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No Cages For Giraffes! Zoos, Animal Activists Join Up To Set Basic Standards

An orangutang at the Berlin zoo. Photo: achschav via Instagram Animal welfare groups and German zoos have been working together to fix minimum standards for the keeping of animals. An assessment, a kind of catalogue, launched earlier this month is meant to be the definitive reference point for German zoos both large and small, game […]

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Society

The Monotony Of Office Life Is This Artist’s Reigning Inspiration

German artist Ignacio Uriarte knows all about the tedium of life as a 9-to-5 employee, which he ditched to create art riffing on the subject. Süddeutsche Zeitung sat down with him.

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Economy Ideas

What’s Driving Gulf Cash To European Holdings

Taking a sizable stake in Deutsche Bank, Qatari investors are once again showing a strategy that is single-minded by definition.

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Society

And If Women Were Actually Better At Parking Than Men?

Such are the results of a recent study in Germany, which knows a thing or two about automobiles.

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Economy Future

Germany Will Ban Tech Companies That Play Ball With NSA

No German federal contracts will go to companies that turn over data to the NSA and other spy agencies in the U.S., and elsewhere. There may, however, be one crucial exemption.

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Economy Geopolitics

Those Global Credit Bubbles Are Eerily Similar To 2007

From U.S. student debt to staggering housing inflation from London to Shanghai, there are signs of cracks invoking fear among economists of another impending financial crisis.

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Society

Drinks Tonight? How Income Disparity Affects Friendships

MUNICH — At some point Hanna Seibert (not her real name) just started making excuses. When her girlfriends called and wanted to go out to eat and drink cocktails in the city, she would put them off, saying she had too much to do. The cliché excuses suggesting she was stressed out struck her career-minded […]

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Society

Germany’s Ministry For Women Discriminates Against Women

The current and past Minister have both been women (not to mention Chancellor Angela Merkel). But that’s apparently not enough…

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blog Food / Travel

It May Be Vegan, But That Doesn’t Mean It’s Healthy

MUNICH — Surely vegan offerings are healthier, and easier on the figure. More natural in any case. Many consumers have even become moralistic about the vegan products they put into their shopping baskets. But a survey by a Hamburg consumer group, the Verbraucherzentrale, shows that these attitudes and expectations are often wrong. They tested 20 […]

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Economy

Office Gamification: Computer Games At The Heart Of New Ways To Work

MUNICH — Many business people believe that gamification is going to dramatically change the working world over the next decade. Companies are increasingly thinking about how they can motivate both employees and clients to solve problems and develop ideas with the help of digital platforms. Which is why Munich’s Technical University (TU) is using a […]

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blog Society

The Empty Torment Of Hypersexuality

MUNICH — Audiences mostly find the sex-obsessed protagonists of Steve McQueen’s movie Shame and Lars von Trier’s Nymphomaniac bizarre and alien, or at the very least irritating. But there really are people like that in real life. Take, for example, this 58-year-old man somewhere in the eastern part of Germany sitting by his phone. He’s […]

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Society

HR, Listen Up: Teamwork On The Job Is Overrated

Much of the rhetoric around human resources strategy involves the idea that working in a team is the key to succees. But in some cases, researchers say, it can even breed laziness.

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Ideas Society

Our Kids Will Live To Be 100 – Time To Celebrate?

A new German study shows that half of people born today will live to be 100. Surely this calls for a new way to think about life – and lifestyle.

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Society

When A Child’s Shyness Becomes A Medical Condition

Being overly shy isn’t always a simple personality trait, something kids will “grow out of…” It can also reach the point of clinical illness. How to know when your child needs treatment.

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Ideas Society

The Beautiful German Evolution: From Nazis To Nudists

Britons and Americans used to depict Germans as obsessed with Nazi uniforms, now our supposed obsession is nudism. A friendly patriotic ode to letting it all hang out.

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Ideas Ukraine Winter

Ukraine And Western Europe’s Blind Spot On Eastern Expansion

BERLIN — It looked as if a great moment might be in the making: German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier and his Polish colleague Radoslaw Sikorski had teamed up with French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius, and the trio flew to Kiev for joint talks with the then-Ukrainian government and opposition. At the time violence on Maidan […]

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Society

A Touch Of *Elitism* In German School Policy For The Disabled

Disabled kids can be integrated in regular classes, but only if they are on the university track.

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Future Society

The Science Of Why Spring Makes Us Happy

There are medically proven explanations for why our minds and bodies generally feel better when the season changes. So, goodbye Winter Blues, and hello Spring Euphoria!

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Geopolitics Migrant Lives

From Lampedusa to Berlin, Immigrant Anger At Italy

BERLIN — “You’re the ones who created this mess I’m in…” Mohammad points his finger at me, and doesn’t even want to tell me his real first name: “Call me Mohammad, we are all the same to you racist Italians anyway.” His age, though, he does tell me: He’s 47, but looks a bit younger […]

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Food / Travel

For Martin Luther Anniversary, Wittenberg Tries To Nail Another Reformation

As Wittenberg, Germany, prepares to celebrate the 500-year anniversaries of two major historic events, it has invested millions to transform itself into a world-class venue.

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Ideas Society

Why Germany’s Nazi Art Seizure Was Wrong

In serving the plundered art worth hundreds of millions, historical justice is being served. But it comes at the expense of legal rectitude.

