Welcome to Silicon Allee

You read it right. Berlin may finally be living up to its hopes of becoming Europe’s startup hub.

By Jason Overdorf
(GlobalPost, July 2014)

BERLIN, Germany — The low thrum of ambient electronica music pulses through a four-floor walkup in the hip central neighborhood of Prenzlauerberg as dozens of young programmers stick on nametags and swap stories.

Welcome to what locals are calling Germany’s Silicon Alley, where the code junkies have come for a Startup Grind event.

It's a pretty typical meet-and-geek. Software code is the primary topic of conversation. One young man with a ponytail shouts on his cell phone as another in a hoodie furtively dives into a spread of canapes before the buffet table is officially open. There are only a handful of women.

The big news is that this kind of event is taking place in the German capital almost every night.

Despite cheap rents and a reputation as one of the world's coolest cities, Berlin has so far failed to live up to its goal of becoming Europe's startup hub. But that may finally be changing thanks to a rapid growth in funding, a new drive to attract foreign talent and a burst of interest from industry giants like Google, say insiders like Marco Brenner, who moved here a year ago to found a startup.

“We need to grow some meaningful businesses in Berlin,” he says confidently, looking more like a PR executive dressed in his blazer instead of the usual hoodies or T-shirts. “Then the money will follow.”

Berlin's startup scene could create as many as 100,000 jobs by 2020, according to a recent report by the global consultancy McKinsey & Co.

Although the city still lags behind competitors like London when it comes to infrastructure — partly because Germany's conservative investors have long made it difficult to raise capital — the city has some of the right ingredients, including a low cost base and a hip image that helps attract top talent.


Earlier this month, Google unveiled a mammoth new startup incubator known as “Factory,” where veterans from Google for Entrepreneurs and Twitter will mentor company founders.

A 16,000 square foot space carved out of an abandoned brewery that will eventually employ around 500 people, it represents a big vote of confidence from the world's most successful internet company.

And while German venture capitalists remain more conservative than their counterparts in Silicon Valley, the amount of money available for startups has increased dramatically.

Over the past year, Berlin-based tech startups have raised over $650 million, more than three times the amount generated the previous year and more than six times the amount raised the year before that, according to venture capital database CB Insights.

Founders of some of the city's more promising startups — such as the audiofile sharing service SoundCloud, the academic social networking company ResearchGate and collaborative video-editing software maker FlavourSys — say Berlin's shortcomings can sometimes be advantages.

The city’s hip reputation attracts software engineers interested in the intersection of technology and creative projects at the heart of companies like SoundCloud. The lower level of activity here also makes it easier to afford and retain talented people than it would be in more advanced startup hubs.

Starting out here allowed FlavourSys to fly under the radar as the company developed collaborative software that enables television company video editors to work on files simultaneously from different locations.

Even though the company’s target market was always the US — which now accounts for 80 percent of its business — FlavourSys booked the National Geographic channel as its first customer before anyone in the software world had an inkling of what it was doing.

That happened at an industry convention in Las Vegas.

“It was amazing,” said FlavourSys co-founder Marco Stahl on the rooftop of the company's converted-apartment headquarters. “There were crowds of people, 20, 30, 40 people standing there watching demos. Then National Geographic came along and said, 'We want to buy this!'”

For a company that two weeks earlier had no website or printed business cards, that was a big deal.

ResearchGate co-founder and CEO Ijad Madisch has a similar story.

More from GlobalPost: Belgium could be headed for World Cup fame

Billed somewhat dismissively as “Facebook for scientists,” the company aims to break traditional boundaries that often keep academic research cloistered in ivory towers and exclude scientists from the developing world. When Madisch first came up with the idea six years ago, he found the world-weary capital of academia Boston too jaded to bite.

Berlin was different. When Madisch moved ResearchGate here in 2010, fifteen years after Jeff Bezos had launched Amazon, copycats had attracted programmers and created a nascent ecosystem for e-commerce startups, but little else. However, Madisch says it created a hunger to do something more interesting.

As a result, it was comparatively easy for ResearchGate to attract top developers, doctors and scientists.

“Everyone here is hungry to work on something big,” Madisch says. “That puts Berlin at an advantage to Silicon Valley.”

http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/europe/germany/140703/germany-berlin-google-factory-silicon-allee-startups

The Grand Budapest Hotel is actually a department store in Germany, and it’s about to become much grander

A German entrepreneur aims to revitalize a moribund town in the former East by renovating an Art Nouveau icon.
By Jason Overdorf
(GlobalPost, July 2014)

GOERLITZ, Germany — Standing on a ladder, workman Roland Freund dips his trowel into a bucket of mortar and carefully smoothes a wall under a molding. The work is painstaking and the air choked with dust, but he’s happy to be here.

That’s because he’s taking part in a project locals hope will herald the revival of their town in the former East Germany, which industrial decline and an exodus of people has left depopulated and depressed since German reunification in 1990.

Expectations are high because this is no ordinary construction project.

Recently made famous as the setting for Wes Anderson's film “The Grand Budapest Hotel,” the Goerlitz department store is a majestic, airy structure with a beautiful leaded glass dome over the atrium, striking brass chandeliers and a grand staircase leading to the balconied terraces of the upper floors. When it opened in 1913, the Art Nouveau establishment rivaled London's Selfridges and Berlin's Kaufhaus Des Westens (KaDeWe).

Recently facing a battle for survival, however, the store is now in the midst of a $30-million facelift financed by entrepreneur Winfried Stoecker, the founder of a multimillion-dollar medical technology company based in nearby Luebeck.

He wants to leverage Goerlitz's growing reputation as a movie-shooting location to help rejuvenate the town, which is among the poorest in Germany.

“This is crucial for the revitalization of the downtown. But it is also a beacon of hope for the entire city of Goerlitz,” says Rainer Mueller, chairman of an earlier citizens' initiative to attract a buyer for the site. “With the planned for October 2015 re-opening of the store, the dead heart of the city will begin to beat again.”

After escaping World War II unscathed, the Goerlitz department store had been closed for years when Anderson chose it for “The Grand Budapest Hotel.”


Even though Goerlitz had managed to attract a steady flow of film crews from Hollywood and Germany's Babelsberg over the years, featuring in “The Reader,” “The Book Thief,” and “Inglourious Basterds,” among other films, the town itself was slowly dying.

Like others in former East Germany, it lost many of its young people to the more vibrant West in the years following the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989. Although Siemens and the Canadian aircraft manufacturer Bombardier still operate facilities here, unemployment ranges around 12 percent.

The elderly outnumber the young and the town ranks dead last among German cities in purchasing power, according to a recent study by Germany's Association for Consumer Research.

Many are optimistic the renovation will change that, says Corinna Schneider, the area manager for the German Parfumerie Thiemann, the last company to operate a boutique in the department store.

“Many people came to Goerlitz especially to see the Kaufhaus,” she said, seated at a nearby cafe. “They all said they'd be back when it opens.”

Still, it's hard to make the potential foot traffic numbers add up for retailers, even though locals like Mueller say the time of outward migration is over and tourism figures are up, thanks to the so-called Goerliwood phenomenon.

On a sunny summer day at least, tables are packed at the swish outdoor restaurants near the Hotel Boerse, where Anderson and actors Jude Law and Ralph Fiennes stayed during the filming of “Grand Budapest.”

“Everyone says this is a pensioners' town, but suddenly stores and kindergartens are opening, so something is definitely happening,” says Stefanie Eggers, spokeswoman for the renovation project who notes that 4,000 people turned up for the project's recent open house.

As Stoecker's team works to attract international brands and smaller boutiques to fill the store's 70,000-square-foot space, new trends emerging at the end of the European economic crisis present some advantages, says project manager Juergen Friedel.

Across the Neisse River from Poland, Goerlitz's local boutiques are already attracting Czech and Polish shoppers, whose purchasing power and thirst for Western products is growing faster than their hometowns can satisfy. Moreover, the picturesque town lies directly on the route from Poland to the larger city of Dresden, the current shopping Mecca for wealthy Poles.

“On the motorway, the first exit across the German border from Poland is Goerlitz,” Friedel says. “We'd like to make sure the Polish people take that exit and don't go to Dresden.”

The key to success, however, will be turning the Kaufhaus into a “destination store” that customers are willing to make the centerpiece of a day trip. In the US, that has mostly worked for megamalls or specialty stores such as Cabela's outfitters, which incorporates attractions like a simulated trout stream where anglers can test-drive fly rods.

More from GlobalPost: Here's the evidence (so far) that pro-Russian separatists shot down MH17

Friedel says Garhammer — a 65,000-square-foot, family-owned fashion boutique located 60 miles from Munich — proves that the right package of top products and personalized service can work in Germany, too.

