German language continues to slide in higher education..

Leicester University's German department is the latest to consider closure, as students opt for 'warmer' languages such as Spanish and French.

Faced with the closure of German departments across the country, German graduates are having to expand their search for research posts to wider categories. Next month, another university's senate will debate a proposal from senior management to close its German department in 2013.

The full-time lecturer, full-time teaching fellow and part-time teaching fellow who make up the University of Leicester's German department have been told the future of their department is "unsustainable".

The university says the proposals allow it "to invest in areas of growing demand within the school of modern languages, and follow a decline in the numbers of students choosing to study German".

"It is part of the evolution of universities that particular subject areas cease and new courses are brought on stream in ways that reflect demand and the objectives of the university," its spokesman says.

Meanwhile, Queen's University Belfast has ruled that this year's 20 undergraduates studying German will be its last. It says student demand is "unsustainably low" and that the subject "performed poorly" in the latest evaluation of the research output of UK universities. The language will continue as an extra-curricular study, a spokeswoman says.

Just 64 out of the 116 universities in the UK are offering German as part of a degree, for courses starting in the autumn of 2010. The subject has been taught at UK universities for 125 years. In the 1950s it was particularly popular because of Germany's economic boom and a revival in interest in the Romantic authors Goethe and Schiller.

But the latest figures show the number of undergraduates choosing a German language course in the UK is falling. Between 2006-07 and 2007-08 it fell by 10% to 4,765. The number has, however, fluctuated over the past five years and rose by 7% between 2005-06 and 2006-07.

The number of students taking German GCSE or A-level continued to drop this year, falling by nearly 8% at A-level to 5,765 students and by 4% at GCSE to 73,469 students. Postgraduate enrolments on teacher training courses with a specialism in German have gone down for the last couple of years. The latest figures show just 169 enrolled in 2007-08, a drop of 30% on the year before.

German history lectures still manage to pull in the crowds. At Nottingham Trent University, humanities professor William Niven says modules on the Third Reich and Uniting Germany regularly draw in more than 100 students each year. But could the recent spate of threatened closures signal the end to degrees that combine study of the German language and the country's culture and history?

"This isn't the end of German studies, but the subject will probably end up only being taught at some Russell group [the most competitive and research-intensive] universities within the next decade," says Pól Ó Dochartaigh, vice-president of the Association for German Studies in Great Britain and Ireland and dean of the faculty of arts at the University of Ulster.

Professor Susanne Kord, head of University College London's German department, says: "We will see many more German departments close or, at the very least, amalgamate into other departments. This means that they will lose their independence and budgetary control as well as a considerable amount of their current prestige and visibility, both nationally and internationally."

And yet Germany is Europe's largest economy and a major trading partner for the UK. In many parts of eastern Europe, German is the language of business. For others, it is the language of drama, the sciences and philosophy. How can we be witnessing its gradual demise in universities? There may be multiple reasons.

One is the falling numbers of students taking German at GCSE, A-level and then on to degree level. This has escalated since the government decided in 2004 that a modern language should no longer be compulsory at GCSE.

There is also the perception that German is a difficult language. The reality is that even though it might have more case endings, it is closer to English than Spanish or French are.

Modern language departments have also received budget cuts in the latest research assessment exercise (the evaluation of research output in UK universities). German was hit more severely than other subjects because those who set the standard were particularly stringent.

Sarah Colvin, Mason chair of German at the University of Edinburgh, thinks it is more likely to be that languages such as German are easy hits for university management. They are expensive to deliver because they require small class sizes. "At a time when university funding is being severely reduced, languages look like an easy way to save money."

The last five years have seen the proportion of students enrolling on modern language degrees drop by 4%. The Higher Education Funding Council for England now classifies subjects on these degrees as "strategically important and vulnerable".

It has commissioned an urgent review of their sustainability, to be published next month. It is led by Michael Worton, professor of French at UCL, who will give little away, apart from the suggestion that his report will look at the importance of teaching the history and culture of Germany, in addition to the German language.

