Measles spotted more often in 2011
The number of measles cases in Germany more than doubled in 2011 compared to last year, new figures show, with 1,607 people infected with the virus which can sometimes kill its victims.
Day: December 30, 2011
Finance minister: eurozone not in danger
German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble has struck an optimistic tone for 2012, insisting the eurozone is in no danger of breaking up and that Europe will get its back-breaking debt situation under control.
‘Baron Cut-and-Paste’ may return to politics
Bavaria's state premier Horst Seehofer said on Friday he would do his best to bring disgraced former Defence Minister Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg back into German politics in 2012.
Merkel and Sarkozy in ‘Dinner for One’
The scene is familiar – a drunk butler desperately maintains the illusion for his deluded mistress who refuses to see all her friends are gone – but a reworked version of the cult “Dinner for One” sketch features Nicolas Sarkozy and Angela Merkel.
Foreigners set up a third of all new firms
Foreigners are three times as likely to start a new business as Germans, according to a new study which showed that nearly a third of all new companies founded in 2009 were set up by migrants.
2011 was fifth warmest, third sunniest on record
This year was the fifth warmest and third sunniest on record - but the balmy weather was scattered around in the wrong seasons, with a warm spring and winter, and a wet summer.
Pack of cigarettes to cost more than €5
Smokers will not only pay for their habit with their health in 2012 – prices are increasing too, with a pack of 19 cigarettes topping €5 for the first time.
German fury at raids on groups in Cairo
Germany has demanded that non-political organizations working in Egypt including the Konrad-Adenauer Foundation, be allowed to continue their work unhindered – after police raided the offices of 17 such groups in Cairo.
The Local’s top five politics stories of 2011
For a country where politics sometimes seems to move at a glacial pace, Germany was practically a hotbed of drama in 2011.