Free Republic

Germany's governing coalition partners want to change the constitution to allow for military deployment within the country if needed to combat terrorism, officials said Monday. The proposal would allow use of the military only if police are overwhelmed and cannot properly respond to a situation themselves. "It is not to be used generally, but only in very specific cases," Interior Ministry spokeswoman Daniela-Alexandra Pietsch said. The center-left Social Democratic Party - which makes up half of Chancellor Angela Merkel's coalition - had been opposed to the proposal but agreed late Sunday after working out an agreement that includes strict guidelines...

Germany said on Sunday it would guarantee all private German bank accounts – currently worth €568bn – in a dramatic move to prevent panic withdrawals as fears over the worldwide financial crisis spread to Europe’s largest economy. “We want to tell people that their savings are safe,” Angela Merkel, chancellor, said at an unscheduled press conference on Sunday. The scheme would cover existing accounts and others which savers might open. German government officials also late on Sunday said the country’s commercial banks had agreed to inject an extra €15bn of liquidity into Hypo Real Estate, the ailing German mortgage and...

We face extreme danger. Unless there is immediate intervention on every front by all the major powers acting in concert, we risk a disintegration of global finance within days. Nobody will be spared, unless they own gold bars. Investors will learn today whether the Paulson bail-out - fattened to $850bn (£480bn) by Congress - can begin to halt the death spiral in the credit system. So far, the response looks terrible. Germany is now in the hot seat. The collapse of a rescue deal for Hypo Real Estate on Saturday threatens a €400bn (£311bn) bankruptcy that nearly matches the Lehman...

A wave of nostalgia for the former GDR is sweeping parts of Berlin. Eighteen years after reunification, knowledge of the communist regime is fading, and its most unpleasant aspects are beginning to be glossed over. 18 years after German reunification, the Wall that once divided the country in two has all but vanished. In Eastern Berlin, memories of the former communist state remain vivid – as evidenced in one local pub. The bar's sign, which reads "come to us or we will come to you," is a slogan once used by the East German secret police. The interior is decorated...

Russia and Germany on Thursday moved to restore close bilateral relations after tensions in the Georgia conflict by endorsing a significant gas exploration deal between two of the countries’ key energy players. Angela Merkel, German chancellor, speaking after talks in St Petersburg with Russian president Dmitry Medvedev, said there had not been a “chill” in relations with Moscow, although she did repeat that Russia’s August incursion into two Georgian enclaves had been “unacceptable”. Mr Medvedev, who in August said that Russia was “not afraid of a new cold war” over Georgia, was conciliatory, saying: “In my view, nothing dramatic happened,...

World War II tunnel digger John Fancy whose actions inspired the film the Great Escape, has died. Just nine months after the beginning of hostilities in the WWII, the young and dashing RAF observer was shot down. His Blenheim bomber had just successfully hit its target in the Ardennes when he came under heavy fire from German anti-aircraft positions on 14 May 1940. Within moments the aircraft had ditched.

A NEW study claims no more than 25,000 people were killed in the massive Allied bombing of Dresden in the Second World War – far fewer than many scholars have believed. Four years of research being carried out by a team of historians and academics has cast doubt on previous claims that up to 135,000 may have lost their lives in the eastern German city over two days in 1945. The bombing of Dresden became arugably the most controversial operation carried out by British and US forces during the Second World War as it involved creating firestorms by dropping incendiary...

Today, 5,000 left-wing demonstrators – self-proclaimed “anti-fascists” – prevented a peaceful gathering on Heumarkt in downtown Cologne of opponents of the Islamisation of Europe. The gathering had been planned by Pro Cologne, a conservative political party which is opposing the building of a giant mosque in the city, the fourth largest town in Germany. The mosque is to have a dome 37 meters high and two minaret stretching up 55 meters. It is being built by the Cologne branch of the department of religious affairs of Turkey, which reports directly to the Prime Minister of Turkey. Pro Cologne had invited...

German police boarded a Dutch airliner at Cologne airport and arrested two men suspected of planning to take part in terrorist attacks, a spokesman said

German commandos storm KLM airliner arresting two suspected 'terrorists' - local media. More soon.

