Germany
What the rise of the AfD means for Germany
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
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
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
‘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
‘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
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
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
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
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
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?
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
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
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
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
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
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
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?
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
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
Nick Lloyd reinforces Churchill’s sentiment that the first world war in the East was ‘one of the most frightful misfortunes to befall mankind’
Passchendaele all over again
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
Teutonic shift
The love affair between Britain and Germany is over
Across Europe by train
I found Jean-Pierre standing at a half-open window gulping down lungfuls of stale Dutch air as our night train chuntered,…
The price of populism
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
An unlikely political star has risen in Germany. Boris Pistorius, a 63-year-old father of two is a career politician and,…
