December 30, 2014
At least four people have been killed, and more than 40 injured, in a coach crash north of Frankfurt on Tuesday, police said. READ
Germany labelled Russian court sentences against top opposition leader Alexei Navalny and his brother on Tuesday "another blow against outspoken civil society" in the country. READ
It may not feel like it as you huddle into your winter wear, but Germany's warmest year in recorded history ends tomorrow – amid extreme snowfall warnings for New Year's Eve in some areas. READ
New Year's Eve is upon us and 2014 is a year that was certainly worth giving a proper send off to for Germany (remember the time we won the World Cup?). Here are some options for a big Silvester, as the evening is known in Germany, night out in your city. READ
The violent "Hooligans Against Salafists" (HoGeSa) movement have announced plans for a major rally in Essen in January - just two months after a similar rally saw 44 police injured. READ
Consideration for other road users has its downside, as a Munich driver found when she yielded to oncoming traffic – and took out five parked cars and a building site. READ
"Emma" has dethroned the reigning "Mia" as the favourite baby girl name in Germany, it was announced on Tuesday, as a list of top baby names of 2014 was published. Mia had held the top spot for five years, in an increasingly internationalised-sounding list. READ
The parents of good samaritan Tugce Albayrak are to found an institute name after their daughter, who died after intervening to stop a fight in a McDonald's restaurant. READ
Is your New Year's Resolution to improve your German? It's a tricky language, but keep trying and you could be making small talk with these Hollywood stars and world leaders who also secretly speak a bit (or a lot) of German. READ
More than 500 train passengers were stuck on the rails for hours on Monday afternoon in Saxony-Anhalt, causing knock-on delays across the region. READ
Germany has had a busy year of news and we've loved bringing it to our Local readers. We checked our stats and picked out stories that most people enjoyed reading in 2014. READ
They swam, crawled through sewers, flew in balloons, dug tunnels and rammed through the Berlin Wall. The courage and ingenuity of the 5,000 East German escapees later inspired novels, movies and one of the world’s longest tunnels. READ
A road toll targeted at foreign drivers is a rare backward step for Germany. Anti-European, anti-open borders, anti-tourism; it is a terrible way to fill the black hole in the infrastructure budget, argues Tom Bristow. READ
More than 150 kilometres of concrete, wire and guard towers ringed West Berlin from 1961 to 1989. But it’s not easy to carve up a city - and construction of the Wall threw up many freak instances. READ
From spoof Communist comedy acts to Stasi bars, the GDR has generated a huge commercial culture since fall of the Berlin Wall. But is it disrespecting the East German regime's victims? READ
UPDATE: Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi said only crew remain on board a ferry that caught fire in the Adriatic Sea. Rescuers battled stormy conditions, including hail, to rescue hundreds of passengers, though at least seven are known to have died in the incident. There were 18 Germans on board, it was reported on Monday. READ
German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble said Monday that Greece must stick to agreed economic reforms regardless of the results of a snap election due next month. READ
The first refugees have begun taking up home in one of Berlin's new "container towns" - special emergency housing built out of stackable, portable blocks. READ
The IT security team at the Chancellery in Berlin say that an employee was the target of an espionage attack through a computer virus that is associated with British and American spy agencies, it was revealed on Monday. READ
Chancellor Angela Merkel will meet with the leaders of France, Russia and Ukraine on January 15 to discuss ongoing peace efforts with the Moscow-backed separatist rebels. READ
Heavy snows have caused one of the highpoints of the German sports calendar - the World Cup Ski Jumping - to be temporarily postponed, as deep snow also settled on the capital, Berlin, for the first time this winter. READ
German insurance giant Allianz confirmed on Monday that the firm is the main insurance comapany for AirAsia, the operator a plane that has been missing since Saturday. READ
January 1st means not just New Year resolutions - and hangovers - but a pay increase for millions of hard-up Germans, as the country introduces its first ever minimum wage, set at €8.50. READ
On the one-year anniversary of Formula One racing great Michael Schumacher's skiing accident in France, his manager is warning that reports on Schumacher's health in a French newspaper are false. READ
The businessman who owns the building used for Wes Anderson’s hit film “Grand Budapest Hotel” has apologised for a racist outburst in his local newspaper. READ
In a barbaric affront to Muslim sensibilities, part of a pig's head and some pork tripe was attached to the door of a Mosque in Vienna's 21st district on Christmas day. READ
Swiss pharmaceutical company Novartis said on Friday it has won approval to market its Cosentyx psoriasis treatment in Japan, making it the first country to authorise commercialisation of the drug. READ
We might have not been around for the whole year, but we still had plenty of stories that resonated with readers. Recap the year with our ten most-read stories. READ
Just across the sea from the sunny tourist beaches of southern Spain where many Europeans spend their Christmas holidays, a violent crisis is intensifying on Europe's borders with Africa. READ
Polygamy, Islamic state schools, and a Muslim president - this is the vision of France in 2022 laid out by the country's most notorious author Michel Houellebecq in his new novel. The Local is the first to bring you details of a book set to cause a storm when it's published next month. READ
Did you know that cannons are fired in Rome to celebrate the birth of baby Jesus, or that Italians ski down the slopes bearing flaming torches each Christmas Eve? For details of these and other festive traditions, check out The Local's list. READ
Norwegians have a reputation for being fitness freaks - and many plan to keep up their good habits over Christmas, a new survey shows, with one in five planning to hit the gym. READ
Sweden's government has abandoned plans to hold a snap election in March 2015, after crisis talks between Social Democrat Prime Minister Stefan Löfven and the country's four centre-right parties known as the Alliance. READ
National
What were your favourite news stories of 2014?
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National
Terror alert at a new high. Should you be worried?
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Gallery
Top 12 German idioms
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National
Willy Brandt: the man, the chancellor... the airport?
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Politics
What does Dresden have against Muslims?
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Sponsored Article
Why are these International Baccalaureate students cheering?
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Gallery
Germany's most-Googled words of 2014
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National
Why has The Local got a new logo?
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National
This German was abducted and tortured by the CIA
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Culture
10 top tips for partying in Germany
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Sponsored Article
Top ten gifts for an expat Christmas
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Technology
What does the Chancellor see as the future of the internet?
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Sponsored Article
Top five quirky Christmas jumpers
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National
Germany still paying for crisis fall out
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Politics
Can 'sorry' ever be enough for the Linke?
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Berlin
The Local's series on 25 years since the fall of the Berlin Wall
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Gallery
See how Berlin has changed in 22 photos
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Business & Money
JobTalk: All you need to know about working in Germany
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National
Share news tips with The Local Germany
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