Berlin - The current crisis in world financial markets is primarily an issue for the United States and has thus far had little effect on the real economy in Germany, an official government spokesman said Monday.
Finance Ministry spokesman Torsten Albig said that, while some German financial institutions had been hit by the US subprime crisis, "German financial institutions in their totality are recognizably not as involved as US and other Anglo-Saxon institutions."
Berlin - A 90-year-old man who was a lieutenant in Nazi Germany's forces went on trial in Munich on Monday for 14 murders during a World War II reprisal rampage in Italy.
The man has already been convicted once in absentia in La Spezia by an Italian military court of directing the June 26-27, 1944, atrocity at Falzano, a hamlet in Tuscany, but the September 2006 life-imprisonment sentence cannot be enforced in Germany.
Interrogated by German police for the Italian trial, he confirmed he had been an officer in battalion 818 of the Mountain Combat Engineers in Italy, but denied the atrocity.
At Falzano, the German Army shot three men and a woman in revenge for an ambush that killed two German soldiers.
Berlin - German Nobel literature laureate Guenter Grass has invited artists and scientists from both halves of the divided Korea to a conference in Germany, the Tammen Gallery in Berlin said Saturday.
Grass discussed the German experience of reunification at a conference in the South Korean capital Seoul in 2002.
A date had not yet been fixed for the conference, which is expected to take place in the Willy Brandt House in the northern city of Luebeck.
Berlin - A statue of Adolf Hitler was back on display at a Berlin waxworks on Saturday, two months after its head was wrenched off by an irate visitor.
The effigy of the Nazi dictator was seated behind a desk at Madame Tussaud's, a popular tourist attraction on Berlin's well-known Unter den Linden boulevard.
The controversial display was protected by a glass wall and security staff, unlike the original one which was completely open to visitors.
Berlin - Luxury carmaker Porsche hit a bump Friday in its plans to win control of its big brother Volkswagen, with Porsche directors suffering defeats in key votes at a Volkswagen Group board meeting.
After 40,000 Volkswagen workers rallied at VW's Wolfsburg headquarters Friday morning in support of state influence on the company, labour leaders were jubilant at the setback for Porsche.
During the afternoon the board forbade direct contacts by Volkswagen's premium-car division Audi with Porsche executives.
Berlin - German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier Friday welcomed a power-sharing agreement between the main parties in Zimbabwe.
"I hope this paves the way to a peaceful future," Steinmeier said.
The issue now was to tackle the southern African country's problems, he said, adding that Zimbabwe urgently needed a fresh political and economic start.
Steinmeier said Germany would assess the new government on the basis of its achievements.
"I expect that a framework will soon be created in which democratic freedoms are respected and economic development becomes possible," he said.
Berlin - The current crisis in world financial markets is primarily an issue for the United States and has thus far had little effect on the real economy in Germany, an official government spokesman said Monday.
Berlin - German Nobel literature laureate Guenter Grass has invited artists and scientists from both halves of the divided Korea to a conference in Germany, the Tammen Gallery in Berlin said Saturday.
Berlin - A statue of Adolf Hitler was back on display at a Berlin waxworks on Saturday, two months after its head was wrenched off by an irate visitor.
Berlin - Luxury carmaker Porsche hit a bump Friday in its plans to win control of its big brother Volkswagen, with Porsche directors suffering defeats in key votes at a Volkswagen Group board meeting.