Gourmet restaurants, espresso and Prosecco bars and other signature features are planned for every floor, and the team has sketched out ideas for festivals and events to recapture the sense of the department store as a center of sophistication and culture — as dramatized in the popular ITV series “Mr. Selfridge.”

Still, it’s a battle to get potential vendors to come look at the place, Friedel says. But if he can get them into town, he adds, most of them bite.

“Once they see the building and the town,” he says, “they can imagine how nice it will be.”

http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/europe/germany/140723/goerlitz-germany-grand-budapest-hotel-actually-department-store

Violence and anti-Semitism are shifting the Middle East debate in Europe

With more protests against Israel’s Gaza campaign expected on Friday, Palestinian supporters are worried their message is being drowned out.
By Jason Overdorf (GlobalPost, July 24, 2014)

BERLIN, Germany — Mention Israel’s military campaign in Gaza to the Arab customers and stylists at Salon Balbaak in the predominantly immigrant neighborhood of Neukoelln and the response is sighs of disgust.

“It's not just us Palestinians,” says Mustafa, a young man with wavy hair. “Every free-thinking person in Berlin is angry. You only have to see the children being killed.”

He may be exaggerating, but not by much.

Even as the United States continues its staunch support of Israeli policy, opposition to Israel’s actions is growingacross Europe as the death toll mounts in Gaza.

However, demonstrations against the military offensive have been marred by racist slogans and violence that is shifting the focus of the debate here from the plight of the Palestinians in Gaza toward the extent of anti-Semitism in Europe.

A court in France jailed three men on Thursday for rioting after a pro-Palestinian rally in a Paris suburb turned into anti-Semitic violence.

In several German cities, protestors have attacked pro-Israeli counter-demonstrators and chanted anti-Semitic slogans.

Mustafa, who asked to be identified by a pseudonym, decries the damage such actions is inflicting on the protest effort.


“The protests have nothing to do with anti-Semitism,” he says. “We are not against the Jews. We are against the Israeli government.”

More than half of Germans believe Israel and Hamas bear equal responsibility for the fighting and 86 percent say Germany shouldn’t publicly support Israel, according to a recent survey.

However, Jewish groups argue that the racial slurs and anti-Semitic slogans suggest the protests are rooted in ethnic hatred rather than politics.

"We are experiencing an explosion of evil and violent hatred of Jews,” said Dieter Graumann, president of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, in an official statement.

“All of us are shocked and dismayed that anti-Semitic slogans of the nastiest and most primitive type can be chanted openly on German streets.”

In Berlin last week, protesters chanted “Jew, Jew, cowardly bastard, come out and fight alone!” at a downtown rally against the military action in Gaza.

Earlier this month, police in the western German city of Essen arrested 14 people suspected of planning to attack an area synagogue.

Among other countries, protests have been particularly violent in France. In Paris, dozens looted shops and set a kosher grocery store on fire in a Jewish-dominated suburb over the weekend when a pro-Palestinian demonstration held in defiance of a French ban erupted into violence.

In Austria, pro-Palestinian protesters stormed onto the field at a soccer match, attacking players from Israel's Maccabi Haifa in town during a scrimmage against a French club.

In Berlin on Monday, 13 protesters were detained at a demonstration in front of the Israeli embassy for throwing stones at the police, who have prohibited specific slogans as a threat to public order after facing criticism for failing to silence earlier anti-Semitic chants.

“Especially in Germany, anti-Semitic protests have a very strong impact because of our history, and there always should be resistance to make clear that this is not what the public thinks,” Berlin police spokesman Stefan Redlich Redlich said.

“But for the police, we can only stop people from shouting slogans if the law says they are not allowed.”

However, the American Jewish Committee and other Jewish groups say they were disappointed by the initial police response. Diedre Berger, director of the American Jewish Committee office in Berlin, said it's difficult to understand how officers at the scene could have doubted that what they were hearing was hate speech.

“Free speech has nothing to do with threatening people and creating an atmosphere of physical violence,” she said.

In a joint statement issued Tuesday, the foreign ministers of Germany, France and Italy vowed to fight anti-Semitism, giving the issue equal prominence to remarks from the UN high commissioner for human rights suggesting that Israel's actions in Gaza may be classified as war crimes.

More demonstrations are expected on Friday, a holiday marking the end of Ramadan.

Opponents of the Israeli offensive worry that more violence will further mute their message.

“The protests are against the war, but of course there are some ignorant people who shout slogans against the Jews,” said Mohammed Barkat, editor of a magazine for Arabic speakers in Germany. “The problem is that the media in Europe is always on Israel's side — whether they're right or wrong.”

Online debates suggest some believe the shift is part of a deliberate Israeli public relations strategy.

Israel is “again hiding behind the anti-Semitism flag,” said a comment under an article in the Huffington Post.

“The greatest weapon of the Zionists is the term anti-Semitism,” added another.

More from GlobalPost: The Grand Budapest Hotel is actually a department store in Germany

That perception may have been boosted by some ill-considered remarks by Israel's ambassador to Germany, whom the Daily Mail quoted as saying, “They pursue the Jews in the streets of Berlin… as if we were in 1938.

However, the American Jewish Committee’s Berger says the focus on anti-Semitism by the press here is natural given Germany's history and the recent advances made by far-right parties across Europe.

“The notion that concerns about anti-Semitism are raised to squash criticism of Israel is a pretty shocking assertion,” she says. “It’s a good way to deflect attention from very serious incidents of anti-Semitism.”

http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/europe/germany/140724/germany-europe-israel-gaza-protests-anti-semitism

This German program offers some of the world's best paid job training. So why is it struggling to attract workers?

Despite its great success, the country’s apprenticeship system is battling to keep young people interested.

By Jason Overdorf
(GlobalPost, July 2014)

BERLIN, Germany — When Hermann Oplanic failed to get into college three years ago, he was devastated.

Like a growing number of young people, the 25-year-old Berliner saw a university education as an essential pre-requisite for joining his country’s modern middle class.

But all was not lost. Thanks to an apprenticeship program that’s the envy of American manufacturers, he now believes circumstances forced him into making the right choice for his future.

“A friend of mine completed his studies first and then took an apprenticeship,” says Oplanic, a blond machinist dressed in blue overalls and a polo shirt who works for a company that produces gear-grinding equipment in the capital. “Now he thinks it would have been better to get some practical experience first.”

Run by companies mostly at their own expense, Germany's apprenticeship program is widely credited with producing the most highly skilled, hardest-working labor force in the world. But even as US President Barack Obama unveils a $100-million program aimed at emulating it, the German scheme is struggling to attract young people.

Officially integrated into the education system in 1969, Germany’s apprentice placements range from banking to butcher shops, administered by hundreds of chambers of commerce that set training standards and monitor how trainees are treated.

During apprenticeships that typically last three to three-and-a-half years, trainees spend four days a week working and one day at an academic “Berufschule,” or “career school,” earning salaries or hourly wages that match their level of experience.

For employers, the system provides a wellspring of employees trained to use the latest technologies, while state-run technical schools typically operate using factory and laboratory equipment as much as two decades out of date.


Being taught and evaluated by experienced workers who are possible future peers and colleagues helps instill a craftman's sense of pride that's harder to cultivate at community colleges and trade schools, say German executives like Martin Kapp, head of the German Machine Tool Builders' Assocation (VDW).

“Trained people will always find work in Germany,” says Kapp, who also owns the Kapp Group, which makes grinding machines and precision tools for the automobile, aerospace, and power generation industries. The company, where almost all top executives got their start as apprentices, employs around 50 apprentices at its headquarters in the central town of Coburg.

Although apprentice programs aren't unknown in the United States, they've traditionally remained the purview of the building trades and other union-dominated industries, and have mostly been eclipsed by community colleges and technical schools that students pay to attend. Only around 375,000 Americans were enrolled in apprenticeship programs at the beginning of this year, compared with 1.4 million in much smaller Germany.

But even as the Obama administration announces that its own drive to expand on-the-job training has resulted in the creation of 10,000 new apprenticeship programs in the US since January, trouble is brewing in the manufacturers' paradise.

A record low number of young Germans signed on as apprentices in 2013, due to demographic and social changes that mean ever fewer young people are joining the workforce as more are opting for university degrees, according to a new report from the Federal Statistics Office.

Even though Germany faces a looming shortage of skilled workers in key occupations, the government has until recently been trying to push more students into higher education, according to one of Germany's workers' guilds.

Oplanic, the machinist apprentice, says three quarters of his friends are studying at universities.

“The German system is very good,” he says. “But they want someone who can build a rocket for a job cleaning toilets.”

Where policymakers once promoted higher education in a bid to improve social mobility, the apprenticeship system is now credited with helping Germany achieve the EU's lowest rate of youth unemployment during the economic crisis, Kapp says.

