Last Saturday, somewhere in the neighborhood of 12,000 refugees arrived in Munich in one single day. The large number puts a punctuation point on what is quickly becoming a race against time to find, build and provide enough housing for the new arrivals especially before winter comes. The German government decided last week to commit 6 million euros to help deal with the waves of refugees pouring into Germany. Three million euro will be earmarked for the different German states. The government is quickly trying to increase the number of weather proof refugee reception centers to accommodate at least 150,000 more people. These temporary accommodations are only meant to hold people for around 6 months. After that, there will be a demand for longer term...
Some call today’s German election boring, but it could produce a Brexit/Trump-like surprise. Stakes are high as Germans take to the polls today for the 19th federal election since the founding of the Federal Republic of Germany in 1949. The campaign season has been short and rather uneventful, especially by American standards, and Chancellor Angela Merkel seems to have a lock on the top job. However, some surprises may yet be in store — including the makeup of the coalition government she will lead in her fourth term and the makeup of the German Bundestag (parliament). Read more
One afternoon, in a plaza in the center of Dresden, a tall man with a fatherly face and glasses insists that our interview be videotaped. Tourists and natives sit on patios eating sandwiches and ice cream as the man's colleague tries to get the video camera working. An old man in a straw hat approaches me to admire my interview subject. "Just so you know—in anti-Islamic dialogue, he is the No. 1 in Germany! That's why they call him a Nazi. And he is definitely not a Nazi." With the camera finally ready, the man begins his speech, gesticulating as though to a live television audience, even though only a couple curious onlookers are watching. He warns of a surge of radical Islam in Germany. It's...
Statement by ACG Chairman Ambassador Robert M. Kimmitt It is with great sadness that we learned today of the death of Helmut Kohl. I had the honor of working with Chancellor Kohl for over three decades, beginning in the Reagan years, continuing through German Unification, and intensifying when I was appointed as the first American Ambassador in over 50 years to a united Germany. Helmut Kohl will always be remembered as the Chancellor of Unification, but he was also a committed European and strong transatlanticist. We offer his family and the German people our condolences at this difficult time, even as we join them in remembering the life and contribution of one of the Twentieth Century’s major political figures.
Vor 300 Millionen Jahren bildeten die Appalachen, aus denen heute der durch Washington fließende Potomac-Fluss kommt, eine zusammenhängende Kette mit dem Antiatlasgebirge in Marokko - das sogenannte Herzynische System. Der Potomac selbst, der zwischen Pentagon und Weißem Haus liegt und die "National Mall" abschließt, ist nach Angaben des US Geological Service ein vergleichsweise junger Fluß. Er entstand in den vergangenen zwei bis drei Millionen Jahren in Folge mehrerer Eiszeiten, die dazu beitrugen, das heutige Einzugsgebiet zu formen. Erdgeschichtlich betrachtet einen Wimpernschlag von nur 267 Jahren ist es wiederum her, dass ein 18-jähriger Mann namens George Washington, der später Präsident der Vereinigten Staaten und Namensgeber ihrer Hauptstadt werden sollte, an den Ufern dieses Flusses als Landvermesser tätig war. Er trug damit auch zur Landnahme von den...