The US government is buying bad debt for $700 billion. Now Washington is asking other countries to jump in and help, too, but the Germans are bowing out. Believing that the rescue package sends the wrong signal, experts from the country's leading economics think tanks argue it's the right call.It's not a call for assistance; it's a scream for help. US Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson is asking other countries to help buy up bad US debt. The US government is putting up $700 billion in taxpayer money in the hopes that the measure might restore stability in the financial system....

German economists endorse the government's refusal to buy up bad U.S. debt, saying it would reward reckless investment behavior --- SNIP Economics experts think that's the right response. As they see it, in the long run, those responsible for the crisis—who have been cashed out with high salaries and bonuses for years—will not be penalized for billions "but will be let off the hook like everyone else," says Carsten Meier of the Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW). According to Meier, by injecting capital into the market, the US government is putting everyone who speculated and lost back on...

Munich mayor Christian Ude opened the 175th Oktoberfest beer festival with the traditional cry of "O' zapft is!" meaning "It's tapped!"

Cologne - Far-left protesters set up the first road blocks in Cologne to prevent a scheduled far-right anti-Islam rally in the city on Saturday. Elsewhere in the city, police secured access to the site where the demonstration is planned. However, the scene was dominated by peaceful demonstrators streaming into the city in large numbers to protest against the right-wing rally. Several hundred police forces were deployed across the city ahead of the controversial "Anti-Islam Conference" organized by a city group, Pro Cologne. Pro Cologne which won 5 per cent of votes at the last city-council elections, has invited 1,000 to...

A German far right group has stirred Muslim anger worldwide by holding a three-day "Anti-Islamisation Conference" to protest against the construction of mosques and Muslim immigration. Prominent members of Europe's far right, including French "Front National" leader Jean-Marie le Pen and Belgian far-right politician Filip Dewinter, have said they will attend the meeting in Cologne which is aimed at forging a European alliance against "Islamisation." The conference will include a rally in the centre of Cologne tomorrow which police say could lead to clashes with left-wing groups that plan a counter-demonstration. Trade unions, churches and other groups have also announced...

Cologne, 19 Sept. (AKI) - Far-right protesters were gathering in the German city of Cologne this weekend to attend a three-day anti-Islamification congress" amid fears of possible clashes with Muslim minorities as well as German leftist groups. The anti-immigrant Pro-Cologne group has organised the event in protest at plans to build a grand mosque for the city's sizeable Muslim community. Trade unions and Muslim groups have organised a peaceful mass counter-demonstration in support of the building of the mosque. Over 3,000 police officers have been deployed to maintain peace and security in the otherwise tolerant city. The Pro-Cologne group has...

HEIDELBERG, Germany, Sept. 19, 2008 – Though he’s never regretted joining the Army, a soldier here said, his decision never felt more right than when he faced the greatest challenge of his life: battling cancer. It’s been almost nine years since Army doctors found a grapefruit-sized tumor growing in Sgt. 1st Class James Jordan’s chest. He was 33 then and stationed in South Korea. Today, Jordan has survived two bouts with cancer and is planning a long career before retiring from the Army. "I love the Army," said Jordan, a senior paralegal for the Europe Regional Medical Command judge advocate...

Prime Minister Vladimir Putin met with former German Chancellor Gerhard Schroder a week after a U.S. diplomat criticized a planned Gazprom gas pipeline under the Baltic Sea. Putin received Schroder, who chairs the Nord Stream pipeline project, and Gazprom chief executive Alexei Miller at the Black Sea resort of Sochi on Thursday, state-run broadcaster Vesti-24 reported. Nord Stream, which Gazprom plans to build with Wintershall, E.On Ruhrgas and Nederlandse Gasunie, will supply consumers in Germany, France, Britain, the Netherlands and Denmark, Putin said. Other partners in the project may still be considered, he added. Last week, U.S. Ambassador to Sweden...

