2005

Angelika The new year brings Germany the unemployment reform Hartz IV and a new immigration law. At the same time, the number of unemployed exceeds the 5 million mark. Fashion designer Rudolph Moshammer is treacherously murdered in Munich. In March, American coma patient Terri Schiavo dominates the news, as her husband obtains a court order against her parents' wishes to have her feeding tube removed. She subsequently dies after being in a coma for 15 years. After the death of John Paul II, the conclave in Rome elects German Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger as the new Pope. In May, the Holocaust Memorial opens in Berlin. In the summer, Federal President Horst Köhler prematurely dissolves the Bundestag. The German spelling reform comes into force. American Lance Armstrong wins the Tour de France for the seventh time. Hurricane Katrina wreaks havoc, devastating large areas of the states of Mississippi and Louisiana, as well as the city of New Orleans. Desperate people are waiting in vain for days for government assistance. In the early Bundestag elections in Germany in September, neither the Red-Green nor the Black-Yellow coalition achieves a majority. November brings Germans a new passport design with stored biometric data and the first female Chancellor: Angela Merkel now leads the grand coalition. We travel to the neighboring country of Canada for the first time and go to Hawaii for the 8th time.