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A crane swings over the skeleton of the former Palace of the Republic (Palast der Republik) on April 24, 2008 in Berlin, Germany. The Palace of the Republic is the former parliament building of the former East Germany, and is to be completely disassembled by the end of the year. Many Berliners are against the move, citing the historical importance of the building.

I loved the film Good Bye Lenin! as much as the next guy, but sometimes you just have to move on. I mean, we are talking about a significant eyesore here, and one that's in a prime riverfront spot:

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JOHN MACDOUGALL/AFP/Getty Images

JIM WATSON

While NATO allies publicly debate their role in Afghanistan, attendees say a secret memo is circulating around the conference that plans for the alliance's exit from the conflict. Der Spiegel reports that Germany played a major role in drafting the "master plan" for the eventual removal of 47,000 NATO troops.

The document is actually less dramatic than it seems. In the short term it "calls for soldiers to gradually focus their attention more on training Afghan police forces and to hand over responsibility for actual conflict situations 'as soon as external circumstances and Afghan capabilities allow.'"

Wasn't equipping Afghan forces to eventually handle their own security always NATO's plan in Afghanistan? How is this a major change in policy? Der Spiegel hedges that the benchmarks layed out the memo might keep a NATO presence in Afghanistan until 2015, so it's possible that the document is just a fantasy meant to assuage the skeptical German public.

While the paper avoids a specific date for withdrawal, Germany Defense Minister Franz-Josef Jung is optimistic about its implementation:

According to everything I've seen and to everything that other countries have added," Jung said of the paper, "I am very hopeful that it can be achieved in the forseeable future."

Mission accomplished?

You may already have seen this incredible photo from a fire in Ludwigshafen, Germany, an industrial town across the Rhein from Mannheim:

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The photo instantly told a heartwarming, if tragic, story: Fire-trapped Family Throws Baby to Safety.

Nine people died in Sunday's blaze, and a further 60 were injured. But incredibly, the 11-month-old baby survived without injury. In recent days, though, the story has taken a darker turn. Speculation is growing that the fire was not an accident, but racially motivated arson aimed at Turkish or Turkish-origin families living in the building. The accusations have been aired prominently in the Turkish press, and Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan is reportedly meeting with German Chancellor Angela Merkel today about it. There is some suggestive circumstantial evidence that arson was the motive:

The police confirmed Wednesday that the apartment building had already been daubed with neo-Nazi graffiti before the fire. The word "Hass" ("hate") was written twice on the wall next to the entrance to a Turkish cultural center on the ground floor of the building, with the last two letters written in the style of the Germanic runes of Hitler's SS organization.

Investigators have yet to issue their findings, however. For Germany, this is an extremely delicate topic. There are an estimated 2.5 million ethnic Turks in Germany, a relatively large minority in a nationalistic country of about 82.5 million. The good news? In the most recent state elections in Hesse, voters appeared to reject a xenophobic campaign waged by the incumbent, a Merkel ally. Tensions, of course, could easy flare up as a result of this incident. Stay tuned.

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The excitement aroused by the World Cup soccer tournament in Germany in 2006 may have increased that country's birthrate as much as 15 percent nine months later. But the intensely emotional matches have now also been correlated with a spike in the number of cardiac emergencies.

A study published Thursday in the New England Journal of Medicine examined the number of cardiac emergencies in the greater Munich area in the summer of 2006. It compared that number with the numbers in similar periods in 2003 and 2005, and for several weeks before and after the 2006 World Cup.

On days when the German team played, the incidence of cardiac emergencies was 2.66 times higher than during the comparison periods. For men, the incidence was 3.26 times higher; for women, it was 1.82 times higher. People with a history of heart disease were particularly affected.

The study's authors say emotional stress was the main trigger, but they add that sleep deprivation, excessive consumption of junk food and alcohol, and smoking might also be contributing factors. They suggest that spectators with heart problems should take preventive measures, such as consulting their doctors about increased medication dosages during intense sports events.

So should Americans be worried about this weekend's Super Bowl? Study author Gerhard Steinbeck says:

It's reasonable to think that something quite similar might happen.

