As part of the curriculum, the nurses destined for Germany have begun absorbing the tenets of German culture to ensure a smooth transition into Western society.

CNN: Where have Europe's nurses gone?

Ron Sommer, Telekom's boss once a hero of Germany's nascent equity culture, but now a perennial target of shareholder groups and the press has fallen out publicly with Deutsche Bank, Germany's biggest bank, which last week sold a huge batch of Telekom shares, sending the share price plummeting (see article).

ECONOMIST: European telecoms: Running for the exit | The

Mutual funds and equity-linked products will be the hot products of tomorrow, as the equity culture spreads through Germany and across Europe.

FORBES: Schulte-Noelle Scores

Even in Germany, car-culture-vulture of Europe, the share of young households without cars increased from 20% to 28% between 1998 and 2008.

ECONOMIST: The future of driving

Deep divisions in strategic culture also hamper the EU. Germany, one of the few countries whose economy hasn't been unsettled by the crisis, remains deeply reluctant to deploy military force.

WSJ: Syria Debate Illustrates EU's Foreign-Policy Weakness

Indeed, by providing a reality check, the recent troubles of the Neuer Markt might even do Germany's equity culture some good.

ECONOMIST: Panik?

And the brazenness of the firm's bribe-paying points to a rotten corporate culture pervasive across Germany at the time.

ECONOMIST: The Siemens scandal

It experienced waves of migration over the past century from countries such as Italy, Portugal, Japan, Germany, Korea and the Middle East, all of whom brought their cuisine and culture with them.

BBC: Living in: S?o Paulo

Unlike Germany, where decades of intensive Holocaust-sensitivity education has relegated Nazism to a fringe skinhead culture, in Japan a majority of Japanese are not really sure whether what they did in Nanking was right or wrong.

CNN: ASIANOW - TIME Asia | Letter from Japan: Past Imperfect?