https://feeds.thelocal.com/ Read the latest news and views from Germany in English en-us news@thelocal.com (TheLocal) webmaster@thelocal.com (TheLocal) TheLocal RSS Feed President Frank-Walter Steinmeier urged Germans to "defend democracy" on the 75th anniversary of the destruction of Dresden in World War II on Thursday, as the emboldened far right rattles the political establishment. https://www.thelocal.de/20200213/germans-urged-to-defend-democracy-75-years-after-dresdens-wwii-bombing Thu, 13 Feb 2020 17:34:01 +0100 germans-urged-to-defend-democracy-75-years-after-dresdens-wwii-bombing The destruction of Dresden in 1945 is still deeply rooted in Germany's memory. Even 75 years later, the struggle for neutral interpretation remains, and Neo-Nazis want to turn guilt to innocence. https://www.thelocal.de/20200211/germany-ruminates-75-years-after-dresdens-destruction Tue, 11 Feb 2020 16:17:21 +0100 germany-ruminates-75-years-after-dresdens-destruction German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier on Sunday asked Poland's forgiveness for history's bloodiest conflict during a ceremony in the Polish city of Wielun, where the first World War II bombs fell 80 years ago. https://www.thelocal.de/20190901/i-bow-my-head-and-ask-for-forgiveness-germany-marks-ww2-of-poland Sun, 01 Sep 2019 09:31:09 +0200 i-bow-my-head-and-ask-for-forgiveness-germany-marks-ww2-of-poland Eight decades after the first Nazi bombs fell on Poland, echoes of the blasts can be heard in the bickering between Warsaw and Berlin over the possibility of billions of euros in war reparations. https://www.thelocal.de/20190828/wwii-wounds-remain-as-poland-seeks-german-reparations-80-years-o Wed, 28 Aug 2019 11:48:11 +0200 wwii-wounds-remain-as-poland-seeks-german-reparations-80-years-o The son of a French soldier who was killed during World War II after being forced to fight for the Nazis has filed a complaint against Germany, demanding the same compensation as orphans of German soldiers. https://www.thelocal.de/20190717/son-of-french-soldier-killed-in-wwii-files-compensation-claim-in-germany Wed, 17 Jul 2019 10:03:25 +0200 son-of-french-soldier-killed-in-wwii-files-compensation-claim-in-germany Germany on Wednesday rejected a fresh demand from Greece for hundreds of billions of euros in World War I and II reparations, insisting the issue had been legally settled decades ago. https://www.thelocal.de/20190605/greece-calls-on-germany-to-negotiate-war-crime-reparations Wed, 05 Jun 2019 12:13:40 +0200 greece-calls-on-germany-to-negotiate-war-crime-reparations More than 300 tiny pieces of human tissue from political prisoners executed by the Nazis and dissected for research were buried Monday at a Berlin cemetery, more than 70 years after World War II ended. https://www.thelocal.de/20190513/they-were-denied-a-grave-microscopic-remains-of-nazi-victims-given-final-resting-place Mon, 13 May 2019 12:36:15 +0200 they-were-denied-a-grave-microscopic-remains-of-nazi-victims-given-final-resting-place More than seven decades after the end of World War II, the remains of political prisoners executed by the Nazis and dissected for research will be given a proper burial in Berlin. https://www.thelocal.de/20190510/remains-of-nazi-prisoners-to-be-buried-in-berlin-decades-after-war Fri, 10 May 2019 10:24:10 +0200 remains-of-nazi-prisoners-to-be-buried-in-berlin-decades-after-war After eight years of brutal war in Syria, the UNESCO World Heritage-listed city of Aleppo lies in ruins -- but a vast digital archive in Germany aims to keep its memory alive and help rebuild it one day. https://www.thelocal.de/20190306/digital-archive-on-display-in-berlin-hopes-to-help-rebuild-syria Wed, 06 Mar 2019 13:10:11 +0100 digital-archive-on-display-in-berlin-hopes-to-help-rebuild-syria Four years after leaving Germany to live under the Islamic State group, 19-year-old Leonora has fled the jihadists' last bastion in eastern Syria