WBlockupy is a movement protesting against austerity. The Blockupy alliance includes trade unions and Germany's Linkspartei.
WCyclone Niklas, also known as the Lentestorm in the Netherlands, was a European windstorm that affected areas of western and central Europe with widespread disruption to air, shipping and road transport at the end of March 2015.
WIn 2014 onwards, software which manipulated air pollution tests was discovered in vehicles from some car makers; the software recognized when the standardized emissions test was being done, and adjusted the engine to emit less during the test. The cars emitted much higher levels of pollution under real-world driving conditions. Some cars emissions were higher even though there was no manipulated software.
WThe German intervention against ISIL was authorized on 4 December 2015. The involvement of the country in the Syrian Civil War and the Iraqi Civil War began with the Bundeswehr mission in Syria and Iraq to combat the terrorist organization ISIL. The mission was primarily created as a reaction to the November 2015 Paris attacks.
WGermanwings Flight 9525 was a scheduled international passenger flight from Barcelona–El Prat Airport in Spain to Düsseldorf Airport in Germany. The flight was operated by Germanwings, a low-cost carrier owned by the German airline Lufthansa. On 24 March 2015, the aircraft, an Airbus A320-211, crashed 100 km north-west of Nice in the French Alps. All 144 passengers and six crew members were killed. It was Germanwings' first fatal crash in the 18-year history of the company.
WOn 16 May 2015, a passenger train collided with a tractor and trailer obstructing a level crossing at Ibbenbüren, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. Two people were killed and 41 were injured.
WThe Volkswagen emissions scandal, also known as Dieselgate or Emissionsgate, began in September 2015, when the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) issued a notice of violation of the Clean Air Act to German automaker Volkswagen Group. The agency had found that Volkswagen had intentionally programmed turbocharged direct injection (TDI) diesel engines to activate their emissions controls only during laboratory emissions testing which caused the vehicles' NO x output to meet US standards during regulatory testing, but emit up to 40 times more NO x in real-world driving. Volkswagen deployed this software in about 11 million cars worldwide, including 500,000 in the United States, in model years 2009 through 2015.