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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Entertainment
Aida Baghernejad

Haftbefehl shows that Germany loves art born from alienation – just not the people who create it

Friedrich Merz Germany Netflix
Haftbefehl performs at the Kosmonaut festival Germany.
Babo … Haftbefehl performs at the Kosmonaut festival in Germany. Photograph: Dpa Picture Alliance/Alamy

If you want to understand the state of Germany in these last weeks of 2025, grasping the meaning of two entries in the German dictionary are essential: stadtbild and haftbefehl.

The first term technically means “cityscape”. But since chancellor Friedrich Merz gave a speech in the state of Brandenburg on 14 October, it has taken on a new political meaning. “We have come far with migration,” he said, “but of course we still have this problem in our stadtbild.”

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