Gazprom Soldiers on With Nord Stream II

Poland has achieved a significant victory in its battle against German and Russian energy collaboration. Daunted by Polish regulations, five international giants in the natural gas industry announced Aug. 12 that they had pulled out of an agreement to join Russian state-owned gas company Gazprom in the Nord Stream II AG consortium. The consortium — which Gazprom currently owns in its entirety — will oversee the construction and operation of the controversial Nord Stream II pipeline, which is set to enter service in 2019. The pullout leaves Gazprom to move forward with the 55 billion-cubic-meter natural gas pipeline project, estimated to cost between $8 billion and $11 billion, by itself, and it could have serious consequences across Northern and Central Europe. Even so, Gazprom will persevere.

Germany Hails Landmark Achievement In Fusion Energy

The Wendelstein 7-X won’t be winning any awards for catchy name of the year, but the massive new German prototype fusion reactor does represent one of the biggest advances in fusion power in decades. The device also exemplifies what might be the start of a nascent trend; European leadership in energy research and experimentation.

Destruction—and I’m Leaving The Party

Dear Sigmar Gabriel,

I’ve been a member of the SPD since the age of 13. As you’ll know, that is not supposed to happen: You have to be 14 to sign up. But I was so impatient for Helmut Kohl’s conservative government to come to an end, and admired the history of social democracy so much, that I begged the comrades in Munich until they said: “You could always make a little mistake and write that you were born in 1981 rather than in 1982.”

Sigmar Gabriel, leader of the Social Democratic Party (SPD) (Reuters/Thomas Peter)

Since then I’ve often had my disagreements with the SPD. But I never regretted being a member. Until now.

Germany’s Destructive Anger

MATT CHASE

A DEAL has finally been reached that could keep Greece in the eurozone. Few are happy with the outcome. We’ve heard a lot about how the Greeks feel humiliated. But we’ve heard less about German anger, and we know they are angry. Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble was reported to have started yelling during Saturday night’s negotiations. France and Italy have both made huge loans to Greece, but neither country has expressed hostility to Greece. Why is Germany so angry?

The Berlin Bulldozer and the Sack of Athens

When finalizing my book European Spring last year, I hesitated before describing the eurozone as a “glorified debtors’ prison.” After this weekend’s brutal, vindictive, and shortsighted exercise of German power against Greece, backed up by the Frankfurt-based European Central Bank’s illegal threat to pull the plug on the entire Greek banking system, I take it back. There is nothing glorious about the eurozone: It is a monstrous, undemocratic creditors’ racket.

Here's The Truth About Greece That Many Germans Won't Like To Hear

Greece's is facing a massive economic crisis. And of course, most Germans have seen it coming. It’s so obvious, that when it comes to national finances, the “Bankrupt Greeks“ are simply not as disciplined as the Germans. Right?

There is a general assumption that Europe’s future is jeopardized by “the Greeks,“ and the German newspaper Bild did the math, converting the financial aid into truck loads: “In order to get 215.7 billion euros in bills of 100 euros on a truck to Athens, you would have to send off 88 40-ton trucks."

The forgotten origins of Greece’s crisis will make you think twice about who’s to blame

Stop me if you’ve heard this one.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel toasts with beer in Dachau, August 20, 2013. REUTERS/Michael Dalder

The Greeks, Italians, Spaniards and Irish walk into a bar, where the French and Germans are the bartenders. It’s happy hour, and the Germans and the French are serving half-price drinks. Although everyone quickly drinks too much, the bartenders keep on serving. Eventually, the inebriated customers head home and get into all kinds of trouble -- fights, car accidents, some broken windows.

Greece and Spain helped postwar Germany recover. Spot the difference

Sixty years ago today, an agreement was reached in London to cancel half of postwar

Germany's debt. That cancellation, and the way it was done, was vital to the reconstruction of Europe from war. It stands in marked contrast to the suffering being inflicted on European people today in the name of debt.

 People exchanging food for tickets in 1923 Germany. 'Many, including Keynes, argued that [reparations imposed on Germany following the Versailles treaty] led to the rise of the Nazis and the second world war.' Photograph: Keystone/Corbis

Germany emerged from the second world war still owing debt that originated with the first world war: the reparations imposed on the country following the Versailles peace conference in 1919. Many, including John Maynard Keynes, argued that these unpayable debts and the economic policies they entailed led to the rise of the Nazis and the second world war.

