Mainz, Germany
By Andy Eckardt, NBC News Producer
It is an everyday lottery when it comes to fuel prices at German gas stations. Prices for regular unleaded and diesel gas bounces up and down, often changing twice on the same day. And drivers in this car-loving nation are unhappily dealing with increasing prices at the pump.
Record prices on the international oil markets have driven gas prices across Europe sky high, with a gallon of unleaded gas costing about $8.60 per gallon in Germany. (In Germany, gas is sold by the liter with one liter of unleaded fuel selling for an average of $2.29)
The high prices hit people where it counts – in the wallet.
"For us, as a family with two children, the high fuel prices are burdening," said Britta Koester, a nurse who has a 20-mile commute to work at odd hours and no options for using public transportation. "I am totally dependent on the car; the infrastructure in our little town is miserable in that respect," said Koester.
While filling up his small Volkswagen Golf, Dietmar Dannemann, 63, watched the meter at the pump carefully and tried to stop his purchase at an exact amount.
"As a member of the ADAC automobile club, I get one cent discount per liter, but I don't want to get more than 15 liters today, the prices are too high," he explained.
Meanwhile, Susana, a 33-year-old mother of two children, actually traveled across town to get a better price at the pump. "I get gas when I see a bargain," she explained. "And, in my family, we call each other when we spot a station with lower prices."
Still loving the autobahn
But despite the rising costs, Germans have continued their love affair with the open road.
CONTINUED >>
By Andy Eckardt, NBC News Producer
A few weeks ago, I wrote about the zeal of the recycling-conscious German public. Little did I know at the time that one waste product was potentially life threatening – at least for German hedgehogs.
Hedgehogs, spiny creatures which are native to Africa, Asia and Europe, are so beloved in Germany that they led McDonald’s Germany to introduce a new, hedgehog-friendly design for its McFlurry ice cream treat containers.
Two years ago, McDonald's Germany was contacted by BUND, one of Germany’s largest environmental groups, which reported that up to 100 hedgehogs had been killed as a result of being caught in the lid holes of the popular McFlurry treat.
"There were no solid statistics on hedgehog deaths caused by McFlurry lids," said Alexander Schramm, a McDonald's spokesman in Munich. "But, because our company had confronted the same problem in the U.K. in 2006 and had already changed the product line, we decided to do the same in Germany."
The re-design process included several different lid-sizes and cover flaps, which could prevent hedgehogs and other small animals from getting stuck inside the containers and, as a result, starving to death.
CONTINUED >>
By Andy Eckardt, NBC News Producer
RUMMELSHEIM, Germany – Fair warning: This story involves one of those fairytale, somewhat kitschy German villages.
It also includes a cuddly toy, environmental laws and high-tech sneakers.
Let’s start in Rümmelsheim. Rummelsheim is the type of village where the grass seems to have been cut with rulers and fingernail clips. The sidewalks are so spotless you could eat off them.
Many Germans would call this little wine-growing town near the Rhine River a "lawn gnome community"– referring to those plastic dwarfs which often characterize "proper" German gardens and are a common sign of the German propensity for orderliness.
Sometimes that penchant for order is taken to extremes.
Take, for instance, a recent visit I made in an effort to shoot some video of the picturesque village. After I parked my car – perhaps a little sloppily -- I was immediately approached by an elderly local man, who was passing by with his grandson.
"You should be filming your car and the violation," the man began yelling at me.
Startled, I turned around to see what had gotten him so angry. It turned out that the tires of my car were on the edge of the sidewalk.
"This is not in order," were his last words as he walked away, steaming mad.
Which leads me to the cuddly toy....
CONTINUED >>
By Andy Eckardt, NBC News Producer
MAINZ, Germany – It smelled of fresh-baked cookies when I dropped my children off at kindergarten on a recent morning. For a moment, I just stood there, inhaled the sweet scent and watched little kids in their aprons – faces dusted with flour – dance to German Christmas songs.
The weeks before Christmas – or the Advent season, as we often refer to it here – is a very special time in Germany. Solemn, quiet and full of old traditions.
 |
| Andy Eckardt / NBC News |
| An evening in the Christmas market in Wiesbaden, Germany. |
While it seems that marzipan and chocolate Santas are put up earlier in stores every year, people begin to really feel the Christmas spirit about four weeks before the big holiday – when Christmas markets open and more visitors than usual flock into churches for the four Advent Sunday masses.
CONTINUED >>
By Andy Eckardt, NBC News Producer
This week, visitors to Berlin can get a feel for what it meant 18 years ago to look at Brandenburg Gate with a wall in front of it.
A South Korean artist has installed a fluorescent plastic copy of the Berlin Wall in front of the city's historic gate in protest of the enduring division of the Korean peninsula. But for many visitors interested in the history of the once-divided city, the display is just another piece of chic artwork in the vibrant German capital, and not much more.
 |
| Reuters |
| Korean Artist Eun Sook Lee performs next to her illuminated installation "Vanished Berlin Wall" in front of Brandenburg Gate in Berlin on Friday. |
It is hard to find any of the few remaining sections of the Berlin Wall these days. After reunification, the German government was quick to sell off these reminders of the Cold War.