German Jet Makes Emergency Landing at Stuttgart

A German passenger jet with 87 people on board including one of Germany's most senior politicians, Social Democrat Party chairman Franz Müntefering, made an emergency landing at Stuttgart airport on Monday because its undercarriage couldn't be fully lowered. No one was seriously hurt.

The Fokker 100 jet was operated by Contact Air, a partner of German national carrier Lufthansa. Its 82 passengers and a crew of five were evacuated through emergency slides after the plane landed on a foam carpet. Five passengers suffered from shock and one female flight attendant was taken to hospital for observation.

"It was a serious, a very serious situation," said Müntefering, 69, who is due to speak at an election campaign rally in Stuttgart later on Monday. The SPD shares power with Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservatives and Müntefering as party chairman has a key role in campaigning ahead of the Sept. 27 election.

"We spent a long time circling, then tried the approach and then had to make an emergency landing," Müntefering. "Everyone in the plane was very disciplined. We owe our thanks to the pilot who put in a masterful performance and to his crew who handled the situation professionally."

Merkel defends German mission in Afghanistan

Chancellor Angela Merkel on Tuesday defended Germany's military mission in Afghanistan, but also expressed regret for innocent victims, if there were any, in last week's German-ordered air strike on two hijacked fuel tankers.

Merkel made the remarks during a speech to parliament in response to an acknowledgement by the NATO-led force in Kabul that the Sept. 4 air strike called in by German commanders and carried out by a U.S. warplane may have killed civilians.

Merkel rejected opposition calls for a troop pullout after the strike, which prompted criticism at home and abroad because of the possibility that civilians were killed in the attack.

"The mission in Afghanistan is our reaction to terror, the consequences of not acting will affect us just as much as the consequences of acting," Merkel said.

Local media reported that last week that the air strike targeted two tanker trucks seized by Taliban militants near the northern Afghan town of Kunduz.

An initial assessment led by U.S. Army Gen. Stanley McChrystal, NATO's commander in Afghanistan, "concluded that civilians had been killed or injured," NATO's International Security Assistance Force said in a statement.

Merkel, addressing parliament before Sept. 27 elections, promised German support for a thorough investigation of the attack.

"We will not gloss over anything, but we will not accept any premature condemnation," she said. "I refuse to tolerate that, either from Germany or from abroad."

Ferrari turn to Badeor

Ferrari have turned to test driver Luca Badoer to fill the void left by Michael Schumacher and Felipe Massa.

Ferrari have been rocked by news that seven-time world champion Schumacher will now not be able to race for them because of a long-standing neck injury.

The legendary German driver had been set to replace Massa, who has been sidelined after suffering serious head injuries at the Hungarian GP.

However he announced on Tuesday that he would now not be able to return to action after failing to overcome his own injury.

Ferrari have now asked the 38-year-old Badoer to fill in for the rest of the season.

Ferrari president Luca di Montezemolo said: "In agreement with Stefano Domenicali, we have therefore decided to give Luca Badoer the chance to race for the Scuderia after he has put in so many years of hard work as a test driver."

Badoer made 51 starts for Ferrari between 1993-98 having previous raced in the Italian F3 Championship and won the Formula 3000 intercontinental title.

Great-granddaughter of last German emperor dies

Princess Felicitas von Preussen, the great-granddaughter of the last German emperor, has died, her family said Tuesday. She was 75.

Von Preussen died Saturday in Wohltorf, near Hamburg.

Von Preussen was born in 1934 in Bonn to Prince Wilhelm von Preussen and his wife, Dorothea von Salviati.

Wilhelm was the son of Crown Prince Wilhelm, the heir of Kaiser Wilhelm II, the last German emperor. Wilhelm II went into exile in the Netherlands after the fall of the monarchy in 1918 following World War I.

