Christmas in Hamburg
At the city’s festive markets shopping is not the objective: it is to meet friends and sip Glühwein.
ByGermany
Read the New Statesman’s latest comment, long-read features and analysis on Germany.
What it means to be German
Frank Trentmann’s history reveals how modern Germany found a new moral purpose after the horrors of Nazism.
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Clemens Meyer’s lessons from history
The author on growing up in the GDR, the rise of the far-right and Germany’s “responsibility” for the conflict in…
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Sahra Wagenknecht’s new left conservatism
Europe’s leaders are keenly watching the German breakaway party.
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Sahra Wagenknecht’s new left-populist party should be taken seriously
This is not a bunch of Trots but a well-prepared team with a clear agenda.
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Max Pechstein and the politics of paint
Amid Germany’s 20th-century upheavals, the expressionist’s art brought him both renown and peril.
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A guide to Berlin’s orchestral etiquette
Also: My brush with bicycle “fascism” and a sobering threat to fiction writing.
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Europe’s east-west divide is widening
Relations between Germany and Poland define the continent. But, ahead of the latter’s election this weekend, they are in crisis…
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The left’s slide in Germany is a warning for Labour
In power, Olaf Scholz’s coalition offers no answers for a country that has lost its competitive edge in the world.…
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The return of the two Germanys
The country is in economic and political crisis and parties of the extreme left and right are rising again.
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Brexit has made the EU less liberal and open
Brussels’ embrace of protectionism is a problem for those who yearn for closer ties with Europe.
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The AfD’s nuclear option
How the German far right could end up in government.
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Why is the far right surging in Germany?
Economic and social marginalisation is pushing voters towards the AfD.
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In defence of “what if?”
Why counterfactual history is an essential tool for understanding the present.
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Bismarck is still the GOAT
The Iron Chancellor reshaped a continent in his image.
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Britain is not the sick man of Europe – that accolade goes to Germany
To survive in a modern, digital world, the German economy requires not a green transition but a full-scale revolution.
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A rising backlash against green policies is energising Europe’s far right
The spectacular blooming, then rapid wilting, of Germany’s Greens is a warning for progressives everywhere.
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Emmanuel Macron’s vision for Europe still doesn’t match reality
As long as the defence of the continent depends on American goodwill, Europe cannot credibly distance itself from the US…
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Germany has taken over Britain’s role as leader of the EU’s awkward squad
Olaf Scholz’s insistence on reopening the debate on fuel-driven cars was Cameron-esque in its pettiness and its short-sightedness.
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European unity over Ukraine is holding – for now
A new poll of European publics reveals that support for Kyiv has strengthened since Russia’s invasion a year ago.
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