84
votes
Does the German President Steinmeier's apology for WWII reflect the prevailing views of the people of Germany?
Outside a small fringe group, there is a broad consensus in Germany that starting WW2 was wrong.
That is not incompatible with the idolization of German soldiers who fought in the war, though. For a ...
- 11.8k
80
votes
In Germany, why does the burden of proof fall on authorities rather than the company or individual when it comes to possible illegal funds?
Because that's the normal way round for criminal standard of proof?
America has the civil forfeiture system on "balance of probabilities", which has become a license for police corruption.
- 22k
78
votes
Accepted
Why does Germany ban RT but not France24 or Voice of America?
First a little clarification: It's not the original English-language RT which is banned in Germany. The English version of RT is actually available via satellite and in some regions of Germany via ...
- 74.6k
72
votes
Accepted
What is the perception of European parties in the US?
Does the American public know, that their perception of left and right
is is skewed and right-shifted in comparison to many other Western
countries?
The American public is mostly oblivious to the ...
- 70.9k
71
votes
Why did Berlin freeze the rent prices as opposed to letting the market set the price?
The market was somewhat more free before the rent freeze (it was not completely free, see antipattern's excellent answer), and this had effects that some Berliners considered undesirable. The article ...
- 1,310
65
votes
Why does Germany have such a rather small defense budget?
The 2% goal for defense spending of all NATO countries originates from the Wales Summit of 2014. However, the people who made that commitment are heads of governments, many of which don't actually ...
- 74.6k
63
votes
Accepted
Did Poland ever apologize for its alliance with Germany before 1939?
Yes, in September 2009, at an occasion to mark the 70th anniversary of the outbreak of WWII, then-President Lech Kaczyński gave the following speech:
Two generations have passed but the Second ...
CDJB♦
- 102k
63
votes
Accepted
Why did Germany hurry to phase out nuclear energy usage increasing the risk of fossil power use and Russian gas dependency?
The original decision to phase out nuclear power generation was made as part of the coalition agreement between SPD and the Green party in 1998. The reason that this was agreed upon is rooted in the ...
- 13.1k
61
votes
Why isn't the CDU / FDP / AFD a viable coalition government in Germany (2021)?
The AFD is a political pariah in big part because of its stench of right extremism (one very prominent member can legally be called a fascist), which is a very big deal in Germany.
Any form of ...
- 6,079
57
votes
Why is Poland demanding $1.3 trillion in reparations from Germany, but not $x trillions from Russia?
You answer the question in your first sentence.
Poland makes requests of Germany because it thinks there is some potential advantage in it. The Polish government thinks that Germany might be ...
- 6,203
51
votes
Accepted
In the Weimar Republic what was the role of the people sitting on the left side of the speaker?
Very good question and I am surprised that I as German needed to dig deeper into the stuff than anticipated. I tried to consult the German Wikipedia and the normal Google results, but got essentially ...
- 4,692
51
votes
Why did Berlin freeze the rent prices as opposed to letting the market set the price?
Rent for new buildings isn't capped (at least not by this new law), so the cap shouldn't interfere with new buildings. Rent may also be increased up to a point when a building is modernized.
The cap ...
- 34.9k
51
votes
Why are German local authorities taxing DoD employees, despite the protests of the US and of the German federal government?
The literal answer to the question
So why are the local/land tax authorities going after the US DoD
personnel on this issue, when it is clearly annoying the federal
government of Germany?
is "...
- 3,306
51
votes
Accepted
Why isn't the CDU / FDP / AFD a viable coalition government in Germany (2021)?
There is a "firewall" against the AfD in the German parliament and the CDU is a big part of it. Laschet in particular has vowed to uphold it.
In practical terms of recent relevance, the AfD ...
- 133k
51
votes
Why does the "Tanks for Ukraine" discussion focus on the Leopard 2?
One has to consider that it isn't enough to give Ukraine tanks that are good, but are also able to be supported with logistics.
Leopard 2 is in use by several other countries near Ukraine, including ...
- 15.6k
51
votes
Why do the right claim that Hitler was left-wing?
The right claim that Hitler was left-wing to make its political enemies on the left look worse than they really are.
There are plenty of examples of left-wing ideologies leading to unpleasant outcomes:...
- 9,355
50
votes
Accepted
Why is Germany still opposed to nuclear power despite the energy crisis?
Because the majority of the electorate is opposed to nuclear power.
In particular, Green and Social Democrat voters are against it. Thus, the current coalition (of Social Democrats, Greens and Liberal ...
- 894
50
votes
Accepted
Are the UK, Germany and USA not concerned about their (donated) tanks being captured and researched by Russia?
Has there been any concern from any of the countries donating armoured vehicles, with one of these secretive armour types, that one of their donated vehicles may be captured by Russian forces and ...
- 9,624
48
votes
Accepted
In Germany, why does the burden of proof fall on authorities rather than the company or individual when it comes to possible illegal funds?
In 2014, the European Union adopted Directive 2014/42/EU on the freezing and confiscation of instrumentalities and proceeds of crime, and this directive was implemented in Germany on 2017-07-01. As a ...
- 5,782
48
votes
Why does Germany have such a rather small defense budget?
Absolute and relative amounts
Germany has come much closer to the 2% goal due to the COVID crisis -- the GDP went down, the defense budget stayed the same, so the percentage went up. Similarly, good ...
- 104k
47
votes
What are the benefits for strong economies like Germany and France for being members of the European Union?
The main one is exporting without barriers to these other EU countries, in terms of [no] tariffs and [no] non-tariff barriers (thanks to unified product standards), and also lack of competitive ...
- 133k
45
votes
Accepted
Did Germany profit from the (third) Greek bailout?
No.
As long as the original credit of 330 billion euros is not paid back, you can hardly argue that the interest should be considered as a profit. In fact, the starting time for interest payback has ...
- 724
45
votes
Accepted
Why did it take so long for Germany to allow electric scooters / e-rollers on the roads?
The debate over e-mobility comes in the context of an ongoing debate in Germany how public spaces for transportation are to be divided between the different modes of transportation.
In the last ...
- 104k
45
votes
What are the benefits for strong economies like Germany and France for being members of the European Union?
You have to remember that the EU's immediate precursor was initially specifically set up to ensure that France and Germany would not enter into another war against each other.
Also, even a strong ...
44
votes
Why is the new German parliament 12 % bigger?
The planned size of the Bundestag is 598 members: One directly elected member from each of the 299 electoral districts plus equally many members chosen from party lists in order to achieve a total ...
- 5,782
44
votes
Why is Germany still opposed to nuclear power despite the energy crisis?
That would be the 4th u-turn in German nuclear energy policy. The other 3 were.
2000, when the SPD/Greens coalition government under Gerhard Schröder decided the "Atomausstieg". To phase ...
- 74.6k
42
votes
Why has Germany not seen as many Islamist terror attacks as France, Italy or the UK?
I don't think this question is usefully answerable:
(It's an excellent question, but there are too many variables and not enough cases to look at to really know what works and what doesn't in ...
42
votes
Accepted
How does Germany regularly elect judges onto Federal Constitutional Court despite needing two-thirds majority vote?
TLDR: Without political polarization and passionate public disagreements on court rulings, the German People do not really care about how judges are appointed, which enables the political parties to ...
- 6,079
41
votes
Accepted
Why has SPD voted against the gender self-determination law in 2021?
May 2021 – when this vote was held – was before the most recent general election which took place in September 2021. At this time, the SPD formed a coalition government with the CDU/CSU. You can ...
- 13.1k
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