WASHINGTON — If the euro fails, the blame will not be on Greece, but on Germany. Europe’s economic powerhouse is now seen as the only force that can prevent a continental meltdown that would result in defaults, disintegration, and decline. As the Bundestag, Germany’s parliament, prepares for Thursday’s crucial vote on more guarantees for the [...]

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BERLIN — In West Berlin the days and nights after November 9, 1989, we welcomed and hugged complete strangers, our East German countrymen, on the streets, chatting over a cup of coffee or a glass of Glähwein, with inconceivable and indescribable sentiments of ecstatic joy and happiness. The political mood in Germany and Eastern Europe [...]

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WASHINGTON — It is admittedly difficult to explain to Americans why they should be excited about Ireland’s approval of the European Union’s Lisbon Treaty on Friday.   When told that the EU will run more smoothly under the new treaty, Americans are likely to want to know instead whether this means Europeans will do more [...]

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Chancellor Angela Merkel famously displays upon her desk a framed picture of an 18th century princess from the German East who journeyed far from home to subdue a court teeming with dangerous rivals, and from there to rule an alien empire: Catherine the Great. Being an Empress in that dark era held undeniable advantages. One [...]

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German voters made a clear decision in their federal election last Sunday. As expected, Chancellor Angela Merkel can stay in office with her conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU), by far the strongest party with 33.8 percent of the vote, which is even less than the already disappointing result of the last election (35.4 percent)-a rather [...]

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  The numbers below are still approximate, because the final count may not be published until Monday. Nevertheless, the following is already clear:   The liberal Free Democrats (FDP) are the triumphant winners of the election €“ at 14.6-14.7 %, their best result since 1949 (but not as good as they’d hoped when they were [...]

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    It’s 5 pm in Germany, one hour before the polling stations close, and the first projections are published. Throughout the country, it’s been a day of radiant sun and blue skies €“ the kind of day that Germans prefer to spend hiking in the mountains, or grilling at a lake, rather than waiting [...]

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 Gosh, the German election this Sunday has become exciting after all. Three reasons: the race has become too close to call; it has become clear that the next Chancellor will have overwhelming problems to deal with; and Germany may be on the verge of a seismic shift in its political landscape. This blog will look [...]

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BERLIN — As Germany heads for federal elections this Sunday, President Obama’s decision to cancel plans for a land-based missile defense program in Poland and the Czech Republic met with unanimous applause, not just from Chancellor Angela Merkel and her challenger, Foreign Minister Frank Walter Steinmeier, but in fact across all the parties. It was [...]

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It was  a Man Bites Dog moment: One of the tropes of the German debate on Afghanistan has been the notion that the”moment of truth” for our so-called”stabilization mission” in northern Afghanistan would come in the form of a massive Taliban attack on Bundeswehr troops. That moment has come in  the one  form imagined by [...]

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