Germany

"Pull Yourself Together," blared a mass-circulation German newspaper after the shocking results of Sunday's local elections in the state of Hesse had been reported. The message was not directed at frustrated voters, 8.3 percent of whom cast their ballots for the right-wing Republikaner Party, which drew only 0.7 percent the last time out. Instead, quite correctly, the rebuke was aimed at the bickering, stalemated centrist parties that have been the bedrock of postwar German democracy.This election outcome does not mean neo-Nazism is on the march.

I enjoyed Mike Tidwell's article on phasing out carbon fuels in favor of renewable energy sources ("Forecast calls for pain,", Feb. 6). Taxing carbon is the best way to reduce our dependence on fossil fuels. Having lived and traveled in Germany, I know that the U.S. is way behind in green living and sustainability. In Germany renewable energy is booming. Many people commute via mass transit, trains offer the option to go anywhere in Europe, and bicycling is very popular. Organic stores are everywhere, and everything is recycled so people don't consume as much.

GERMANS ARE accepting unification as a duty, not a deliverance. Nowhere is a note of triumphalism to be heard.The (former) West Germans gloomily assess what all this is going to cost and what it will mean to their comfort and set ways. Germans in the East edgily resign themselves to insecurity, unemployment, professional reconversion, and the condescension -- sometimes hostility -- of fellow Germans in the West. Chancellor Helmut Kohl has acknowledged the split between those who think themselves ''givers'' in the West and those they consider ''takers'' in the East.

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Germany is such an easy candidate for a national guilt trip that the outside world, in reacting to escalating racist violence there, should be careful not to play into the hands of neo-Nazi extremists. This is well understood by the Israeli government, which has condemned hate crimes against Jews and foreigners but has drawn the line when it comes to punitive measures against the vast German majority striving to safeguard democracy.There can be little doubt that Germany is in a state of psychological crisis after the fire-bomb killing of two Turkish girls and a grandmother last month caused international outrage.

For years he has been "King Kohl" to journalists who have marveled at German Chancellor Helmut Kohl's political acumen, staying power and just plain luck. But Mr. Kohl will hardly be a "merry old soul" when he flies to New York today, leaving behind a nation plagued by massive strikes, vicious feuding in the governing coalition, anger at foreign immigrants and disappointment over the costs and dislocations of reunification.It wasn't supposed to be this way. In coasting to victory as the "chancellor of unification" 18 months ago, Mr. Kohl promised no new taxes (sound familiar?

Lacrosse U.S. U-19 men rout Germany in quarters The U.S. under-19 men's national team breezed past Germany, 22-2, on Wednesday in a quarterfinal at the Federation of International Lacrosse U19 World Championships in Turku, Finland, setting up a rematch with the Iroquois today. Matt Kavanagh led the way with four goals and two assists; Connor Buczek added four goals, and Kyle Keenan had two goals and three assists. The Iroquois (3-1) beat the Americans, 15-13, on Tuesday in both teams' final game of pool play.

A photo caption in The Sun yesterday incorrectly identified the woman standing next to freed hostage Jesse Turner, because of an error by the Associated Press. She is Nancy Waddell, wife of the commander of the U.S. Air Force hospital in Wiesbaden, Germany.+ The Sun regrets the errors.

Germans have more than once turned rightward since World War II. There were ephemeral ''neo-Nazi'' movements in the 1950s, and at the end of the 1960s a rightist party did well in regional elections, barely missing representation in the federal parliament. Three years ago the right-wing Republican Party got more than 7 percent of the vote in European Parliament elections and won nearly 10 percent in some south German municipal elections.Thus, Sunday's strong showing by these same Republicans (10.9 percent -- plus 2.1 percent won by two other small rightist groups)

The gulf conflict has given Japan and Germany a chance to break out of their post-World War II inhibitions against even the most remote and indirect involvement of their military forces overseas.During the U.S.-led arms buildup and attack on Iraq, governments in Bonn and Tokyo were paralyzed, this despite a realization that a more active contribution to the coalition war effort would increase their clout in world affairs. Now that a cease fire prevails in the Persian Gulf, Japan and Germany evidently feel free to set mild interventionist precedents of potential future importance.

