The Local - Germany's News in English

Should Germany still be going ahead with with the swap deal given Turkey's forced repatriation of Syrians?

Top German comedian Jan Böhmermann this week used a music video to trash his country's past and hail the liberalism, sandals with socks, and kebab-fervour of modern Germany.

Several members of a far-right vigilante group from Saxony now face a federal investigation on suspicion of terrorism.

Former West German Foreign Minister Hans-Dietrich Genscher - the man who helped catalyze the fall of the Berlin Wall - has died at age 89, German media reported on Friday.

• Berlin pays tribute to dearly departed Bowie
• East Germany's 'accidental liberator' dies
• What if Germany had never been reunited?

Everyone knows Germans aren't funny, right? Think again...

• Germans raise a glass to love in anti-Isis message
• Prank leaves Facebook 'Nazis' red in the face
• 'Short German' text speak spares you from grammar

The Danish government on Friday extended random identification checks along the country's German border until May 3rd, saying they were needed to deter migrants from entering the country.

• Berlin invests €200m to fight sex abuse in refugee camps
• Federal cops worked 3 million extra hours in refugee crisis
• Refugee reduction ‘noticeable and long-term’: Merkel party

German health officials want to "scare" people into drinking responsibly.

Those monthly fees all residents have to pay towards public broadcasting could get steeper in the next five years, officials say.

• Mandatory broadcaster fees go before high court
• Netflix bets on German with first-ever original show
• Eurovision pick is famed for anti-gay song

Residents of the central states Hesse and Thuringia were surprised to find snow ringing in the start of April on Friday, and bringing a bit of chaos to the morning commute.

Quiet returns to a small Bavarian town on the Austrian border as the refugee flow from the Balkans dries up.

A German team is one of the final five teams in Google's space race project. But can they make it all the way to the moon?

Bernhard Enste is a legend on the Berlin techno scene - he's 67 and still hits the capital's most unhinged clubs. Now he wants to go to Burning Man, a seven-day rave in the Nevada desert.

An EasyJet flight from Vienna to London was halted just before takeoff on Saturday because a passenger believed the man sitting next to her might be an Islamic extremist, authorities said.

Migrants to Switzerland could be forced to take an exam on Swiss cheeses if a popular initiative is approved in a referendum in June.

"Other countries should get a chance," the agency behind a long line of 'best of' lists said.

Just what do you buy for the man who has everything?