Hans Eichel, a former premier of the state of Hesse, became Germany's finance minister after Oskar Lafontaine resigned.
Schools in the state of Saxony, in Germany, in Latvia, Lithuania, Slovenia and Poland have all raised their games.
Indeed, the population in the state of Thuringia, which was part of former East Germany, is forecast to plunge more than 40% to 1.3 million residents by 2060, according to government statistics.
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The first is the state of the economy, which Germany's six leading economics institutes said this week may well be in recession again.
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In state elections in Germany at the weekend Merkel's party suffered an electoral setback, losing control of Germany's most populous state to the opposition Social Democratic Party.
Several big hitters, including no fewer than four of Germany's state premiers, still favour delaying the euro.
Europe's nations are at loggerheads, Germany is in a state of outrage, and the link between the euro and the nation state is more fraught than ever.
But I'm aiming at something rather simpler here - to try and summarise for my own understanding what it is that makes the majority of the British tick, warts and all, and how this compares with the state of affairs in other countries, like Germany, for example.
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Twice the size of Germany, the Lone Star state is vast: the quest for the ultimate chilli might as well start in its capital.
Rejecting an idea, fancied by some state premiers, of a tax on assets, Germany's government opted firmly for a lower (25%) withholding tax on savings income.
There is one large nation that I hear investors and policy makers talk about more and more as the pivotal state of Europe - but it's not Germany.
She said a negotiating team would be put together this week, combining members of Germany's federal and state governments, and investment bankers, to discuss Opel's future with GM and the US government.
The sin of which he stands accused is that, as premier for 20 years of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany's most populous state, he improperly used a private jet chartered by the Westdeutsche Landesbank, of which the state owns nearly half.
As of September, several universities in Germany and Austria were offering credit for the courses and Colorado State and University of Washington were preparing to do so, though students at University of Washington were going to be required to pay a fee and also do some extra work with a University of Washington instructor.
Pacelli was the Vatican's envoy to Germany and later its secretary of state under Pius XI.
But Germany has a generous system of state finance of political parties.
One of the chief concerns of the EU commission and Germany are state-owned Russian corporations, said Denis Maslov, an analyst at the Eurasia Group.
And for months after he came home from Germany, he remained in a state of shock, alone with the painful memories that wouldn't leave his head.
The regional government in the state of Hesse recommended the main skyscrapers in Frankfurt, Germany's financial capital and home to the European Central Bank, close on Wednesday.
The trade unions and his own Social Democratic left-wingers are already squealing about the government's plans to bring an element of private financing to Germany's pay-as-you-go state pensions, while the opposition has pulled out of the negotiations altogether.
When Robert Levine of California State University in Fresno tried to measure the speed of life in different countries some years ago, Germany proved the third-fastest (behind Switzerland and Ireland).
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In 1921, the United States and Germany signed a peace treaty ending the state of war between them.
But Europe is not a state and any hint of a transfer union is anathema to Germany and others.
The survey also found fewer Italians (67%) with a positive opinion of Germany than in any other big EU state.
It is noteworthy that just today, U.S. officials have indicated that Soviet forces in East Germany have been placed in a higher state of readiness, but aver that this action appears to be of a defensive character.
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The global move toward state-run industries is running into a bit of friction in Germany.
Some 6.1 million people are eligible to vote for a new state legislature in Lower Saxony, which occupies a swathe of northwestern Germany.
She opted for an Oscar de la Renta floral gown for a White House state dinner last year honoring Germany (Rihanna wore a version of the same gown to the 2011 Brit Awards).
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