“There was a time when everybody just looked at the statistics and saw that Germany had a lower number of people going to university,” he says.

That blinkered view ignored strengths of the German system that have been built up over decades and may prove more difficult than expected for the US to duplicate, Kapp says.

At his company's US manufacturing facility in Colorado, he tried again and again to set up an apprenticeship program based on the German model. But he found that American workers weren't willing to make long-term commitments to training programs — at least with machinists in hot demand. Moreover, American engineering graduates had no interest in getting their hands dirty on the shop floor — an essential component of Germany's reputation for excellence.

More from GlobalPost: Europe is struggling to find its soul

A similar effort to build an apprenticeship system in the UK has run into trouble because Britain lacks the management infrastructure of powerful trade bodies that control standards in Germany. Many of the new programs are too short to be much use and the range of programs is too diverse for the qualifications to have value, the Economist recentlycomplained.

Whatever the benefits for society at large, the German model means that companies, not the government or the students themselves, absorb most of the cost of job training.

Kapp says his total investment easily adds up to more than $1 million over five years. That’s something businesses in other countries may not be willing to sacrifice.

http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/europe/germany/140716/germany-manufacturing-apprentice-system

How Germany’s World Cup victory symbolizes its leading role in Europe

As Germans fight off hangovers after a night of extravagant partying, their team’s history-making win represents a decade of reforms in economics as well as soccer.
By Jason Overdorf
(GlobalPost, July 2014)

BERLIN, Germany — When the scoreless World Cup soccer final went into extra time late Sunday night, Berlin’s streets and subways were deserted.

With the match commentary blaring from open windows and doors, however, you could walk from the neighborhoods of central Mitte to nearby Kreuzberg without losing track of the game. On every corner, fans spilled out of bars, cafes and restaurants, jostling for a glimpse of the action on television screens.

When substitute Mario Goetze chested a clean pass onto his left foot and volleyed the ball past Argentine goalkeeper Sergio Romero to finally give Germany the lead with 113 minutes gone, a roar of exhilaration erupted across the city.

Crowds outside the Turkish cafes of the immigrant-dominated neighborhoods Kreuzberg and Neukoelln burst firecrackers and beat drums.

When the final whistle blew minutes later, the denizens of the hard-core German dives known as “local smokers” broke out into choruses of “Olé, olé, olé, all Germans, sing Olé!” — an announcement that the all-night party had begun.

“We're the World Champions!” shouted a group of men draped in German flags as the celebration moved to the street.

Unlike in Argentina, where at least 70 people were injured as disappointed fans smashed shop windows and vandalized cars, across Germany, virtually the only casualties were brain cells as the drinking continued into the early morning.

Nearly a quarter million people watched the match on the so-called “fan mile” created around Berlin's iconic Brandenburg Gate, which police had to close off before the game started to prevent overcrowding.


Police estimated that another 15,000 took to the famous Kurfuerstendamm shopping avenue in former West Berlin after the final whistle.

As the sun rose this morning, thousands were still at it, judging from the occasional blare of car horns and the sound of drunken singing.

German astronaut Alexander Gerst congratulated the team from space.

Chancellor Angela Merkel posed for a selfie with striker Lukas Podolski.

US coach Juergen Klinsmann — who helped Germany win the cup as a player in 1990 but failed as coach for the national side in 2006 — echoed widespread opinion, saying, “The best team won the 2014 World Cup.”

For coach Joachim Loew and the German players — a dream team of veterans who had largely stayed together since winning the Under-21 UEFA championships in 2009 — the victory was a major vindication. Perennial bridesmaids, “Der Mannschaft” had been to the semifinals or finals in every World Cup since 2002 without bringing home the hardware.

After a dismal performance in the 2004 European Championships, the team launched a decade of reform under then-coach Klinsmann. For Low, who continued the regime after he took over two years later, another loss may have meant losing his last World Cup chance.

For the country at large, the win also represents a historic and symbolic victory — and the peaceful jubilation made for a fitting end to a dream performance.

Although the former West Germany won the World Cup three times, most recently in 1990, Sunday's match marked the first victory for the unified country.

Germany’s World Cup victories have also represented the country’s economic fortunes. Stunning the world in 1954, the first win symbolized Germans’ emergence from devastation in World War II.

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Sunday’s win now marks Germany’s position as Europe’s economic and political powerhouse, after a decade of reforms enabled it to drop its image as the sick man of Europe.

With five prominent players who were born abroad or eligible to play for other countries, the team also represents a new, increasingly immigrant-friendly country confident in its role in the world.

Goetze, the player who pounded in the winning goal, hadn’t even been born when the Berlin Wall came down in 1989 — perhaps the last time this city saw a party of this magnitude.

http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/europe/germany/140714/berlin-germany-world-cup-2014-victory

Germany goes for World Cup history. No pressure.

Second-best just won't cut it for Germany anymore.

By Jason Overdorf
(GlobalPost, July 2014)

BERLIN, Germany — Across Berlin this week, German flags droop from apartment balconies, flutter from the windows of passing cars and festoon the fronts of driving schools, kebab shops, party stores and bars.

It's a rare release for Germany's pent-up patriotism following their 7-1 drubbing ofBrazil and going into Sunday's World Cup final against Argentina.

But the uncharacteristic expressions of national pride have put even more pressure on the German side to make history.

In every World Cup since 2002, Germany has at least made it to the semifinals, but has yet to bring home the trophy.

“When a team comes so close to the title so many times, the desire for a victory gets stronger and stronger,” said Rafael Wieczorek, director of Coerver Coaching in Germany and Austria.

“At the same time, this team is considered by fans and experts to be the best German team since 1990, perhaps since 1972. So the expectations are very high.”

A favorite to win the tournament from the beginning, by trouncing Brazil, Germany convinced virtually everyone that the final is in the bag.

Yet as press reports this week revealed that the German team had made a halftime pact not to embarrass Brazil too badly after going up 5-0, German coach Joachim Löw and company have strived to emphasize “focus” and “concentration” — perhaps fearing that the blowout may already have turned high expectations into hubris.


Symbolism only heightens those expectations further. Though the former West Germany has won the tournament three times, most recently in 1990, a win by Löw's side would mark the first victory for unified Germany in history.

With immigrant stars like Mesut Özil and Sami Khedira, among others, the team represents an unified, multicultural Germany where the foreign-born are no longer considered outsiders. Five prominent players on the national squad were either born abroad or would be eligible to play for another nation — mirroring Germany's broader effort to attract, rather than exclude, immigrants with measures like a liberal dual citizenship policy.

Moreover, in a country where hanging the flag would normally get you labeled a “right winger,” if not worse, the match comes as the nation finally seems ready to slough off the memory of World War II and demand to be treated as a “normal country” — with political might and military responsibilities to match its economic importance.

In recent months, Germany's president and defense minister have each pushed for a greater German military role in foreign conflicts, even as Germany's role in the Ukraine crisis cements Chancellor Angela Merkel's position as the de facto leader of Europe.

At “Zur Traube,” a neighborhood bar in the heart of Berlin, confidence is running particularly high. Ordinarily, the joint supports one of the Bundesliga teams, with free shots of liquor for every goal. But like every other bar in the city, this week it is draped with the black, red and yellow of the national flag.

“If Germany wins, this place will explode with joy,” says bartender Gerd Hettenhausen. “Everybody drinks more when Germany wins.”

In that case, there will be a victory parade in front of Berlin's Brandenburg Gate, where the so-called “Fan Mile” is already draped with symbols of national pride.

But if the team loses — making it five losses out of eight trips to the finals — there won't be a reception at all, according to off-field manager Oliver Bierhoff.

In other words, second-best won't cut it for Germany anymore — and that pressure could make winning just a wee bit harder.

http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/europe/germany/140712/germany-world-cup-history-argentina

Germany is angry with the US but can’t do much about it — for now at least

However, the latest spy scandal rocking relations between the two countries may affect longer-term attitudes toward Washington.

By Jason Overdorf
(GlobalPost, July 2014)

BERLIN, Germany — Although allegations that the CIA actively worked to recruit a double agent in Germany's top spy agency is prompting renewed outrage from German officials on Tuesday, experts say the government has little scope for much more than issuing strong words.

“There will be a lot of castigation but the two governments will continue to cooperate on the wide range of issues where their interests overlap,” says James Davis of the University of St. Gallen.

Still, the latest espionage scandal to hit relations between the two countries is strengthening calls for Germany to offer support, possibly even asylum, to NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden, and prompting new demands for the government to launch its own espionage program directed against the US.

However, the largest casualty may be a major EU-US free trade agreement that’s enjoyed the support of Chancellor Angela Merkel.

