WorldcrunchSüddeutsche Zeitung is one of Germany’s premiere daily quality newspapers. It was founded on 6 October 1945, and has been called “The New York Times of Munich”.
-Commentary- For years, major sporting events have been hosted in the superbly wealthy Gulf States. Now, renowned Western cultural institutions are following suit. But these high-minded museums and cultural organizations are encountering a familiar problem. In Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates, the French Louvre, the American Guggenheim and other branches of […]
Latvia becomes the 18th member of the European single currency zone, adopting the euro just as the small Baltic nation starts to enjoy economic growth. Will Latvians come to regret it?
Much has changed in the past 10 years. Oligarchs have been replaced by networks as the real challenge to Vladimir Putin’s power.
TEHRAN — The charm and media savvy of Iran Foreign Affairs Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif have made him Tehran’s new wonder weapon. And over the last few days, he has put his arsenal to use in visits to four of the six Gulf States on a trust-building tour designed to cement links between the countries. […]
A writer in Damascus says Assad’s regime is trying every tactic to reduce its adversaries to something subhuman. “Kneel,” his soldiers laugh, “or you will go hungry …”
The former boxing champion has been plucked by the Western media as the new face of Ukraine’s opposition. The situation is more complicated than that, even as risks for all rise.
STUTTGART — Banbo is the first one to get the idea. The 11-year-old female chimpanzee presses her thumb firmly on the button and changes the channel on the TV set up in her enclosed living space. Fifteen-year-old Liboso is less certain and still sometimes presses her feet against the screen. The rest of the group […]
Moscow has already made it clear to Ukraine that it should stop reaching out to Western Europe. The same message is being sent to Lithuania, which is already an EU member.
BERLIN — A refugee slams a briefcase down on the table, snaps it open and takes out a series of plastic cards. “Here,” he says, “health card from Italy, residence permit, identity card. We have everything. Our asylum cases are complete. We’re allowed to move around in Europe, but we’re not allowed to work, not […]
The Edward Snowden leaks on the NSA spying structure reveal an intelligence approach driven by the fear of the unknown … and the “unknown unknowns.”
Exclusive: inside a special German intelligence program that questions asylum seekers about their home countries. Berlin denies that asylum requests are contingent on cooperation.
After Typhoon Haiyan, the scale of misery in the Philippines is hard to measure. For one mother and father in the hardest hit city, it is infinite.
NEW YORK — The U.S. government has come in for severe criticism about its use of drones, as many claim that it is violating one of the central tenets of international humanitarian law: Under no circumstances should civilians be the target of military operations. Any country that deliberately crosses that line is guilty of war […]
A German perspective on the mind-boggling modern art discovery this week in Munich – one more sign that the Nazi past is fading into history.
When Gezi Park protesters held up posters of Kemal Ataturk amid a fog of tear gas, they were searching for stability in a changing world. Reflections on 70 years of the Turkish Republic.
In Hamburg, a major Nazi monument is being repurposed into deluxe apartments. A lesson on the luxury boom, and the way Germany faces its uncomfortable history.
-OpEd- At the moment when the Titanic struck the iceberg, the ship’s captain was not on the bridge. Edward Smith had gone below deck to bed. Both before and after the collision, the captain proved himself to be worse than useless, issuing confused orders and failing to take control of the evacuation. He let the […]
Kiev doesn’t want to risk its ties with Moscow, but can’t afford to pass up economic opportunities in Europe. And where does that leave jailed opposition chief Yulia Tymoshenko?
TEL AVIV — The Nobel Prize ceremony is usually an occasion for celebration in Israel, as there is often at least one Israeli citizen among the honorees. This year, two Israelis were awarded the Nobel Prize for Chemistry, but the country’s pride was bittersweet since both scientists live in the United States. The rise in […]
Public smoking bans, written warnings, shocking images on cigarette packets: Deterrent measures grow worldwide, though consumption in developing countries continues to rise.
