Germany’s Social Democratic Party (SPD) was never a revolutionary force but had always been party of reformers able to adapt to new social realities with legislation designed to improve people’s lives. That kind of SPD has not been seen for years.

How did this happen? By 1990, all the battles appeared to have been fought, and the political left – not only in Germany – gradually lost sight of the …

The year 2018 has marked a turning point in several respects. We Germans in particular must be quick to bid farewell to cherished certainties and the thorough dependability of our multilateral system of order. This much we know: achieving new safeguards and reinforced stability on the domestic and international front demands we restore our resolve to assert our model of a liberal, democratic and open society and thereby bolster Western …

If the past few years have taught us anything, it’s the wisdom of taking predictions with a grain of salt. When Donald Trump was elected president of the United States, it was said the US economy would collapse. That has not happened. It has, in fact, grown at a healthy clip. In a similar vein, the argument went that if the British chose to leave the European Union, prices on …

As we move into 2019, a new round of US-Russian nuclear competition – Arms Race 2.0 – is clearly emerging. The risk of nuclear conflict through deliberate action or some tragic combination of mistakes and escalation is growing. While both sides are developing and deploying new offensive and defensive strategic systems, the two governments are taking actions that could lower the threshold to nuclear use.

Amid all of this, political …

If you want to build a building, you need construction machinery and industrial cranes. When the work of those excavators and wheel loaders is done and the building is standing erect, the machines are taken back to the depot. In fact, a large portion of building equipment is active on construction sites for only 50 percent of its “lifetime.” In the case of cranes, that number sinks to only 25 …

In the dispute over the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline, German Minister for Economic Affairs and Energy Peter Altmaier is openly seeking a compromise with the United States. The German government will ensure that there is a liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal in Germany, he said. American LNG – albeit expensive – could then be brought into the country. Europe cannot be “susceptible to blackmail,” Altmaier said on Feb. 13 …

Journalist Juan Moreno never actually met Claas Relotius. They spoke on the phone only once, and Moreno believes this is one of the reasons he was able to eventually expose Relotius’ many journalistic fabrications. Everyone else at the Der Spiegel seems to have fallen for the charms of the award-winning Relotius, a four-time recipient of the prestigious German Reporter Prize. Relotius had been awarded several other prominent prizes, even though …

For the third time in four terms, Germany is governed by a grand coalition. Grand – that means the center-right CDU/CSU and the center-left Social Democrats create a government together. Under the leadership of Chancellor Angela Merkel, they must cooperate in the cabinet and in the Bundestag while at the same time thinking about the next election in two years – or should we say, in two years at the …

On Jan. 1, 2019, Germany took its two-year, non-permanent seat on the UN Security Council. What are your goals in the coming years?

We’re eager to make our own contribution to the regular issues on the Security Council agenda. These include giving new mandates to various peacekeeping missions and processing reports from the UN’s Special Representatives. We also want to bring our perspective into the debate on contemporary crises, including …

Ole Wald* has mixed feelings looking back at his years as a United States citizen. “It hurts my heart that I’m no longer an American,” says the 54-year-old Berlin-based co-founder of an industrial real estate development firm. “Being a US citizen has been part of my identity forever.” On the other hand, he’s relieved to be rid of his American passport. “It would have been much more difficult to cut …