“That the Chancellor will have to be seen as representing the interests of a sovereign country seems clear, both from a foreign policy and domestic politics perspective,” Davis says of the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP).

“[Therefore] the episode will strengthen the hand of those who are against TTIP.”

When not stoking new anger against the US, the case has fascinated German observers because of the curious way it’s unfolded.

Unnamed US officials confirmed Monday that the CIA had indeed recruited an agent of Germany's foreign intelligence service, who was arrested by the German authorities last week on suspicion of being a double agent.


However, the authorities initially said they had detained the man in connection with an alleged offer to sell information to Russia. While in custody, he purportedly confessed to working with US agents as well, selling as many as 218 classified documents over a two-year period for a total of around $35,000, reports said.

His lawyer stopped short of confirming those details on Monday, but he told German television that “there are things in the media which are true.” Earlier reports by Der Spiegel and the Suddeutschezeitung suggested that the double agent had been tasked with gathering inside information about a German parliamentary committee's inquiry into the NSA's activities in Germany — including the tapping of the chancellor's mobile phone.

Alghough Merkel’s cellphone may have made the biggest headlines, ordinary Germans have been mainly concerned about Snowden's revelations about the NSA's massive data collection program. The latest revelations about US agents allegedly working to subvert the inquiry into that case adds a new layer of betrayal, says Jan Techau, director of Carnegie Europe.

“The goal was to spy on this [parliamentary investigative] committee and get secret documents on this committee's work,” he says. “This is what people have taken really hard.”

The public outrage has forced politicians to take stronger stances against the US, Techau adds. And while the new revelations may not result in any immediate consequences for US-German relations, he adds, growing popular disgust with Washington may have long-term implications.

Already, nearly two-thirds of Germans think their officials should act more independently from the US, according to a poll conducted by TNS Research for Der Spiegel. Some 69 percent said their confidence in America had fallen recently.

Visiting China with a trade delegation when the story broke, Merkel issued what some view as her strongest statement yet on the allegations of US spying, saying the case represents a “clear contradiction as to what I consider to be trusting cooperation between agencies and partners.”

President Joachim Gauck exploded on German TV, saying “enough is enough,” and Bild newspaper reported that Home Minister Thomas de Maiziere is pushing to step up spying on the US.

Although that actually taking place is unlikely, those comments and others like them reflect the growing pressure on policymakers from media and public opinion to take some kind of action, says Volker Perthes, director of the Institute for International and Security Affairs (SWP).

“Germany should and will probably improve its counter-intelligence activities, also with an eye on what our American allies are doing,” he says.

Intelligence cooperation between German intelligence agencies and their US counterparts could also be reduced, he adds. And German policymakers could add their voices to those in the European parliament calling for canceling the SWIFT agreement on exchanging banking data.

The growing public disenchantment with the US could have farther-reaching implications over the upcoming months and years.

Germany's orientation has increasingly tilted toward US foreign policy goals and economic ideals in recent years, illustrated by Merkel's toughening stance toward Russia. But growing skepticism about US intentions could slow or skew that tilt, especially if it begins to influence voters' attitudes toward American values.

Davis says the spying scandals are especially affecting the attitudes of younger Germans under 25.

“These revelations continue a long series of similar episodes that together leave the impression for many in Germany that the USA has lost its anchor.”

http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/europe/germany/140708/germany-us-espionage-scandal-nsa-snowden

Russia's pipeline politics are dividing the EU

The Kremlin is seeking to isolate Ukraine by strengthen Europe's dependence on Russian gas.

By Jason Overdorf
(GlobalPost, July 2014)

BERLIN, Germany — As the authorities in Ukraine step up assaults against separatists in the east of the country following the end of a tenuous ceasefire there, Russia is working hard behind the scenes elsewhere to dash their hopes of restoring some measure of stability.

Moscow is waging a propaganda campaign against the government in Kyiv in addition to apparently giving support to the pro-Russia rebels. But the Kremlin is showing its greatest depth in its moves to undermine unity among Ukraine’s Western supporters over sanctions and other measures that would punish Russia for meddling in the affairs of its southern neighbor.

For that, it’s relying on its most powerful trump card, a foreign policy tool it’s brandished for the last decade to stunning effect: energy.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel warned Moscow ahead of talks on Ukraine on Wednesday that economic sanctions remain an option if the Kremlin doesn't back peace efforts.

But a plan to build a major new pipeline that would pump Russian natural gas to Europe is helping drive a wedge between European countries that have so far united at least rhetorically against Russia's adventurism in Ukraine.

Moscow is hoping Austria, Bulgaria, Hungary and even Italy and France may soften their stances over Ukraine thanks to pressure from their own large energy conglomerates, which have signed very lucrative deals with Russia’s Gazprom natural gas monopoly.

That’s because any plans to reduce dependence on Russian supplies would hit so-called legacy European energy companies, such as Austria's OMV, Germany's RWE and Italy's Eni, as hard as Gazprom, says Andrew McKillop, former policy analyst at the European Commission's energy directorate.

“There's a legacy infrastructure problem for the European common energy market that is very difficult to reconcile,” he says.


Russia’s planned South Stream pipeline would have the capacity to pump 63 billion cubic meters of Russian gas a year directly into Southern Europe by way of the Black Sea. The route would enable the company to bypass Ukraine, where price disputes and unmonitored siphoning of gas has prompted two shutoffs that have affected supplies to Europe.

The North Stream pipeline, a similar 55-billion cubic meter conduit across the Baltic Sea that opened in 2012, has already cut the volume of gas that Russia sends through Ukraine by a quarter.

Ukraine has been able to use its role as a transit route for Europe-bound Russian gas to pressure European countries as well as the Kremlin.

But the addition of the South Stream would enable Russia to cut off supplies to Ukraine without hurting its own access to crucial European markets.

That would mean what happens in Kyiv or Crimea may no longer be of vital importance to countries like Germany that currently rely on Russian supplies for some 40 percent of their gas.

Russia’s success would probably embolden Moscow to continue using energy politics to influence events in other former Soviet republics such as Moldova, Georgia and Armenia, which are also seeking closer ties with Europe, says Carnegie Europe's Judy Dempsey.

“South Stream and North Stream actually consolidate Europe's dependence on Russian gas,” she says. “If South Stream goes ahead, that dependence will be set in a pipeline under the Black Sea, so to speak.”

The pipeline could prove even more important for Kremlin-controlled Gazprom as it races to beat a growing list of of liquefied natural gas (LNG) suppliers and other competitors to a quickly changing energy market.

Mushrooming LNG terminals will soon be able to supply the entire gas demand of countries like France — which also receives piped gas from Norway and Algeria. Meanwhile, gas consumption is falling across Europe, making a drop in gas prices virtually inevitable.

At the same time, plans for a common European energy market that the EU hopes will help make diversifying energy sources easier would force Gazprom and other energy conglomerates to allow new competitors to use pipelines and electricity distribution infrastructure they built — giving the new arrivals an inherent cost advantage.

“[Gazprom] has to finance its competitors and it's selling less gas. And the unit price of gas is falling,” McKillop says. “Can you imagine a worse situation than that?”

So far, the EU has attempted to use antitrust laws that prevent gas suppliers from owning distribution infrastructure to weaken Gazprom’s control over European energy supplies.

But South Stream represents the company's bid to show Europe there's no compelling reason to diversify its sources after all.

With Austria's OMV, Italy's Eni, France's EDF and Germany's BASF all involved in the project, there’s already evidence they’re forcing cracks in the European alliance, Dempsey says.

Already, Austria, Bulgaria and other countries are demanding exemptions from the antitrust rules, and more trouble looks to be brewing.

On Tuesday, Hungary's Prime Minister Viktor Orban confirmed that Hungary will go aheadwith building the section of South Stream that lies within its borders despite US and European objections.

The same day, Italy's state secretary for European affairs told Russia's state-owned news agency that his country, too, has “a strong interest in implementing it.”

More from GlobalPost: This Russian dashcam video of a biker gang attacking a motorist is insane, but not for the usual reasons

Earlier this week, energy experts speculated that rumors prompting a run on Bulgaria's largest banks and an EU move to shore up those institutions may have been salvos in a tussle over Bulgaria's section of the pipeline, which European officials ordered put on hold in early June.

Meanwhile, Austrian President Heinz Fischer invited Russian President Vladimir Putin to Vienna last week to put an official stamp on a deal to land the South Stream pipe at OMV's Baumgarten gas terminal — undermining EU warnings about the possibility of escalating sanctions against Russia.

“There is a basic economic role for Austria, an advantage for Austria, in supporting this project, so the political factors were sidelined,” McKillop says.

