Williamson, a Holocaust denier and British Bishop is getting more heat about his reckless disregard of the truth. Amidst the broohaha, Knoblauch, the Head of Council of German Jews, wants Benedict numero 26 to step up to the plate during his visit to Israel and take responsibilty.

For the Jewish world it was the case that Williamson was still not “again completely off the table,” said Knobloch. She feels as a still greater discrimination the re-introduced Good Friday bidding prayer of the Tridentine liturgy for the “enlightenment” of the Jews.

Why does every religion think they’re better than the other? How much suffering has the Catholic Church spear headed during the crusades, among others? I never understood violence, both physical and psychological, as a means to convert people’s belief or to discriminate against non-believers. Now there’s still a Holocaust denier who enjoys back-up from the Church. Ratzinger better come up with a real good explanation. Make me believe that religion makes the world a peaceful place. Denis Maceoin points out quite poignently,

He must denounce Holocaust denial, not as an error in fact, but as a deadly sin against the human soul. And he must ask for something reciprocal from Israel: a recognition that Pope Pius XII has been much maligned but that in truth he helped save the lives of many Jews.

via Catholic Church Conservation

It’s not 1-to-1 yet, but another step closer towards acceptance. Photo courtesy of farligbank

Following in the footsteps of Bournemouth and Poole’s plans to accept the European currency, the area, which relies heavily on tourism, has decided to get involved too.

Helmut Schmidt, the former German chancellor and chimney smoker once said that it will take time, but eventually the Brits will join the common currency. Helmut still has game at 91. The Sun has a detailed report on the seaside resorts Bournemouth and Poole acceptance of the Euro to jump start local tourism.

The story goes that UK holidaymakers are less likely to visit the continent this summer due to the credit crunch, so they’ll have extra euros to spare from last summer. Makes sense, since they saved all their euros from 2008 and didn’t know where to spend them, hence, now they can go nuts on ice cream and cocoa puffs. It’s a good sign, hey England is in Europe! And because it so is, introducing the currency isn’t that far fetched, even Purbeck decided to join today.

Self-described "ok" American and author Jonathan Franzen read from his book in the temporary Kunsthalle in Berlin. It was his German-language debut on sex and literature. Franzen plans to stay a few months longer to finish his current book, watch birds and visit friends.

Another visitor from New York, Ben Katchor will show up at the Jewish Museum tomorrow. The biggest Jewish comic author spent time at American Academy in 2002 and read from his comic strips at the TED conference.

In royal catholic news, Prince Charles and Camilla are traveling to Berlin and Potsdam. On the two-day agenda: a speech from Charly on climate change, a stint at an inter-religious football match, crowd shmooze at the Brandenburg Gate and visit to the Neue Museum, which was recently-restored by a British architect. Before arrival, the divorcees met with the Pope in Rome.

Transatlantic blogger Scot W. Stevenson explains the Irish transition movement, an invention the oh-so green Germans can learn a lot from. The idea is to equip towns with the right tools to fight climate change and peak oil. "The idea was adapted and expanded in September 2006 to Hopkins' hometown of Totnes where he is now based. The initiative spread quickly, and as of September 2008, there were one hundred communities recognized as official Transition Towns."

And you thought Americans were the only fat people in the western hemisphere, Clarsonimus points out to the study "SizeGermany." Last but not least, David wonders whether the Deutsche Bank is a zombie bank akin to the Bank of America or Citibank. "The balance sheet has up to €90 billion of questionable assets that have been assigned fictitious rather than market valuations."

On the Nazi front, an arrest warrant in Germany on John Demjanjuk is still outstanding. The former guard helped kill 29,000 during World War II at the Sobibor camp in Nazi-occupied Poland. He was supposedly unable to travel due to health problems. Another Nazi book to fill the shelves of amazons and nobles is "A Terrible Splendor," a story about a closeted gay anti-Nazi tennis player who later married Woolworth fortune, Barbara Hutton.

Today, a pride of East Berlin, the German ice hockey champs Ice Bears. Photo courtesy of mhex

Photographer Harald Hauswald revealed to West Germans in his book “Ost Berlin,” published in 1987, that East Berlin was grey and dull - se Stasi was not amused. Jörg Colberg recently interviewed Hauswald in Germany’s capital who, back in the days, had eight Stasi agents chasing him.

