The Local Germany

Treasure hunter facing jail time over golden find

Thu, 14 Aug 2014 14:40:00 +0200

A 23-year-old man who unearthed treasure worth up to €575,000 with a metal detector is facing embezzlement charges after trying to claim his windfall as his own.

German tourists like what they know

Tue, 23 Jul 2013 17:55:00 +0200

One in six Germans take their holidays at the same place every year, a new survey shows. Whether they reserve the same sun lounger each time around remains open to question.

German pair take gold in synchronized diving

Mon, 22 Jul 2013 10:25:00 +0200

Germany claimed a historic gold dive medal at the world aquatic championships, taking its first synchronized diving gold at a global championships and their first world diving title since 1973, in Barcelona on Sunday.

Six famous American quotes about Germany

Wed, 19 Jun 2013 10:44:00 +0200

President Barack Obama follows John F Kennedy and Ronald Reagan in his Berlin speech on Wednesday. Can he match being a Berliner or calling for Gorbachev to tear down that wall? The Local List has six other famous US quotes about Germany.

Law change kills 63-letter longest German word

Mon, 03 Jun 2013 12:40:00 +0200

Famous for making new, long words by sticking several existing ones together, the German language has lost its longest word, after a change in the law killed the mighty Rindfleischetikettierungsüberwachungsaufgabenübertragungsgesetz (beef labelling monitoring assessment assignment law).

Glass ceiling intact in most top German firms

Wed, 03 Apr 2013 09:25:00 +0200

Nearly 90 percent of all top jobs in Germany's publicly owned companies are occupied by men, prompting a women's manager group to complain of improvements coming in only "homeopathic" doses.

Police raid child abuse suspects nationwide

Tue, 26 Feb 2013 08:51:00 +0100

Police in Germany launched a nationwide raid targeting dozens of suspected child abusers, raiding the homes of around 40 people over the last few days, state officials announced on Tuesday.

Shrinking school pays €500 for new pupils

Mon, 25 Feb 2013 17:42:00 +0100

A struggling western German secondary school is reportedly paying €500 ($664) to parents to enroll their children, as Germany struggles with one of Europe's lowest birthrates.

'America may not see it but Obama's a visionary'

Mon, 05 Nov 2012 12:56:00 +0100

With most Germans hoping US President Barack Obama will be re-elected, the country is to see what happens on Tuesday. In a special-edition Zeitgeist, The Local asked what Berliners thought.

'Make German museums free to bring them to life'

Tue, 16 Oct 2012 12:24:00 +0200

While German officials talk about building new museums, they should first copy their British colleagues and open their collections to the people for free, says Matthias Thibaut, the Tagesspiegel newspaper’s London correspondent.

Thieves steal mummified liar's hand from church

Tue, 02 Oct 2012 13:16:00 +0200

Police are hunting thieves who stole a mummified hand from a church in western Germany, leaving the small congregation heartbroken over the loss of their popular relic which had been in a box for more than a century.

Liberals grit teeth ahead of May state election

Sat, 17 Mar 2012 15:34:00 +0100

Angela Merkel’s junior ruling coalition partner, the Free Democratic Party, is putting its best foot forward despite facing almost certain wipe-out in May's election in Germany’s most populous state.

Hundreds of thousands have no electricity

Wed, 22 Feb 2012 09:18:00 +0100

Hundreds of thousands of Germans are likely going without power simply because they can’t afford the bills, according to a North Rhine-Westphalian consumer organisation studying the problem.

Hamburg’s smoking ban goes up in smoke

Tue, 21 Feb 2012 13:34:00 +0100

Hamburg’s complicated smoking ban was ruled unconstitutional by Germany’s highest court on Tuesday, forcing the city state to devise a new regulation.

ThyssenKrupp books huge stainless steel hit

Fri, 02 Dec 2011 14:24:00 +0100

German industrial giant ThyssenKrupp said Friday it booked heavy losses in its business year just ended owing to massive €2.9 billion ($3.9 billion) in writedowns on its US and stainless steel businesses.

Bomb evacuation largest since World War II

Wed, 30 Nov 2011 08:04:00 +0100

The British WWII bomb discovered in Koblenz is causing an even bigger evacuation effort this week than when it and many others were dropped over the city in 1944, destroying nearly everything.

British WWII bomb forces evacuation of Koblenz

Mon, 28 Nov 2011 09:42:00 +0100

Plans are being made to evacuate nearly half the residents of Koblenz next weekend so that a 1.8 tonnes British WWII bomb found in the Rhine River can be defused. Two hospitals and a prison are within the evacuation zone.

Turkish, German or both? 'Guest worker' families have everything

Thu, 27 Oct 2011 09:49:00 +0200

Germany signed the "guest worker" agreement with Turkey 50 years ago which allowed companies to fill empty workplaces with Turks and changed the country forever. Süleyman Cözmez was one of the thousands who came - and and stayed.

Hamilton wins German Grand Prix

Sun, 24 Jul 2011 20:31:00 +0200

An emotional Lewis Hamilton produced one of the finest wins of his career on Sunday, when he confirmed McLaren's Formula One renaissance with a dazzling victory in the German Grand Prix.

Cyber-defence centre opens amid IT warning

Thu, 16 Jun 2011 11:00:00 +0200

Germany's Interior Minister Hans-Peter Friedrich warned of the danger of cyber attacks Thursday as he opened a special computer defence facility meant to thwart hackers and online terrorists.