That means more than half don’t.
Let the Knaller (bangers) knallen (bang)!
Almost half of all Germans want a ban on fireworks – In Germany, it is only permitted to sell fireworks in the three days leading up to New Year’s Eve. Some line up early to buy them, but others have safety concerns and want to see them banned altogether.
Happy New Year!
That means catcalling.
No wonder Germans prefer using the English word catcalling now too.
Sexual harassment: Germany debates ban on catcalling – While it is illegal in Germany to give a one-fingered salute, making obscene sexual remarks and gestures is not. The center-left Social Democrats want to change that.
Suggestive gestures or noises, graphically obscene remarks — an everyday experience for many women across the world. In some European countries such behavior can land you with a fine or even a jail sentence.
But in Germany, verbal sexual harassment in public is not criminalized under sexual offences legislation passed in 2016, which made non-consensual sexualized acts of touching like groping a crime for the first time.
Or at least strictly regulated. Then verboten.
Anything in Berlin that is not expressly permitted must be forbidden.
Berlin to crack down on a beloved giveaway tradition – One resident’s trash is another’s treasure has long been part of Berlin’s culture, but the German capital has had enough and plans to raise fines. Will they work?
Between old sofas and broken fridges, boxes of baby clothes and crates of cassettes, hidden treasures dot Berlin’s streets. In one such collection of unwanted stuff, Berlin musician Eno Thiemann discovered a new favorite author.
The Haruki Murakami books were left outside with the label “zu verschenken.” Meaning “to gift”, it’s a tradition that has long seen Berliners leave their repurposable goods on window ledges and in front of houses for others to take. And take, they do. Often within a matter of minutes.
“I was very pleased when I came back in 2013 to see that there’s some kind of culture,” said Thiemann, who had left Berlin three decades earlier before the practice took off. “Most people don’t just throw the trash out — it’s a nice thing to do and it’s enriching the neighborhood.”
But as Berlin plans to fine people for putting items on the street, this informal circular economy could become a thing of the past. The city’s environment department argues that while the idea behind leaving things out for others to take is “good and desirable,” it has “led to excesses that are not in line with the original intention.”
Could get you killed.
‘Crazy’ data rules hit German plans to boost army reserve – Reservists’ association says Berlin has lost contact with almost a million potential reservists.
Strict data protection laws are hindering Germany’s efforts to swell the ranks of the armed forces of Europe’s largest nation, its reservists’ association has warned.
Patrick Sensburg, head of the Reservist Association of the German Armed Forces, said tough German and EU privacy rules meant it could not keep in contact with close to a million people who might help boost the country’s reserve forces as it seeks a stronger role in European defence and security…
Sensburg, a former member of parliament from Merz’s ruling Christian Democrats, added that while some might be unwell or uninterested, if even only a quarter of the 1mn agreed to serve it would be enough to meet the target for reservist numbers.
He said it was absurd that the body responsible for collecting Germany’s annual television fee could contact citizens a few weeks after they had moved house, while he had no way of tracking down people whose names were in the association’s records.
This time it’s when it comes to avoiding military service in Germany.
Hey. Girls will be girls. I mean, women.
German national service plan ‘discriminates against men’ – All 18-year-olds to get questionnaire but women do not have to fill it out.
PS: This also applies to “trans-women,” of course. However, one aspect of Germany’s recent gender law is very interesting. If it ever came to war – and a draft – these “trans-women” would be treated as men and drafted. This law may be ridiculous, and it is, but at least it legally establishes that there are only two genders and that they are not equal.
I guess you could call this the high-water mark of Greenness.
Germany becomes the biggest EU country to legalise recreational cannabis – Germany on Monday became the biggest EU country to legalise recreational cannabis, despite fierce objections from opposition politicians and medical associations.
“From our point of view, the law as it is written is a disaster,” Katja Seidel, a therapist at a cannabis addiction centre for young people in Berlin, told AFP.
You know. That tired old German ritual of “fighting the Nazis of 1933 today?”
Certainly is a convenient backdrop if you’re a government quietly approving a law that would ease dual citizenship in the background. The public debate of which would otherwise be quite controversial. It almost seems as if these protests are being used as a distraction. It almost seems as if the whole thing was planned.
Germany’s parliament approves easing dual citizenship – German lawmakers have voted in favor of changing the law, which would open up the possibility of dual citizenship to swaths of the population. The bill would also reduce the time needed to qualify for naturalization.
That doesn’t seem fair to me.
Anti-Semites cannot be granted German citizenship under new law – minister.
A law under consideration by the German parliament would mean that people who have committed anti-Semitic acts can never be granted citizenship, German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser said on Wednesday.
“Our draft for the new citizenship law, which we will now discuss in the Bundestag, provides a clear exclusion of anti-Semites,” Faeser said in a statement issued after she met with Israeli ambassador to Germany, Ron Prosor.
Hardly. They’re not even talking the talk yet. Not when it comes to the European Migrant Meltdown.
They still don’t get it. They’ve got their heads in the sand. Germany is behaving no better than the Banana Republic ITSELF (US-Amerika).
EU fails to agree changes to migration laws as Germany and Italy clash – Hopes fade of deal being struck, with one sticking point being right to occasionally breach detention centre standards…
The disagreement is said to have centred on two issues. Sources say Germany objected to a new clause, supported by Italy, that would allow minimum standards in detention centres to be breached in exceptional circumstances.
It is understood that Italy’s far-right government also objected to a clause, which Germany supported, in relation to migrants assisted by NGOs to reach an EU country. Giorgia Meloni, the Italian prime minister, was reported to have expressed her “astonishment” to Scholz earlier this week at the news that Germany was funding charities to rescue people in the Mediterranean sea.
Black as night when you turn off the light.
The Green obsession with doing without is in full nighttime bloom.
Germany passes law to make energy savings compulsory – Germany’s lower house of parliament on Thursday passed a bill to make saving energy compulsory in all economic sectors, a move intended to help fight climate change and curb use of imported fossil fuels.
The Energy Efficiency Act, introduced by the Greens-led economy ministry, includes regulation for energy savings in public buildings, industry and fast-growing data centres across Germany, with the goal of a 26.5% cut by 2030 from 2008.
Spurred by fears that persistently low Russian gas supplies could lead to shortages, the German government introduced some initial energy-saving measures last year, including banning heating for private swimming pools and encouraging people to work from home.
Observing Hermann 