COLOGNE is bracing for violence as far Right supporters from all over Europe gather for an "anti-Islamification congress". Those attending the event starting today in the west German city include Filip Dewinter, head of Belgium's far Right Vlaams Belang party, and Andreas Moelzer, the Euro MP once ejected from Austria's Freedom Party for being too extreme. Also adding his support to what organisers call Europe's "shared, 1000-year history", identity and "Western values and Christian traditions" will be Mario Borghezio, from Italy's anti-immigration Northern League. The rally is being organised by the far Right Pro-Koeln (For Cologne), which says that "half...

Cologne bracing for anti-mosque demo 18/09/2008 00:00 Officials expect 1,500 right-wingers from around Europe to attend – plus 40,000 leftist opponents. Cologne, Germany -- An anti-mosque demonstration on Friday in Germany is likely to attract 1,500 right-wingers from around Europe, according to an organizer, Markus Beisicht as fears grew of violent clashes. Riot police throughout North-Rhine Westphalia state have been put on standby to separate the right-wingers from up to 40,000 opponents. The two groups are at odds over the start of building work for Cologne's grand mosque. The right-wing Pro Cologne group rejects the house of worship for the...

DRESDEN: Adopting a strong, at times passionate, pro-Russian stance, the former German chancellor Gerhard Schröder has roundly criticized the United States on several fronts, warning NATO against offering membership to Georgia and opposing Pentagon plans to base its anti-ballistic missile shield in Eastern Europe. In a 40-minute speech to a large gathering of Russian and German business executives Tuesday night, Schröder covered German, European and Russian politics, but omitted even the customary reference to the importance of the trans-Atlantic relationship. Schröder, now an executive on the payroll of a Russian-German energy consortium dominated by Gazprom, the Russian state-owned energy monopoly,...

Advanced Patriot missile defense systems from Germany have been deployed on South Korean Air Force bases and unidentified locations nationwide, in an apparent move to counter the increasing threat of North Korean missiles, a military source said Tuesday. The deployment of upgraded Patriot Advanced Capability-2 (PAC-2) systems is a core part of Seoul's plan to build an independent theater missile defense shield, dubbed the Korean air and missile defense (KAMD) network system. The KAMD, also involving Aegis destroyer ship-to-air missile defense systems, is designed to intercept low-flying, short- and medium-range missiles from North Korea. The North is believed to have...

A GERMAN teenager accused of engraving a swastika into her hip and blaming the injury on right-wing militants has gone on trial in eastern Germany. The 18-year-old, known only as Rebecca K., had last year been hailed as a local hero when she reported saving a five-year-old from being pushed and shoved by four neo-Nazi youths, risking her own safety and subsequently being attacked herself. ... "We have often had cases where individuals fake a chargeable offence, but this one is extraordinary," said Lutz Hasselmann, spokesman for the district court of Hainichen, near the eastern city of Chemnitz.

Many German think that mosques which are bigger than churches are a provocation. This according to a debate which has started up again, after authorities gave their permission to the building of one of Europe's largest mosques in the city of Cologne. While Cologne's conservative mayor, Fritz Schramma, strongly defends the buildings, his own party members have decided to oppose the projects, because they regard the building as a show of force from the side of the Muslims. The mosque, which will be in the Ehrenfeld neighborhood, is so large it will be the most dominating building in the area....

Berlin - The German Foreign Ministry presented an official protest to the US embassy in Berlin, expressing annoyance at comments by the US ambassador to Sweden that criticized a joint German-Russian Baltic Sea gas pipeline, according to an early edition of a leading German newspaper available Thursday. According to the Friday issue of the daily Handelsblatt, a senior German Foreign Ministry official presented an official protest to the US embassy in Berlin about an op-ed piece written by US ambassador to Sweden, Michael M Wood, that was published in a Stockholm newspaper. Citing the example of Russian-energy consumer Ukraine, the...

Cologne, Germany - An Islamic theology professor in Germany who doubts the existence of the Prophet Mohammed won partial backing Thursday from another German scholar. Professor Sven Muhammad Kalisch, who trains imams, had upset the Muslim community with publications in which he said there was no proof that the Prophet was a historical person or that the Koran originated as Islam teaches. Professor Gudrun Kraemer, who teaches Islamic studies at the Free University of Berlin, said Thursday on German public radio she agreed there was no indubitable historical evidence of the Prophet's existence. Kalisch runs the Centre for Islamic Religious...

