Jill Petzinger

Updated 5:30am ET, Dec. 20

A Berlin, Germany, startup called Locomore has launched the world’s first crowdfunded train service.

“Refugee is not my name, and it’s not my work—it’s my situation,” says Abdallah Rahhal, the lead singer of Musiqana, a Berlin-based band of exiled Syrians.

German chancellor Angela Merkel has confirmed she will seek reelection next year.

As America woke up to president-elect Donald Trump, who famously and frequently pledged to build a wall across America’s border with Mexico, it’s worth remembering that today is the 27th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, one of the cruelest borders the world has ever known.

At this point, it’s almost as if Germany is showing off. The unemployment rate in Europe’s most robust economy dropped to 6% last month, according to the Federal Employment Agency. That’s the lowest level since the reunification of East and West 25 years ago. Germany’s mighty manufacturing machine is humming.

If you’re worn out and depressed with the US election campaign, ponder what’s going on in Iceland for a moment. The country’s Pirate Party, founded less than four years ago by a group of activists, anarchists, and hackers, is poised to upend Icelandic politics with an Oct. 29 general-election victory.

There are many reasons to feel despair with the state of the world today. Isolationist politics are rising on both sides of the Atlantic, and seizing on voters’ frustrations. The last year has seen Europe’s refugee crisis hit record levels, and a stream of police killings in the United States. In a matter of weeks, America may elect a president who has boasted of sexually assaulting women. 

In May 2015, Germany’s five-year birthrate had plunged to the lowest in the world, edging Japan out of the bottom slot. But things may be looking up slightly on the baby front, according to the latest figures from the German federal statistics office.

American civil-rights icon Rosa Parks moved from Alabama to Detroit in 1957. Her first home in the city, on South Deacon Street, was demolished last week.

Werner Mauss claims he has thwarted military coups, hunted down some 2,000 criminals, and prevented a mafia attempt to poison Pope Benedict XVI. But the legendary secret agent couldn’t outrun the German tax authorities.

Germany’s taciturn chancellor surprised the country this week with an uncharacteristically frank speech apologizing for her handling of the refugee crisis. Angela Merkel’s contrite comments came after her party suffered dismal results in state elections this month, losing support to the upstart anti-immigrant party Alternative für Deutschland (AfD).

The number of unaccompanied refugee children reported missing in Germany has doubled in the past six months.

In English, stashing away food for times of need is “squirreling.” In German, it’s “hamstern.” Hamster pictures, tweets, and jokes are everywhere in Germany this week, since the Frankfurter Allegemeine Zeitung (link in German) revealed that the government is asking citizens to stockpile food and water in case of a national emergency.

German vice chancellor Sigmar Gabriel was attending an election campaign event in Salzgitter, Lower Saxony last Friday (Aug. 12) when a group of far-right protestors began heckling him, calling him a “race traitor,” among other things.

On the 55th anniversary of “barbed-wire Sunday,” as the start of construction on the Berlin Wall is known, the border security business is booming.

Former Berlin mayor Klaus Wowereit famously called Germany’s hip capital “poor but sexy.” Indeed, according to a new study, Berlin is the only major capital city in Europe that depresses its country’s per capita GDP.  

Germany has been shaken again by another bloody attack by a young refugee.

Nine people plus the gunman are dead after a shooting at a shopping center in the southern German city of Munich on Friday evening (July 22). At least 10 people have been injured.

Germany’s powerful car companies are already gearing up for what will be a highly competitive self-driving car market in coming years. And the government is wasting no time in drawing up legislation that will give the country’s automakers and drivers a legal framework—and a competitive edge—for the autonomous era.

An unidentified man attacked passengers on a train between Würzburg-Heidingsfeld and Ochsenfurt in southern Germany on Monday evening.

The deadly rampage along the Nice seafront last night (July 14) might have been even worse but for the bravery of one unidentified civilian.

“The first time I removed a sticker, I felt so good that I had done something,” Irmela Mensah-Schramm says.

After dragging its feet for years, Germany has updated its widely criticized laws on sexual assault.