We talked about the book and the Stasi’s reaction a little bit. As it turned out, the Stasi had attempted to act a bit like a photo critic. For each of the photographs, there was an actual critique. It was pretty amazing. So I asked Harald whether he’d be willing to share this story. My idea was to show some of the photos from the book along with the Stasi’s comments from his reports. He immediately agreed to it.

I remember seeing East Germany the first time when I was twelve on a trip to visit family in East Berlin. We regularly sent them bananas and Nutella as special goodies in brown packaging. At the boarder crossing, they almost didn’t let me into the Communist bloc because my children’s passport had a small ripp. And when I stepped to close to the Berlin Wall, an officer immediately opened his window from the tower and shouted, “step back!”

My cousin picked us up at Friedrichstrasse and immediately told me not to talk about the West inside his apartment. And yes East Berlin was definitely greyer than West Berlin. I also sat inside their Trabi they had waited for nine years and went swimming in a super modern gym, which was way ahead of Western standards, I wasn’t doped though.

via kottke.org

What happens when you take a good'ole, Bible-belt, Mississippi conservative and an urbane, plurilingual, liberal, Euro-German and put them in the middle of San Francisco?

You get young and insightful webisodes that dig into the different cultural habits and uncounscious perceptions between the two nations - with over 1,555 subscribers, 34,049 channel views and 60 episodes. They even founded Walkabout Languages, a personalized language learning software company, because they believe that learning a language needs a basic understanding of the respective culture. Again, it's digital natives who are communicating via moving images and reducing the space of distance between cultures with some humor and authenticity.

Monroe-Parks in search of freedom seekers and Atlas Tower aims at expensive office space. To be developed. Photos courtesy of Monroe-Parks and bünck+fehse

"Invest in a new culture of living. For lovers of freedom. Who want to live close to nature, but still in the city. Who appreciate comfortable living with an excellent infrastructure. For all those who simply want to live better lives."

When surface level values of an organization collide with reality, you get Lehman Brothers coffee mugs on eBay for an apple and an egg. In Berlin, they had a 87,5% stake in Monroe-Parks (above letters taken from site). American owned S&P Real Estate is currently looking for a new investor who is willing to dash out €70 million. I am sure there is someone out there.

For the former Telefunken consumer electronics production site, whose first coming out as loftlife was in October 2006, the pale atmosphere and general lack of balconies needn't attract everyone. It did the US Army from 1945 until 1995, now Germany's largest residential complex, yipee! For some reason, the Lehman Brothers logo is still listed as a partner on the site.

Another project stopped short by the former New York investment bank is the Atlas Tower, a 119 meter and 33 story building at the Breitscheidplatz; their contract was canceled late last year. If all goes well, the former and new owner EuroHypo will build the tower. It's part of renewed interest around the zoo: ferris wheel "Zoo Eye" and Dubai financed 118 meter high "Zoo Window." Bono saw that one coming all along.

We've reached our third turn of the year and accidently discovered a weird search algorythm that pimped our page juice. All of the digitalists have been commenting on this phenomena, so we figured it's better to add some beef.

Readers haven't been deterred from the speed of the World Wide Web, most of them are loyal and return when it fits. Some navigate through terrain of form boxes and text inserts and are mostly interested in "juicy vulva" or "new yorker umlaut" and even "east german posters" for crying out loud. I do wonder about the discussion around "Christian Adams" but do understand "Benjamin Franklin and German" as a form of knowledge transfer.

When all is searched and done, the rythms that digitalists are beating with, one has remained the greatest myths, which is coincedently the most read piece of 2008. And luckily enough, we've predicted the biggest anglofritzian teen culture connector: Tokio Hotel. The untold story of the year would have to go to the Telectroscope and celebrations around the Brooklyn Bridge. And the best on location reporting is without an online vote, the coverage of Barack's speech at the victory column.

As we dive into the world of 2009, we'll continue our insight and build upon the transcontinental dialog, one that will gain steam on January 20th based on a common future rather than a past.

