📰 Breaking News: News Archive for January 2009 | Latest Updates from Germany 2025

01 January
- What's on in Germany: January 1 - 7
- Probe blames Nepal plane crash on crew
- Germans optimistic about 2009 despite economic gloom
- Berlin: Ukraine row no threat to gas supplies
- Violence mars Hamburg and Leipzig New Year’s celebrations
- Loitzl shocks Ammann to take Garmisch ski jump honours
- The Local's year in review
02 January
- Stuttgart sign U-19 star Gebhart
- Thuringia’s premier Althaus in a coma
- Germans disappointed by reunification
- Economic advisor sees 700,000 Germans losing jobs in 2009
- Germany faces deep freeze and snow
- Picasso and Matisse works stolen from Berlin Gallery
- Holiday hot-air balloons spark UFO alarms
- Dresden’s Frauenkirche closes for repairs
- Lufthansa acknowledges talks with SAS management
- Berlin squashes hopes of stimulus frenzy
- Man confesses to raping German teen at Austrian border
03 January
- Green zones are a success, says environmental group
- Seehofer warns against relying on Merkel
- Althaus conscious and speaking after accident
- Dresdner Bank employees veto new Commerzbank manager
- Steinmeier calls for blue helmets in Gaza
- Bayern snap up Hamburg's Olic
- Neo-Nazi march in Passau takes place amid protests
04 January
- Super-rich families lose billions in crisis
- Memorabilia auction from Knut zookeeper Dörflein makes €7,000
- Daimler denies interest in Volvo
- Germany mulls new shot in the arm for economy
- Arson attacks on Berlin’s luxury cars continue
- Germany renews call for Gaza ceasefire
- Riesch bags third World Cup slalom win in Zagreb
05 January
- Merkel seeks unity in CDU on economic stimulus plans
- World War II bombs detonated in Osnabrück neighbourhood
- Berlin's first sextuplets in 20 years heading home
- Snow and ice cause traffic mayhem
- Ifo's Sinn sees two-year recession in Germany
- Witness emerges in deadly Althaus accident
- Sweethearts aged six and seven elope for Africa
- Honour killing victim's parents refuse to testify
- Telecommunication prices down 3.3 percent
- Opel cuts prices to deal with car market slump
- Deutsche Bahn awards Bombardier €1.5-billion deal
- Berlin seals €50-billion stimulus package
06 January
- Passau police chief headed back to work after neo-Nazi stabbing
- Germany wakes up to coldest day of winter
- Porsche takes over Volkswagen
- Steinmeier calls for memorial to German unity in Leipzig
- Drinking buddies save 220-kilo man stranded for a week on floor
- Famed East German MZ motorcycle factory to close
- Dutch museums to root out Nazi-looted art
- Berlin to host talks on Russia-Ukraine gas row
- Give Gaza hope
- 2008 marks worst year for new car sales since reunification
- Commerzbank mulls state-backed bond issue
- Troubled billionaire Merckle takes own life
07 January
- Putin and Merkel to hold talks in Berlin
- Condor passengers stranded for two days in Cancún
- Deep freeze continues in Germany
- Germany mulls €100 billion in corporate loan guarantees
- Economic downturn hits German job market
- The best of Berlin in January
- Russian mafia taking hold in Berlin
- Possible mass grave of German WWII civilians found in Poland
- Tennis: Germany downs US at Hopman Cup
- Infineon targeted in EU price fixing probe
- Turkish Karneval club wants to 'civilise' Cologne tradition
- Late billionaire Merckle agreed to sell Ratiopharm
- Fischer slams EU's 'flea circus' in Middle East
- Merkel presses Russia and Ukraine on gas row
08 January
- Court rules SS veteran too old for Nazi war crimes trial
- Berlin centre offers web therapy for traumatized Iraqis
- Deutsche Bahn ICE train brakes freeze
- Children's commission wants to ban lawsuits against kid noise
- What's On In Germany: January 8 - 14
- Exports plunge as global recession bites
- Germany gripped by third day of record cold
- Presidential candidate Sodann says media should 'just shoot me'
- Commerzbank launches state-backed bond issue