Though if the Vegas odds-makers have it right, the greater danger on Sunday may turn out to be irate New York Giants fans.

Der Spiegel online has posted a candid interview with Germany's top military officer in Afghanistan. He admits that Germany needs to do more, mainly by getting rid of the caveats that restrict where German soldiers can go and what functions they can perform (Germans are posted mainly in the relatively stable north of the country):

The limitations that the Germans have placed upon themselves are not regarded as optimal here. If a country takes over reconstruction responsibilities, its teams can, in an emergency, be replaced by reserve units if the Afghans go into battle. That's what we're really talking about here. When all the countries on a mission go into conflict areas and then a few of them say that they're only going to do something very specific, it becomes difficult.

He also doesn't have much patience for the argument, heard so often in Europe, that the war-fighting element of the mission (largely but not exclusively done by the American-led force called OEF) is getting in the way of gentler peacekeeping and uncontroversial reconstruction.

It bothers the Americans when Europeans accuse them of waging the war in a brutal fashion. If there were no OEF, the insurgency would gain strength in the country and they would consider themselves unopposed here, which could also threaten ISAF's success. Here at ISAF we don't have the forces to go after the extremists alone.

Maybe somebody in the Green Party will listen. 

Germany may not be too gung-ho about the war in Iraq, but that doesn't mean the country is not serious about stopping terrorism and extremism. That said, the latest serious tool it has added to its arsenal for fighting extremist Islam is ... a comic book (pdf).

Created by the interior ministry of the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia, the comic book features an adolescent German hero, Andi. Andi's frustrated Muslim friend Murat, a German resident of Turkish heritage, can't find an apprenticeship and blames his difficulties on xenophobia. Murat starts to become brainwashed by Harun, a Muslim youth who takes Murat to meet a radical sheikh who shows them extremist Web sites.

The story has a happy ending after Murat finally comes to his senses when his sister Ayshe—a modern, head-scarf-wearing, Muslim girl who staunchly believes in liberal democracy—is threatened by Harun.

Hamburg is planning to use the comic book in its schools; additionally, a second Andi comic is headed to schools soon. It's unclear how German kids will react, though, or whether the book will succeed in stopping the cultivation of homegrown terrorists, such as the three men—two German citizens who had converted to Islam and one Turkish Muslim resident—who were arrested in September for planning bomb attacks. It wouldn't be surprising if teenagers—being teenagers—find it cheesy and just roll their eyes. More importantly, though, is the impact on Muslims. The 2005-06 Danish cartoon outrage showed that cartoons and Muslims don't often go well together. (At least this comic book doesn't appear to have images of the prophet.) There's bound to be somebody who complains that the comic book depicts distorted caricatures of Muslims in Germany.

If the book gets families talking and makes youth more apt to peer-pressure their friends away from extremist recruiters, though, it may have well served its purpose. Only time will tell if placing the security of Germany on the shoulders of a teenage comic-book hero will protect the country from terrorism.

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A recent report out of Germany indicates that alcohol abuse by elite German soldiers in Afghanistan is rampant. Members of Germany's Kommando Spezialkräfte openly flout alcohol restrictions, drinking heavily and trading booze with U.S. troops for snippets of intelligence and helicopter rides, according to Der Spiegel. One U.S. soldier says beer is a "currency ... To us, the German beer supplies were Big Rock Candy."

And drinking is not limited to rank and file soldiers. The behavior of a drunken German colonel during mission briefings in Kandahar, for instance, prompted complaints from U.S. military officials.

The Germans aren't the only ones with substance-abuse problems. A report in the New York Times earlier this year found that "alcohol- and drug-related charges were involved in more than a third of all Army criminal prosecutions of soldiers" in Iraq and Afghanistan.

It's easy to dismiss the drinking as "boys will be boys" behavior. And you can't blame soldiers for having a drink or two, considering what they go through each day.

But if history is any guide, the heavy drinking could indicate low morale. During Vietnam, substance abuse was widespread and tied to frustration with progress and battlefield stress. This was also the case for the Soviet Union during its occupation of Afghanistan. Facing extended deployments, up to 50 percent of Red Army troops turned to drugs.

