A letter to President Joe Biden from the publisher Detlef W. Prinz
Dear Mr. President,
Congratulations! When today, at 12 noon Washington time, you swear your oath to the US Constitution and are officially inaugurated as the 46th president of …
Europe’s Underestimated Islamists and its Exporters
By
Oliver Rolofs
November 2020
It almost seemed as if international jihadism was on the retreat: the so-called caliphate also known as the Islamic State (IS) or by its Arabic acronym Daesh destroyed, the so-called caliph killed, his followers scattered to the winds. But five …
A call for European leadership in times of turmoil
By
Theo Sommer
October 2020
No one looking back on the past decade can do so with satisfaction, let alone complacency. The world has become unstable. The international order created after World War II is breaking down; the global institutions established as part of that …
Her era will have to come to an end eventually. Angela Merkel has been German chancellor since 2005; you would have to look long and hard to find another politician holding a country’s top political position for so long, autocracies …
German-Russian relations are poisoned, but common interests persist
By
Michael Thumann
October 2020
There are Russians who see German hospitals as a salvation, and there are Russians who see them as a curse. The family of Alexei Navalny, Russia’s foremost opposition leader, arranged for him to be treated at Berlin’s Charité hospital after …
In most corners of the world, hopes are running high that Joe Biden and Kamala Harris will win the upcoming US election and thus bring to a close this current dark chapter. These hopes, however, rest on less-than-sound footing, and …
Cancel culture: Values and moral priorities are changing rapidly
By
Jonathan Lutes
October 2020
There’s a new buzzterm in Western politics, culture and media, and it should come to no one’s surprise that it’s also a trigger for both sides of the ever-hardening left-right ideological divide. “Cancel culture” – or sometimes “call-out culture” – …
Natural gas and oil are a shout-out from a distant past. Several hundred millions of years passed before dead biomass at the bottom of primordial oceans formed the energy sources that run today’s motors, comprise our industrial products and heat …
Mandatory Musk: Tesla is building a factory in Brandenburg
By
Ina Mathes
October 2020
Elon Musk is standing on the construction site of his European Gigafactory. Behind him in the distance, a dense arrangement of concrete pillars rises up from the ground. A traditional German “topping-out” garland swings in the wind as it hangs …
Divergent paths: Responses to the COVID-19 pandemic
By
Holger Schmieding
October 2020
Rarely do the results of political choices become so visible so fast. After COVID-19 turned from a China-centered tragedy into a global threat some six months ago, all advanced economies faced a similar set of challenges. But they reacted differently. …
Eastern and western Germany continue to drift apart in political terms, despite economic achievements (i.e., growth, employment, wages, pensions, etc.) in the former states of the GDR. While voters in the West are increasingly going green, voters in the East …
Over the past several years, there’s one question that has dumbfounded western Germans as they gaze eastward: How is it possible that the whole “growing together” thing hasn’t worked out, even more than 30 years after the fall of the …
Many eastern Germans have a love-hate relationship to reunification
By
Sabine Rennefanz
October 2020
Non-German friends of mine like to think we Germans celebrate German Unity Day by throwing a big party. I personally don’t know anyone who actually celebrates the national holiday on Oct. 3. It’s just a day off work, a day …
Economically, Eastern Germany is still lagging behind
By
Stephan Kaufmann
October 2020
In the beginning, there was a promise: “Through our joint efforts,” said Chancellor Helmut Kohl in summer 1990, “we will soon succeed in transforming the former states of the GDR into blooming landscapes where it is worthwhile to live and …
Congratulations to the Alabama Germany Partnership on its 25th anniversary! 👏👏👏 Many thanks to Executive Director Tine Hoffmeister and her team for strengthening the economic & cultural ties between #Alabama and #Germany over the past two and a half decades. #wunderbartogether
@TOPTeachGermany Glad to have worked with you, the #TOP leader, for more than 10 years. All the best for your bright future, Wood! #FoGI_DC #WunderbarTogether