Categories
Future Society

Here’s Why Your Smartphone Never Appears In Your Dreams

Despite hours of scrolling, smartphones hardly play a role in our dreams. Yet their absence may actually demonstrate our dependence on them.

Categories
Migrant Lives

New Turkey-To-Germany Migration Routes — With The Help Of “Asylum Influencers”

Thousands of Turks who want to come to Germany are having their visa requests denied. Asylum influencers show them how to get in and how to navigate welfare and benefits.

Categories
Geopolitics

How Russian Fake News Tactics Boosted The Far Right In German Regional Election

U.S. authorities have seized documents that expose a Russian-led fake news offensive in Europe. The devastating effects of this large-scale propaganda campaign are for all to see in the recent elections in Thuringia and Saxony.

Categories
Society

Parents, Grow Up! Why German School Headmasters Are Dropping Out

Headmaster, or school principal, used to be a popular job in Germany, but today the country’s schools have at least 1,400 vacant school management positions. Why has this role become so unattractive?

Categories
Society Women Worldwide

The New Barbie Flip Phone Promises Digital Detox For Women — But Is It Kenough?

With no fitness apps, emails or social media, the Barbie Phone speaks the same language of mindfulness seminars, digital fasting cures and wellness retreats that seek a simple, undisturbed and healthy life. But can a phone — no matter how simple — really be a self-care tool?

Categories
Economy Future Green Green Or Gone Society special series

Germany Shows Why Electric Truck Adoption May Move Even Faster Than E-Cars

How can trucks be powered in a non-polluting way? The industry has been looking for good solutions for a long time. Now, electric trucks are gaining ground. The shift towards electric could actually happen faster than with cars.

Categories
Geopolitics Ideas

AfD Panic? Why The Far Right “Threat” In Germany Is A False Alarm

In Sunday’s regional elections in Thuringia, yes, 400,000 people voted for the extreme-right party AfD. Is that a lot? Depends on how you look at it. But looking at overall electoral trends, we know that the vast majority of Germans do not want right-wing extremists in power.

Categories
Geopolitics

The Far Right’s Success In Germany Adds Fuel To Three Fires Burning In The World

For the first time with a win in the former German Democratic Republic (GDR) state of Thuringia, the far-right AFD party has come out on top in the regional elections. It will have long-lasting, and far-reaching, ramifications: Ukraine, Trump, French election aftermath.

Categories
Society

Can You Ever Apologize For Your Nazi Grandfather?

German journalist Laura Ewert found out that her grandfather had led a massacre of Italian civilians in 1944 during the Nazi era. Eighty years later, Ewert met descendants of the victims in San Polo and experienced reactions that she would not have expected.

Categories
Ideas Society Women Worldwide

“Aggressive Cleaning” And The Patriarchy: How Do I Get Rid Of My Inner Housewife?

Doing the laundry, tidying up after men, “I’ll do it”: Even modern women fall for stereotypical patterns in the household. They should learn to put their feet up.

Categories
Society

Eye Of The Century: What’s Made The Cameras Of Leica So Iconic

Manufactured in Wetzlar, Germany, for almost 100 years now, Leica cameras are sometimes worth more second-hand than new. Around them, a global community of passionate enthusiasts has begun in recent years to grow again.

Categories
Ideas

Why Macron Should Be France’s Last All-Powerful President

France’s presidential regime epitomize a Caesar-like power, endlessly replaying the missed encounter between “a man and a people.” Macron should end those powers to allow the emergence of parliamentary coalitions and to rediscover the democratic virtues of deliberation in France.

Categories
Economy Geopolitics

Where A German Truck Company Goes To Recruit Drivers: The Heart Of Africa

Struggling to find drivers in Germany, the Cologne-based trucking company Emons is now successfully recruiting apprentices in the crisis-hit central African countries of Congo and Burkina Faso. While recruiting skilled workers abroad is a slow process, it is always better than unregulated migration.

Categories
Geopolitics

A Far-Right Victory In France Is Simply Europe’s Worst-Case Scenario

France’s European partners fear the outcome of the upcoming snap legislative elections and its consequences for the EU. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has called for the victory of a party “other than Marine Le Pen’s,” a sign of this growing concern.