Schrebergarten and small gnomes have particular relevance, rather poignently observed by a British correspondent on his farewell piece. "What I found particularly odd about the Germans, I singled out their passion for the small garden. There was an immediate protest: only about 5% of the population have a Schrebergarten, objected a Frankfurter." It's the combination of order and cosiness that represents this banal decodifying of German culture, one that favors the little man over globalisation.

I haven't heard an alert level orange lately, all signs point towards a possible increase of unlawful enemy combatants moving from Cuba to Germany. Most support Obama's call to close the prison, best known for its violation of the Geneva Convention, among being held without the right to lawyers or without a concrete arraignment. Steinmeier ordered his staff to get all excited for requests to take in former Guantanamo prisoners. About 250 men remain, a group of Muslim Uighurs from western China's Xinjiang province could be first movers.

Just outside of Frankfurt, the passive house concept was launched in 2003. “The myth before was that to be warm you had to have heating. Our goal is to create a warm house without energy demand,” said Wolfgang Hasper, an engineer at the Passivhaus Institut in Darmstadt. Affiliates of the concept are now found in the UK and US as well. And the first northern American passive house is being built in California, of course, in progressive Berkeley with further support of Nabih Tahan and 70 Bay Area architects. We'll see more green collaboration in the future on the transcontinental.

On the transaction front, Munich Re bought Hartford Steam Boiler, an insurer of factories and power plants for $742 million. The deal stems from AIG, who is auctioning about 70 percent of the company to repay a $60 billion federal loan. Rebel Traders worries that it's bad news for the American tax payer. "It is an amazingly funny (and extremely scary) situation that those who were the last to acknowledge the problems of this disaster are the same ones saying how good it will be in the future."

Alas, Valkyrie was hit by film critics from Boston, Washington to San Francisco and from blogger critic Dennis Mansfield, "Critics do not have the creative ability to build up, only to destroy. The sheer weight of the film is remarkable. An apology is needed...but by the critics."

A majority of Germans see the Obama presidency as a chance for a new trans-Atlantic relationship, one of equals with common values, something you might all a Wertegemeinschaft (values community). And Germany, as arguably the world leader in green technologies, rightly believes it has a thing or two to teach the Americans, who are seen as more open to change in this department than they have been for years. That the past eight years have seen an American president actively hostile to the development of sustainable energy technologies or curbing climate change--not to mention pulling out of the Kyoto Protocol in his first few days in office--has not been forgotten by many, certainly not environmental activists who hope to breathe a collective sigh of relief on January 20 when he relinquishes his post to Barack Obama.

Last month, just 24 hours after the presidential election, German foreign minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier told a conference he was confident that Obama understands the hard reality of climate change and for that reason has set it as a top priority, confirmed by talks with him earlier this year. Steinmeier called for a new world "green deal" and emphasized America's global responsibility in showing leadership in taking on climate change.

If last week's announcement by Germany's Ambassador to the US, Klaus Scharioth, is any indication, they are quite serious about moving beyond the lip service and getting down to work on this cooperation. Unveiling the Transatlantic Climate Bridge initiative last week to a crowd of environmental experts at the German embassy in Washington DC, the ambassador called for a new partnership with the United States. Scharioth described the need for an energy revolution and said that when they work together, "Germans and Americans can be a powerful engine for trans-Atlantic and also global climate cooperation." And in a notable stick to complement his carrot, he said our children and grandchildren would hate us if the world did not achieve a follow-up agreement to the Kyoto Protocol, which expires in 2012.

It is promising to see two technologically advanced nations teaming up to conquer what is, by all counts, our generation's defining challenge. The synergy could be very fruitful, not to mention igniting the world's next knowledge industry, especially if Germany, like a friend in the truest sense, keeps up the good-natured pressure on the US in an area that has languished for too long and could use a smart kick in the pants.