A few crumbling segments and a brick trail through Berlin are all that remain of the wall. In an odd way, the now sanitized path reminds me of the Freedom Trail in Boston – it does not resemble the gruesome "death strip" that was equipped with barbed wire, landmines and watchdogs to prevent East Germans from fleeing the country.
Checkpoint Charlie, the famous allied border crossing, is now just a small booth at the end of the elegant Friedrichstrasse, a major shopping area in central Berlin, where tourists can take photos with actors dressed up in old army uniforms.
CONTINUED >>
By Andy Eckardt, NBC News Producer
Even though the trees across the country are quickly losing their leaves, Germany is very "green" these days.
It starts with the trash every day. In most local communities, households now have four different trash bins outside their door – one for paper, one for plastic, one for organic waste and a trash can for "other rubbish."
In addition, glass containers are strategically positioned at street corners in every neighborhood, but also require active consumer participation. Under German rules, green, brown and white bottles need to be separated.
While the only reward for garbage sorting is a good "green conscience," the German government has been granting financial incentives for new measures that cut CO2 emissions and save energy.
CONTINUED >>
By Andy Eckardt, NBC News Producer
As long as I can remember, I have never had any of my overseas colleagues or friends make editorial inquiries about a regular party conference of Social Democrats party. But suddenly this week Germany’s internal politics touched an international nerve.
A proposed speed limit for Germany's super highway – the autobahn – was put on the political agenda at the Hamburg party Congress. Once the news hit the front pages of papers across Europe, it immediately triggered questions from many of my American colleagues.
Apparently many had been day-dreaming about a high-speed journey in a powerful Porsche, whizzing past Cinderella-like castles, racing toward an ice-cold beer at one of Munich's famous beer halls – and they were afraid those dreams might be prematurely dashed.
CONTINUED >>
By Andy Eckardt, NBC News Producer
A mob attack on eight Indians who were chased through a small eastern German town on Sunday, as onlookers shouted slurs, has sent shock waves through the country.
Photos of victims' beaten-up faces and reports that the crowd of about 50 people threw stones and chanted, "Foreigners out!" as the Indians were chased through the town of Muegeln reminded many of the gruesome images from the country's dark Nazi past.
 |
| AFP - Getty Images |
| Kulvir Singh, one of the Indians injured in the attack speaks to the press. |
And – once again – it has stirred a fierce debate about racism and xenophobia in Germany that is
making front-page news and
triggering comments from all political levels.
Critics say that a lingering anti-foreigner sentiment in parts of German society is being ignored. A representative from Germany's Jewish Council argued on Wednesday that the country is lacking a coordinated "nationwide action plan" when it comes to right-wing extremism.
The German government was quick to condemn Sunday's attack, fearing that the developments could tarnish the country’s image.
CONTINUED >>
By Andy Eckardt, NBC News Producer
It's "funny how time slips away." Elvis has – supposedly – been dead for 30 years now. But, he’s still rocking Germany where fans are "all shook up" this week with celebrations, exhibits and look-a-like festivals.
For the German media it seems like "it's now or never" to show old Elvis movies. While it might seem like a bit much, but there is a certain charm in seeing Mr. Presley speak German as a young cowboy in "Flaming Star" or with a flower lei around his neck in "Blue Hawaii."
 |
| Hannibal Hanschke / Reuters |
| Singer Grahame Patrick performs dressed as Elvis Presley during a show in Berlin August 15, 2007. |
The American superstar had a special link to Germany. Not only because of his interpretation of the German folk classic "Muss i denn, muss i denn...," but Elvis was of course stationed in Germany with the U.S. military from 1958 to 1960. And it was in Wiesbaden, Germany, that Presley met a 14-year-old girl named Priscilla Ann Wagner, who later became his wife in 1967.
CONTINUED >>
By Andy Eckardt, NBC News Producer
The international press is now in place, waiting for the annual summit of G-8 leaders to begin in the next days.
Only a few late arrivals are still standing in line at the press accreditation center in Kuehlungsborn, a small beach resort in eastern Germany that was once under communist rule where the German government built a state of the art press center in the middle of nowhere.
Foreign visitors may have a tough time recognizing that this was once East Germany. Most of the houses have been colorfully remodeled, the streets are well paved, and the stores are filled with western goods.
Despite several small demonstrations – protests calling for better immigration laws, anti-capitalism groups – the city of Rostock, near the summit site, is trying to maintain business as usual.
While people tried to get to work on time, approximately 1,000 protestors marched through the city before lunch time. Police officials expect a similar number of peaceful demonstrators to gather in Rostock's market square later today.
There has been no violence since the riots on Saturday. But, the brutal clashes are still dominating newspaper headlines here today.
CONTINUED >>
