Germany

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 –…

The circus provides perfect cover for espionage

27 April 2024 9:00 am

As he flew his plane between circus acts across Germany in the 1930s, Cyril Bertram Mills gained vital aerial intelligence about the Nazis’ rearmament programme

The horrors of the Eastern Front

30 March 2024 9:00 am

Nick Lloyd reinforces Churchill’s sentiment that the first world war in the East was ‘one of the most frightful misfortunes to befall mankind’

Fighting every inch of the way: the Italian Campaign of 1943

30 September 2023 9:00 am

When Allied forces landed at Salerno on 9 September, they expected an easy run to Rome. But the intelligence proved dangerously faulty, as James Holland explains

How the British intelligentsia fell out of love with Germany

19 August 2023 9:00 am

The love affair between Britain and Germany is over

You think British trains are bad? Try German ones

5 August 2023 9:00 am

I found Jean-Pierre standing at a half-open window gulping down lungfuls of stale Dutch air as our night train chuntered,…

What does the European centre-right stand for?

29 July 2023 9:00 am

Friedrich Merz, the leader of Germany’s Christian Democratic Union (CDU), dropped the bomb last weekend. In a TV interview, Merz…

The unlikely rise of Germany’s defence minister

9 July 2023 7:54 pm

An unlikely political star has risen in Germany. Boris Pistorius, a 63-year-old father of two is a career politician and,…

The Franco-Prussian war changed the map of Europe – so why are we so ignorant about it?

17 June 2023 9:00 am

Rachel Chrastil describes how Bismarck, relying on Gallic pride to provoke the war he wanted, ensured that France would fight without a single ally

Germany’s missteps in Ukraine have left Scholz fighting for his political life

17 January 2023 2:33 am

Difficult though it may be to believe, there is chaos at the top of the German government over its mishandling…

How the Queen helped to fix Germany

12 September 2022 5:30 pm

The Brandenburg Gate has often reflected the state of the German nation. Throughout the centuries, Berlin’s iconic landmark has been…

Green parties are facing a reality check

3 September 2022 9:00 am

How pleasant it is to watch an idea fall apart. Especially when it is an idea held by people you…

Is Germany afraid of China?

17 August 2022 6:30 pm

The German air force has taken off for its first deployment in the Indo-Pacific region. It will take part in…

Germany’s energy crisis is a warning to Britain

30 July 2022 9:00 am

During the eurozone crisis, southern European states had to go cap in hand to Germany to stave off national bankruptcy.…

Putin has Europe where he wants it

26 July 2022 3:22 am

Have we reached the endgame of Vladimir Putin’s energy war against the West, the point at which he turns off…

How Germany's energy crisis could hurt Britain

22 July 2022 4:00 pm

For now, Berlin can breathe a sigh of relief: after a ten-day shutdown for maintenance, the Nord Stream 1 pipeline…

East Germans still find it hard to see Russia as the enemy

2 July 2022 9:00 am

East Germans still find it hard to see Russia as the enemy

Cold war: Putin’s plan to hold Germany to ransom

2 July 2022 9:00 am

Can Germany’s solidarity with Ukraine survive the winter?

Germany is failing Ukraine

30 May 2022 11:20 pm

‘A giant step for German and European security,’ is how Chancellor Olaf Scholz described his government’s €100 billion cash injection…

Are sanctions making Russia richer?

28 May 2022 9:00 am

As oil prices surge, Putin’s billions are soaring

Sanction Gerhard Schröder

21 May 2022 9:00 am

From the start of the war in Ukraine, the democratic world has shown striking unity in the economic boycott of…

Olaf Scholz is tanking

16 May 2022 7:25 pm

North-Rhine Westphalia is Germany’s largest state, almost as large as the Netherlands. It was a traditional SPD fiefdom during the…

Merkel is turning into Blair

11 May 2022 9:30 pm

Angela Merkel left the German chancellery at the end of last year with a bunch of flowers, a standing ovation…

Germany’s wilful ignorance is hurting Ukraine

11 May 2022 1:00 am

Berlin, Germany Germans have a complex relationship with their Erinnerungskultur, or ‘culture of memory’. Whenever the word appears, it almost invariably…

The relentless march of Europe’s zombie centrists

26 April 2022 4:00 pm

Journalists rarely had it so easy as when it came to writing up the final result of the French presidential…