One day after Germany's Social Democrats leaked the news that Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier would be the party's candidate for chancellor, SPD leader Kurt Beck resigned in frustration. Party bigwig Franz Müntefering may take over. For much of the last year, Germany's Social Democratic Party has been stumbling from crisis to crisis with plummeting membership and abysmal popularity. On Sunday, party leader Kurt Beck finally took the last move available to him: He stepped down. Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier announced Beck's decision from a SPD leadership retreat in the small town of Werder, located just outside of Berlin. Steinmeier said...

Below are the headlines by German Language press on Palin's speech: ___________________________________________________ Sarah Palin - Pitbull mit Lippenstift Sarah Palin, Pitbull with lipstickUS-Wahlkampf Die kühle Sarah Palin schießt gegen Kritiker zurück US Elections Wars: The collected (cool) Sarah Palin fires back at critics Sarah Palin: Konservative Wunderwaffe mit Risikopotential Sarah Palin: Super weapon carries some riskUS-Wahl: “Vize” Palin elektrifiziert Republikaner US Elections: "Vice" Palin electrifies the RepublicansAngriff der Hockey Mom (Attack of the Hockey Mom) Eine "Super-Mom" will US-Vizepräsidentin werden A super-mom wants to become the US Vice-PresidentSarah Palin – Wunderfrau aus der Wildnis Sarah Palin: Wonder woman from the...

Sarah Palin is a fresh-faced fishing and hunting wild card in the US presidential race. She just might be able to lure the media away from Obama. But can she attract enough voters from the Right to make up for those she might lose McCain in the Center? Who is Sarah Palin? More importantly, what does McCain's pick for vice president think or know about foreign policy? Even after her speech at Wednesday's Republican National Convention she remains both a mystery and a subject of intense curiosity. She is by turns characterized as a savior of the Republican party, an...

Crippled by record unpopularity and uncharismatic, rudderless leadership, Germany's oldest political party has erupted into open revolt over the hot-button issue of welfare reforms. SPD, Germany's major mainstream Leftwing party, pushed through controversial liberalising reforms several years ago under the chancellorship of Gerhard Schroeder. But the reforms, which made it easier to sack workers and reduced unemployment benefits, have now come back to haunt the party, with its leading left-wingers demanding centrist economic policies be scrapped. The SPD, which governs in a grand coalition with Chancellor Angela Merkel's CDU party, is currently at a historic low in polls. Since the...

A British amateur diplomat tried to stop World War II by offering Nazi Germany rule over Europe if the British Empire could rule the rest of the world, according to secret files declassified Sunday. James Lonsdale-Bryans, a well-educated fascist sympathiser, flew to Rome in the early days of the war to try to negotiate the deal with Ulrich von Hassell, the German ambassador to Italy. The Security Service files reveal that the Foreign Office was aware of what Lonsdale-Bryans was up to and their unease about his actions. "It would appear that Bryans may be taking part in unofficial discussions...

(Tried to do a literal translation, with minimal paraphrasing) SIE wird McCains Vize [She is McCain's running mate] John McCain hat seinen Kandidaten für das Amt des Vizepräsidenten gefunden: Es ist eine Frau. Und was für eine! [John McCain has found his candidate for Vice-President and he is a she. And what a lady!] Sarah Palin (44), die junge Gouverneurin des US-Bundesstaates Alaska, ist ein konservativer Hardliner. Und deswegen genau die Richtige für McCain. Vor allem die religiöse Rechte steht McCain nach wie vor skeptisch gegenüber. Und das soll Palin jetzt richten. [Sarah Palin, 44, the young Governor from the...

Can a nationalist found an empire? The United States of George W. Bush invaded Iraq in the name of democracy, though any representative Iraqi government would have to oppose a foreign occupation. Russia under Vladimir Putin tries to impose its will on Ukraine in the name of national self-determination, denying that Ukrainians are a separate people. The Chinese regime modernizes Tibet while expressing its own sense of national superiority. All of these are imperial policies by essentially nationalist regimes, and all of them spread nationalism around the world. Ukrainian national identity is ever more distinct. Tibetan protests spread from towns...