Moscow is surely hoping that logic will prevail in other European countries as the battle over Ukraine plays out in the months and years ahead.

http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/business/energy/140702/russia-south-stream-pipeline-ukraine-european-union

This is what free speech looks like to Google

Germans start challenging the internet search giant after a landmark EU ruling on internet privacy.

By Jason Overdorf
(GlobalPost, June 2014)

BERLIN, Germany — You may think anyone whose own company's search engine autocompletes his name with the phrases “is evil,” “is a douche” and “is creepy” would have some sympathy for lesser mortals who have somehow been damned to internet hell.

But in the case of Google chief executive Eric Schmidt, you'd be wrong.

Last month, the European Union issued a landmark ruling that redefined internet privacy by establishing a “right to be forgotten” enabling European citizens to demand Google and other search engines remove sensitive personal information from the results of searches for their names.

Now a looming battle is shaping up over which requests will be honored, and Schmidt’s company is sticking to its guns in a series of precedent-testing cases in Germany that are highlighting how radically the web is redefining the borders between privacy and freedom of speech.

Cologne-based lawyer Christian Solmecke's telephone has been ringing off the hook since the EU ruling.

“So far, about 100 people have contacted me so that we can help them to delete links to information about themselves,” he says.

Google has been even busier. Within a week of the ruling, it received some 41,000 requests for links to be severed, the company says. Nearly a third were related to frauds or scams, a fifth concerned serious crimes, and 12 percent were connected to child pornography arrests.

Google has always maintained that its search results are essentially the same as newspaper reports, meaning the words generated by its algorithms constitute protected speech.


However, the issue isn't as simple as its statistics suggest, Solmecke says. The EU ruling defines Google not as a printing press but a “profile building machine,” the lawyer explains.

That means the search engine's tabulation of information available on the web doesn’t necessarily enjoy the same legal protections as the information itself. Even if a newspaper article that mentions your name can’t be removed from the internet, you may be able to prevent Google from directing web users there when they type in your name.

The judgment also shifts the burden of proof.

Previously, individuals had to show information to be false or slanderous in order to force Google to remove it. Now Google must effectively prove not only that the information is true but also that it's important to the public interest.

That may make the defense of free speech an even stickier problem.

While individuals seeking to remove information will probably have strong personal motives to edit their pasts, Google's reasons for defending the public's right to know are more abstract. That may create an imbalance: The company’s motives for defending free speech are mainly financial, and it will cost the company money and effort to defend itself against each individual case, making that less likely.

That raises interesting debates in an age when Facebook posts can acquire lives of their own even after their authors delete them.

One of Solmecke's clients is a 23-year-old man currently applying for jobs. When a prospective employer Googles his name, virtually the first result that pops up is a 10-year-old newspaper article about a reading competition that he won — as part of a special-education program he doesn’t want mentioned.

In another case, a leading business executive who was convicted of data theft two decades ago argues that the information, although accurate, should no longer define him to colleagues, employers and casual acquaintances when they search his name.

Bettina Wulff, the wife of former German President Christian Wulff, has already won a cease and desist order against Google over its autocomplete function, which suggested terms such as “red light district” and “escort” when users typed in her name because of an unsubstantiated rumor about her past.

Her success shows it was possible to stop Google and other websites from printing false or slanderous information even before the recent EU ruling. But the hurdles were practically insurmountable.

Google required a court judgment from the countries where the source information was hosted, which could mean legal battles in Belize or the Cayman Islands.

Challenges could also be counterproductive. More than 80 percent of Germans learned the prostitution rumors about Wulff from her campaign to squash them, a recent poll found.

The newspaper report about the special education prize presents trickier problems.

It's not slanderous. It's not even incorrect. Prior to the EU’s ruling, there would have been no grounds for blocking it.

But the challenger believes it's discouraging prospective employers — and that it's difficult to make the case that keeping the article associated with his name is somehow in the public interest.

More from GlobalPost: Germans are drinking more non-alcoholic beer and less of the real stuff

“Everyone who Googles me thinks I'm a disabled person and that's not true,” his lawyer quoted him as saying.

The newspaper reports about the businessman convicted of data theft are also not slanderous. But it's more difficult to ascertain whether it's in the public interest for his conviction to remain associated with his name.

“There's always a stigma that I've done something wrong 20 years ago,” Solmecke quoted him as saying.

Now that he may be empowered to edit out that mistake, more legal problems may arise in the future: no one, including Google, currently has as strong a motive to fight for the public's right to know about it.

http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/europe/germany/140624/germany-google-free-speech-privacy-eu

Germany's renewables paradox a warning sign for China

As green energy in Germany grows, carbon emissions are increasing rather than decreasing

By Jason Overdorf

China Dialogue (June 2014)

From the hay field behind his house, Gunter Jurischka points out the solar panels glittering from the town's rooftops and the towering wind turbines spinning lazily on the horizon.

Thanks to Germany's now famous Energiewende (or “energy transition”) programme, this tiny village of 800 souls produces enough electricity to supply 15,000 households from wind, solar and biogas.

But in what should come as a warning signal to countries like China that are rapidly rolling out renewable energy projects, a ruling by the state government earlier this June promises to uproot these villagers. Proschim's green dream will be bulldozed to make way for a 2,000-hectare, open-cast coal mine.

“We don't have time for energy from the Middle Ages anymore,” said Jurischka, a weather-beaten former agronomist with piercing eyes and longish salt-and-pepper hair.

It's beginning to look like he might be right.

Hailed by environmentalists as a model for how the world's nations can stop global warming, Germany's Energiewende is designed to virtually eliminate emissions and convert 60% of the country's energy production to renewables by 2050. But as the concept catches on in nations like China – which now leads the world in green power capacity and investment in renewables – cracks are emerging in the foundations, suggesting focusing on renewables will not be enough.

“Going down the renewables route is good, but not enough to save the climate,” said Patrick Graichen, director of Agora Energiewende, an independent think-tank based in Berlin.

“The popular perception is [that] we're doing the renewables and that's what needs to be done.... [But] renewables are only half of the story. The other half is keeping coal beneath the ground.”

Germany has already succeeded in boosting the share of renewables to 25% of its total power production, compared with around 13% in the US and around 20% in China, according to the latest report from the Renewable Energy Policy Network for the 21st Century (REN21). But in what Germans are calling the “Energiewende paradox”, the country's overall carbon-dioxide emissions rose by 1.2% last year. Meanwhile, instead of a phase-out of conventional power, Germany is expected to add more coal-fired generation capacity this year than it has in over a decade.

“It's a big step back,” said Anike Peters, a campaigner at Greenpeace Germany. “If the politicians want a real Energiewende, they should shift away from coal.”

The coming coal boom

The recent German increase in hard, or black, coal is a one-off, driven by low carbon prices in Europe prior to the economic crisis and a race to get projects approved before higher emissions set in, according to longtime Energiewende watchers Arne Jungjohann and Craig Morris. But without policy changes, the brown coal of Proschim – called lignite by the energy sector – could see a decade-long boom.

“Germany lacks specific policies to reduce lignite and increase natural gas use,” Jungjohann and Morris conclude in a recent article for the Heinrich Böll Foundation. “Unless that changes, the market is unlikely to bring about a reduction in power production from lignite until the mid-2020s.”

For China, which now burns nearly as much black coal as the rest of world combined according to a Bloomberg energy study, Germany's problems will come as grim news. China invested more money in renewables than all of Europe in 2013, and for the first time its investments in green energy surpassed its investments in conventional power. But due to rapid economic growth, the world's factory will more than double its overall power generation by 2030, adding the equivalent of the entire UK power grid every year, according to Bloomberg. Coal will fuel 58% of its production.

Germany's Energiewende helps to explain why.

The problem Germany faces is that the supply from renewable sources like the sun and wind comes in peaks and valleys, and subsidies for storage technologies have not kept up with those designed to drive green-energy production.

On cloudy, windless days, the country needs the steady electricity supply from coal- or gas-fired generators to keep the lights on and the factories running. Yet when there is an excess, the country can't use enough of the supply to pump water uphill for later use by hydroelectric plants or to convert water into hydrogen. So on sunny, windy days, windmills and coal-powered turbines alike must be disconnected to prevent the surge blowing fuses across the grid.

At the same time, while German consumers complain about high prices due to the green energy subsidy they see on their monthly electricity bills, the dramatic expansion of capacity has caused wholesale energy prices to plunge.

The combined result is that Germany's three main conventional power producers – Eon, RWE and Vattenfall – are often selling electricity for less than the amount it costs them to produce it. And paradoxically, as the US shale gas boom drives down coal prices without affecting gas prices in Europe and Asia, they are encouraged to turn to the conventional fuel least suited to supporting the drive toward renewables: lignite, or “brown coal”.

