Free Republic

-snip- It was also hard not to notice how much the chatter about books in Germany reveals nowadays about the mood in Germany. As in the United States, many of the books that have recently found their way to the top of German bestseller lists concern Sept. 11, 2001. Unlike those in the United States, many of them also argue that the Bush administration was responsible for Sept. 11. One book, by a former German government minister, argues that the planes that hit the World Trade Center may have been secretly steered from the ground. Another -- translated from the...

A STRING quartet struck up a jaunty tune. Waiters carried steaming plates of bratwurst. Germany might be experiencing its worst economic crisis since the end of the second world war, but a surprisingly festive air infused a gathering of conservative businessmen in Hanover last week. For the first time in more than a decade Lower Saxony, the home state and strong- hold of Chancellor Gerhard Schröder, risks falling to the conservative opposition in an election next month. Unthinkable only a few months ago, the result for which the local business community yearns would inflict a deep political wound on the...