Monday, December 23, 2024
Trans-Atlantic

What should Europe do with its captured IS militants?

By Georg Mascolo and Ronen Steinke

The admonition from Washington came in loud and clear, and it made immediate waves across Europe. In late February, US President Donald Trump publicly called on European governments to finally take back citizens who had fought for the Islamic State (IS) and have since been captured. Europe’s answer came only a few days later: “What we’re dealing with here is the judicial processing of international terrorism, which means that it …

The Basic Law – Germany’s constitution – at 70

By Gertrude Lübbe-Wolff

Ten years ago, when Germany’s Basic Law turned 60, the birthday party in Berlin attracted hundreds of thousands of citizens. They strolled along Strasse des 17. Juni where official institutions had set up their exhibition stands. They crowded in front of the Brandenburg Gate to listen to Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, with the final melody that has become the hymn of the European Union, and to pop music afterwards. And from …

Germany’s carmakers must break out of their deep sleep and reinvent themselves as soon as they can

By Ulrich Viehöver

There are increasing fears that Germany’s automotive industry will not be able to master the problems it faces in the future. Some experts even claim that the demise of this paragon of industries – along with its suppliers and more than 800,000 employees – is imminent, arguing that the hurdles ahead are simply too large. To make matters worse, most of the leading managers at Audi, BMW, Daimler, Bosch and …

No man’s land

By Rüdiger Rossig

While welfare recipients in Germany are required to disclose extensive details about their wealth and possessions before they can receive benefits, data on large-scale property owners is at best nebulous. Why the double standard?

Germans love to argue about issues of wealth and poverty. In most cases, they focus on money and taxes, that is, on wages, salaries, savings and inheritances, whether in the form of cash, savings, securities, machinery …

Climate change is more painfully noticeable today than ever before

By Marlene Weiß

For a long time, climate change was a phenomenon of the future. While always more and more threatening with each new scientific forecast, its gloom and doom has remained something most of us could manage to ignore – until now. Who could really say for sure whether this particular flood or that extremely hot, dry summer wasn’t just a natural event like so many others throughout history?

Today, that phase …

Ready for take off: Tom Enders parts ways with Airbus and hands the reins to Guillaume Faury

By Jens Flottau

It had to be those red cowboy boots. “My favorite shoes, very comfortable,” Tom Enders says, raising his jeans a bit to show off his footwear. His last meeting with the media in a Munich hotel, no pressure any more. Enders is relaxed and in a good mood, his aides will confirm that this has not always been the case in past years.

He just received his first lifetime achievement …

The once-proud Deutsche Bank is in dire straits

By Mark Schieritz

It should have been the high point of its global conquest. In 1999, after a series of acquisitions, in terms of its balance sheet Deutsche Bank rated as the biggest bank in the world. In actuality, it was the beginning of its downfall. Today’s Deutsche Bank is but a shadow of its former self. Its share price, at $144 in 2007, is now less than $10. The largest German bank …

Bayer’s purchase of Monsanto is giving the aspirin makers a big headache

By Wolfgang Mulke

The chief executive of the pharmaceutical and chemical giant Bayer is preparing for a tumultuous meeting with his shareholders. They will convey their displeasure about the company’s massive loss in value to Werner Baumann at the corporation’s general meeting on April 26. Their anger is understandable. While before the acquisition of Monsanto, a share of Bayer was worth €105, it currently sells for around €60. For a short time, the …

The US ridesharing company Uber is facing considerable resistance in Germany

By Martin Gropp

If you’re flying from the United States to Germany and you want to use the American ride-hailing company Uber to get from the airport to downtown, there are two things you need to know: first, you’re going to have to land in one of only a few German cities and, second, you should bring a lot of time to spare. While in many US cities and several countries around the …

Listen up: Huawei, 5G and the new geopolitics

By Daniel Leisegang

The next generation of wireless systems – 5G –
promises to revolutionize our lives. The new mobile communications technology will blow away all current wireless standards and set in place certain pre-conditions for telemedicine, driverless cars and Smart Cities. These advancements are made possible, in part, by a data transmission rate of more than 10 gigabytes per second – i.e. 20 times faster than what 4G can achieved.

Only four …