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[ad_1] Image copyright Getty Images Image caption Oktoberfest - one of Bavaria's proudest traditions Every autumn, lederhosen-clad drinkers crowd into vast tents festooned with dried hop flowers, to celebrate Bavaria's most intoxicating export. Waitresses bearing fistfuls of beer glasses squeeze between packed wooden benches. It's hard to make much out above the brass band music but, listen closely this year, and the talk is of politics. Just like Oktoberfest, Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservative sister party is woven into the checked fabric of Bavarian culture. The Christian Social Union (CSU) has ruled Germany's richest state since 1957, sharing power just once in a coalition with the free-market FDP. And since then, every Bavarian prime minister has risen from its ranks. But now, swift as a...

[ad_1] BERLIN: German historians Wednesday accused far-right leader Alexander Gauland of paraphrasing Adolf Hitler in a newspaper column taking aim at a "globalised class" that he claimed threatens all that is good in his "homeland". The co-leader of the anti-immigration AfD rejected allegations of parallels with a 1933 speech by Hitler, but the latest episode is yet another controversy raising questions over his party's views on the Nazi era. Separately, his party also came under fire for starting online portals for students to denounce teachers who allegedly flout a political neutrality rule by criticising the AfD in classes. In a guest commentary for Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ), published Saturday, Gauland wrote that the "globalised class" occupies positions in mainstream organisations from international corporations to the media to universities, and are also in key political parties. "Their members live almost exclusively in big citie...

[ad_1] Image copyright Getty Images Image caption About 700 neo-Nazis showed up for the concert Eight police officers in an east German town were slightly injured on Saturday night after they were pelted with bottles at a far-right rock concert. The concert, in the market place of Apolda, Thuringia, was halted after an hour because of the violence. Around 700 neo-Nazis attended the concert, which had been dubbed "Rock Against the Overflow of Foreigners". A counter-demonstration earlier in the day attracted a similar number of people. An ecumenical church service in protest at the concert was also held on Saturday, attended by Thuringia's first minister, minister of the interior and minister of the environment. The concert was legal, but the violence began as people began arriving for the concert. As we...

[ad_1] LOHMAR (GERMANY): With a look of apprehension, a blond woman clad in a wetsuit wobbles her way onto a lake in western Germany in a huge, hollowed-out vegetable. Paddle held aloft, she's a contestant in the Krewelshofer lake 's annual pumpkin race , held for the third time on Wednesday over a 35-metre (115-ft) course. Grown specially for the race, the pumpkins must weigh at least 250 kilogrammes (550 pounds) and, to minimise the risk of capsizing, more for heavier participants. "It was hard fighting against the wind to get anywhere, but when you are in the groove it works. I imagined it would be more difficult," said competitor Mailin Matuschek. "I actually thought that after a few metres you would fall in," chimed in her sister Jana-Mai. The fastest racers in six categories get 200 euros ($230) in prize money, or 300 euros if they paddled in their own pumpkins - enough to buy a boat for next year. [ad_2]

[ad_1] Image copyright Renate007/Wikimedia Commons Image caption Deidesheim lies at the heart of Riesling country Police in southern Germany are looking for thieves who stole an entire vineyard of grapes from under their noses. The criminals made off with the field full of grapes by "running a professional harvesting machine over the entire vineyard", the police said, according to the local Rheinpfalz newspaper. Most galling of all for the police is the fact that the vineyard does not lie on some remote hillside, but is to be found right next to the car park of a major supermarket on the outskirts of the village of Deidesheim. The resourceful thieves struck at some point between teatime last Wednesday and sunset the following day, netting 1,600 kg (3,527 lb) of the white grapes used to make Riesling ...

[ad_1] Image copyright Getty Images Image caption Police escort far-right protesters in the east German city of Chemnitz Six men have been arrested on suspicion of belonging to a far-right militant group in the eastern German city of Chemnitz. The men, aged 20 to 31, are accused of forming a group called "Revolution Chemnitz" to subvert democracy. Prosecutors said the men had been planning attacks on foreigners, politicians and senior civil servants. Tension has been running high in the city since a German man was allegedly killed by two migrants in August. The death prompted the worst far-right-inspired violence Germany has seen for decades. Deep divisions Five of the suspects attacked and injured foreign residents in Chemnitz on 14 September using glass bottles, steel knuckle gloves, and tasers, prosecut...