Last month, I attended a discussion on the state of the Iraq war. One panelist said the troops still believed in the fight because, unlike Vietnam, they had not yet turned to drugs or alcohol. Unfortunately, these reports suggest otherwise.

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Shimon Peres, Israel's president and former ... everything, denounced Columbia University this morning for hosting Mahmoud Ahmadinejad yesterday:

I think that Columbia University made a mistake ... With Hitler there was a dialogue. (British Prime Minister Neville) Chamberlain went to talk to him. What did it help? It helped cover the fact that Hitler prepared concentration camps and death camps."

Sure, Ahmadinejad may be strengthening his domestic position. But notice what happened today at the U.N.: French President Sarkozy called for "combining firmness with dialogue," reiterating his position, "if we allow Iran to acquire nuclear weapons, we would incur an unacceptable risk to stability in the region ad the world." And Germany's Angela Merkel came out in support of a new round of sanctions "if [Iran's] behavior doesn't change." She added, "Israel's security isn't negotiable," and referred to Ahmadinejad's history of comments on Israel as "inhumane".

These statements may well have been worked out on Friday, when the permanent five members of the U.N. Security Council plus Germany met in Washington to discuss the sanctions issue. But it sure was easier for Germany to toughen its stance after yesterday's farce at Columbia. Ahmadinejad had a chance to come across as a moderate, undercutting the unity of the EU3. Instead, he came across as a buffoon not ready for prime time. We'll see if he acquits himself better here at the U.N. in a few minutes, but suffice it to say that Iran is back on its heels today.

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On the right: A young boy in a traditional Bavarian costume Oktober-rests in a cart during the Costume and Rifleman's Parade Sunday in Munich, Germany. The procession, which features oompah bands and people in Bavarian costumes, takes place annually on the first Sunday of Munich's Oktoberfest beer festival, which this year began on Saturday and lasts until Oct. 7.

Other highlights from the opening weekend include:

• 500,000 liters of beer gulped
• 11 oxen devoured
• 60 "beer corpses" (though a spokeswoman for the Munich police said the actual number of people who drank themselves unconscious was probably higher)
• An out-of-control American man who threw a carrot, injuring a Chilean woman near the eye
• An inebriated Swiss man who got scared by a mechanical ghost and attacked it.

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Recently, Passport noted a very interesting tidbit from Der Spiegel: French President Nicholas Sarkozy apparently suggested that "perhaps the Germans would consider taking a political stake in the French atomic arsenal."

Der Spiegel appears to be the only source for this assertion, which could actually have several interpretations. Der Spiegel itself interpreted it as a suggestion that France might physically host nuclear weapons on German soil, but derided the idea as "pointless" and just another in a series of Sarkozy’s gaffes that have "surprised, stymied, annoyed, and flabbergasted" German leaders.

The magazine failed to note, however, that such an offer would not be without precedent, since Germany has hosted U.S. nuclear warheads for decades (for use by NATO forces). All but a handful have been withdrawn, but somewhere around 20 remain, probably at Ramstein Air Force Base. Hosting French nuclear weapons in a similar manner would not suddenly make Germany a nuclear power—which makes the German response, that "Germany did not seek to become a nuclear power," all the more perplexing.

Perhaps this incident is really a story about European integration, which has often been driven forward by a Franco-German "engine" of cooperation. One of the most difficult sticking points of integration in the European Union has always been defense capabilities—of which nuclear weapons are perhaps the most difficult, for obvious reasons.

Even in the context of integration, though, the facts on this incident are too vague to come to any firm conclusions. Perhaps Sarkozy is trying to jumpstart the integration process, in the face of possible new referendums on a new EU constitution. Perhaps he was trying to position France, as opposed to Britain, as the critical guarantor of the EU's security. Either way, the nuclear aspect of cooperation in Europe will be an area to watch in coming years.

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The French and the Germans have cooperated on many fronts since the end of World War II. Their partnership is largely credited with driving economic growth in Europe, and both countries champion further European integration. Now, French President Nicolas Sarkozy wants to take the relationship to a whole new level.

