BERLIN, May 23 (Reuters) – Chancellor Angela Merkel
appointed him for his charm and political skill as marshal of
her vision of a ‘green revolution’ in Europe’s biggest power
market. A year on, Peter Altmaier finds himself spurned by many
environmentalists, disdained by industry and viewed cooly by a
public wary of the costs.

Now, the chancellor herself seems to be turning her back on
him, an increasingly isolated figure, as September polls near.

BERLIN, May 2 (Reuters) – New wind farms off Germany’s North
Sea coast will provide an ideal habitat that could help restore
the lobster population near Heligoland after British bombing
during and after World War II drove them away.

Biologists at the Alfred-Wegener Institute for Polar and
Marine Research are breeding 3,000 lobsters to be released next
year into the Borkum Riffgat offshore wind farm near the island
70 km off the German-Dutch coast.

BERLIN (Reuters) – Germany will stick to its austerity course despite mounting criticism and thinks other countries in the single currency bloc should also keep up a drive to consolidate their budgets, senior German politicians said on Thursday.

Germany has been criticized by some euro zone partners for insisting that crisis-stricken states cut their deficits, especially after a meeting of the G20 called last weekend for the bloc to move away from its emphasis on saving first.

BERLIN, April 23 (Reuters) – German opposition parties accused Chancellor Angela Merkel’s government on Tuesday of protecting tax dodgers, seizing on the shock revelation that a top soccer manager had turned himself in to tax authorities and making it an election issue.

Uli Hoeness, the Bayern Munich president and an associate of Merkel, revered and reviled in Germany for his footballing success and blunt style, said he was trying to make up for a mistake by telling officials about a secret Swiss bank account.

BERLIN, April 16 (Reuters) – The German state of
Rhineland-Palatinate said on Tuesday it had bought a CD
containing data on secret bank accounts which could yield half a
billion euros in tax revenues, triggering police raids across
the country.

It was unclear who sold the information but in the past,
unidentified whistleblowers have provided similar data to German
states, including North Rhine-Westphalia.

BERLIN (Reuters) – German authorities said on Wednesday they had uncovered a network of far-right activists in prisons communicating by secret code.

Among the names on the network’s address list was that of a woman who goes on trial next week accused of a series of racially motivated murders.

BAD AROLSEN, Germany (Reuters) – George Jaunzemis was three and a half years old when, in the chaotic weeks at the end of World War Two, he was separated from his mother as she fled with him from Germany to Belgium.

He grew up in New Zealand with no memory of his early years, unaware the Latvian woman who had emigrated with him was not his real mother.

BAD AROLSEN, Germany (Reuters) – George Jaunzemis was three and a half years old when, in the chaotic weeks at the end of World War Two, he was separated from his mother as she fled with him from Germany to Belgium.

He grew up in New Zealand with no memory of his early years, unaware the Latvian woman who had emigrated with him was not his real mother.

BERLIN, March 7 (Reuters) – German Chancellor Angela Merkel
warned on Thursday time was of the essence if Germany was to
realise a shift to renewable energy, while her environment
minister vowed to make energy-intensive companies contribute
more to the transition.

Merkel’s ambitious switch to green energy from nuclear,
known as the ‘Energiewende’, is seen as the most significant
domestic policy of her second term. Renewables are due to
account for 35 percent of German power in 2020 and 80 percent by
2050.