Germany

Northern lights: Seven steps for levelling up Britain

21 February 2020 10:00 pm

Seven steps for levelling up Britain

The agony of Brexit – for us Germans

1 February 2020 9:00 am

We Germans have been in denial about Brexit

Germany’s ailing economy can’t afford a no-deal Brexit

12 October 2019 9:00 am

The UK was the ‘sick man’ when we ‘joined Europe’ in 1973. Now, with Britain on the cusp of leaving,…

Germany’s military has become a complete joke

31 August 2019 9:00 am

It is not hard to think of times when German military weakness would have been lauded as good news across…

A presidential pardon for my ‘miraculously shrinking crime’

25 May 2019 9:00 am

I owe my return to these pages to the pardon I have received from the President of the United States.…

conrad black

Trump told me I got a ‘bad rap’

23 May 2019 9:14 pm

I owe my return to these pages to the pardon I have received from the President of the United States.…

How is the country split over Brexit?

6 April 2019 9:00 am

German customs The original customs union, or Zollverein, was established by Prussia along with 17 other states which make up…

A clear vision of Walter Gropius the man is hard to come by

2 March 2019 9:00 am

Walter Gropius (1883–1969) had the career that the 20th century inflicted on its architects. A master of the previous generation…

Europeans can’t understand the existential drive behind the British wish to leave the EU

9 February 2019 9:00 am

What can the EU do to help the Britons out of their Brexit quagmire? Until very recently, the answer would…

‘Portrait of Friedrich Nietzsche’, Edvard Munch, c. 1906

Nietzsche’s intense friendship with Wagner forms the core of Sue Prideaux’s excellent new biography

29 September 2018 9:00 am

In 1945, with the second world war won bar the shouting, Bertrand Russell polished off his brief examination of Friedrich…

Berlin in ruins, 1945

Ian Kershaw recounts Europe’s recovery from WWII – have the good times run their course?

29 September 2018 9:00 am

When I reviewed the first volume of Sir Ian Kershaw’s wrist-breaking history of the last 100 years of Europe, To…

Be sure to lose your wallet in Germany. Photo: Getty

15 reasons to fall in love with Germany and Germans

22 September 2018 9:00 am

Things I learned about the Germans after a fortnight living as a non–tourist in Frankfurt:   1. Germans, and Germany…

Why did Theresa May ‘clear’ the EU deal with Merkel before consulting her colleagues?

14 July 2018 9:00 am

Why do the British turn to the Germans in their moments of European trouble? It never works. When Jacques Delors…

From the archive: the future of Scandinavia

16 June 2018 9:00 am

From ‘The Baltic question’, 15 June 1918: The future of Scandinavia and the Baltic must depend on the outcome of…

Becoming German has helped me understand Brexit

16 June 2018 9:00 am

In the end, after all the waiting, the document didn’t look like much — a sheet of A4 paper adorned…

Europe’s biggest Brexit fear? That we’ll flourish outside the EU

6 January 2018 9:00 am

What do Europeans really think about Brexit? Do they secretly admire our unexpected decision to walk away from all those…

Where did it all go wrong for Angela Merkel?

25 November 2017 9:00 am

 Trier, Rhineland Was it really just a few months ago that Angela Merkel was being hailed as the leader of…

Hunt-the-iPhone was the highlight of my hols

19 August 2017 9:00 am

For years, Caroline and I have been squabbling over where to spend our summer holidays. Her ideal is a family-friendly…

Cheating German car-makers are good news for Brexiteers

29 July 2017 9:00 am

It came as no great surprise to learn that the EU competition authorities are crawling all over the three major…

‘Oh god, ma tutto occupato’ (Ach herrje, ma tutto occupato), 2016, by Georg Baselitz

As he approaches 80, the German master Georg Baselitz contemplates the end

21 May 2016 9:00 am

‘In many ways,’ Georg Baselitz muses, ‘I behaved against the grain of the times I grew up in.’ The era…

Why the Spanish may be better off without a government

30 April 2016 9:00 am

The Spanish seem to be doing better without one

Everything comes down to one man’s suffering: Geza Rohrig as Saul

Should the Final Solution ever be made into entertainment?

30 April 2016 9:00 am

Amid the abundant cinema of Nazi atrocity, Son of Saul is exemplary. Ian Thomson explains why

Send us your entries for our ‘President Erdogan Insulting Poetry Competition’

23 April 2016 9:00 am

Pen a foul verse in honour of the Turkish leader and be in the running for a £1,000 poetry prize!

Let’s leave the EU and join Germany

16 April 2016 9:00 am

It’s the only part of the EU that’s really worth our while

Portrait of the week

19 March 2016 9:00 am

Home In the Budget, George Osborne, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, kept talking of the ‘next generation’. He outlined cuts…