John Kornblum, former US Ambassador in Berlin, knows a thing or two about Germany from his forty years’ acquaintance with the country.

In a nation traumatized by violent upheavals, voters seem to demand an emotional insurance policy before accepting change. This insurance must promise that new methods will not undermine the social and economic [...]

As you consider the ongoing saga of US treatment of detainees at Abu Ghraib, Guantanamo and elsewhere, spare a thought for Wolfgang Daschner. As I wrote in an earlier post, Daschner, Frankfurt’s former deputy police commissioner, faced trial for threatening one Magnus G?fgen with torture. G?fgen had kidnapped young Jakob von Metzler, and the police [...]

Not just orange, but all the colors of the Ukrainian election, analyzed and discussed by top experts.
The Friedrich Ebert Foundation, the Center for Applied Policy Research and the German-Ukrainian Forum are hosting a day-long seminar on the election on Tuesday Monday, December 6 at the Ebert Fondation’s home in Berlin. Logistical details are here [...]

Living in Germany as I do, I often find that I have hard things to say about the Germans. (Germans should see this not as evidence of their special faultiness but of my misanthropy. Were I living in Tahiti, I would doubtless have a lot of hard things to say about the Tahitians, who I [...]

In comments to an earlier post on neonazi electoral gains in eastern Germany, I noted that Germany’s mainstream right wing Union parties normally respond to this sort of thing with a rightward lurch of their own. And indeed, they are right on schedule.

Read [...]

Claudia and Scott have already noted that this day marks the breach of the Berlin Wall (and, as Claudia notes, a lot of other important events in German history). Let me chime in with my felicitations to the German people, and a couple of thoughts.
In 1989, the German Democratic Republic saw a revolution. The citizens [...]

Reparlez-moi des roses de Gottingen
qui m’accompagnent
dans l’autre Allemagne
? l’heure o? colombes et vautours s’?loignent.
De quel c?t? du mur, la fronti?re vous rassure…
Tell me again about the roses in Gottingen
that come with me
into the other Germany
when the doves and vultures part ways.
From whichever side of the wall, the border comforts you…
- Patricia Kaas, D’Allemagne
Today is [...]

The Berlin Wall.To be sure, this was a busy week for the German Chancellor, Gerhard Schroeder. In addition to the obligations caused by a state visit of Queen Elizabteth II, which, not unexpectedly, took place in an atmosphere of tabloid turmoil on both sides of the channel, the autumn European summit in Brussels, and the [...]

I don’t think Joschka Fischer, the German Foreign Minister, was entirely mistaken when he mentioned in a BBC radio interview (2:35 min real audio) on Wednesday that “[i]f you want to learn how the traditional Prussian goose-step works, you have to watch British TV, because in Germany, in the younger generation - even in my [...]

The German newspaper whose web site really could be better organized had a fistful of bloggable things on Tuesday. Just pretend I’m discussing them a little more punctually than two days later.
? Stoiber says collecting signatures to oppose Turkey’s admission to the EU is prudent. I suppose. It’s a good way to find conservative voters, [...]