German of the day: Tempolimit

That means speed limit.

And that ain’t never gonna happen in Germany. Think banning guns in the USA.

‘Tempolimit? Nein, danke!’: why German petrolheads won’t slow down – despite the energy crisis – Driving fast is in ‘the German DNA’, say lovers of the speed-limit free Autobahn, but support in the country for a restriction is growing.

Four and a half to six years?

For membership in a foreign terrorist organization and related offenses?

Better than nothing.

Berlin court jails 4 men over Hamas weapon stockpiles – A court in Berlin has ruled that four men gathered and stored weapons for use in terror attacks as members of a Hamas-linked cell. Prosecutors listed potential targets in Germany, including US and Israeli sites…

Possible targets included the Israeli embassy in Berlin, the US Ramstein airbase and the area around Berlin’s disused Tempelhof airport.

German of the day: Es gibt solche und solche

That means some are like this, some are like that.

Refugees in Germany, I mean.

Ukrainian Refugee Brutally Murdered by Syrian Boyfriend in Germany – A 19-year-old Ukrainian refugee has been brutally murdered by her 17-year-old Syrian boyfriend in Mannheim, Germany. According to media reports, the case is investigated by German authorities as a murder, with the suspect in custody.

The Left is anti-Israel?

No way. Who would have thought that?

And I thought I was a slow learner.

German Antisemitism Commissioner Leaves the Left Party Over Anti-Israel Stance, Lack of Support Amid Death Threats – Andreas Büttner, the commissioner for antisemitism in the state of Brandenburg in northeastern Germany, has resigned from the Left Party, citing a rise in antisemitism within the ranks, relentless personal attacks, and a party climate that has become intolerable.

“I struggled with this decision for a long time, as I have felt a deep connection to the party over many years,” Büttner wrote in a letter to the party leadership, as reported by German media.

“But I have reached a point where I must acknowledge that I can no longer remain a member of this party without betraying my own convictions,” he continued.

Germany won’t miss its climate targets for 2026, 2027, 2028…

Because their industries are dying, or already dead.

And this is primarily due to its climate emissions targets.

Germany misses climate targets as emissions barely fall in 2025 – Greenhouse gases dropped just 0.1% last year as environment minister criticises lack of improvement.

Greenhouse gas emissions in Germany have again missed targets set by the Climate Protection Act and barely fell at all in 2025.

Emissions decreased by just 0.1% last year compared to the previous year, according to data from the German Environment Agency.

This must be a misstake

Get it? See the “miss” in the mistake?

No offense, ma’am. But German misses just ain’t what they used to be.

Syrian-Kurdish streamer Rose Mondy crowned Miss Germany 2026 – A Syrian-Kurdish gamer and livestreamer took the Miss Germany 2026 crown this month, highlighting how the long-running contest has evolved from a traditional beauty pageant into a platform for social voices.

Rose Mondy, a 26-year-old of Syrian-Kurdish origin, was crowned last Saturday during the competition’s final at Bavaria Film Studios near Munich.

Because they’re…

Anarchists and communists?

I’m just guessing here.

Why independent bookshops strike fear in the heart of Germany’s culture tsar – There is a particular kind of danger that smells like paper and dust. You find it in independent bookshops. Those with uneven wooden floors and handwritten staff recommendations, where someone has shelved Audre Lorde next to Karl Marx and a debut novelist from Neukölln. Places where no algorithm is trying to guess who you are before you have the chance to change your mind.

I walk in for a novel and walk out with a theory of the state, a pamphlet on housing struggles, a Palestinian poet I had never heard of. No “for you” page in an online store would have suggested it. The bookseller did. Independent bookshops are dangerous because they interrupt us. They do not optimise our curiosity. They derail it. Is that the reason why Germany’s culture commissioner, Wolfram Weimer, is now consulting the domestic intelligence agency before approving funds to bookshops?

Every year, the German Bookshop prize, awarded on behalf of the federal government’s commissioner for culture and the media, serves as a financial injection for more than 100 independent, owner-managed bookshops all over Germany. An independent jury selects the winners, based on criteria such as carefully curated literary selection and cultural events. Usually, the public doesn’t take much notice of the prize; its weight on the public purse is barely significant. But for small bookshops operating on narrow margins, the prize money of between €7,000 and €25,000 makes a tangible difference.

This year, for the first time, three bookshops disappeared from the jury’s list, according to an investigation by the newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung. The ministry of culture deleted them, due to “information of relevance to the domestic intelligence agency”, it states. What kind of information? Nobody knows, not even Germany’s commissioner for culture himself, since the domestic intelligence agency (Bundesamt für Verfassungsschutz) is not allowed to divulge it. A quick look at the three bookshops is telling: they are antifascist, they are proud of it and they are institutions in their communities.

Running on wind turbines and solar panels?

Good luck with that.

German start-up plans 30-megawatt AI data centre in boost to sovereign control – German start-up Polarise plans to build a new 30-megawatt artificial intelligence ​data centre that would double Germany’s domestically-run computing capacity as European nations push ‌to gain more control over critical tech infrastructure.

The facility, set to come online in the Bavarian town of Amberg in mid-2027, could eventually expand to 120 MW, the company told Reuters.