BERLIN: Europeans on Friday greeted Barack Obama's rousing acceptance of the U.S. Democratic nomination as a strong performance that boosted his campaign and went beyond a mere show to offer a clearer picture of what he might do as president. Polls from Germany — where Obama drew an audience of some 200,000 for a speech in Berlin last month — and elsewhere in Europe have shown him to be an overwhelming favorite over Republican rival John McCain amid wide discontent with incumbent U.S. President George W. Bush. Still, some have questioned whether a captivating style and promises of change are...

Just reading an email from a German friend of mine pointing out that Palin has English, Irish and German ancestry.

On August 25 Patrick Donahue of Bloomberg breathlessly informed us that a recent poll showed that Germans love Barack Obama. In a week where Obama's soft polling numbers with Americans who will do the actual voting, you'd be excused if you wondered who cared, but apparently Bloomberg thinks this Obama puffing "news" is worth reporting. It's more reason to be suspicious that the Old Media is in the tank for Barack Obama, in any case. This particular Bloomberg story has little substance and is centered on a population that cannot even vote for Obama in the first place. Interestingly, however,...

Gerhard Schroeder under fire after blaming Georgia for 'detonating' war with Russia Germany's former chancellor Gerhard Schroeder has been told he should "keep his mouth shut" after appearing to support Russia's invasion of Georgia. By Tony Paterson in Berlin Last Updated: 11:54PM BST 23 Aug 2008 The 64-year-old Social Democrat already has a reputation as a Kremlin apologist and was widely criticised for taking a £200,000 a year job with the Russian energy company Gazprom after he left office in 2005. Not only is he friends with the Russian premier and former president Vladimir Putin - whom he has referred...

German military attache found Russian response in Georgia 'appropriate' IANS Sunday 24th August, 2008 The German military attache in Moscow described the Russian military response in Georgia as 'appropriate' in an internal document, according to a report in the Sunday edition of the German newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ). 'The extent of the use of military force by the Russian side appears - seen from here and despite reports to the contrary from Georgia and the picture conveyed by the media - not inappropriately high,' Brigadier General Heinz G. Wagner wrote Aug 11. According to the report, the general said...

<p>German lawmakers embarrass their envoy in S.F. Phillip Matier,Andrew Ross Sunday, August 24, 2008 They came. They shopped. And they embarrassed the hell out of us.</p> <p>That was the reaction of the German consul general in San Francisco, Rolf Schütte, to a group of lawmakers from his homeland who recently traipsed through the city, leaving a lot of bad feelings in their wake after using a racial slur and choosing sightseeing and shopping over meetings with their U.S. counterparts.</p>

Berlin, Aug 24 (DPA) The German military attache in Moscow described the Russian military response in Georgia as 'appropriate' in an internal document, according to a report in the Sunday edition of the German newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ). 'The extent of the use of military force by the Russian side appears - seen from here and despite reports to the contrary from Georgia and the picture conveyed by the media - not inappropriately high,' Brigadier General Heinz G. Wagner wrote Aug 11. According to the report, the general said some three days after the outbreak of hostilities that Russia...

[Celebrity Chef]Jamie Oliver caused controversy last night by making an apparent reference to the Holocaust. The 33-year-old celebrity chef told a live audience how his Jamie’s Fowl Dinners show, about the treatment of intensively farmed chickens, was shown around the world. The Naked Chef presenter quipped that only German viewers had complained about the controversial scene in which a group of chicks was gassed in an example of cruel industry practices. Oliver, who campaigns for livestock welfare and healthier school meals, said: 'We had a lot of complaints about the gassing of chicks in Germany. 'It’s gone all around the...