According to a report in Der Spiegel, Sarkozy, in a recent meeting with German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier, asked if Germany would be interested in some French nuclear weapons. Der Spiegel explains the German reaction thusly:

Both the chancellor and her foreign minister were speechless. The idea of possessing nuclear weapons is taboo in Germany. Sarzoky's predecessor Jacques Chirac cautiously brought up the issue 12 years ago, but he quickly realized it was pointless to pursue it.

Steinmeier eventually explained that as Germany had signed the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty; it wasn't interested in French nukes. Merkel said nothing. 

Sarkozy's offer is the latest in a series of odd incidents between the French and the Germans. For instance, Sarkozy asked Merkel to force German Finance Minister Peer Steinbrück to publicly apologize for contradicting the French president at an EU meeting over the independence of the Central European Bank. Merkel told Sarkozy she couldn't reprimand Steinbrück, as he was articulating German policy. 

Disputes over more substantive issues like Iraq have also emerged. The Germans were miffed when French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner visited Baghdad recently to express support for U.S. policy. Berlin was also upset by France's nuclear agreement with Libya. Both were done without consultation.

What does this new dynamic between France and Germany mean for the rest of Europe? Der Speigel says it best: "It's possible that Europe's legendary Franco-German motor might shift into neutral for a while."

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The murder of six men outside a pizza parlor in Duisberg, Germany last week has focused new attention on the globalization of the Italian mafia. Authorities claim that the shooting was linked to a feud between rival families of the 'Ndrangheta, a Calabrian crime syndicate that has in recent years eclipsed the better-known Sicilian Cosa Nostra. The 'Ndrangheta's presence in Germany has been well documented for some time now. Mafia groups own a significant amount of property in Germany for money-laundering purposes. As one of Europe's leading cocaine importers, the group also has ties in France, Belgium, the Netherlands, the Balkans, Eastern Europe and South America, according to a report by the Italian premier's office. However, this is the first crime of such magnitude to be committed outside of Italy, and many Germans are worried that the violence may continue. These fears seemed justified on Friday, when a statue of two clenched fists—a mafia symbol for revenge—was placed at the crime scene.

Meanwhile, the half-million Italians who live in Germany, particularly those involved involved in the restaurant business are concerned about the stigma of mafia involvement. Dubious German media reports have stated that around 30 percent of German pizza restaurants are mafia controlled. (The number is closer to 3 percent, restaurateurs say.) Seventeen Duisberg restaurant owners have issued an anti-mafia statement in order to reassure customers, but the 'Ndrangheta has certainly not helped their fellow Italians with blunt statements such as this one:

 The Germans must realize that where there is pizza, there's the Mafia."

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Germans love to travel. Every year, some 44 million of them trek overseas. For hoteliers in places like the French Riviera, this mass exodus is a cash cow. For the Teutonic state, it's an untapped resource.

The government of Angela Merkel is appealing to German citizens traveling abroad to "look beyond the palm trees" and pester people about their governments' human rights records—from the moment they step off the aircraft. Günter Nooke, human rights envoy for the German foreign ministry, even wants in-flight magazines to profile the human rights record of destination countries. Many German tourists are oblivious to human rights abuses, he complains, and "[t]oo many travellers are uncritical, or have a false solidarity with the governments of the countries they visit."

So what might Nooke have German tourists do? For example, visitors to Turkey could "engage" the people on the problems with the country's press freedoms and legal system; tourists in Egypt could ask their taxi drivers why emergency powers have been in place for decades; and Olympic fans could organize "private meetings" with local citizens' groups in Beijing. Businessmen traveling to Dubai could also query luxury hotels about the employment conditions of their migrant workers.

Aside from the obvious criticism that this approach could endanger citizens as well as travelers, which Nooke acknowledges, it also smacks of arrogance. Think about it: How would the staff at JFK airport or the Waldorf Astoria react to being browbeaten about Iraq or Guantánamo? They'd probably become about as welcoming as Yankee Stadium on the night the Red Sox are in town.

