Germany

An honest passerby has handed a briefcase containing 22 gold bars and €3,500 in cash to Berlin police after finding it under a tree. Weighing around a kilogram, the gold bars are worth around €30,000 at the current gold price. The treasure trove was found near a bank in the Neukölln district of the federal capital. The police department posted …

A Kenyan woman living in the western German city of Heidelberg has gone missing since Thursday  (27 July) and her family is appealing to the public to help find her. Virginia Njeri Muchoki was last seen on Thursday in Heidelberg Pfaffengrund. She was scheduled to pick up her daughter at a nearby day care (Tagesmutter), but she never arrived. The …

One person was killed and four injured in a stabbing attack on Friday at a supermarket in Hamburg, Germany, police said. The incident happened in the Barmbek area to the north of the city. The assailant shouted “Allahu Akbar” (“God is Greatest”) as he fled the scene of the crime in a neighbourhood supermarket before being overpowered by passers-by, witnesses …

German police will be able to use surveillance software by the end 2017 that can hack into people’s smartphones and read encrypted messages in such services as WhatsApp, says a report that cites a leaked document. A new version of the German police’s Remote Communication Interception Software (RCIS), which is used for surveillance over electronic devices, will be ready by …

Germany’s Turkish diaspora has been assured that it is part of the fabric of the nation despite difficult relations between Berlin and Ankara. A letter by Germany’s foreign minister has been published in a newspaper. Less than 48 hours after announcing a major shift in policy towards Turkey, German Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel on Saturday sought to calm fears among …

The number of cases filed by asylum seekers challenging the decisions of immigration authorities in German courts has brought the legal system to the brink of collapse, a top German judge has warned in an interview. The sheer number of cases filed has overwhelmed the civil courts of the country, said Robert Seegmuller, chairman of the Association of German Administrative …

Germany is facing a shortage of medical care personnel for its aging population. One vocational school hopes to equip refugees with the skills to tackle the problem, reports Wesley Dockery. Eight refugee students are gathered around a dummy that looks like an elderly woman. An instructor tells the group that the dummy is named Frau Müller and suffered a stroke. …

Odijie Irabor has achieved his life-long dream by qualifying as a technician in Automotive Mechatronics (Kraftfahrzeugmeachtronik). Odijie was presented his certificate on Wednesday (12 July) in the western German city of Marl after successfully completing a 3-year training course at the SBH Bildungsgesellschaft mbH Gelsenkirchen, during which he acquired skills across automotive-specific mechanics, electronics, communication and advanced control.   Automotive Mechatronics, …

Germany-based scholar and author Fekadu Bekele, PhD, offers an original African perspective on the G20 Africa Partnership initiative as he argues that the measures envisaged under the plan do not address the root causes of the social and economic crises in the continent. Dr Bekele posits that the priority of the West and its economic institutions is to keep Africa firmly …

The footage shocked Germany and went viral. CCTV cameras caught a man kicking a woman down some stairs at the Berlin metro station – Hermannstrasse – in an unprovoked attack. The incident took place in October 2016 but the video only emerged in December. Police had released the video in a bid to get public help to track down the …

German Ambassador to Nigeria, Mr Bernhard Schlagheck, has revealed that 13,000 Nigerians are currently seeking asylum in Germany. The reasons they gave for their applications, according to the ambassador, range from insecurity arising from Boko Haram insurgency to political persecution in Nigeria. Ambassador Schlagheck however hinted that his country was not convinced that there is political persecution in Nigeria at …

Amidst African community outrage, police in Munich have launched investigations into an incident in which two security guards were filmed forcefully removing a man from a metro train. The man, said to be a 48-year-old Nigerian, was reportedly removed from the train at Leuchtenbergring station. He appeared to have no valid ticket as the inspectors came up to him during …

Germany’s federal parliament has voted by a wide margin to legalise same-sex marriage.  The Bundestag voted by 393 to 226 on Friday (30 June) to give full marital rights to homosexual couples and allow them to adopt children. The vote came after Chancellor Angela Merkel changed her mind and said members of her ruling conservative CDU/CSU bloc should follow their …

The German Bundestag, the lower house of parliament, has voted to fine social media networks up to €50 million if they fail to remove hateful content or fake news. The networks will be given 24 hours to block or delete any inappropriate content. “Freedom of speech ends where criminal law begins,” Justice Minister Heiko Maas said, adding that the measure …

An increasing number of old people in Germany face the risk of being stuck in poverty in the coming years, says a new study. Single women, low-skill workers and long-term unemployed are among those starkly affected. The changes taking place in the German labour market in favour of temporary jobs, contract workers and precarious working conditions in the low-wage sector, …

There is a lot of false information circulating on the internet about life in Germany, giving a wrong impression to refugees and potential migrants. In the DW series “Fact check: rumours about Germany”, the German international broadcaster responds to these rumours and provides you with verified facts and figures! Manasi Gopalakrishnan / © DW

A District Court (Landgericht) in the western city of Aachen has ordered the operator of a fitness studio chain to pay a compensation of 2,500 euros to an African as damages for discriminating against him. The man had been repeatedly refused membership in a fitness studio in Aachen owned by EasyFit in a way the court found to have contravened …

The struggle of the Black community in Berlin to have streets named after controversial figures of German colonialism in Africa changed seems to have finally started yielding fruits. For the first time an extensive renaming of streets connected with German colonialism in the federal capital will be carried out. Sabine Weissler (Greens), councillor for culture, said on Wednesday that new …

 The Embassy of Kenya in Berlin is inviting all Kenyans living in Germany to its annual general meeting with citizens – Kenyan Diaspora Day – on Saturday, 3 June 2017 in Frankfurt am Main. The event, which will be hosted by Ambassador Joseph Magutt, will also be attended by senior officials from the Kenya Private Sector Alliance, Nairobi Securities Exchange, …

The western German town of Altena has been honoured for its contribution towards the integration of immigrants into German society. The prize includes a cash award of 10,000 euros. Speaking to the town’s representatives while awarding the National Prize for Integration in Berlin on Wednesday, Chancellor Angela Merkel said that integration was the most successful where people are able to …