Abundant in Lusatia and the Rhineland, brown coal supplies around 15% of Germany's energy. Because it's close enough to the ground to be scraped off the top, rather than dug out in deep mines, it's the cheapest fuel available, located right next to the power plants that burn it. Moreover, Germany's grid operates by a so-called “merit order” that takes energy produced by the cheapest fuel first, using power from renewables first, then nuclear, then lignite, then hard coal and only then natural gas. So lignite plants are the last to be taken offline when the supply spikes.

Even then, while natural gas-fired power plants can be stopped and started without much lag time when the wind and solar supply peaks, the most modern coal-fired plants presently in use in Germany must burn at 35% of maximum capacity even when they are officially offline. Worse still, soft brown coal produces 50% more carbon dioxide per kilowatt than black coal and twice as much as natural gas.

“Lignite is the dirtiest fossil fuel, but it has many other disadvantages, because it's not a good partner for renewable energies,” said Greenpeace's Peters.

New policies needed

Clearly, both Germany and China need more than yesterday's feed-in-tariffs and ever higher green-energy production to fight global warming.

In the short term that means grid-preference for flexible but reliable natural gas-power plants instead of cheaper lignite, as well as subsidies for electricity stored in batteries or converted to hydropower or hydrogen – presaging a longer window for the add-ons to their bills that have turned many Germans sour on the Energiewende. German policymakers should also consider taxing carbon or banning new lignite mines, which would allow the producers to keep using the fuel for a decade or more, say experts like Graichen, Jungjohann and Morris.

But in the long term it could mean subsidies for the big conventional power companies today viewed as the enemy – effectively paying them to keep operating plants that will never make a profit because they only exist for the days that the wind doesn't blow.

Poland’s biggest rising star may have just flamed out

Meet the foreign minister whose bid for a top EU post is under threat from a tape scandal.

By Jason Overdorf
GlobalPost (June 2014)

BERLIN, Germany — A major scandal consuming the government in Poland is threatening to derail the career of the brightest star in Polish politics as it exposes a hidden rift between Washington and a once-staunch ally.


Recorded surreptitiously in an opulent Warsaw restaurant and leaked to the swashbuckling right-wing magazine Wprost this week, the so-called Warsawgate tapes purport to reveal the country's central banker angling to pull strings in the government and a former minister negotiating with the head of the Polish equivalent of the Internal Revenue Service to quash a probe of his wife's dental practice.

But the most shocking revelation came in the crude language of Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski — a Twitter-savvy, Oxford-educated former journalist once thought to be among America's strongest supporters in Warsaw and a frontrunner in the behind-the-scenes race for foreign policy chief of the European Union.

“This is a wonderful instrument to undermine his chances this time around to gain an important European position,” says Konstanty Gebert, a veteran Polish political analyst associated with the European Council on Foreign Relations.

“His job in Poland is safe, but if he tries for more, those tapes will re-emerge,” he adds. “They're bound to hound him for life.”

Sikorski eclipsed German Foreign Minister Walter Steinmeier during the early days of Ukraine’s crisis earlier this year, playing a main role in brokering negotiations between then-President Viktor Yanukovych and the opposition, and claiming the lion's share of accolades for averting a Tiananmen Square-style bloodbath.

A former war correspondent who’s married to the Pulitzer Prize-winning American journalist Anne Applebaum and dined at the same Oxford old boys' club as British Prime Minister David Cameron and London Mayor Boris Johnson, Sikorski's ambitions run high.

Poles believe he’s aiming as high as the presidency if not the prime minister's office.

Now he hopes — or hoped — to succeed the UK's Catherine Ashton as the European Union's high representative for foreign affairs or Denmark's Anders Fogh Rasmussen as NATO secretary general.

But the tape scandal shows him to be more Rahm Emmanuel than Barack Obama.

“The running joke at the Foreign Affairs Ministry is 'What's the difference between God and Sikorski?’” Gebert says. “’God doesn't think he's Sikorski,'”

Heard on tape excoriating his countrymen for their pride in giving “the Americans a blowjob,” Sikorski describes Poland's alliance with the US as “worthless” and uses a racist epithet to disparage what he calls the slave mentality of his fellow Poles.

Prime Minister Donald Tusk has so far declined to dump Sikorski or respond to calls for snap polls to re-establish the government's legitimacy.

As damage control, the foreign ministry has said that Sikorski was actually parroting what the opposition was saying at the time.

Experts point out that even if the recording does reflect the foreign minister's own views, the tapes date back to February, when Washington had yet to take a strong stance on Ukraine’s crisis and offer Warsaw the security assurances it wanted in response to the Kremlin’s aggression.

Still, the harsh words — which have drawn comparisons to the embarrassing recording of US diplomat Victoria Nuland that hit Youtube in February — suggest Obama's 2013 revision of a planned missile defense system in Europe and much ballyhooed pivot to Asia may have damaged relations with Poland more than previously believed.

More from GlobalPost: Germans are drinking more non-alcoholic beer and less of the real stuff
Some rumors blame the tape scandal on Russian spies, and Sikorski himself has said the recordings represent an attack against the government by “organized criminals.”

But in a country that attributes everything, including bad weather, to Moscow, blaming the usual suspects may not be enough to prevent a temporary damping of Poland's rising star even if Sikorski doesn't flame out altogether.

“These tapes are very damaging to the image that Poland has built for itself, with hard work, as a serious, responsible, normal country,” Gebert says.

http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/europe/poland/140625/poland-radoslaw-sikorski-tape-recording-scandal-us-russia-ukraine

Mein Gott! Germans are drinking more non-alcoholic beer and less of the real stuff

It's not just for designated drivers. Now brewers are also competing for the sports drink market.
By Jason Overdorf
GlobalPost (June 2014)

BERLIN, Germany — It's one o'clock in the afternoon at Bei Schlawinchen and the beer is already flowing.

Famous for keeping the taps running 24 hours a day, seven days a week for the past 35 years, this quintessential “kneipe,” or “dive,” is the last place you'd expect to find alcohol-free beer. But even this haven for hard-core drinkers offers two varieties, a Pilsener and a hefeweizen, or wheat beer, in deference to Germany's latest brewing trend.

While Germans are drinking less and less beer, sales of “non-alcoholic” beer, which contains less than 0.5 percent alcohol, have doubled over the past seven years, according to the German brewery association.

But not everyone’s a convert.

Seated at a table with Bei Schlawinchen's owner and several other afternoon drinkers, 59-year-old Gunter Schumann grouses about the new development.

“It's like sex without the woman,” he says.

“What's the point? It tastes like something’s missing, like sugar-free ice cream.”

“Maybe for when they're driving?” adds another perplexed drinker.

They may be a dying breed.

Although Germans still drink more beer per person than anyone but the neighboring Czechs and Austrians, consumption has fallen by a third over the past 25 years, as high production costs and low prices threaten hundreds of small traditional brewers.

The non-alcoholic variety represents an unexpected bright spot for the industry, says Carlsberg Germany spokeswoman Linda Boos.

“Not only is demand getting stronger, but they're bringing more women to the category,” she says.

Last year, alcohol-free beer consumption rose 12 percent as Germans slugged down 480 million liters of the stuff — meaning one bottle out of every 20 beers drunk nationwide was non-alcoholic.

While alcohol-free beer can still be difficult to find in the US, German breweries already offer more than 200 brands, including wheat beers, Pilseners, standard lagers, flavored beers and bottled “Radler” or “cyclist” — a mix of beer and lemon soda that's long been a beer garden staple.

Around for more than 30 years since the Radeberger Group first launched Clausthaler in 1979, non-alcoholic beer was held back for decades by its taste. As the market has grown more attractive, however, the brews have improved.

It's not just designated drivers and recovering alcoholics drinking it. Various brands including Carlsberg's Holsten, Krombacher and Warsteiner are aiming to compete with Gatorade for the sports drink market, emphasizing that alcohol-free beer, like the regular kind, is “isotonic,” says Birte Kleppien, spokesman for the Radeberger Group.

“Non-alcoholic beer is now not only a substitute for beer but also an alternative to soft drinks and even water,” he says.

Perhaps. But marketing beer as a health supplement these days isn't as easy as it may once have been.

More from GlobalPost: This graphic shows which teams have the most fans at the World Cup

Across Berlin this summer, billboards advertise Krombacher alcohol-free as part of a marketing blitz that includes the distribution of variety packs, free samples and various other promotions in 25 German cities. But the “isotonic” brand's slogan, “We refresh Germany,” has already attracted the ire of the regulators.

Earlier this month, a district court in North Rhine-Westphalia ruled that promoting Krombacher as “revitalizing” violates European Union regulations requiring such adjectives to be backed up by proof of specific health benefits.

Racking his brain while hoisting back a regular old bottle of Beck's at Bei Schlawinchen, Schumann says he can think of only one advantage.

