Chris Reiter is a senior editor at Bloomberg News in Berlin. Will Wilkes is automotive and industrial correspondent for Bloomberg News in Frankfurt. Their book Broken Republik: The Inside Story of Germany’s Descent Into Crisis was released by Bloomsbury on 6 March. The German edition, Totally Kaputt?, was published by Piper Verlag on 27 Feb.
It’s not easy for Germany to celebrate itself. But on Friday, the country tried. At the official celebration festivities for the Day of German Unity, the city of Saarbrucken near the French border hosted musicians, breakdancers, acrobats, magicians, and oddly, two actors dressed as a ‘talking sofa’ to entertain visitors. Frank-Walter Steinmeier, the official head
In 2003, Donald Trump took delivery of a Mercedes-Benz SLR McLaren, a $450,000 German supercar that blended precision engineering with Formula 1 bravado. Photographed grinning over its bodywork in Manhattan, he looked every bit the unabashed playboy flaunting a new toy. Two decades on, he’s threatening to hammer the very firm that built it –