Von Preussen was married twice and had five children. She was to be buried in Aumuehle, near Hamburg.

The longest beer garden in the world

Where can you find the world’s longest beer garden? It’s not in Munich, but in Berlin at the upcoming Berlin Beer Festival. Beer lovers should delight in knowing that the center of Berlin becomes a very lengthy beer garden covering 2km (1.2 miles) from August 7th – 9th.

For those of you prepping for Munich’s Oktoberfest, visit the sudsy celebration in Berlin with this year’s focus not on German beers but on Belgian beers. Germany’s Belgian neighbors will tantalize the beer taste buds of over 800,000 visitors at the Berlin Beer Festival.

Belgians have been producing beer since the Middle Ages. There are almost as many Belgian beer styles as there are breweries in the small land of Belgium. The choices are endless when you consider raspberry beer, white beer, chocolate beer, geuze beer, cherry beer, and the list goes almost as long as the Berlin Beer Festival beer garden.

Of course with a beer garden as long as 1.2 miles you’ll have plenty of chances to sample beers. And only as the city of Berlin can do, the event is an international cultural extravaganza. Over 260 breweries from 86 countries will be on hand to tap your choice of over 1800 beer specialties.

In addition to beer sampling, enjoy the unique blend of international culture and entertainment represented on 18 stages around the 20 beer stations. The international beer tents will also sell culinary specialties on the festival grounds so you can enjoy the food with a cold one.

German Motorsport - The Nürburgring

The Nürburgring, simply known as “The Ring” by enthusiasts, is a motorsport race track in Nürburg, Germany. It was built in the 1920s around the village and medieval castle of Nürburg in the Eifel, which is about 70 kilometres (43 mi) south of Cologne, and 120 kilometres (75 mi) northwest of Frankfurt. Nicknamed The Green Hell by Jackie Stewart, it is widely considered the toughest, most dangerous and most demanding purpose-built race track in the world.

Originally, the track featured four track configurations: the 28.265 kilometres (17.563 miles) long Gesamtstrecke (”Whole Course”), which in turn consisted of the 22.810 km (14.173 mi) Nordschleife (”Northern Loop”), and the 7.747 km (4.814 mi) Südschleife (”Southern Loop”). There also was a 2.281 km (1.417 mi) warm-up loop called Zielschleife (”Finish Loop”) or better known as Betonschleife, around the pit area.

Between 1982 and 1983 the start-finish area was demolished to create a new GP-Strecke, and this is currently used for all major and international racing events. However, the Nordschleife is still in use.

In the early 1920s, races called ADAC Eifelrennen were held on public roads in the Eifel mountains. This soon was considered impractical and dangerous. In order to provide work and lure tourists into the area, the construction of a dedicated race track was proposed, following the examples of Italy’s Monza and Berlin’s AVUS, yet with a completely different character. The layout of the circuit in the mountains was similar to the Targa Florio, one of the most important motor races at that time. The original Nürburgring was meant to be a showcase for German automotive engineering and racing talent, and was built with both purposes in mind. Construction of the track, designed by the Eichler Architekturbüro from Ravensburg (led by Architect Gustav Eichler), began in September 1925.

The track was completed in spring of 1927, and the ADAC Eifelrennen races were continued there. The first World Cycling Championship race took place on 1927-06-19, and the first German Grand Prix a month later. In addition, the track was opened to the public in the evenings and at weekends, as a one-way toll road. The Gesamtstrecke consisted of 174 bends (prior to 1971 changes), and was 8 to 9 metres (26 to 30 ft) in width on average.

In 1939 the full Ring was used for the last time in major racing events, as future Grands Prix would be held only on the Nordschleife. Motorcycles and minor races mainly used the shorter and safer Südschleife. Many memorable pre-war races took place at the circuit, featuring the talents of early Ringmeister (Ringmasters) such as Rudolf Caracciola, Tazio Nuvolari and Bernd Rosemeyer.