“I guess people can drink it the day after they've really tied one on.”

http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/europe/germany/140619/germany-non-alcoholic-beer

Berlin bans Hell's Angels logo

Outlawing the motorcycle club’s symbols represents the latest weapon in a fight to stop Germany’s ‘biker wars.’

By Jason Overdorf
GlobalPost (June 2014)

BERLIN, Germany — In the latest salvo of a battle to rein in outlaw motorcycle clubs, the authorities here are hitting the global Hell's Angels brand where it hurts most: the logo.

Last month, the signature winged death's head and “Hell's Angels” label featured on the motorcycle club's “cut,” or leather vest, were banned in the capital as the symbols of a criminal organization.

Although a tough-minded Hamburg judge outlawed Germany's first Hell's Angels charter in the city in 1983, the Hell's Angels as an organization have never been banned across Germany.

Now the prohibition of the iconic logo has come about through an ironic twist.

When a former member of the banned Hamburg charter appealed to the court in April to be allowed to wear the club's “colors,” the judge interpreted the original ruling to mean that the Hell's Angels logo is illegal not only in Hamburg, but throughout the country.

“Now, all the other regions in Germany are thinking about that judgment,” said detective superintendent Matthias Frohn, deputy head of the Berlin police division responsible for curtailing the city's motorcycle gangs. “Some, like Berlin, said, 'If that deadhead is forbidden, then I guess it's forbidden.'”

Since the ban of its first charter, the Hell's Angels have taken advantage of an organizational structure that mimics global chains such as McDonalds and Starbucks to gain a big following in Germany. Just check out their website.

The California-based motorcycle club immortalized by gonzo journalist Hunter S. Thompson has charters across Germany and boasts as many as 1,000 members, according to Germany's Federal Criminal Police Office.

The police allege that the loose-knit organization is involved in human trafficking for prostitution as well as dealing in drugs and guns.

Although specific charters have been banned in a handful of cities besides Hamburg, prosecutors have been unable to push through a blanket ban on the parent organization.

As soon as local authorities bring the hammer down on one outfit, another one crops up.

“You have individuals who work their way through different outlaw motorcycle gangs,” said Frohn, whose bearish build and thick beard make him look a little like a biker himself.

“Nowadays, they even sometimes switch between the Bandidos and Hell's Angels,” he added, naming another biker club.

As with other groups allegedly involved in organized criminal activities, bikers, or “rockers,” battle for control of legal and illegal businesses mostly among themselves. The US-headquartered Hell's Angels, Bandidos, Outlaws and the homegrown Gremium motorcycle club all compete.

Over the past five years, however, a “rocker war” between the Bandidos and Hell's Angels — reportedly fought not only with chains and knives but also guns and hand grenades — has spilled into Berlin’s streets.

In the latest case, the Berlin state prosecutor this month indicted 10 Hell's Angels members for the alleged murder of a 26-year-old rival in a sports betting parlor.

Video footage from a surveillance camera shows the perpetrators striding purposefully into the establishment and gunning down the victim as “civilians” nearby plugged euro coins into slot machines.

“It’s become pretty dangerous for the regular person,” Frohn said.

More from GlobalPost: How to be a good World Cup host

“We don't like the term 'rocker war,'” he added, “but when the Bandidos and Hell's Angels started stabbing and shooting each other in 2009, that is something that does affect the general public.”

If convicted, the alleged killers could face life in prison. The Hell’s Angels Berlin-City charter has already been banned under laws that allow German states to prohibit groups that are expressly organized for criminal purposes.

Frohn says it remains to be seen whether the broader ban on the club’s logo will be enough to finally scatter the gang.

http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/europe/germany/140612/berlin-bans-hells-angels-logo-1

Here's what World Cup teams would look like if immigrants weren't allowed to play

Europe is resounding with cries of 'immigrants, go home!' Here's what would happen to the World Cup if they did.

By Jason Overdorf
GlobalPost (June 2014)

BERLIN, Germany — It's not just morons throwing bananas on the field.

Far-right political parties are gaining ground in France. Most of Germany's soccer hooligansare now neo-Nazis. And this spring, Switzerland voted to curb immigration, defying the spirit of laws that allow citizens freedom of movement across the European Union.

But amid all the bad blood, has anyone thought about how sending immigrants packing would affect the teams playing the world's greatest game? Broadly defining “foreigner” as anyone with at least one foreign-born parent, Switzerland would lose two-thirds of its players. France and the Netherlands might be knocked out of contention. And Algeria, Ghana, Turkey or even Suriname could win it all.

More from GlobalPost: 32 creatively dressed World Cup fans who will make your day

Here's how the world's best would stack up in a World Cup with no first-generationimmigrants. A couple of caveats: First, this list isn't comprehensive, hence the ommission of teams like England and Mexico, even though they do have immigrant players. Instead we've highlighted only the group favorites and the "big losers." Second, not all players on every squad are represented here — we've focused on those who were slated to make a difference for the team.

(Odds come from here, and stats from here.)
Group A: Brazil, Croatia, Mexico, Cameroon



Favorite: BRAZIL



(Simran Khosla/GlobalPost)

A heavy favorite in their real-world group, Brazil retains all of its star players in the no-immigrants-allowed version. Better still, Brazil picks up a few more of its nationals from other country's teams: Shakhtar Donetsk striker Eduardo Alves da Silva and Getafe midfielder Jorge Sammir Cruz Campos from Croatia, and Real Madrid defender Kepler Laveran Lima Ferreira and Fenerbahce S.K. Defender Bruno Alves from Portugal.



Sleeper: CROATIA


(Simran Khosla/GlobalPost)

Croatia has only a slim shot at winning the real Group A, and it doesn't fare much better in the no-immigrant tourney. It keeps Bayern Munich striker Mario Mandzukic, and Hull striker Nikica Jelavic. As noted above, it loses da Silva to Brazil, along with Jorge Sammir Cruz Campos, who was born there. Queens Park Rangers midfielder Niko Kranjcar didn't make the squad because of an injury.


Group B: Spain, Netherlands, Chile, Australia



Favorite: SPAIN


(Simran Khosla/GlobalPost)

Despite its proximity to Africa and a decade-long boom that saw immigrants swell from 2 percent to 12 percent of the population in 2010, Spain retains more than a 50-50 chance of winning Group B in our immigrants-barred game. It keeps Barcelona striker Pedro Eliezer Rodriguez Ledesma, Barcelona defender Jordi Alba Ramos, Atletico Madrid striker David Villa, Manchester United midfielder Juan Mata, Real Madrid defender Sergio Ramos, and Manchester City striker David Silva.



Big Loser: NETHERLANDS


(Simran Khosla/GlobalPost)

The Dutch keep Manchester United striker Robin van Persie, Hamburger SV midfielder Rafael van der Vaart, Bayern Munich winger Arjen Robben, and Schalke striker Klaas-Jan Huntelaar. But we're taking back Dynamo Kviv striker Jeremain Lens, Swansea City goalkeeper Michel Vorm, and AC Milan midfielder Nigel de Jong — all of whom have roots in Suriname (which, as one commenter pointed out below, gained full independence from Dutch colonial rule in 1975). And we'll grab Feyenoord defender Rolando Maximiliano "Bruno" Martins, born in Portugal, and Swansea City midfielder Jonathan de Guzman, whose father was born in Jamaica.

Group C: Colombia, Ivory Coast, Japan, Greece



Favorite: COLOMBIA


(Simran Khosla/GlobalPost)

Colombia remains the favorite in Group C, retaining River Plate striker Teofilo Gutierrez, AS Monaco midfielder James Rodriguez, and Atalanta defender Mario Yepes and West Ham United defender Pablo Armero, who's of African descent but not an imigrant by our definition. It lost AS Monaco striker Radamel Falcao from the squad because of an injury.

Group D: Italy, Uruguay, England, Costa Rica



Co-favorite: URUGUAY


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Facing even odds in the real cup, Uruguay remains even with Italy in the no-immigrants tourney. The South American side keeps Liverpool striker Luis Suarez, Paris Saint-Germain striker Edinson Cavani, and West Bromwich Albion defender Diego Lugano. We'll also let them keep Diego Forlan, whose father and grandfather both played for Uruguay, though they're technically of Basque descent. Atletico Madrid winger Cristian Rodríguez has roots in Spain, and Sao Paolo striker Alvaro Pereira and Palermo striker Abel Hernandez have roots in Africa, but none of them meet our definition of immigrants. However, they do lose Galatasaray goalkeeper Fernando Muslera, who was born in Argentina.



