9:00 am

The head of America’s ‘Department of Government Efficiency’ (Doge) has written to all federal workers in the US asking them…

What the rise of the AfD means for Germany

22 February 2025 9:00 am

In the Thuringian city of Weimar, opposite the theatre where the National Assembly hashed out Germany’s constitution in 1918, stands…

Letters: The brilliant uselessness of art

22 February 2025 9:00 am

Wonderfully useless Sir: Michael Simmons overlooks some scandalous examples of frivolous funding right under his nose (‘Waste land’, 15 February).…

Letters: The real value of independent schools

15 February 2025 9:00 am

Strength of service Sir: Matthew Lynn and Steven Bailey (Letters, 1 February) are quite wrong to deplore the decline of…

The AfD’s moment has arrived

8 February 2025 9:00 am

‘The firewall has fallen!’ Alice Weidel, co-leader of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD), posted on X, barely able to…

‘I am the German Donald Trump’: an interview with the AfD’s Maximilian Krah

8 February 2025 9:00 am

‘My knife is at your throat,’ says a Turkish barber, wielding a razor blade around Maximilian Krah’s face. Krah, one…

Don’t believe the ‘Believe Her’ movement

1 February 2025 9:00 am

I never expected to have strong feelings for a member of Germany’s Green party, but I really do feel extremely…

Why I’m voting for the AfD

11 January 2025 9:00 am

On 23 February, I will vote for the Alternative for Deutschland (AfD) party in the German general election. As someone…

In defence of first past the post

7 December 2024 9:00 am

Here comes a new law in political science: Joe’s Law. As I write, the Republic of Ireland is still working…

Two forgotten men brought down the Berlin Wall

9 November 2024 8:44 pm

Here in Berlin, 35 years ago today, at a dull press conference in a dreary conference room a short walk…

Few rulers can have rejoiced in a less appropriate sobriquet than Augustus the Strong

5 October 2024 9:00 am

The 17th-century Elector of Saxony was notoriously vain and incompetent, and his reckless bid for the Polish crown was disastrous for all concerned

Will AfD voters ever return to the mainstream?

23 September 2024 7:56 pm

For the second time in three weeks, the Alternative for Germany party (AfD) has received a significant percentage of the…

Olaf Scholz has won a hollow victory in Brandenburg’s state elections

23 September 2024 5:03 pm

In what will surely come as a relief to the German chancellor Olaf Scholz, his SPD party has won this…

The wonder of wine from the Mosel

14 September 2024 9:00 am

Conservatives used to be good at inspiring a mass membership, underpinned by organisations. Before the first world war, the Primrose…

How to manage migration like the Swedish

14 September 2024 9:00 am

In the end, the German state of Thuringia did not fall into the hands of the far-right Alternative für Deutschland…

John Healey’s ‘joint declaration’ with Germany is pure waffle

25 July 2024 6:21 pm

The new cabinet cannot be accused of laziness. John Healey, secretary of state for defence, has just been on a…

I lost to Harry Kane at darts

29 June 2024 9:00 am

Gareth Southgate has always been a man interested in life outside the football circus. When he played for England, I…

Agent Zo: the Polish blonde with nerves of steel

18 May 2024 9:00 am

Clare Mulley celebrates the courage of Elzbieta Zawacka, who repeatedly risked her life in the second world war liaising between London and the Polish Resistance

Why were Germany’s Covid files redacted?

27 April 2024 9:00 am

There are two kinds of long Covid. One is a medical syndrome, the other manifests as a healthy obsession –…