The Euro Intercepts

Press Release Top German NSA Targets Top German NSA Intercepts

The United States National Security Agency has been massively targeting phone numbers of top German ministers and public officials responsible for commerce, finances, economics and agriculture – including even Angela Merkel's personal assistant. WikiLeaks publishes today, 1 July 2015, a list of 69 German government telephone numbers from a high-priority NSA target interception list demonstrating economic and political espionage against Germany for almost two decades. WikiLeaks is also publishing classified interception reports resulting from the surveillance, showing the US and UK spying on German officials discussing their positions and disagreements on the solution to the Greek financial crisis.

Did Germany Send RPGs to Saudi Arabia in Order to Win the World Cup?

The genius behind much of the corruption that has enabled the criminal racket known as FIFA to become so extraordinarily powerful in global sports lies in the often obscure nature of the bribes paid to its executives. Favors are traded, deals are made, but rarely are they sufficiently explicit to be labeled as outright corruption. Now, a new report in the German press adds a potentially sordid new dimension to that horse-trading: Germany allegedly provided RPGs to Saudi Arabia in order to secure its support for the country’s 2006 World Cup bid.

Germany’s Nuclear Cutback Is Darkening European Skies

Germany’s influence in Europe is unquestionable, but it appears that some of its neighbors may be adversely affected by recent German decisions; and Greece is not the neighbor in question here. France has been reporting heavy levels of air pollution which authorities in the country are blaming on diesel cars there. But the real culprit may in fact be the renewed German penchant for coal power.

Up until a few years ago, Germany, along with France, was at the forefront of nuclear power use. But after the Fukushima disaster in Japan in 2011, the Germans were quick to begin phasing out nuclear power. In some countries, phasing out nuclear power would be easy, but in 2011, Germany obtained 25% of its power from nuclear sources. This nuclear power generated no carbon dioxide emissions of course, and little in the way of other forms of pollution. But after starting the phase out of nuclear power, Germany still needed to find a source of replacement power.

Vorsprung durch Grexit

The German political and bureaucratic class is preparing for Grexit, and thinks the risks are containable. Angela Merkel should resist this emerging consensus in Berlin, and make every effort to keep Greece in the euro.



The brinkmanship between Greece and the euro group is entering a decisive phase. Amidst escalating threats – default by Greece, financial cut-off by the eurozone – the most pressing issue is whether Germany would allow a Greek exit from the eurozone, either on purpose (‘Grexit’) or by accident (‘Greccident’). Most of the key decision-makers in Berlin say that unless Greece starts implementing real reforms, it should leave the euro. But Chancellor Angela Merkel needs to consider the geopolitical dimension, as well as pressure from the US and the ECB to keep Greece in – in addition to the unwillingness of the Greek people to leave. For Europe’s sake, she should go the extra mile to avoid Greece departing the eurozone. But the odds of Grexit happening are rising.

Germany rebalancing: Waiting for Godot?

German rebalancing is always about to happen but never does: the country’s current account surplus hit a record 7.5 per cent of GDP in 2014. A much lower surplus would be in the interests of Germans and their trade partners alike. Yet the German economy is highly unlikely to rebalance of its own accord: that requires a big public investment programme and higher public sector wages; lower consumption taxes and higher ones on corporate income, wealth and property; steps to encourage greater home ownership, and hence a more equal distribution of wealth and lower household savings; and unequivocal German support for aggressive monetary stimulus by the ECB.

It’s Time to Kick Germany Out of the Eurozone

Last year, Germany racked up a record trade surplus of 217 billion euros ($246 billion), second only to China in global export dominance. To some, this made Germany a bright spot in an otherwise anemic eurozone economy — a “growth driver,” as the German finance minister, Wolfgang Schäuble, puts it. In fact, Germany’s chronic trade surpluses lie at the heart of Europe’s problems; far from boosting the global economy, they are dragging it down. The best way to end this perverse situation is for Germany to leave the eurozone.