- Berlin and Paris call for world financial reforms
- Three-quarters of German households wired for the internet
- Teen girl escapes kidnapping in Leipzig
- Commerzbank to be partially nationalised
- New weekly to republish Nazi-era news
09 January
- Soldier jailed for leaving baby to die in barracks
- Retail sales sank in 2008
- Integration minister rejects including ethnicity in crime stats
- German UN troops a possibility in Gaza
- Alcohol ruled out in Althaus ski crash
- Steinmeier heads to Egypt for Gaza talks
- Turkish Karneval club was a TV spoof
- Commerzbank shares slammed by government bailout
- Happy birthday Heiner Müller
- Cops chase bulldog puppy 15 kilometres down autobahn
- Steinbrück calls for lower entry tax rate
- Man arrested for murder 31 years later
- Doubts cloud Mannichl Nazi stabbing claims
- Hoeneß says Podolski set for return to Cologne
- Russia's Putin to attend ball for debutantes in Dresden
- German shipping traffic blocked as rivers freeze
10 January
- Paparazzi chase ex RAF terrorist Klar from theatre job
- German lose thirst for beer in tough economic times
- Woolly hats banned for Hamburg police
- Euro lottery 'offering €90m jackpot' plans launch this year
- Steinmeier sends 'let's be friends' letter to Obama
- Althaus could face manslaughter charges over ski accident death
11 January
- Edeka creates 8,000 new jobs as discount sector profits in crisis
- Athletics champ Rene Herms found dead
- Two boar hunters shot dead in accidents
- Von Hagens brings Bodyworlds back to Heidelberg
- Germans to help Egypt block tunnels to Gaza
- Town loses fire engines in blaze - again
12 January
- Thousands pay tribute to fallen communist figures
- Parliamentarian says Germany in violation of UN children's rights
- German woman found dead on Thai beach
- Club Transmediale: State of the art
- Retiree freezes to death in own apartment
- Nine injured in Bavarian rush hour train fire
- Airbus A400M military transport reportedly too heavy and weak
- Merkel's coalition grapples with stimulus plan as elections loom
- Berlin district mayor wants prostitution ban near schools
- RWE swallows Dutch energy firm Essent
- 300 Russians and Turks brawl in Bavaria
- One-fifth of households pay domestic help under the table
13 January
- Government settles on huge stimulus package
- Number of part-time auto workers to soar
- Bavarian interior minister warns against Mannichl gossip
- Aldi making big push into American market
- Interview with economist Michael Burda: 'Germany has to do its part'
- Commerzbank secures Dresdner Bank deal
- Critics assail German stimulus package
- Thin ice causes spate of skating accidents
- Group wants Oktoberfest named 'intangible' UNESCO site
- Merkel defends stimulus package
- Mecom sells German media holdings
- Reward for 'phantom killer' reaches record €300,000
- Kings, castles and kitsch: Getting to know the real Bavaria
14 January
- Italian court rules Germany must pay damages in Nazi case
- Citizenship test a breeze for immigrants
- Almost half of Germans consider Israel aggressive
- German growth slowed sharply in 2008
- Althaus ski crash prompts run on helmets
- Land mine scare turns out to be bed warmer
- China surpasses Germany as world’s third-largest economy
- Deutsche Bank loses nearly €5 billion in Q4
- Merkel calls stimulus plan a 'difficult decision'
- Esso and Tchibo stop ad campaign with Nazi slogan
- Cabinet backs sweeping law punishing terrorist activity
- German diplomat censured for graveside eulogy in Sri Lanka
- Berlin mulls partial Hypo Real Estate nationalisation
- Railway ticket machines crash nationwide
- Steinmeier heads to Mideast for Gaza truce
15 January
- Steinmeier arrives in Israel for truce talks
- Inflation soars in Germany
- Deutsche Bahn fixes failed ticketing system
- Three dead in single engine plane crash
- What's on in Germany: January 15 - 21
- Is German pacifism ignorant or anti-Israeli?