YouTube: Ambassador Scharioth's Climate Bridge message

The fundamental impulse that sets and keeps the capitalist engine in motion comes from the new consumers, goods, the new methods of production or transportation, the new markets, the new forms of industrial organization that capitalist enterprise creates. - Joseph Schumpeter on “Creative Destruction”

Next year is open for those ready to embrace uncertainty and change, willing to adapt and to learn quickly from the mistakes. A new system is already being developed, entrepreneurs worldwide are in midst of change and will lead as first movers. Those holding on and begging for someone to pay off their debts are lucky for the time being and simply get thrown an extra lifeline.

In any system, there are those who profit more than others, yet not necessarily those who bring the best value to the table - 2009 is the year for those who’ll deliver that added value. It’s a year where Schumpeter’s theory still holds true. And even though the States faces tough challenges ahead, a rising deficit, a stumbling auto industry, foreclosures and more bad news from the banking sector, the will to change and adapt is its greatest strength.

This remains Germany’s biggest, which is less often based on meritocracy and struggles to adapt its strong cultural heritage of uncertainty avoidance. That’s why a grand coalition under Merkel can keep quiet and stay put, but when the new system shifts visibly and pioneers take charge, they’re the first to notice the impact. And sure, the manufacturing sector is a wonderful asset, an industry that is “the” export engine, but innovation needs risk takers and decision makers who are pushing and planning ahead.

It’s going to be an exciting year for new or improved business models. I believe that American entrepreneurs have a great asset in unstable time periods, who grab their opportunities and see the president elect as their biggest supporter. Where is the supposed “Land of Ideas” with the likes of Gutenberg or Benz? The fat years and time for German Angst is long over.

Cash is king, at least if you have euros to spend in anglo lands. And you thought paying 400 pounds for a one-room shack in London was affordable, well now it is, sort of, if you have euros. Se pound has hit a record low against the euro.

When you're set to smoke your jolly good fellow and find out you're burning Oregano, I can understand how it feels. Someone thought it was funny to send out white powder via postal mail to several US embassies across Europe, also Berlin. It turned out to be hoax.

Does anyone remember German tanks cruising down Baghdad's streets? It's not that black and white as many would hope for. The question whether Germany was involved at all was raised anew this past week. Steinmeier still denies any BND secret service involvement and Uhrlau clears his information selling troops from responsibility, a special German cultural quality. Information delivered sounded more like, "There is trustworthy evidence that oil pumping stations by Kirkuk are being prepared for detonation."

In sports, the mighty Hamburger SV rolled over Aston Villa 3 to 1. "Hamburg won the group after outplaying a much-depleted Villa side. Mladen Petric and Ivica Olic, the Croatia strikers, sharing their goals." German and English football rivlary has not always been healthy in the past.

If you're still unsure about whether your money is affected by the Madoffs of this world, Lehman is loosing $1 billion to its German unit. "The money was deposited with Lehman Brothers Bankhaus AG, a German unit of Lehman Brothers International Europe, according to a PwC report yesterday. Lehman International, the bank’s European arm, had about $2.1 billion in client money, of which about $1 billion has been recovered, PwC said." You wonder how many five credit card shoppers and three car two person households will survive.

Movies about Germany's resistance against the Nazi regime have never reached an American audience with any significance. Valkyrie takes a shot at that. In the summer of 2007, most of the film was shot on location in Berlin with swastika flags waving near Potsdamer Platz and Wehrmacht trucks driving down Leipziger Strasse.

"We had Germany partially finance the film and they were very helpful with all the locations," said Cruise. Close, at first they weren't able to shoot at the Bendlerblock where Stauffenberg and his conspirators were shot. And for some reason Cruise already received a Bambi for courage before the movie was even cut, not the Disney deer, it's a media/people/glamour award.

Scientology's prominent Hollywood promoter pointed out at that he was interested in learning how early these people opposed Hitler. Letterman wondered why Germans would cooperate at all since it's a part of history "we don't really want to talk about...why don't you go to Austria and leave us alone." Aha, Hitler was Austrian and Tom answered lightly that "it's amazing it's something they live with," end of discussion.

The fact that an organization and their associated media star can now be linked with the German resistance on such a scale is still an understandable concern. Does anyone know how they create financial dependence with their members and mob those who part?