Carl Maria von Weber, the early-19th-century German composer, wrote ten or so operas. But we know basically three of them, and those chiefly through their overtures, and a few arias. The operas I'm speaking of are "Der Freischütz," "Euryanthe," and "Oberon." The Salzburg Festival is performing the service of staging "Der Freischütz" this year. But it is staging it in a production that baldly subverts the opera — thereby canceling the service. "Der Freischütz" means "The Marksman," roughly, and it is a "singspiel" — an opera that combines singing and talking. It is a cousin of "The Abduction from the...

The movie - provisionally titled Inglorious Bastards and starring Brad Pitt - is said to be blood-curdling even by Tarantino's standards and includes one scene where a Nazi has his head bashed in with a baseball bat. Pitt's character Lieutenant Aldo Raine leads a group of American-Jewish soldiers who are dropped into Nazi-occupied Europe to wreak revenge on the Germans and destroy their morale. According to a leaked version of the script, the officer tells his men that they "owe" him one hundred Nazi scalps each which they should bring to him or die trying. Other scenes are said to...

TBILISI (AFP) — German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Sunday assured Georgia would join NATO as she strongly backed the ex-Soviet republic's President Mikheil Saakashvili in his conflict with Russia. "Georgia will become a member of NATO if it wants to -- and it does want to," she told reporters before talks with Saakashvili in Tbilisi. It was one of the strongest statements yet of support for Georgia's NATO membership bid, which is fiercely opposed by Russia. "We are on a clear road towards NATO membership (for Georgia)," she added at a later news conference.

TBILISI (AFP) – German Chancellor Angela Merkel said Sunday in the Georgian capital that the ex-Soviet republic, currently mired in conflict with Russia, will join NATO. "Georgia will become a member of NATO if it wants to -- and it does want to," she said before talks with President Mikheil Saakashvili in Tbilisi. It was one of the strongest statements yet of support for Georgia's NATO membership bid, which is fiercely opposed by Russia.

TBILISI, Georgia (AP) — German Chancellor Angela Merkel is offering strong support for Georgia, saying the country is on track to become a member of NATO.

Former Chancellor Gerhard Schröder has criticized Georgia for the war over South Ossetia, calling Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili a gambler, and warning against allowing the country to join NATO. In an interview with Der Spiegel magazine due out on Monday, Schröder said he thought Georgia’s chances of joining the transatlantic alliance had moved “even further into the distance,” following the fighting with Russian forces. Schröder’s comments are sure to be scrutinized due to his close personal and political friendship with former president and current Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, as well as his acceptance of a Gazprom job immediately after leaving...

German Chancellor Angela Merkel German chancellor Angela Merkel blunted - in advance - the big-power drive for sanctions to punish Iran for its nuclear defiance. When Iranian nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili faced the US, European Union, the UK, France, Russia, Geneva and China in Geneva on July 19, he knew that their two-week ultimatum for Tehran’s answer to their incentives offer could be sidestepped with impunity. DEBKAfile’s intelligence and Gulf sources report that a key sanction on the table was a ban on technology that would reduce Iran’s dependence on refined fuel products. However, as far back as February,...

The other half of the diplomatic pincer movement took place in Sochi, as the German Chancellor Angela Merkel used a pre-planned trip there to try to lean on the Russian president to withdraw his troops. The talks were short. Afterwards it appeared there had been no meeting of minds. Russia said it was too late to turn the clock back. “Nobody rejects the principle of territorial integrity as one of the fundamental principles of international law,” said Dmitri Medvedev. “But if we look at this concrete situation we see it is very complex. Unfortunately, after what has happened, the people...

TBILISI, Georgia, Aug. 14, 2008 – A U.S. Air Force C-17 Globemaster III transport jet departed Ramstein Air Base, Germany, and landed at Tbilisi International Airport here yesterday, delivering $1 million in humanitarian aid to reduce the suffering of the people of the former Soviet republic of Georgia. Air Force Staff Sgt. Chris Broegemueller, assigned to the 86th Airlift Wing's Contingency Response Group at Sembach Air Base, Germany, helps to push out the first of 16 pallets aboard a U.S. Air Force C-17 Globemaster III in Tbilisi, Georgia, Aug. 13, 2008. The humanitarian assistance delivery consisted of $1 million...