MUNICH — It only takes two minutes to gather enough material to make a person squirm or provoke them to pick up the phone to call a lawyer. Two minutes to see that racism flourishes not only on the fringes but also in the heart of our societies, in the minds of philosophy students and […]
FRIEDLAND — “Germany is a country where rules matter,” declares Martin Steinberg. The pastor in this central German city is standing before a group of people who’ve just fled a country where the only rule that mattered was that of survival. “Here the most aggressive driver with the biggest car doesn’t automatically have the right […]
GIESSEN — It will make you crazy — the pyramid simply does not want to fit into the glass cube. Melih turns it again, this time just a little, and then sticks it in the open side of the cube again. No luck. He tries more forcefully, pressing down on the pyramid. But the fifth […]
BERLIN — Ritual circumcision for Muslim and Jewish boys remains legal in Germany. Germany’s legislative body, the Bundestag, decided as much last year in what was a win for the country’s religious minorities. But Muslim girls must participate in co-ed swim classes, according to a recent decision by Germany’s highest court on such matters — […]
-Analysis- NAIROBI – A dozen or more attackers stormed the shopping center, throwing grenades and shooting adults and children alike. They came to kill on a massive scale and with spectacular cruelty, setting up an agonizingly drawn-out hostage situation. What took place in the Nairobi shopping center was not only an attack on Kenya, but […]
BOCHUM — Katja stares into her laptop camera and bites her lower lip. “Hmm, yes…” She confirms that she understands how chromosome divisions work. In front of another laptop, her teacher Julia Wirth holds up a piece of paper with circles and Xs drawn in green and red pen. Meiosis and mitosis. Katja nods from […]
BERLIN — The all-conquering hero is traditionally a masculine figure, but in Angela Merkel it finds its feminine embodiment. Her election result is more than a victory; it is a triumph. Moreover, it is her triumph, and not her party’s. It is Merkel as an individual, as the chancellor with unprecedented approval ratings, who has […]
There’s just one place the European Central Bank’s gender requirements won’t apply…
MUNICH – When Johannes Langner (not his real name) heard about the grade, he wished he’d never written the paper. He found the outstanding mark, virtually the highest available in the German grading system, almost embarassing — after all, he’d never in his life set foot in a philosophy seminar. He’d been hoping for something […]
Syria is more reminiscent of the Balkan wars in the 1990s than Iraq or Afghanistan. It’s imperative for the West to act to force Assad’s hand, not just to slap his wrist.
Dachau politicians have been looking for a way to deal with the Nazi heritage of their German city. That eventually led them to the Polish town of Auschwitz. Notes from a difficult journey.
One writer discovers that a New York once suicidal for cyclists has given way to a city of bike lanes and cheap public access to this environmentally friendly mode of transportation.
BERLIN – Denise from Sossenheim does it. “Mmm…,” it says under the picture of ochre-yellow lentil soup. David from Berlin does it too. On his Facebook page he shows what looks like the pizza he ordered for lunch with the words “Super Pizza” written underneath the image. For many young people, photographing their food and […]
–Op-Ed– MUNICH — We Germans have always struggled with the euro crisis. We talk about it a lot, muse about what would happen if the euro zone split up, bitch about those nasty countries frittering our money away. But there’s one thing we don’t do: suffer from the economic crisis. On the contrary. Even if […]
An enterprising German trains his pooch to become the country’s first dope-busting dog-for-hire.
ÜBERLINGEN AM BODENSEE — Nadja Schotthöfer and David Schuster decided against the German Dream — a semi-detached house with garden, flat-screen TV, living room suite, fitted kitchen. They live in a yurt, where their child was born. Outside, a warm wind caresses the tall grasses, and it smells like hay drying in the sun. The […]
David Kobia’s thriving start-up helps aid organizations by mapping violence and disaster online. Even Google has taken notice of this new generation of African innovators.
The world’s largest Muslim country is slow to embrace measures to prevent the spread of HIV. And that’s bad news for prostitutes in the capital city.
After decades behind bars, a court suddenly orders the release of a lifelong criminal in Bavaria who says he’s unprepared to be “out there in the world.”
Here, the cheese is so pure that if the wheel is yellow, you know the cows have been eating dandelions…