Tracking the spread of coronavirus in Germany

According to the Robert Koch Institute (RKI), in Germany there are currently 283.500 people infected with the coronavirus. 3.188.192 people have tested to be infected during the corona pandemic in Germany, (as of April 21th). According to the RKI, a total of 16.795.784 people were vaccinated (as of April 20th).

Who will follow Merkel?

On 22 November 2005, the Bundestag elected Angela Merkel to be the first female chancellor in German history. When the elections are held on 26 September 2021, she will no longer be in the running after 16 years as the head of the German government. In Germany, it is traditionally the strongest party in a coalition that supplies the head of government, who is then voted into office by parliament.  The three biggest parties in Germany have identified their top choices for the election, so one of the three will probably succeed Merkel as head of government. We present them in the order in which their respective parties appear on the ballot paper.

Chasing internet gangsters

Crimes on the internet know no boundaries, just like the internet itself. International cooperation is therefore key in the hunt for digital gangsters. Example: a few days before Christmas 2020, the anonymization service Safe-Inet was successfully blocked and about 50 servers, including data, were seized. This success was only possible "thanks to excellent cooperation with our partners worldwide", said Reutlingen's police chief Udo Vogel afterwards. The Reutlingen police had led the operation, and the European police Europol, the FBI as well as Dutch, French and Swiss police services were also involved. The result? Safe-Inet – the "favourite VPN of cybercriminals" according to Europol – no longer exists.

Get to know Germany with TV thrillers

Can you get to know the German police and their work through cult films or series? The answer is difficult: in some ways yes, in others no. We introduce you to the internationally most successful German police series – each with a brief reality check.

Focus on security

Their deployment does not stop at Germany's national borders: German police officers are regularly deployed worldwide on missions that contribute to security and stability in other countries. A total of around 200 members of the Federal Police (the former Federal Border Police), the police forces of the German Länder, the Federal Criminal Police Office and German Customs are currently participating in international policing missions. These are primarily mandates of the United Nations (e.g. the United Nations Assistance Mission in Somalia – UNSOM) and the European Union (e.g. the European Union Capacity Building Mission in Niger – EUCAP Sahel Niger). Here we present three missions with German participation.

“Really achieving something”

“I often sit in large meetings and notice only at the end that I’m the only woman there.” Not a new experience for Antje Pittelkau; on the contrary, it has become habitual, says the policewoman who, in mid-January 2021, became the first German to lead an international police mission. “I’ve worked my entire professional life in male-dominated areas.” Hans-Georg Engelke, State Secretary in the Federal Ministry of the Interior, called the decision to appoint Pittelkau head of the international police mission of the European Union (EU) in Niger an “overdue step – a signal for Germany and the EU” – because women have rarely been assigned leading positions in international police missions. Pittelkau told us over the phone that she has received a lot of encouragement from the few women in the EU mission in Niger. Recently, someone even wrote to her describing how much she is seen as a role model. She herself, however, rarely poses the question of gender.

“A criminal pandemic”

Interpol is the largest international police organization in the world. Interpol Secretary General Jürgen Stock explains in an interview how it is being challenged by criminals during the coronavirus pandemic.

Städte Quiz