Germany

Did you know that ‘Africa’ is a tiny hamlet in Brandenburg? Or that there are 11 ‘Cameroons’  in Germany? Places bearing African names in Germany have a varied history, writes Gwendolin Hilse. Africa is a continent? Of course. In German, it’s spelt “Afrika” and that is also the name of a hamlet in the Uckermark district of the state of Brandenburg in eastern …

I was born in Luanda, Angola. I came to Germany in 1992 from Angola with my parents. Of course, as I was only six at that time I didn’t know what to expect here and didn’t think much about it. It was not easy for me when I started school as I didn’t speak a word of German. However, I …

Here is a list of public holidays in Germany in 2017, plus regional holidays, daylight savings, school holidays, Mother’s and Father’s Days and other important dates in the German calendar. There are nine official German public holidays that are celebrated nationally each year, plus regional holidays that are only celebrated in certain Federal States. This means that some states have …

As we enter the New Year, many new laws and regulations take effect in Germany. Some of them are very important changes, such as no more cell phone roaming charges in the EU, while others don’t make a big difference (for example, a modest minimum wage increase). Sola Jolaoso and Vivian Asamoah take us through the changes that we should …

If you come from some countries, your chances of success are very high while for some other nationalities, you have to have a very special case to be considered at all. This is how the situation is: Countries with a high rate of protection At the moment, if you come from Syria, you have a good chance of being granted …

Adebisi Laja, born in 1932, first arrived in Europe in June 1954, when he disembarked a ship that took him from his native Lagos to Liverpool. In October 1958, he moved to Germany to study medicine. The old, but still very energetic man, talks about life in Europe and Germany then and now; he reveals how he deals with the …

Anis Amri, the chief suspect in Monday’s truck attack on a Berlin Christmas market, has been shot dead by police in Milan. Italian Interior Minister Marco Minniti told a news conference on Friday morning that Amri was killed during a shootout with police at 3am. Amri opened fire during a routine check when he was asked for his identity documents …

The recorded presence of Africans in the territory of today’s Germany can be traced back to the 13th century, when it was fashionable for royal as well as other wealthy households to keep Africans as court servants.  Later waves of Africans from Germany’s colonies – Togo, Cameroon, Southwest Africa (now Namibia) and Tanzania – came between the late 1890s and …

At least 12 people have been killed and dozens injured after a truck rammed into a Berlin Christmas market. Authorities are investigating the incident as a possible terrorist attack. A truck slammed into a crowded Christmas market in central Berlin on Monday night, killing at least 12 people and wounding 48, in what authorities are investigating as a possible terrorist …

The study, covering 14 federal ministries, the federal armed forces and eight federal agencies, showed that 14.8 per cent of all public servants are of migrant origin. A similar study conducted in 2013 discovered that only 6.7 per cent of federal employees had a migration background.

The refugee crisis has made integration in Germany more difficult. And Syrian refugees are the least of the country’s problems, reveals the new Integration Report of the Federal Integration Commissioner. The number of people arriving in Germany from other countries has increased in recent years. More than two million people came to Germany in 2015, and nearly one million left …

Horst Wenzel, dubbed ‘Germany’s number one love expert’, has been volunteering his services to teach new migrants how to flirt and approach women. The 27-year-old, who makes his living teaching wealthy but shy German men, has recently decided to offer his advice to young Syrian and Iraqi refugees in Dortmund, most of them from Middle Eastern countries, such as Iraq …

Out of more than 160 nations assessed, Germany was ranked first, followed by Denmark, Finland, Norway, Sweden and Iceland (equal fifth).

The youth empowerment initiative to promote educational achievement in the African community in Germany holds its annual award ceremony in Hamburg on 15 October 2016 in the historic building of the city’s Chamber of Commerce. The annual African Youth Education (AYE) Awards aim to motivate young people of African origin in Germany to seek excellence in school. The scheme was …

Habte Hadgu (61), a travel agent, is the proprietor of Red Sea Travel & Tours, Heidelberg. “I came to Germany in 1978 to study. Previously, I was studying at Addis Ababa University in Ethiopia. One of my fellow students who later became very famous was Meles Zenawi (the late Prime Minister of Ethiopia). He was in his second year while …

Mbolo Yufanyi Movuh is a refugee rights activist and student (42) based in Berlin. “Originally my ancestors migrated from the area of Africa now called the Democratic Republic of Congo. But my parents and grandparents were born in a West African region, although some call it Central Africa, the present-day southern part of the Cameroonian regions. I was born in …

Under the theme Restorative Justice after Genocide, the German NGO community meets descendants of the victims of the Ovaherero and Nama genocides 1904-1908 from all over the world on 14-16 October in Berlin. The conference is organised by Berlin Postkolonial in cooperation with AfricAvenir International, the Ovaherero/Ovambanderu Genocide Foundation (OGF), the Nama Technical Committee on Genocide, the Association of the …

Applying for asylum can be a long, complicated process. This is what you need to do...

44,800 bags and hand luggages were registered stolen in 2015, a rise of about a quarter on 2014

The Federal Interior Ministry statistics made public on 14 September by the Greens parliamentary group in the Bundestag showed 958,701 German naturalizations since 2000 and 491,862 newborns of foreign parents recognized initially as German citizens. Germany’s legislature adopted the place-of-birth principle for the automatic qualification for citizenship in 2000 after heated debate that saw the then-governing Social Democrats under former …