Categories
Geopolitics

Scholz And Macron: Stunning EU Election Defeats At The Heart Of Europe

Olaf Scholz has refused to dissolve Germany’s parliament, even though his coalition suffered a major defeat at the European elections. The Chancellor’s weakened position comes at a bad time for Europe, where the union’s other major power, France, is also in a fragile state.

Categories
Geopolitics

A Far-Right Takeover In Europe? The Fate Rests With National Governments

There’s the risk both for over and underestimating the unprecedented gains of far-right parties in the European elections.

Categories
Food / Travel Geopolitics

Touring Villa Goebbels, A Piece Of Nazi Heritage Still Lurking In The Woods

Just north of Berlin, a luxurious villa that used to belong to top Nazi propagandist Joseph Goebbels has become a real estate headache. What should become of it?

Categories
climate change Green Ideas

Elevating The Man Vs. Nature Vs. Climate Debate With Mountaineering Icon Reinhold Messner

At the age of 79, the Italian-born, German speaking Reinhold Messner is a climbing legend, who was the first climber to ascend all fourteen peaks over 8,000 metres (26,000 ft) above sea level — without supplementary oxygen. Today he keeps moving, and thinking.

Categories
Ideas Society

Inclusive Language Outrage, From Untranslatable German To Generic Italian Masculine

Bavaria’s ban of the schwa (ə) and other symbols used in gender-sensitive writing is yet another step in the debate over inclusive language. But language changes when society does, not the other way around.

Categories
Geopolitics

Marine Le Pen’s Quest To Be Just Far Right Enough To Win

In Germany, support for the far-right AfD party is dwindling while its French counterpart, the Rassemblement National of Le Pen, is leading the polls. Opposed trajectories that stem from very different approaches: German radicalization vs. French “dédiabolization.”

Categories
Geopolitics

Gastronomic Diplomacy: When Macron Invites Scholz To Dinner

The French President and the German Chancellor, joined by their wives, dined together in a top Parisian restaurant on Thursday evening; a “private” meal at a decisive moment for “Europe in mortal danger,” as Emmanuel Macron repeated in a new interview.

Categories
Green

From Stoned To Bricked: Hemp Could Be The Building Block Of A Greener Construction Future

Hemp has long had more uses than getting high. The plant is now increasingly being used in the construction of houses, with huge benefits for the climate. The only issue is growing enough to meet surging demand.

Categories
Society

Does Wisdom Come With Age? Only If You Do The Work

It’s not the passage of time or overcoming hardship that makes you wise, but rather the effort to keep your mind truly open.

Categories
Economy

China’s Industrial Overcapacity Has Already Started To Hit Europe

In China, sales of electric cars, consumer goods and industrial products are stalling. State-owned companies have built up excess capacity. The new plan is to flood the European market with the products. The first signs are appearing in Germany.

Categories
Society

Museum Kicks: How Sneakers Came To Run The World

The new “Sneakers” exhibition in Dusseldorf features pairs that sell for six figures and explores how the simple sports shoe became a global obsession.

Categories
Geopolitics Russia-Ukraine War

Ukraine, A Mirror Of The French-German Divide

While Germany’s Scholz has chosen to walk a tightrope, France’s Macron has made a major U-turn on. While differences between Berlin and Paris are not new, the intensifying war in Ukraine has changed the situation.

Categories
Ideas Society

The Unifying Power Of Art In A World Divided By Religion And Morality

Political battle lines are becoming increasingly entrenched, and opposing views are being pushed towards ever greater extremes. Language has become a battlefield. If morality pushes us apart, and religion does not help in the process, we may find a solution in our sense of humanity, writes German psychiatrist Manfred Lütz in Die Welt.

Categories
Society

‘The Zone Of Interest’ And Us — A German Critique Of The Provocative Oscar Nominee

Oscar-nominatedThe Zone of Interest, tells the’ story of the Auschwitz commander in surprising ways, but fails to address the true inhumanity of Nazism, says Die Welt’s film critic.