Co-favorite: ITALY


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Co-favored to win the group in the no-limit cup, Italy loses less than you might expect in the no-immigrant version. It keeps Juventus defender Giorgio Chiellini, Roma midfielder Daniele De Rossi, Juventus midfielder Andrea Pirlo. However, the Italians do lose a couple guys. Fiorentina forward Giuseppe Rossi was born in New Jersey (though in the end, he didn't make the final squad, anyway). And AC Milan striker Mario Balotelli, born in Palermo, has parents who immigrated from Ghana. Meanwhile, an injury knocked Riccardo Montolivo to the sidelines in early June.

Group E: France, Switzerland, Ecuador, Honduras



Favorite: FRANCE


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The favorite in the real Group E, France can hardly field a team without its immigrants. It retains a shot at getting out of the group with Arsenal striker Olivier Giroud. It drops Arsenal defender Bacary Sagna and Liverpool defender Mamadou Sakho, whose parents were born in Senegal, and Manchester United defender Patrice Evra, who was born there himself. It also loses Paris St.-Germain midfielder Blaise Matuidi, whose father was born in Angola; and Porto defender Eliaquim Mangala, whose parents were born in the Democratic Republic of Congo. France also gives up Lille OSC midfielder Rio Mavuba, whose father was born in Zaire and mother in Angola; Newcastle United midfielder Moussa Sissoko, whose parents were born in Mali; and Marseille midfielder Matthieu Valbuena, whose father was born in Spain. And don't look for as much flash without Real Madrid striker Karim Benzema, whose father was born in Algeria. France also loses Juventus midfielder Paul Pogba, whose parents were born in Guinea. Topping off all that, they've lost Bayern Munich winger Franck Ribery because of an injury.



Big Loser: SWITZERLAND


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“No more immigrants” Switzerland loses about two-thirds of its players if it goes all-Swiss, all but erasing its chances of getting out of Group E. It keeps Grasshopper Club Zurich defender Michael Lang, FC Basel defender Fabian Schär, and Juventus defender Stephan Lichtsteiner. But it loses a lot more. Eintracht Frankfurt midfielder Tranquillo Barnetta is of Italian descent and holds dual citizenship. Napoli midfielder Gokhan Inler's parents were born in Turkey. Borussia Monchengladbach midfielder Granit Xhaka, Napoli midfielder Blerim Dzemaili and Bayern Munich midfielder Xherdan Shaqiri were all born in the former Yugoslavia, while Real Sociedad striker Haris Seferovic and FC Zurich striker Mario Gavranovic are of Bosnian descent.



Bigger Loser: ECUADOR


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Wee little Ecuador has a slim chance of getting out of Group E in the real cup. But its odds look much better against the almost-empty rosters of France and Switzerland in the no-immigrants version. Monarcas Morelia winger Jefferson Antonio Montero hails from one of Ecuador's indigenous tribes. Al-Hilal midfielder Segundo Castillo ended up being dropped from the squad because of an injury.

Group F: Argentina, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Nigeria, Iran



Favorite: ARGENTINA


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A strong favorite in the real Group F, Argentina leads the group in the no-immigrant tourney, too. It keeps Barcelona striker Lionel Messi, Barcelona midfielder Javier Mascherano, Real Madrid winger Angel Di Maria and Manchester City striker Sergio Aguero. However, Argentina loses Napoli striker Gonzalo Higuain, of Basque descent, who was born in France. On the plus side, it picks up Juventus striker Pablo Osvaldo from Italy.

Group G: Germany, Portugal, USA, Ghana



Favorite: GHANA


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Ghana keeps Al Ain striker Asamoah Gyan, Rubin Kazan midfielder Wakaso Mubarak, Vitesse Arnhem striker Christian Twasam Atsu, AC Milan midfielder Sulley Muntari and Juventus midfielder Khadwo Asamoah, and Rennes defender John Boye, not to mention AC Milan midfielder Michael Essien. The team also keeps Schalke midfielder Kevin-Prince Boateng and gets back Bayern Munich defender Jerome Boateng from Germany — their father was born in Ghana, though the brothers were born in Berlin. The same goes for Marseille striker Jordan Ayew, whose parents were born in Ghana though he was born in France. As a final bonus, Ghana picks up AC Milan striker Mario Balotelli, whose biological parents were born in Ghana, from Italy. It also gets Danny Welbeck, whose parents were born in Ghana, from England.



Loser: GERMANY


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The Germans get our moral support in honor of their recent decision to allow dual citizenshipto the children of immigrants. But their football team doesn't look too good without the guys that the red-faced chap at the end of the bar still calls “foreigners.” Germany keeps Arsenal defender Per Mertesacker, Bayern Munich midfielder Thomas Mueller, Bayern Munich midfielder Toni Kroos, Bayern Munich midfielder Mario Goetze, and Chelsea winger Andre Schuerrle. They retain Schalke defender Benedikt Howedes, whose parents were born in Germany though the family has roots in Norway. But they lose superstar Arsenal midfielder Mesut Ozil, whose father was born in Turkey; Real Madrid midfielder Sami Khedira, whose father was born in Tunisia; and Lazio striker Miroslav Klose, who was born in Poland. They'll also take the field without Bayern Munich defender Jerome Boateng, who has roots in Ghana; Sampdori defender Shkodran Mustafi, whose parents are Albanians born in Macedonia; and Lukas Podolski, who was born in Poland. And they lose Marco Reus regardless, to an injury.



Bigger Loser: PORTUGAL


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Lesser-known colonizer Portugal keeps Real Madrid defender Fabio Coentrao, Valencia defender Ricardo Costa, Besiktas J.K. forward Hugo Almeida and Lazio striker Helder Postiga. But it loses Real Madrid defender Kepler Laveran Lima Ferreira, aka Pepe, to his native Brazil. It loses Fenerbahce S.K. Defender Bruno Alves, whose father was born in Brazil. It also drops Luis Carlos Almeida da Cunha, aka Nani, who was born in Cape Verde (independent from Portugal since 1975), and FC Porto winger Silvestre Varela, whose parents were born there. Lucky for them, Real Madrid striker Cristiano Ronaldo, whose great grandmother was from Cape Verde, isn't an immigrant by our rules.



Just Because: US


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Team USA gets to keep San Jose Earthquakes striker Chris Wondolowski — half Native American, with a grandfather from Poland — as well as Seattle Sounders midfielder Clint Dempsey and Stoke City defender Geoff Cameron. However, the melting-pot nation loses Sunderland striker Jozy Altidore, whose parents were born in Haiti; Tim Howard, whose mother is Hungarian; AZ striker Aron Johannsson, who was born to Icelandic parents in Alabama; and Rosenborg midfielder Mix Diskerud, who was born in Norway. We'll also take away LA Galaxy defender Omar Gonzalez, whose parents were born in Mexico, and Nantes midfielder Alejandro Bedoya, whose father was born in Colombia. Finally, we'll take back Hertha defender John Brooks, Nurnberg defender Timmy Chandler, Bayern Munich winger Julian Green, Besiktas midfielder Jermaine Jones, and 1899 Hoffenheim defender Fabian Johnson — all of whom were born in Germany or have a German parent.


Group H: Belgium, Russia, South Korea Algeria



Favorite: RUSSIA


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Bookies say Russia has an outside chance of winning the real Group H. But Vladimir Putin's men become the odds-on favorite when we take away the immigrants. Among scorers, the Russians keep Zenit St. Petersburg striker Aleksandr Kerzhakov, Dynamo Moscow striker Aleksandr Kokorin, Zenit St. Petersburg midfielder Viktor Faizulin, Zenit St. Petersburg midfielder Igor Denisov, Spartak Moscow midfielder Dmitriy Kombarov and Spartak Moscow midfielder Denis Glushakov. We'll also let them keep CSKA Moscow midfielder Alan Dzagoev (3 goals). Strictly speaking, Dzagoev is of Ossetian descent — his parents moved from Georgia in 1989. But we've seen Putin without his shirt, and we don't want another Crimea-type situation. The Russians did lose one team member, FC Krasnodar midfielder Roman Shirokov, due to injury.



Big Loser: BELGIUM



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A strong favorite to win the real Group H, Belgium loses some stars without its immigrants. Among scorers, the Belgians keep Vfl Wolfsburg midfielder Kevin De Bruyne, Chelsea midfielder Eden Hazard, Tottenham Hotspur defender Jan Vertonghen and FC Porto midfielder Steven Defour. But they lose a lot. The fathers of both Manchester City defender Vincent Kompany and Everton striker Romelu Lukaku were born in what is today the Democratic Republic of Congo. Everton striker Kevin Mirallas' father was born in Spain. Marouane Fellaini's parents were born in Morocco. FC Zenit Saint Petersburgmidfielder Axel Witsel's father is from France. And Tottenham Hotspur midfielder Mousa Dembele's father was born in Mali.