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Germany in Brief

February 4, 2003

U.S. customs officers help out in Bremerhaven, peace protests continue, a dispute over an eel confined to a family bathtub is ended and more.

https://p.dw.com/p/3EdN
An eel was a media phenomenon in Germany for several weeksImage: AP

Fight against terror

Five customs officers have been stationed in the German coastal town of Bremerhaven, to help in the fight against terror. The officers will assist German officials to detect suspicious container ships and to prevent them transporting possible dangerous cargo to the U.S. In addition they will pass on information and advice on fighting terrorism to their German counterparts. The customs officers will be in Bremerhaven for six months.

More protests

Anti Irak-Kiegsdemonstration vor der Bezirks-Parteizentrale der SPD in Köln
Image: AP

Thousands of people in Berlin and the eastern German cities of Leipzig and Magdeburg took to the streets on Monday to demonstrate against a possible war in Iraq, calling for a peaceful solution to the crisis.

Family eel can stay where he is

Aalfred the eel, the fish which has lived in a family bathtub in Bochum for 33 years, can stay in the tub after a dispute arose over the animal's confinement. Aalfred became a media phenomenon after newspapers reported the eel's bathtub existence last month and animal rights activists fought for Aalfred's return to the wild. The fish, which the family father had caught in a nearby canal, was meant for a meal but the children protested for the animal to stay alive. The dispute has now reached an end with a ruling by Bochum's city authorities, which said the fish could remain where it was as long as it had a piece of pipe to sleep in.

Professor Challenges "Body Worlds" Ban

Anatomy professor Gunther von Hagens will ask a court to overturn the decision by the Munich City Council to ban the controversial "Body Worlds" exhibitition that includes plasticized corpses and body parts, a court announced on Tuesday. The council said last week that the exhibitition violated part of the German constitution covering human dignity as well as a Bavarian burial law. Other cities in Germany have allowed the exhibition to be held. It was scheduled to open in Munich at the end of February.