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That's a quote from a very distraught Andreas Jacobs, the chief owner of one of the world's largest chocolate manufacturers, Barry Callebaut of Switzerland. Marc Kowalsky explains why for Der Spiegel, which is becoming kind of obsessed with stories like this one:

Globalization has now hit the chocolate sector with full force. Just like Barry Callebaut, other chocolate producers are also suffering from the poor hazelnut harvest in Turkey, the growing demand for milk in China and the wheat shortage in the United States -- this last caused by more and more of the grain being used to produce biofuel. Meanwhile packaging and transport costs have increased at the same time.

Germany's critical gummy-bear industry is in trouble, too. The escalating drumbeat of stories about rising food prices around the world is enough to make Niall Ferguson pen a somber ode to Thomas Malthus. But if the upshot of this trend is less consumption of gummy bears, chocolate, and beer, perhaps everything will balance out in the end.   

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For many months, officials from the U.S. Treasury Department have been quietly traversing the globe in an attempt to convince managers of foreign banks to sever ties with Iran. More than 40 major financial institutions have agreed, dealing a serious blow to Iran's ability to finance trade deals and oil projects.

Now, the two largest European banks that were still doing business with Iran, Germany's Deutsche Bank and Commerzbank, say they will end their relationships with Tehran. Iran has long relied on the Europeans for its banking needs, and Germany was the country's second largest source of imports last year. But the banks appear to have caved in following increasing scrutiny of their transactions, Glenn R. Simpson and David Crawford report for the Wall Street Journal:

The two banks have also facilitated transfers of money to the Middle East on behalf of an Iran-backed European charity that the U.S. accuses of financing terrorism, according to people with access to records of the financial transfers. Counterterrorism officials say Commerzbank aided transfers of €223,000 ($305,000) to the Gaza Strip in February on behalf of the charity for an orphan-support program. In September, Deutsche Bank also transferred large sums to the Mideast for Paris-based Comité de Bienfaisance et de Secours aux Palestiniens, or Committee for Charity and Support for Palestinians, counterterrorism officials say.

Declaring victory, however, seems premature. Former U.S. Treasury Department advisor Michael Jacobson writes in a recent op-ed in the Jerusalem Post that, "smaller banks are beginning to step in as the larger ones withdraw, and a number of financial institutions have only stopped engaging in dollar transactions with Iran."

Where might these banks and companies be found? Beijing, for one: Iran has already turned to the state-controlled Bank of China to handle some of its transactions. And Caracas for another: Venezuela and Iran are collaborating on the new multinational Bank of the South. Then there are the Russian banks, which are flush with U.S. currency thanks to record-high oil prices.

And you thought whack-a-mole was just for U.S. commanders in Iraq.

What's your name? Where are you from? Did you vote for Bush?

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That's how one American student studying in Germany describes the start of a typical conversation with a German student. With anti-U.S. sentiment at an all-time high in Germany (as you might be able to tell from the picture at left), many American college students complain that they've become unofficial ambassadors for the United States, forced to justify Washington's every policy move.

To cool tensions down, the German-American Institute at the University of Tübingen launched a program called "Rent an American." American college students visit high schools. They bring photos of their lives back home and talk about the United States. They answer students' tough questions about Bush, war, the death penalty, and climate change. It helps that most American students in Germany seem to oppose Bush—it's not clear how this program would work if red-state Republicans had to answer students' pointed questions.

At the very least, the program shows German teens that a substantial fraction of Americans aren't blind followers of their president. And for the exchange students, it's a rude awakening to what studying abroad is all about.

Hundreds of thousands of Jews fled Germany during the rise of the Nazi regime, and many of these refugees ultimately ended up in Israel. But now the tide seems to be turning back in the other direction.

In the past year alone, more than 4,300 Israelis received German citizenship, according to Israel's Central Bureau of Statistics—an increase of 50 percent over the previous year. And fortunately for the many Israelis with German ancestry, they are not forced to revoke their Israeli citizenship thanks to Article 116 (2) of the German Constitution. They are simply having their citizenship "restored." This law has grown in popularity over the past few years as the security situation has deteriorated in Israel and discontent with the government has escalated.

