Someone who is terminally ill and wants to die faster does not ‘commit suicide,’ says this German palliative medicine physician. Words matter.
Tag: germany
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A Century Ago, Birth Of The Bauhaus
The Bauhaus movement came to life in Germany after the end of World War I. And it lives on today in many ways.
–OpEd– BERLIN — The late Chancellor Helmut Kohl, a great European who led Germany through its unification, was wrong. European integration is no longer “irreversible.” Today, in 2019, disintegration is the declared goal of many member states. It is dependency, not independence, that has until now made Europe strong. For the future, Europe does not […]
The Brexit debacle has had at least one virtue: Eurosceptic leaders from other countries are no longer pushing to leave the EU. But that is only part of the story.
Thirty years after a young West German computer whiz working for the KGB was found dead, we return to an unsolved mystery from the final days before the Wall fell.
Two and a half centuries after his birth, the famed German explorer and scientist is still remembered for his brilliant mind and boundary-testing taste for adventure.
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Soviets Soldiers, Past And Present
In the background, one of Treptower Park“s massive monuments commemorating Soviet soldiers fallen during World War II. In the foreground, real-life Soviet soldiers still trooping around the USSR-occupied section of Berlin.
CAIRO — On Oct. 1, 2017, the submarine S-42 set sail from the ThyssenKrupp shipyard in Kiel, northern Germany. The fourth of four submarines ordered by the Egyptian government since the start of the Arab spring — at a cost of 1.4 billion euros — quietly passed through the Kiel Canal to the port city […]
Part of our fear around AI comes from its misleading moniker. It’s a momentous innovation, sure. But it isn’t really intelligent at all.
HOLZKIRCHEN — Holzkirchen-Süd rest stop at 1 p.m., when many drivers stop for lunch. Lawyer Nadia Kluge very slowly approaches a truck, keeps a little distance, and starts a conversation. She explains that she is from the German Trade Union Confederation, works for the “Fair Mobility” counseling center in Munich, and is looking to see […]
If it doesn’t ‘spark joy,’ the guest of the hit Netflix series ‘Tidying Up’ tells us, get rid of it. Should the same lesson be applied to our circle of friends and acquaintances?
The era of driverless cars is dawning. But are we really ready to just let our vehicles take over?
Zeina Nassar is already a national featherweight champion. But to reach greater heights, she’ll have to overcome international boxing’s restrictive dress-code.
MUNICH — Do machines replace humans? Since the beginning of industrialization 200 years ago, we earthlings have been plagued by this fear. From the early uprisings of the weavers to the 1970s “job killer computer” slogan, and up until the 2013 thesis of researchers Michael Osborne and Carl B. Frey, according to whom machines could […]
We know that children’s books educate, shape, socialize. And yes, according to a new study based on key words, they still assign antiquated roles and characteristics for boys and girls.
Many women in Munich were active in the resistance against the Nazis, but hardly anyone knows their names today. Traditional gender roles are partly to blame.
-Essay- The Moon’s cultural history is one of disenchantment. Thousands of years ago, people still believed that it was a deity, there were legends about beautiful Moon girls and a man in the Moon. But its proximity to Earth made the myths around it one of the first victims of the scientific worldview. Already in […]
Bioplastic sounds like a welcome eco-alternative to the many plastic products we use daily. But the reality isn’t so simple.
Going all out on the autobahn may be part of the German way of life, but speed limits are necessary to limit road accidents and lower CO2 emissions.
Voice messages are unilateral and time-consuming: this is bad communication innovation.
VW’s ‘hippie’ buses are more than just cult classics. They’re also valuable collectors items, especially the luxury Samba model, with its special roof windows and two-tone paint job.
Nigerian painter Isaac sold everything and left Lagos, in the hope to make it to Germany. After barely surviving in Libya, he gave up and went back.
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The Dirty Truth Behind Electric Vehicles
The procurement of raw materials and the difficulties in recycling batteries show that electric vehicles are not as green and sustainable as we’re prone to believe.
Patric Fassbender and Marcus Stahl are struggling to keep up with demand for their ‘Toniebox’ devices, which are now set to break into the English-speaking market.
Towards the end of World War II, 800,000 German women and girls were deported to forced labor camps in the Soviet Union. A visit to the abandoned camps near the Russian-Finnish border.
KATOWICE — As a member of Germany’s federal government, Gerd Müller knows what UN climate change conferences cost. The Minister of Economic Cooperation and Development spearheaded the organization of last year’s edition in Bonn. At that time, the COP23, which Germany hosted to help the financially troubled Fiji Islands, cost around 60 million euros. And […]
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Why Dieselgate Was Really An IT Problem
If cars are supercomputers, why are we not programming them for fewer emissions and speed?
Critics worry that by partnering with Palantir, a Silicon Valley company with ties to the CIA, police in the German state of Hesse are opening themselves up to a potential security breach.
MUNICH — The past snuck up on Adidas last spring when it issued a retro jersey for the 2018 FIFA World Cup in Russia that copied the last Soviet Union national team shirt. It included the USSR lettering and breast emblem with the hammer and sickle. Given the millions of victims of the Soviet dictatorship, […]
Fathers who took parental leave spend an hour and a half more with their children every day during the first few years of their life compared to fathers who work continuously.
-Analysis- MUNICH — Angela Merkel has seldom sounded so straightforward and genuine. It was a clear speech, it was an honest speech. It was such a remarkably clever speech too that you could almost believe that after retreating as party chief, Merkel actually wants to and will remain chancellor until Germany’s next general election. But […]
German car makers must change their entire model, and even accept lower short-term profits.
There is much to admire about Germany’s nearly 70-year-old constitution. But it also contains a serious flaw.
Etienne Mallard has spent a lifetime venturing far and wide. A retired high-school philosophy teacher, he has always considered himself nothing more or less than an amateur photographer — with decent equipment.
Refugees who are allowed to stay in Germany must attend an integration course. But many of them fail the language test. Why is that?
Even in economically powerful Germany, poverty threatens the social fabric. And neither the left or right has any real solutions — except to play to fears.
Amazon is upending the commercial status quo. And yet, as much as people like to complain about it, the temptation to use it can be irresistible.
BERLIN — On the bus I now take to university in Berlin every day, I reach compulsively for my phone to check Facebook for updates from Egypt. I see that someone else has been arrested, this time a PhD student like me, who was also doing his fieldwork in Egypt. I get flustered and feel […]
-Analysis- BERLIN — World politics is currently dominated by “strongmen,” those leaders who see themselves anointed to negotiate “deals’ among themselves to chart the world’s destiny. Vladimir Putin’s Russia, in alliance with the Islamic Republic of Iran, has stifled the Syrian people’s rebellion against Bashar al-Assad, allowing his Damascus regime to regain almost complete control […]
Wind power has its drawbacks, especially in central German region of Hesse, where developers want to erect generators in wooded areas like the Reinhardswald, of Brothers Grimm fame.