"This is as crazy as it gets — a German government authority takes money from Gazprom to complete a pipeline Gazprom can’t complete because they're under U.S. sanctions."
The story of Nord Stream 2 is also the story of German complicity with Russia. 1/7
nytimes.com/2022/12/02/wor… In 2020 the US threatened sanctions against any company working on Nord Stream 2. A German state government created a foundation to act as an umbrella to shield companies from sanctions. The thinking was Washington wouldn’t target a German government body. 2/8

A German soldier is arrested trying to retrieve a loaded gun from an airport toilet.
His finger prints lead to a Syrian refugee.
His cell phone leads to far-right extremist networks inside the military.
This is the tale of Franco A: 1/10
nytimes.com/2020/12/29/wor… Franco A was a lieutenant in the German army.
He posed as a Syrian refugee – and got away with it.
For 16 months he lived a double life.
Prosecutors say he planned a terror attack that would be blamed on his refugee alter ego and unleash a national crisis 2/10

“Who can I call if I can’t trust the police?”
Police computers linked to neo-Nazi threats.
Police chat groups sharing violent neo-Nazi propaganda.
Nazi memorabilia found in police officers' homes.
Germany's police has a problem: 1/5
nytimes.com/2020/12/21/wor… At least six German states have discovered far-right groups inside their police forces over the past six months alone. In one case a whole precinct called a businessman “The Jew.” In another a whole unit shared images of a refugee in a gas chamber. 2/5

A NATO exercise misconstrued as Trump invading and liberating Germany.
Merkel accused of being a "Zionist Jew."
Predictions of civil war.
As QAnon goes global, fringe groups try to harness its viral popularity to reach a wider audience. Thread 1/8
nytimes.com/2020/10/11/wor… The backdrop to QAnon’s arrival in Europe is the pandemic, which has supercharged conspiracy theories everywhere. Local Q groups have sprung up from the Netherlands to the Balkans. In Britain, QAnon-themed protests have taken place in more than 20 cities and towns. 2/8

"Trump is here!"
The U.S. President is emerging as a kind of cult figure in Germany’s increasingly heterogeneous far-right scene.
One reason is the growing influence of the QAnon conspiracy theory.
That holds multiple dangers for democracy.
Thread 1/10

nytimes.com/2020/09/07/wor… Trump’s nationalism and tolerance of white supremacists coupled with his open skepticism of the pandemic’s dangers has become an inspiration for German far-right extremist movements like the Reichsbürger and Generation Identity…2/10

Body Bags and Enemy Lists: How Far-Right Police Officers and Ex-Soldiers Planned for ‘Day X.’
A group of far-right preppers known as Nordkreuz shocked Germany.
I met some of them this year.
Here is what I learned:
Thread 1/10
nytimes.com/2020/08/01/wor… Germany recently woke up to a problem of far-right extremism in its elite special forces, the KSK. But as the case of Nordkreuz shows, the threat of neo-Nazi infiltration of state institutions is neither new nor confined to the military. 2/10

“He had a plan. And he is not the only one.”
In a garden in Saxony German police found plastic explosives, an AK-47, a silencer, a trove of SS memorabilia and more.
The owner of the property was an elite soldier.
Germany has a problem. Thread 1/12

nytimes.com/2020/07/03/wor… Cases of far-right extremists in the German military and the police, some hoarding weapons and keeping enemy lists, have multiplied alarmingly. 600 German soldiers are under investigation for far-right extremism, 20 of them in the KSK, Germany’s answer to the Navy Seals. 2/12

I was 17 when I moved to the US. I remember the big skies, the many flags, the easy confidence of a nation always on the right side of history -- all alien concepts to a German teen.
America told a story of hope. But today that story is in trouble: 1/6
nytimes.com/2020/04/23/wor… America, which liberated the Europe of my grandparents from fascism 75 years ago, has been a global leader for the past 75 years. Now it is leading in a different way: 842,000 Americans have been diagnosed with Covid-19 and 46,784 have died, more than anywhere else 2/6

Hello everyone, I wanted to share with you the most surprising findings from my recent reporting trips to East Germany. Is there a gender element to the rise of the far right? Thread: nyti.ms/2yV1cgu The far right AfD got 13% in last year's election. But among eastern men it got 28%. In Saxony, where I visited, 1 in 3 men voted for the party