and says it's time to go home. https://www.thelocal.de/20190204/i-was-a-little-bit-naive Mon, 04 Feb 2019 10:47:07 +0100 i-was-a-little-bit-naive The European Court of Human Rights ruled Thursday that Germany was within its rights to convict British bishop Richard Williamson of Holocaust denial. https://www.thelocal.de/20190131/european-court-backs-bishops-holocaust-denial-conviction Thu, 31 Jan 2019 13:25:28 +0100 european-court-backs-bishops-holocaust-denial-conviction Hitler's Germany was responsible for the Holocaust, not the Nazis, Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said Sunday, as Poland marked 74 years since the liberation of the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp. https://www.thelocal.de/20190128/polish-pm-says-hitlers-germany-responsible-for-holocaust-not-nazis Mon, 28 Jan 2019 09:22:03 +0100 polish-pm-says-hitlers-germany-responsible-for-holocaust-not-nazis Ahead of Holocaust Remembrance Day on Sunday, we looked at how children of Nazis and their victims are sharing their family history to remember the horrors that took place, and stand against those who deny the atrocities happened. https://www.thelocal.de/20190125/children-of-nazis-and-their-victims-share-family-history-to-mark-holocaust Fri, 25 Jan 2019 12:05:50 +0100 children-of-nazis-and-their-victims-share-family-history-to-mark-holocaust Former Nazi labour camp guard Jakiw Palij who was stripped of his US citizenship and deported in August, has died in Germany aged 95, the US ambassador in Berlin has announced. https://www.thelocal.de/20190111/former-nazi-camp-guard-palij-dies-months-after-deportation-to-germany Fri, 11 Jan 2019 09:32:04 +0100 former-nazi-camp-guard-palij-dies-months-after-deportation-to-germany Norway's government on Wednesday officially apologized to Norwegian women targeted for reprisals by authorities for having intimate relations with German soldiers during the country's war-time occupation. https://www.thelocal.de/20181017/norway-apologizes-to-mistreated-war-time-german-girls Wed, 17 Oct 2018 19:04:53 +0200 norway-apologizes-to-mistreated-war-time-german-girls A 250kg unexploded world war II bomb which forced the evacuation of more than 3,000 people in the eastern German city of Potsdam has been successfully defused. https://www.thelocal.de/20181010/world-war-ii-bomb-defused-in-eastern-german-city Wed, 10 Oct 2018 14:29:16 +0200 world-war-ii-bomb-defused-in-eastern-german-city 400 years ago on Wednesday, three men were thrown out of a window in Prague and only escaped with their lives after landing on a muck heap. But the attempted murder would go on to claim the lives of millions of people in the 30 Years' War. https://www.thelocal.de/20180523/the-window-plunge-that-led-to-the-death-of-a-third-of-all-germans Wed, 23 May 2018 17:11:32 +0200 the-window-plunge-that-led-to-the-death-of-a-third-of-all-germans What happened to the 1.3 million Germans who went missing after the Second World War remains a mystery. But some of the loved ones of these missing persons haven't given up hope in finding some answers. https://www.thelocal.de/20180503/search-for-wwii-missing-drawing-to-sombre-close Thu, 03 May 2018 11:07:45 +0200 search-for-wwii-missing-drawing-to-sombre-close German police shut down a tense demonstration in Cologne on Saturday, after around 15,000 Kurds took to the streets to protest Turkey's offensive in northern Syria. https://www.thelocal.de/20180127/kurds-in-germany-protest-turkish-syria-offensive Sat, 27 Jan 2018 17:45:36 +0100 kurds-in-germany-protest-turkish-syria-offensive Leading Turkish and Kurdish groups in Germany on Wednesday accused each other of "importing" a foreign conflict in the wake of Ankara's cross-border offensive against a Syrian Kurdish militia. https://www.thelocal.de/20180124/germanys-turks-kurds-slam-importing-foreign-conflict Wed, 24 Jan 2018 15:10:33 +0100 germanys-turks-kurds-slam-importing-foreign-conflict