- ECB slashes interest rates again
- Damage at nuclear facility Asse could cause radioactive leaks
- Police tend bar for hammered waitress
- An Iron Curtain air mattress
- Merkel says gas dispute risks Russian credibility
- Children find freezing newborn in barn stall
- Cold kills five penguins at Nuremberg zoo
- Search party finds girl's corpse near lake
- Merkel praises work of Stasi archive
- Hoffenheim marksman Ibisevic suffers season-ending injury
- Schröder to join board of British-Russian oil firm TNK-BP
16 January
- Polish mass grave likely German civilians killed in WWII
- Jewish Council slams police for Israel flag flap
- Economy Ministry to drastically reduce growth forecast
- Court says driving on drugs not always punishable
- Putin returns to old KGB stomping ground
- Gourmet jungle cat scat coffee on sale in Hamburg shop
- German sex industry calls for state aid
- Politicians squabble over Gitmo prisoners
- Police confirm identity of girl murdered near Paderborn
- Germany to implement obligatory block on child porn sites
- Grassroots effort boosts religion classes in Berlin
- Merkel and Putin discuss gas 'test phase'
17 January
- Government expects bad recession and big public deficit
- Fake match-maker for depressed parrots stole and sold birds
- Asse nuclear waste storage mine 'may not be fixable'
- Bavaria bans Zeitungszeugen Nazi newspaper project
- Man with no memory dodges extradition, appears in Zurich
- Suicide bomber kills at least two by German Embassy in Kabul
18 January
- Diplomats struggle to hold Israel to cease-fire
- Al Qaida threatens Germany for Afghan military presence
- Pitt and Cruise due in Berlin next week for film premieres
- Munich to act as showplace for Obamas new foreign vision
- Hesse vote kicks off super election year
- Village puts plot of land up to raffle to spark interest
- Bayern's Podolski set to return to Cologne
- CDU trounces SPD in Hesse state poll
19 January
- German engineer kidnapped in Yemen
- Glos: Germany must diversify energy after Russia gas dispute
- Merkel facing new election year against limping SPD
- Dieter Bohlen testifies in robbery case
- Germany increasingly worried about terrorism
- 40 students and teachers injured in school gas leak
- Police chase down masked marauders on A3 motorway
- Obama to thank Germans for support at Brandenburg Gate
- Icy road conditions create chaos and kill 7
- Merkel defends German stimulus package
- German Media Roundup: Hesse's odd election
20 January
- Critics savage Cruise's anti-Hitler performance in 'Valkyrie'
- German men are more romantic than their lady friends
- Enter Obama: A new map for American-German relations
- Linguists pick 'needy banks' as panned German phrase of 2008
- Glos: EU blackmailed by Turkey over pipeline
- Bakery driver on trial for burying 'lying' girlfriend alive
- Retail giant Metro reportedly axing 15,000 jobs
- Flu bug infecting northern Germany
- Merkel hopes for better US-German ties with Obama
- German hostage freed in Yemen
- VW idles 92,000 as BMW cuts production
21 January
- Ex-White House chef served double portions to Helmut Kohl
- Brandenburg woman missing for 12 years found in Swiss woods
- HRE bank gets €12 bln more in guarantees
- Müntefering: Obama will be 'demanding'
- Illusionist nearly drowns in failed trick on Uri Geller show
- Herbal incense drug Spice banned
- Germany welcomes first step to close Guantanamo Bay prison
- Pensioner who pushed teen into Munich metro train jailed
- Berlin expecting worst post-war recession
- Deutsche Bahn spied on its own managers
- Introducing…Dieter Bohlen
- Gabriel hails new global energy agency
22 January
- German duo dance to win European figure skating title
- Agency says Germans should eat less meat
- Military group says more German police needed in Afghanistan
- Wealth gap between east and west grows
- What's on in Germany: January 22 - 28
- Steinmeier aims to work closely with Clinton on Mideast and Iran
- Merkel calls for more women in top business positions
- Ex-Deutsche Post boss admits to tax evasion
- Inventor of the döner kebab dies
- Schools flunk early English instruction
- Berlin working on a 'bad bank-lite' rescue plan
