Barrie Davis - Weimar Germany: Death of a Democracy

“The Weimar Republic was Germany’s postwar experiment with democracy, and a time of unprecedented intellectual and artistic freedom. But beneath the glamour was a polarized society plagued by economic disasters, populist leaders fuelling culture wars and an uneasy political settlement that would soon spawn the horrors of Nazism.”

Kerre Woodham: The entire fuel situation is a mess

How about that petrol, eh? I filled up on Thursday, as usual, that's my usual day. Just the car, no jerry cans, no oil drums, thanks very much, and I thought to myself, $2.95 - she's getting up there. Bargain now, looking at the pumps.

Our colleague Kylie, who has to travel north most weekends, reckons she paid an extra $80 above what she would normally pay for her weekend tikitouring.

Dr Will Jones: Industry is Being Sacrificed to Net Zero Ideology, Says Siemens Energy Boss

Europe is sacrificing industry to Net Zero ideology, the Chairman of Siemens Energy has warned, with strict emission targets crippling manufacturing in Germany. The Telegraph has more.

Dr Oliver Harwich: The long estrangement

It is strange to observe a nation act irrationally and against its own interests. Stranger still when that nation is your own.

I grew up in Germany. I still think in German. Yet Germany’s political psychology feels increasingly alien to me.

Dr Oliver Hartwich: Will Europe realise in time that it’s under Russian attack?

The annual public hearing of Germany’s intelligence chiefs is normally a tedious affair: Bureaucrats read prepared statements. Politicians ask predictable questions. And nothing much happens.

This year was different. On 13 October, the presidents of Germany’s three intelligence services – foreign, domestic and military – delivered a coordinated assessment that was remarkable for its bluntness.

Dr Oliver Hartwich: German Götterdämmerung

Last November, Germany’s “traffic light” coalition collapsed and snap elections were called for February 2025. I dutifully registered to vote as a German living abroad. Following the proper procedure, I contacted the city council of the last place I lived before emigrating 21 years ago.

Germany allows its citizens to vote for 25 years following their emigration, so I still qualify – though only just.

Philip Crump: New Zealand’s MMP Journey - Lessons from Germany’s Electoral Long Game

New Zealand’s move to Mixed Member Proportional (MMP) representation in 1996 unlocked the old two-party grip of Labour and National and ushered in the multi-party era. Achieving greater representation in Parliament was, after all, one of the drivers for reforming the electoral system at that time.

Nearly three decades later, the vote shares of the two main parties in New Zealand have slid from highs above 40% to long-term averages hovering in the 25–30% range.

Dr Oliver Hartwich: Merkel’s 16 years of tactical drift

Angela Merkel is “fundamentally an optimist”, she tells Der Spiegel magazine in her first major interview since leaving office. One wonders why.

After all, Germany’s economy is struggling, its energy prices are among the highest in the world, its military barely functions, and its relations with Eastern European neighbours remain strained.

This interview, carefully staged to promote her forthcoming memoir Freedom: Memories 1954-2021, offers a revealing glimpse into the mind of one of the world’s most influential leaders.

Joanne Nova: German leaders resign after crushing Greens election loss

“Suddenly everybody hates them”. German leaders resign after crushing Greens election loss

The Greens have become the “punching bag” of the Left and the Right

Things just keep getting worse for the Greens in Germany. After two terrible performances in recent state elections the Party “crashed out of the state parliament” in the Brandenburg region of Germany (which surrounds Berlin). Results were so awful, the two current leaders of the German Greens have jointly stepped down.

Joanne Nova: Renewable Fiasco - Had Germany kept nuclear it could have saved $600b and reduced emissions 73%

If the Germans just did nothing at all, it would have been Greener

Germany already had nuclear power in 2002, if they just kept it and didn’t build all the wind and solar plants, they wouldn’t have had to spend 697 Billion Euro on subsidies, and would have cut their emissions by 73% more.

Sabine Beppler-Spahl: Germany’s farmers are fighting back against green tyranny

The Net Zero agenda poses an existential threat to European agriculture.

German farmers have begun a week of nationwide demonstrations, blocking roads with tractors in protest against government plans to phase out agricultural subsidies. As Joachim Rukwied, president of the German Farmers’ Association (DBV), put it last month, ‘We will be present everywhere in a way the country has never seen before’. And the farmers are not alone. Lorry drivers, hauliers and tradespeople have also joined in the protests.

Oliver Hartwich: Germany's heating plan - from green dream to red alarm

For many years, Germany’s Greens had a good run. They kept increasing their share of the vote in elections at the federal and state levels. They enjoyed a sympathetic media. Their party leaders were personally popular.

It appeared inevitable that a Green politician would eventually occupy the Chancellery in Berlin.

But over the past few months, this seemingly endless Green honeymoon has come to an abrupt end. And ironically, it has ended because of the policies promoted by one of the party’s biggest stars, economics minister and deputy chancellor Robert Habeck.

Point of Order: It’s not easy being Green

Fancy that, Germany has co-governance too. But they do things differently over there.

Can you imagine a government made up of ACT, Labour and Greens? As a fresh replacement for an eternal National – Labour coalition? Welcome to Berlin.

But some things always stay the same. The Greens have a problem understanding power and compromise.

Oliver Hartwich: Germany is stumbling towards an uncertain future

It is summer in Germany, and traditionally that is not good news. Or rather, it is not a good time for news.

When non-stories suddenly dominate the front pages in the UK, they call it ‘the silly season’. The German equivalent is ‘the summer hole’, which is an apt term for the hot issue of this year: a party song called Layla.

Layla is a bizarre chart-topper for a country that once regarded itself as a Kulturnation. There is a diametrical difference between Layla’s musical quality and Beethoven’s, and the song’s lyrics insult the language of Luther and Goethe. The little content they contain is crude, rude, and disgusting. This is no wonder because the song is about a brothel and its lead employee, Layla (“She’s prettier, younger, hornier / La-la-la-la-la-Layla”).

Now, Layla should not be worth mentioning, least of all to an international audience. But its tasteless content has led to its banning at some folk festivals and radio stations. And that, in turn, has created a debate on freedom of speech and sexism.

Daniel J. Mitchell - Comparing the Economic Growth of East Germany to West Germany: A History Lesson

Donald Trump is an incoherent mix of good policies and bad policies.
Some of his potential 2020 opponents, by contrast, are coherent but crazy.
And economic craziness exists in other nations as well.

Socialism Ruined East Germany

In a column for the New York Times, Jochen Bittner writes about how a rising star of Germany’s Social Democrat Party wants the type of socialism that made former East Germany an economic failure.

Victor Davis Hanson: The Great German Meltdown

Every 20 to 50 years in Germany, things start unraveling. Germans feel aggrieved. Ideas and movements gyrate wildly between far left and far right extremes. And the Germans finally find consensus in a sense of victimhood paradoxically expressed as national chauvinism. Germany’s neighbors in 1870, 1914, 1939—and increasingly in the present—usually bear the brunt of this national meltdown.

Germany is supposed to be the economic powerhouse of Europe, its financial leader, and its trusted and responsible political center. Often it plays those roles superbly. But recently, it’s been cracking up—in a way that is hauntingly familiar to its European neighbors. On mass immigration, it is beginning to terrify the nearby nations of Eastern Europe. On Brexit, it bullies the British. On finance, it alienates the southern Europeans. On Russia, it irks the Baltic States and makes the Scandinavians uneasy by doing business with the Russian energy interests. And on all matters American, it increasingly seems incensed.