Israelis with newly acquired German citizenship are enjoying the visa-free travel to Europe and the United States, along with the prospect of cheaper education in Germany and other parts of Europe. One new German citizen was also attracted by the irony:

Germany's soil is drenched with my family's blood, and in spite of it all, I got German citizenship. I see it as taking revenge on Hitler. Sweet revenge."

But other Israelis of German descent don't see it this way. "I would regard it as greatly disrespectful to my parents' memory to seek German citizenship," said a child of Holocaust survivors. But for the thousands more Israelis seeking German citizenship, the financial and security incentives are winning the argument.

Question: What do you call 1,802 guitarists rocking out to the opening riff from Deep Purple's "Smoke on the Water"?

Answer:  

(a) An incredible waste of time and energy

(b) A Guinness world record

(c) An artistic travesty

(d) Just another day in Germany

(e) All of the above 

My only question is: What ever happened to the Scorpions?

FP contributor Dan Drezner, citing reliable sources in Europe, tells a brief story about Russo-German diplomacy:

Angela Merkel apparently has a fear of dogs. Vladimir Putin is aware of this fact. Therefore, whenever Putin meets with Merkel in Moscow, he makes sure his pet dogs are in the room.

Press accounts suggest this to be true. President Putin loves his dogs, and he appears to use them to intimidate Chancellor Merkel during tough negotiations. This was the initial test, in January 2006:

Putin, who already met Merkel several times when she was opposition leader of the conservative Christian Democrats, said his meeting with her had taken place "in a very good atmosphere." Earlier, Putin, who likes dogs, had given Merkel a gift of a small toy black and white dog, which had a short leash. Merkel, however, does not like dogs - she was bitten by one when she was young and has since kept her distance, according to an aide. German diplomats said they were unsure how to interpret the gift.

One year later, in January 2007, Putin brought in diplomatic reinforcements during a dust-up with Merkel over energy supplies:

Later, when Koni, Putin's black Labrador, made her domineering entrance, Merkel nervously, or perhaps wishfully, commented in Russian, "Now the dog is going to eat the journalists." [...] Kremlin critic and journalist Yulia Latynina, writing for "Yezhednevny zhurnal," said the "friendly meeting in Sochi between Vladimir Putin, Angela Merkel, and Labrador Koni" left her bewildered.

Putin apparently told the German chancellor, "I don't think the dog will scare you. She won't do anything bad, she likes journalists."

I wonder what Vlad does to try to intimidate U.S. President George W. Bush. Show him the latest poll numbers? 

... President Ronald Reagan stood at Berlin's Brandenberg Gate and challenged Soviet Premier Mikhail Gorbachev to end the tyranny of communism in Europe.

In the 1950s, Khrushchev predicted: "We will bury you." But in the West today, we see a free world that has achieved a level of prosperity and well-being unprecedented in all human history. In the Communist world, we see failure, technological backwardness, declining standards of health, even want of the most basic kind--too little food. Even today, the Soviet Union still cannot feed itself. After these four decades, then, there stands before the entire world one great and inescapable conclusion: Freedom leads to prosperity. Freedom replaces the ancient hatreds among the nations with comity and peace. Freedom is the victor....

General Secretary Gorbachev, if you seek peace, if you seek prosperity for the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, if you seek liberalization: Come here to this gate! Mr. Gorbachev, open this gate! Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!

I've always admired the line not because it is Reagan's most famous. But because it took guts to deliver it.

It's easy to slam Reagan. But it's worth remembering that he was criticized even before this speech for being a naive optimist. No sane foreign policy thinker expected the Wall to actually come down a couple years later. In fact, the State Department tried to have the line stricken from Reagan's remarks. Even Colin Powell, then deputy national security advisor, was against it. But Reagan was insistent, and the line penned by 31 year-old staffer Peter Robinson stayed in the speech. At a time when political cynicism is running deep, it's an important reminder that strong presidential conviction can sometimes make our world a better place.