- Project recounts ordeal of Nazi forced labourers
23 January
- Elderly German woman kidnapped from tour in Mali
- Berlin to dig up old WWII bombs under Tegel airport runway
- Lufthansa cabin crew strikes in Frankfurt
- Qimonda files for insolvency protection
- Cleaning woman finds baby girl in hospital wash basin
- Erfurt squatters kidnap talking TV bread loaf
- Berlin says Israel must probe banned bomb use
- Two Harz beat as one
- US soldier found dead in base barracks
- Athletics champion Herms death ruled from natural causes
- Jewish Council supports ban on Zeitungszeugen Nazi reprints
- UK bishop's Holocaust outburst probed
24 January
- Police bust child porn ring using mobile phones
- Siemens could pull out of Areva nuclear venture
- Report says terrorists threaten German cities
- Thousands set to lose their jobs this year
- 'American Beauty' too hot to handle for German schools
25 January
- Savage storms create chaos in Germany
- Study says Turks are Germany's worst integrated immigrants
- Auto parts firm Continental gets new boss
- Roth calls Europe's refugee policy 'shabby'
- Merkel calls for more women to join politics
- State-aided firms urged to withhold dividends
26 January
- Bayern gets ready to take on Stuttgart after winter break
- Berlin to cut export aid for trade with Iran
- Man trapped in recycling bin while diving for keys
- Speeding car launches into church roof
- Germany hikes aid to Afghanistan
- Economic crisis worries Bundesbank's Weber
- Ex Deutsche Post boss Zumwinkel avoids jail
- Failing integration not about ethnicity, Turkish group says
- Abandoned East German flat discovered 20 years later
- Berlin's KaDeWe hit by huge jewellery heist
- German sues Macedonia for CIA rendition
27 January
- Global warming test splits grand coalition
- Merkel and Obama discuss goals on phone
- 'Peep show' airport scanners could be sold
- Recession creating Karneval cutbacks
- Karl May production makes cowboy casting call
- Berlin approves second stimulus plan
- Berlin versus Düsseldorf: Germany’s fashion face-off
- German business confidence makes surprising climb higher
- Zeitungszeugen project goes on without Nazi paper reprints
- Germany may follow France with aid for Airbus clients
- Jewish group boycotts Holocaust ceremony
28 January
- Bayern return from break to wallop Stuttgart in German Cup
- Joe Biden headed to Munich next week
- Lufthansa crew strikes in Frankfurt and Berlin
- Consumer confidence stabilises in Germany
- German software giant SAP to cut 3,000 jobs
- Scholarly German dying out
- Germany takes Islamist video threat seriously
- Integrating the German way
- Major train delays expected for Deutsche Bahn strike Thursday
- Most Germans want their own Obama
29 January
- German Cup quarter-finalists ready for battle
- Steinbrück open to 'bad bank' to ease toxic investments
- Deutsche Bahn strike disrupts rail traffic
- What's on in Germany: January 29 - February 4
- Rents on the rise in affordable Germany
- Football fan dies in Dortmund stadium
- Famous lovesick swan goes missing
- Tom Cruise’s honourable mention
- Peanut butter crisis hits US military in Germany
- Tempo tissues turn 80
- Jewish leader breaks with Catholics over Holocaust row
- Somali pirates seize German tanker
- Unemployment jumps as economy slides
- Berlin vows to combat crisis with Beijing
30 January
- Norway to raise toxic Nazi submarine wreck
- Virtual world crime increasing
- Workers find €170,000 in bank safe sent to scrap yard
- Photo special: Berlin Fashion Week
- Berlin's corset look: primping the prostitute way
- Officials checking water near Asse nuke facility
- World powers to meet in Berlin over Iran's nuclear programme
- Frigid weather headed to Germany from Russia
- Steinbrück aims to crack lottery jackpot as German debt balloons
- Crisis forces Porsche to throttle production
- Vonn beats best friend Riesch
- Merkel calls for new global economic order
31 January
- Hamburg stun Bayern
- Officials warn of terrorism ahead of election
- Lottery jackpot climbs to €35 mln
- Taxpayers to foot huge 'bad bank' bill
- Steinmeier expecting US Gitmo request
- Koch sees Hesse coalition as blueprint for Germany
- Black Forest cops probe UFO alarm