Categories
Society

The German Lawyer Taking On The Vaccine Industry — By Any Means Necessary

Lawyer Marco Rogert is taking vaccine manufacturers to court, suing them for damages on behalf of thousands of clients. On the surface this is about compensation. But dig a little deeper and you discover failings by the authorities, an alleged conspiracy – and lawyers raking in millions in fees.

Categories
Geopolitics Russia-Ukraine War

Russia’s Wiretapping Of German Officers Reveals How Deep European Fractures Run

Beyond the embarrassment for the German military, and Moscow’s exploitation for propaganda purposes, the deeper significance of the intercepted conversations is in how far European unity remains on the war in Ukraine.

Categories
Economy Future

iSchadenfreude: The Apple Car Flop Reminds Us Why German Carmakers Are Built To Last

Apple’s announcement that it has discontinued its car project is bigger than it may seem. It is a serious admission that a car revolution is not as close as we thought — and really good news for German automakers.

Categories
Society

Liver Kings, Lion Diets: What’s Wrong With The Modern “Meatfluencer” Quest For Manhood

“Meatfluencers” are telling their followers to eat a carnivorous diet — ideally including raw liver and animal testicles — to cure so-called “diseases of civilization.” Yet even the Roman legionaries and German soldiers they hold up as examples of masculinity might have had something to say about that.

Categories
Society

Can LEGO-Loving “Kidults” Give A Dwindling Toy Industry The Boost It Needs?

The surge in toy sales sparked by the COVID-19 pandemic has tailed off, and the industry is now in a serious crisis. LEGO, Mattel and others see a potential lifeline in a new target: adults who play. The “escape into the inner child” could become a market worth billions.

Categories
Society

Sex Abuse Scandal In Germany’s Protestant Church Breaks Myth Of Superiority Over Catholics

Germany has been shaken by a study showing that sexual abuse has been widespread and systematic within the German Protestant Church, which has 19 million members. Now it is time for society to wake up to the fact that Protestantism is not superior to Catholicism when it comes to abuse.

Categories
Society

Why German Scholars Waited 80 Years To Truly Confront Hitler’s Speeches

Hitler wielded much of his power through his public discourses, yet a serious academic edition of his speeches has never been published. An unprecedented project led by Germany’s Institute of Contemporary History and the National Broadcasting Archive aims to better understand how he wielded power through rhetoric.

Categories
Society

This Puppet-Show Parody Of “The Sound Of Music” Is A Culture Category Of Its Own

Neville Tranter and Nikolaus Habjan, global stars of the puppet world, are performing in Berlin. Their caustic satire about Austria is definitely not for kids. It shows why hand puppets are not only hot right now, but they’re also incredible actors capable of convening the magic of theater at its utmost.

Categories
Society

Beyond Fairy Tales: How The Brothers Grimm Invented A Work Ethic For The Modern World

The 19th-century publishers of classic Fairy Tales like Cinderella and Hansel and Gretel were also renowned academics who established a way of working that offers important lessons for the modern world.

Categories
Society

A Valentine’s Day Question: Why Are So Many Beautiful Women Single?

Sure, some men don’t want to be outshined. But there’s also the reality that so many women have internalized the myth of the beautiful admired woman, they often don’t understand their failure in love of such beauties, when it’s actually much like their own.

Categories
Ideas Society

Sad? Lonely? Stressed? Those Are Feelings, Not Pathologies

In Germany, the Ministry for Family Affairs came up with a strategy to combat loneliness: university chairs, initiatives and even a “loneliness barometer.” But one no-filter boomer writer for Die Welt says it’s all unnecessary — and today’s young people should focus on having more children and stop pathologizing every feeling.

Categories
Geopolitics Ideas

The Far Right And Europe: Calling AfD’s Bluff With Cold ‘Brexit’ Showers

The far-right AfD party chief has threatened a “Dexit” referendum, where Germany (Deutschland) leaves the European Union. But just ask the British people what they think about how that turned out. Right wing leaders in Italy and France seem to have understood the message.

Exit mobile version