Greece Should Not Give In to Germany’s Bullying

Ever since the initial bargain in the 1950s between post-Nazi West Germany and its wartime victims, European integration has been built on compromise. So there is huge pressure on Greece’s new Syriza government to be “good Europeans” and compromise on their demands for debt justice from their European partners — also known as creditors. But sometimes compromise is the wrong course of action. Sometimes you need to take a stand.

Germany Emerges

German Chancellor Angela Merkel, accompanied by French President Francois Hollande, met with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Feb. 6. Then she met with U.S. President Barack Obama on Feb. 9. The primary subject was Ukraine, but the first issue discussed at the news conference following the meeting with Obama was Greece. Greece and Ukraine are not linked in the American mind. They are linked in the German mind, because both are indicators of Germany's new role in the world and of Germany's discomfort with it.

It is interesting to consider how far Germany has come in a rather short time. When Merkel took office in 2005, she became chancellor of a Germany that was at peace, in a European Union that was united. Germany had put its demands behind it, embedding itself in a Europe where it could be both prosperous and free of the geopolitical burdens that had led it into such dark places. If not the memory, then the fear of Germany had subsided in Europe. The Soviet Union was gone, and Russia was in the process of trying to recover from the worst consequences of that collapse. The primary issue in the European Union was what hurdles nations, clamoring to enter the union, would have to overcome in order to become members. Germany was in a rare position, given its history. It was in a place of comfort, safety and international collegiality.

France, Germany make last-ditch peace effort as U.S. weighs arming Ukraine

The leaders of Germany and France on Thursday announced a surprise diplomatic bid to end the conflict in Ukraine, working to forestall White House deliberations about arming government forces amid fears that the war could quickly spiral out of control.

The new peace effort came as civilian and military casualties have mounted by the hundreds in recent weeks. German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President François Hollande said they would fly to Moscow on Friday to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin to try to strike a deal. The unusual journey underscored the high stakes in the effort to quell the bloodiest European conflict since the Balkan wars of the 1990s.

Germany and the eurozone: The view from Paris

On recent visits to Berlin, I have been surprised at how negative people are about France. Key officials regard the country as incapable of controlling spending or enacting serious structural reform. They do not show much understanding of the political constraints that limit President François Hollande’s freedom of action. The officials add that, so long as the mistrust between Berlin and Paris persists, they cannot strike a bargain to strengthen eurozone governance. In any case, they say, there is no urgent need to do so, because – in their view – the eurozone as a whole is not in crisis. There are just specific problems in a few countries like France and Italy, caused by politicians lacking the courage to do what is necessary.

So I went to Paris to discover what the government thinks about Germany and the future of the euro. In Paris there is a sense of urgency about the stagnation of the eurozone (which is likely to grow at less than 1 per cent this year and to do not much better next year), the deflation afflicting parts of it (prices are falling in France) and the negative impact that these problems will have on French growth, job-creation and debt sustainability. Even French officials who are life-long believers in Franco-German amitié admit that the relationship is now ragged and horribly unbalanced: on the big questions, Germany sets the agenda for the eurozone.

What the Fall of the Wall Did Not Change

Twenty-five years ago, a crowd filled with an uneasy mixture of joy and rage tore down the Berlin Wall. There was joy for the end of Germany's partition and the end of tyranny. There was rage against generations of fear. One fear was of communist oppression. The other fear was of the threat of a war, which had loomed over Europe and Germany since 1945. One fear was moral and ideological, while the other was prudential and geopolitical. As in all defining political moments, fear and rage, ideology and geopolitics, blended together in an intoxicating mix.

The Berlin Wall fell 25 years ago, but Germany is still divided

It can be hard for visitors to Berlin to imagine where the Berlin Wall once separated Germany's communist East from the U.S.-friendly West. Today, commuters run to catch a metro where trains stood for nearly 30 years. Curried sausages are sold and illegal (but popular) parties are celebrated in empty warehouses just feet from where East Germans were shot by their own countrymen as they tried to cross the border to the west.

A woman and a man walk along the painted East Side Gallery, a former part of the Berlin Wall, and are reflected in a rain puddle in Berlin, Germany, 08 July 2014. The weather forecast predicts more rain for the following days. EPA/PAUL ZINKEN

Next week, Germany will celebrate the 25th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall and at first glance, it seems as if the country is more united than some nations that were never split.