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Geopolitics Society

Serving Rich Russians In Germany’s Black Forest

BADEN-BADEN — There is no fur in sight here — no wraps, mink collars, not even real-fur trim on a hood at Baden-Baden’s casino. Granted, this is not ideal fur weather, as the Sparkasse Bank thermometer reads 22° Celsius. But for rich Russians, it is still very much the winter travel season, and one wonders […]

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Geopolitics Ukraine Winter

Merkel And Putin? It’s Complicated

Complicated…and crucial to resolving the current showdown between Russia and the West.

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blog

Soviet Disobedience

At the end of WWII, several monuments were built across Berlin to commemorate the Soviet soldiers fallen during the war. As imposing as this memorial in Treptower Park seems, I was unimpressed: I’ve always been circumspect about soldiers. So was my wife Claudine, who looks like she’s turning her back to these Soviet occupiers, who […]

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Society

Your Grown-Up Stress May Be Making Your Children Sick

Illnesses in children rise along with the stress levels of their parents, according to a new survey in Germany. Are households with two working parents sending more kids to the doctor?

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Geopolitics Society

Germany’s “Jihad Cheerleaders,” Running Off To Marry Islamist Terrorists

BERLIN — Sonya* disappeared during the fall school vacation in the German state of Baden-Württemberg. The 16-year-old high school student, the daughter of an Algerian and a German, left her family’s house in Konstanz and never returned. Sonya’s parents called the police fearing the worst. Had their daughter been kidnapped? Was she possibly the victim […]

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blog Society

In Quiet German City, A Tale Of Crooked Cops, Cocaine And Calabrian Mobsters

KEMPTEN — Perhaps it’s a rather tired comparison, but the Allgäu region in the southern German state of Swabia is well known for its snow. This past weekend it was piled several feet deep on the Nebelhorn mountain. Eight ski lifts were in operation, with winter vacationers on every run. A few miles to the […]

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Society

Big Pharma Targets German Medical School Students

MUNICH — Pharmaceutical companies know that doctors more frequently prescribe medicine produced by companies whose sales representatives visit them regularly. That very logic means that these same companies are also busy trying to “recruit” future doctors across Germany, according to a recent survey of German medical school deans and some 1,100 med students. The study, […]

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Society

“It Was An Act Of Love”: Letting A Dying Child Go

When she died of a brain tumor at the age of three, Naomi*’s parents, who were by her side until the end, decided to tell their story amidst a growing push to extend assisted death to children.

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blog Food / Travel

Cheap And Chic: A Boom In Designer Budget Hotels

The hotel’s location is practical, in one of the most sought-after areas of Edinburgh: just steps away from the railroad station, with the Old Town and Princes Street shopping only close by. Old and imposing on the outside, inside it’s all modern, minimalist, and even a little Scottish. Chairs in the reception area are upholstered […]

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Ideas Society

Making Him Wait, The “Hold My Purse” Edition

The average man spends a year of his life waiting on women — outside bathrooms, in cars, beyond changing-room curtains. It may be the truest modern measure of gender politics.

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Society

Son Rejected By Dad For 40 Years May Have To Pay Elder Care Bill

A German court case’s impending verdict is poised to create a controversial precedent in this aging country, where a child is asked to finance elder care for a father who had cut him out of his life.

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blog

On The Good Side Of The Fence

In 1972, Germany was divided in two — between the Soviet-occupied German Democratic Republic (GDR) in the east and the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) in the west. Being on the “good side” of the fence, we were able to drive there and see the ominous Iron Curtain with its barbed wire and threatening miradors. […]

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Society

Repair Cafes: A Movement To Fix Our Throwaway Culture

Torn T-shirts, dead remote controls and jammed DVD players aren’t necessarily doomed for the junk heap. Sustainability is the watchword at these special German locales.

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Geopolitics

In Munich, Israeli Consulate Moving Near Infamous Nazi Site

MUNICH — The Israeli General Consulate in Munich has finally found permanent premises that sources say is likely next door to the former Nazi Party headquarters. The building’s location is virtually back-to-back with the so-called Führerbau that the Nazis built as a representation venue for Adolf Hitler, sources tell Süddeutsche Zeitung. Directly next door, built […]

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Society

When Customers Cheat: The Tricky Business Of Online Returns

HAMBURG — Georgios Titokis is actually too old for the remote-controlled car he’s holding in his hand. But the toy interests him. Cautiously, the Greek-born Titokis removes the beach buggy from its box and checks to see if any parts are missing. Then he checks the batteries and looks for any sign of wear and […]

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Society

A Disturbing Rise Of Anorexia During Pregnancy

A first-of-its-kind study last year found that one in 15 pregnant women is anorexic. Gaunt women are even posting cringe-worthy photos of their baby bumps on pro-anorexia forums.

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Future

The Prosthetic Hand That Can Feel What It Touches

Dane Dennis Aabo Sorensen lost his left hand and lower arm during a fireworks accident nine years ago. Now a new type of prosthesis has made it possible for him to feel sensation in his hand for the first time since then. “When I hold an object, I can feel if it’s hard or soft, […]

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blog Society

Want To Wear Sustainability On Your Sleeve? Rent A Sweater

In the Netherlands, a growing movement to lease clothing rather than piling up ever more cheaply-made, environmentally damaging jeans, shirts and sweaters.

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Future

Why A Coma May Be Saving Michael Schumacher’s Life

The German driving legend has been in an artificially induced coma for more than a month since a ski accident. Doctors take us inside the state-of-the-art head trauma treatment.

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