Valkyrie will at least shed light onto a part of history that has yet to be told to a global audience. And if there's one thing America can learn from Germany, then it's Vergangenheitsbewältigung or coming to terms with the past. It opens up Christmas Day in the States and on January 20th in Germany.

Americans taking their rights seriously in Washington on January 27th, 2007. Photo courtesy of Joe Tresh

Being on the good side of war is a two-edged sword. Gerhard Schröder understood the historical moment and at least for the time being, halted a few weapons exports from the third largest seller worldwide.

The question whether Germany was involved at all is being raised anew. Steinmeier, who was Schröder’s wing man in the chancellory and now Foreign Minister is facing probing questions about the BND’s involvement in front of a parliamentary committee this coming Thursday. According to former US General James Marks, agents supplied American troops with critical target information. It was supposedly more trustworthy than that of the CIA.

It’s not new, but rather the timing of the outgoing administration running away from responsibility and to remind its loudest critic of their involvement. Rather new is that André Shephard, a former helicopter mechanic, is the first American GI to seek political asylum in Germany,

“During the past five years we have waged a preemptive, internationally condemned war that was shown to be founded on a series of lies. After learning the truth about the nature of my military’s endeavors, I refuse to continue to be a part of this.”

[Keep on truckin...]

Celebrating the opening of a brand in southern Germany

German consumers are among the strangest breed of materialists. You’ll find them snuggled into a 2 bed-room apartment with their S-Class Mercedes parked outside. Then there’s shopping as a sport at the opening of an electronics store in Berlin. Now this. In Bavaria’s clean and boring capital, who are leaders of anti-semetic views in Germany, a whopping 16,6% of the lederhosen peoples are according to this study, the first Apple store was met with much fanfare. Commenter Mo thinks,

“haha, yeah because conservative provincial munich is so much more inline with the hip image that apple is trying to portrait then lets say berlin!”

I think Apple fares off quite well in terms of usability and aesthetics, Jobs turned the company around with products such as the iMac, iPod, iTunes and iPhone. Yet it’s still a closed system. Does anyone find it strange that so many people can get excited about an opening of a brand store; rest aside the fact that the products were readily available beforehand. And it’s amazing that se German consumers can, get excited about a brand. Anything else we should get excited about or should we ask more questions about Bavarian anti-semetism?

photo courtesy of Flickr user jeffsimages

Talk about milking a subject for all it's worth: Towle Tompkins at the New York Times has written not one, not two, but three edutaining articles about that perpetually reviled and beloved symbol of East German engineering, the Trabant.

A Red Menace That You Can Drive Yourself

Where Have All the Trabis Gone?

A People’s Car as Flawed as the People’s Paradise

So says today's Hindustan Times lead editorial.

U.S. heads of finance spent early September solving the mystery of the magical vanishing money and -- after mistakenly allowing the Lehmann Brothers collapse and handling the ensuing firestorm -- spent late September injecting as much Federal money they could get their hands on, at great taxpayer expense, back into the system, free market be damned.

European bankers were happy to point fingers at the crash of Wall Street as a self-contained and self-deserved problem, encapsulated best by German Finance Minister Peter Steinbück's smug interview with the Wall Street Journal last week when he emphasized the crisis was predominantly a US problem and denied Germany's need for the same kind of umbrella solution -- certainly not Ireland's ire-raising government guarantee on all private deposits, suddenly making it the most attractive money haven in Europe.

Germany, until this weekend's last ditch hustle to save its own endangered banks, even maintained a hard line against solutions in the rest of Europe, despite renewed calls for an EU-wide solution.

That all changed today when Chancellor Angela Merkel announced a very Irish-sounding blanket guarantee on private deposits (say what you will about German inflexibility, but clearly its financial sector can turn on a dime). So much for their weekend promise in Paris not to take any unilateral action in the crisis. Suddenly, European countries, now worried their money will start flowing into Germany, are all, (to paraphrase) "Shouldn't you have mentioned this before? I thought we were supposed to be a union or something?"

As Europe's financial managers struggle today to simultaneously protect their own backyard while still, at least superficially, seeking an EU-wide solution, perhaps the irony du jour is now the Americans are blaming the European crisis for crashing their stock market.