On 8 May 1985, the 40th anniversary of the end of the Second World War, Federal President Richard von Weizsäcker spoke in the German Bundestag. It is not a matter of mastering the past, he said. Das kann man gar nicht. That cannot be done. The past cannot be changed afterwards or undone.
Then he said: Wer aber vor der Vergangenheit die Augen verschließt, wird blind für die Gegenwart. But whoever closes his eyes to the past becomes blind to the present.
The ZDF Politbarometer, the opinion poll of Germany’s second public television channel, has long asked Germans: Was ist Ihrer Meinung nach gegenwärtig das wichtigste Problem in Deutschland? What, in your opinion, is the most important problem in Germany at present? It has also asked which party can best solve the country’s current economic problems.
On 7 November 2025 ZDF reported a result under the headline Mehrheit zweifelt an Problemlösungskompetenz der Bundesregierung, majority doubts the federal government’s competence in solving problems. Only 38 percent thought the government was making an important contribution to solving the problems in Germany. 58 percent doubted it.
When Helmut Schmidt died on 10 November 2015, obituaries traced his reputation back to February 1962. As Hamburg’s senator for the interior, he coordinated the rescue work during the storm flood. The Berliner Zeitung wrote: Dieser Einsatz begründet Schmidts Ruf als entschlossenen Macher. This work founded Schmidt’s reputation as a decisive doer.
The portal deutschland.de, which presents Germany abroad, summed him up in one line. Der Altkanzler galt als Macher und Krisenmanager. The former chancellor was seen as a doer and a crisis manager.
In June 2012, the euro crisis was at its height. Before a European summit at the end of the month, several governments called for jointly issued euro bonds. On 26 June, Chancellor Angela Merkel met the members of parliament of her coalition partner, the FDP. According to participants quoted by Reuters, she told them that there would be no total joint liability for debt solange ich lebe, as long as I live. The day before, she had called shared liability for euro zone debt economically wrong and counterproductive.
On 10 November 2013, voters in Munich, Garmisch-Partenkirchen and the districts of Berchtesgadener Land and Traunstein decided on a bid for the 2022 Winter Olympics. All four said no. In Munich, 52.1 percent voted against the bid. On 29 November 2015, Hamburg voted on a bid for the 2024 Summer Games. The result was 51.6 percent no. On 31 May 2026, Hamburg voted again, this time on a bid for the Games of 2036, 2040 or 2044. According to the official final result, 55.1 percent voted no. First Mayor Peter Tschentscher then informed the German Olympic Sports Confederation and Germany’s member of the International Olympic Committee. He told them dass Hamburg seine Olympia-Bewerbung zurückzieht, that Hamburg is withdrawing its Olympic bid.
In April 2025 the SPD put its coalition agreement with the CDU and CSU to a vote of its members. Of those who voted, 84.6 percent approved. Turnout was 56 percent. The party had done the same before. In 2013, 76 percent approved. In 2018, 66 percent approved, despite a campaign against the coalition organized by the head of the party’s youth wing, Kevin Kühnert.
On 26 June 2023 Germany’s minimum wage commission decided to raise the minimum wage twice by 41 cents, to 12.41 euros in 2024 and 12.82 euros in 2025. For the first time, the commission did not decide by consensus. The union side voted against. The chair, Christiane Schönefeld, used her vote, and her mediation proposal passed.
Steffen Kampeter of the employers’ federation BDA regretted that for the first time a decision had not been made im Konsens. The union federation DGB headed its article Mindestlohn: Diktat statt Kompromiss. Minimum wage: dictate instead of compromise. In June 2025 the commission decided unanimously again.
On 19 July 1917, during the First World War, the Reichstag passed a peace resolution. Der Reichstag erstrebt einen Frieden der Verständigung und der dauernden Versöhnung der Völker. The Reichstag seeks a peace of understanding and of lasting reconciliation between the peoples. Mit einem solchen Frieden sind erzwungene Gebietserwerbungen und politische, wirtschaftliche oder finanzielle Vergewaltigungen unvereinbar. Forced gains of territory and political, economic or financial coercion are incompatible with such a peace.
The resolution came from the Centre Party, the Progressive People’s Party and the Social Democrats. Chancellor Michaelis accepted it only wie ich sie auffasse, as I understand it.
In 2015 merkeln, a verb made from the name of Chancellor Angela Merkel, came second in the vote for the Jugendwort des Jahres, the youth word of the year, run by the publisher Langenscheidt. The winner was Smombie. The press explained merkeln as Nichtstun, keine Entscheidungen treffen, keine Äußerungen von sich geben. Doing nothing, making no decisions, saying nothing.
The word is a joke about waiting too long, not praise for patience.
In December 2018, on the tour for her memoir Becoming, Michelle Obama spoke at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn. “I tell women that whole ‘you can have it all’ — mmm, nope, not at the same time, that’s a lie.”