A military turbocharge, and an unhappy birthday

But the jokes became a lot less funny when the war in Ukraine began last year, as Olaf Scholz’s new government came under increasing pressure to deliver military hardware to Ukraine, though the Bundeswehr had precious little of its own to spare, and it can take months and years for new weapons to be ordered and manufactured.

That’s one reason why Chancellor Scholz appointed his SPD party colleague Boris Pistorius as defense minister earlier this year: To hack through the bewildering thicket of military procurement rules, which has, in the past few decades since the end of the Cold War, grown into a wild jungle of regulations. 

It’s a mixed bag, as Kevin Tschierse, of DW’s culture desk, finds out. Here he ruminates on how the country’s art world is attempting to become more representative of German society and culture.

But how can diversity actually change people’s lives practically? DW’s Volker Witting tracked down one answer: An intergenerational communal housing project in Berlin, where older and younger generations have found that sharing common spaces has enriched their lives – and combatted the loneliness that plagues so many people in aging urban societies.