BRD is an unofficial abbreviation for the Federal Republic of Germany, informally known in English as West Germany until 1990, and just Germany since reunification. It was occasionally used in the Federal Republic itself during the early Cold War; it was commonly used between 1968 and 1990 by the ruling party of the German Democratic Republic, resulting in a strong deprecation of its use in West Germany. The East German regime had previously used the term "German Federal Republic", which it abbreviated as "DBR", to refer to West Germany. The most widely used abbreviation for West Germany in the country itself was its ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 country code "DE", which has remained the country code of reunified Germany.
1. Fußball-Club Köln 01/07 e. V., better known as simply 1. FC Köln or FC Cologne in English, is a German professional football club based in Cologne, in North Rhine-Westphalia. It was formed in 1948 as a merger of the clubs Kölner Ballspiel-Club 1901 and SpVgg Sülz 07. Köln will compete in the 2. Bundesliga, following relegation from the 2023-24 Bundesliga season. The team are three-time national champions, winning the 1962 German football championship, as well as the Bundesliga twice, first in its inaugural season of 1963–64 and then again in 1977–78. The team plays its home matches at RheinEnergieStadion.
The Germany women's national football team represents Germany in international women's football. The team is governed by the German Football Association (DFB).
The Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution is Germany's federal domestic intelligence agency. Together with the Landesämter für Verfassungsschutz (LfV) at the state level, the federal agency is tasked with intelligence-gathering on efforts against the liberal democratic basic order, the existence and security of the federation or one of its states, and the peaceful coexistence of peoples; with counter-intelligence; and with protective security and counter-sabotage. The BfV reports to the Federal Ministry of the Interior and tasks and powers are regulated in the Bundesverfassungsschutzgesetz. The President is Thomas Haldenwang; he was appointed in 2018.
Stefan Aust is a German journalist. He was the editor-in-chief of the weekly news magazine Der Spiegel from 1994 to February 2008 and has been the publisher of the conservative leading Die Welt newspaper since 2014 and the paper's editor until December 2016.
The Gewerkschaft der Polizei is a trade union in Germany. It represents 181,000 police employees, and is one of eight industrial affiliations of the German Confederation of Trade Unions (DGB). The GdP is one of the three trade unions for police employees in Germany, the other two being the Deutsche Polizeigewerkschaft - affiliated with the German Civil Service Federation - and the Bund Deutscher Kriminalbeamter, which is exclusively for members of the Kriminalpolizei.
Christian von Alvensleben is a German photographer.
Heinrich Fink was a German theologian, university professor and politician. In 1991 Fink was dismissed from Humboldt University of Berlin due to allegations against him being a former informer for the East German state security office, the Stasi. Fink denied the allegations.
Wolfgang Wodarg is a German physician and politician. He was a member of the Bundestag for the SPD from 1994 to 2009.
Joachim Wilhelm Gauck is a German politician who served as President of Germany from 2012 to 2017. A former Lutheran pastor, he came to prominence as an anti-communist civil rights activist in East Germany.
Kirsten Heisig was a German juvenile magistrate. Heisig was criticized by parts of the political left and parts of the Arabic community for her statements and for her view that some foreign cultures neglect education and encourage juvenile delinquency. As a juvenile magistrate for Neukölln, an area with a crime rate 40% above the average of Berlin, she initiated the Neukölln model that streamlined procedures and targeted an appearance before court within 3–5 weeks after the deed had been committed for deeds punishable by a maximum imprisonment of 4 weeks. Other key elements were encounters between delinquent and victim and community service and a cooperation between legal organs and social workers. This model was extended to the entire city of Berlin in June 2010 and caught attention on a national level.
Speed limits in Germany are set by the federal government. All limits are multiples of 10 km/h. There are two default speed limits: 50 km/h (31 mph) inside built-up areas and 100 km/h (62 mph) outside built-up areas. While parts of the autobahns and many other freeway-style highways have posted limits up to 130 km/h (81 mph) based on accident experience, congestion and other factors, many rural sections have no general speed limit. The Road Traffic Regulations (StVO) section on speed begins with the requirement which may be rendered in English:
Any person driving a vehicle may only drive so fast that the car is under control. Speeds must be adapted to the road, traffic, visibility and weather conditions as well as the personal skills and characteristics of the vehicle and load.
Rudolf Werner Schuster was a Tanganyika-born German physician, specialist in health informatics, and SPD politician.
Germany has experienced significant terrorism in its history, particularly during the Weimar Republic and during the Cold War, carried out by far-left and far-right German groups as well as by foreign terrorist organisations.
Gerd Koenen is a German historian and former communist politician.
Wolfgang Kubicki is a German politician of the Free Democratic Party of Germany (FDP) and member of the Bundestag from 1990 until 1992 and 2017 onwards. He has been vice chairman of the FDP in Germany since December 2013. Since 24 October 2017 he has served as Vice President of the Bundestag. From 1992 to 1993 and from 1996 to 2017 he served as chairman of the FDP-group in the Schleswig-Holstein state parliament..
Düzen Tekkal is a German author, television journalist, filmmaker, war correspondent, political scientist, and social entrepreneur of Kurdish descent. She is Yazidi.
Christean Wagner is a German politician for the Christian Democratic Union of Germany (CDU). He served as minister for Culture and Justice in the state of Hesse and was chair of the CDU fraction in the Hesse legislature.
Hans Deutsch was an Austrian Jewish refugee, lawyer and publisher who played a key role in Holocaust reparations and art restitution cases in postwar Germany, and was the target of a judicial scandal known as the Deutsch Affair.
Sebastian Fiedler is a German politician. He is a member of the SPD and has been the Member of the German Bundestag for Mülheim – Essen I since 2021.