Adella "Alli" Russel, a retired Pikesville travel agent who made her way out of Nazi-controlled Germany in the 1930s, died of congestive heart failure Sept. 3 at the North Oaks retirement community. She was 96. Born Adella Zipser in Leipzig, Germany, she was the daughter of a wholesaler of milk and dairy products. She received a grade school education and worked in a department store while in her teens. A practicing Jew, she and her family came under increasing scrutiny by Nazi authorities.

Lacrosse U.S. U-19 men rout Germany in quarters The U.S. under-19 men's national team breezed past Germany, 22-2, on Wednesday in a quarterfinal at the Federation of International Lacrosse U19 World Championships in Turku, Finland, setting up a rematch with the Iroquois today. Matt Kavanagh led the way with four goals and two assists; Connor Buczek added four goals, and Kyle Keenan had two goals and three assists. The Iroquois (3-1) beat the Americans, 15-13, on Tuesday in both teams' final game of pool play.

For the second time in 24 hours, an airline has announced its arrival at Baltimore-Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport. Low-cost carrier Spirit Airlines announced Tuesday that it will start twice-daily nonstop service Sept. 6 from BWI to Fort Lauderdale, Fla., and daily nonstop service to Dallas-Fort Worth. The flights start at $77 round trip to Fort Lauderdale and $88 round trip to Dallas. Spirit is relocating its operations from Washington's Reagan National Airport to become the ninth domestic carrier to serve BWI. Southwest and AirTran are responsible for about 70 percent of the airport's traffic.

Apparently Brazil has enough umbrellas or maybe it just doesn't like outsiders sending pointy items in the mail. The international mail company DHL has sent along a list of items that aren't allowed to be shipped to certain countries. If you send one of the forbidden items, you could find it back on your doorstep. DHL, which delivers to more than 220 countries and territories, says these items are verboten: Mexico - computers, liquids and minerals France - imitation pearls containing lead salts (Mon Dieu, if you're sending a mademoiselle jewelry, make sure it's the real thing!

European leaders are working feverishly to create what German Chancellor Angela Merkel is calling a "fiscal union" to restore private investor confidence in Europe and rekindle growth. Unfortunately, what she advocates will thrust Europe into a deeper economic crisis and leave European leaders without the fiscal and monetary policy tools necessary to combat recessions. The reforms Chancellor Merkel is pushing - hard caps on national government deficits - would ensure the ultimate demise of the euro, years of economic stagnation or worse.

100 Years Ago Philly and Fields From the Woodbine social column: "Miss Nellie Conway of Baltimore has been spending several days with Mrs. Samuel Tracey. Revival services have been in progress at Morgan's Chapel for the last two weeks. Mr. Frank Evans has returned home after spending a week with his aunt, in Philadelphia. " That Frank Evans, what a wild and crazy guy spending an entire week with an aunt and in Philadelphia yet!

Paris. -- As Schiller, the 18th Century German poet, once wrote, ''Even the Gods struggle vainly against stupidity.''It is a judgment appropriate to the French government's decision once again to exclude Germany from the ceremonies commemorating the Allied landings in Normandy, the beginning of the end of the second world war. Next June brings the half-century commemoration.The situation of the democracies today, confronted with turmoil in the East, war in the Balkans, trade rivalries, political resentments, is too fragile to afford gratuitous affront to Germany, a nation that is going through a traumatic reassessment of its place in international society.

Was I the only one to notice last week that right here in Howard County, Maryland, USA, a 17-year-old was "secretly arrested" by federal authorities in July of 2011 for "alledgedly" sending emails to provide terrorist support. The important word here being "alledgedly. " Still under detention in October, Mohammed Massan Khalid had just graduated from Mount Hebron High School and had received a full scholarship to Johns Hopkins University. "Secretly arrested" reminds me of Hitler's Nazi activities, not something that I expected to happen in America.

British animal trainer Martin Lacey jr. shows off a white lion cub born at the end of August at the Circus Krone in Hamburg,  Germany. The rare birth has set off discussions in Germany about whether the circus should be banned from having wild animals.