BBC: Coronavirus: Thousands protest in Germany against restrictions. “Thousands of people in the German capital Berlin are taking part in a protest against the country’s coronavirus restrictions. The demonstrators say the measures, including the wearing of facemasks, violate their rights and freedoms. Germany has been less badly affected by the pandemic than some European countries, but cases are starting to rise again.”
Germany
Coronavirus: German officials ‘very concerned’ by rising cases (BBC)
BBC: Coronavirus: German officials ‘very concerned’ by rising cases. “The head of Germany’s public health agency has said he is ‘very concerned’ by rising infections in the country. ‘We are in the middle of a rapidly developing pandemic,’ Lothar Wieler, head of the Robert Koch Institute (RKI), told reporters. Mr Wieler said Germans had become ‘negligent’ and urged people to wear masks and respect social distancing and hygiene rules.”
Washington Post: Angela Merkel is riding high as she steers Europe’s coronavirus recovery effort
Washington Post: Angela Merkel is riding high as she steers Europe’s coronavirus recovery effort. “Earlier this year, German Chancellor Angela Merkel had been written off by many as a lame duck. Her coalition and party were beset by infighting, and speculation was rife that she would buckle to pressure to step aside before the end of her final term in 2021. But a coolheaded and effective response to the coronavirus crisis has pushed Merkel’s approval ratings as high as 86 percent within Germany. She is in a position of strength and confidence this week as she steers Europe’s effort to address what is predicted to be its deepest economic recession on record.”
Coronavirus: Thrifty Germany takes on debt to rescue arts (BBC)
BBC: Coronavirus: Thrifty Germany takes on debt to rescue arts. “Germany’s cultural life is slowly coming back to life. The German government has set aside more than €1bn (£896m; $1.13bn) to protect the arts – in addition to a furlough scheme and grants for freelancers.”
Jerusalem Post: German Jewish poet brought back to life in a new online platform
Jerusalem Post: German Jewish poet brought back to life in a new online platform. “Else Lasker-Schüler – one of Germany’s greatest Jewish poets – who moved to Jerusalem in the 1930s and eventually faded into obscurity, will come back to life in a new digital platform that will display a significant collection of her works online. Lasker-Schüler, who lived between 1869-1945, is considered to be one of the greats of German poetry, a bohemian artist who corresponded with many of the most prominent cultural figures of her time including Albert Einstein, Martin Buber and Thomas Mann.”
Vox EU: Unmasked! The effect of face masks on the spread of COVID-19
Vox EU: Unmasked! The effect of face masks on the spread of COVID-19. “Confronted with a novel, aggressive coronavirus, Germany implemented measures to reduce its spread since March 2020. Requiring people to wear face masks in public places has, however, been a subject of controversy and isolating the effect of mask-wearing on the spread of COVID-19 is not simple. This column looks at the town of Jena and other German regions that introduced face masks before the rest of the country to see whether the requirement makes a difference in the number of new COVID-19 cases. Requiring face masks to be worn decreases the growth rate of COVID-19 cases by about 40% in Germany.”
New York Times: Facebook Loses Antitrust Decision in Germany Over Data Collection
New York Times: Facebook Loses Antitrust Decision in Germany Over Data Collection. “In a decision that could further embolden European governments to take on large tech platforms, Germany’s top court ruled on Tuesday that Facebook had abused its dominance in social media to illegally harvest data about its users.”
Coronavirus: Germany outbreak sparks fresh local lockdown (BBC)
BBC: Coronavirus: Germany outbreak sparks fresh local lockdown. “German authorities in North Rhine-Westphalia are bringing back lockdown measures after a coronavirus outbreak linked to a meatpacking plant. More than 1,500 employees of the Tönnies plant have tested positive.”
Coronavirus: Hundreds of abattoir workers test positive in Germany (BBC)
BBC: Coronavirus: Hundreds of abattoir workers test positive in Germany. “Thousands of people in Germany have been told to go into quarantine after a coronavirus outbreak at an abattoir. More than 650 people have tested positive for the virus at the meat processing plant in Gütersloh, in the north-west of the country.”
Der Spiegel: Database Exposes Offshore Holdings of Prominent Germans
Der Spiegel: Database Exposes Offshore Holdings of Prominent Germans. “A group of internet activists has posted data from a Bahamas corporate registry online. Searches of the database have turned up a number of prominent Germans whose offshore holdings weren’t previously known to the public.”
ProPublica: How Germany Saved Its Workforce From Unemployment While Spending Less Per Person Than the U.S.
ProPublica: How Germany Saved Its Workforce From Unemployment While Spending Less Per Person Than the U.S.. “The pandemic has cost jobs around the world. Comparing people who lost the same position in the two countries reveals that the U.S. government is spending more on unemployment — but its citizens are getting less.”
The Next Web: This German town replicated itself in VR to keep its tourism alive
The Next Web: This German town replicated itself in VR to keep its tourism alive. “Tourists may soon be able to explore the picturesque cross-timbered houses and historic churches of Herrenberg via virtual reality (VR), thanks to a digital twin developed with the High-Performance Computing Center Stuttgart (HLRS).”
Washington Post: While U.S. struggles to roll out coronavirus contact tracing, Germany has been doing it from the start
Washington Post: While U.S. struggles to roll out coronavirus contact tracing, Germany has been doing it from the start. “There’s no sophisticated technology in the northern Berlin office where Filiz Degidiben spends her days tracking down contacts of people infected with the novel coronavirus. Her main tools are the phone by her side, a yellow calendar on the wall and a central database, accessible from her desktop computer, that was developed with infectious diseases such as measles in mind.”
The Times: Germany ready to tighten lockdown as coronavirus infection rate climbs again
The Times: Germany ready to tighten lockdown as coronavirus infection rate climbs again. “Germany may be compelled to bring back elements of its lockdown amid signs that coronavirus cases could be on the point of starting to multiply again. The country’s virus reproduction rate, which measures how many people the average person with Covid-19 infects, has rebounded to a value of 1.0, the dividing line between growth and decline, according to government epidemiologists.”
ARTnet News: Following Coronavirus Closures, Museums in Germany, Austria Plan Reopenings
ARTnet News: Following Coronavirus Closures, Museums in Germany, Austria Plan Reopenings. “Per a report in the Art Newspaper, small museums in the German state of Brandenburg were the first to reopen their doors to the public today, albeit with strict security precautions, including the widespread use of disinfectant and the use of credit cards in place of cash. Thuringia has announced a reopening date of April 28 for its cultural institutions, though the German Association of Museums stated institutions in the country’s larger metropolitan centers may not reopen until May.”
