Logos: 
Yes, I've heard about Peter Hartz's kickback, Viagra/prostitute scandals in 2005 though I thought it was all within Volkswagen never inside the Berlin government.  I remember he had to pay close to 600.000 euro in penalty after his conviction and I assumed that he's no longer an advisor to Merkel now or is he? 

Correct me if I'm wrong but I believe Merkel's agreement with the 4 major nuclear power companies to extend the nuclear plants operation came about from heavy lobbying rather than actuall "corruption" on Merkel's part, or is there more under the blanket?
 
Ingo:
I'm amazed how Merkel can continue to stand firm and unpopular against the people's will on many issues but CDU/FDP continue to manage to keep their coalition majority secure. Do they have a 5 year fixed majority in the house regardless of the local elections? To me Merkel is intriguing; the gentle caring appearance she wears (not arrogant) as she balances herself in the difficult coalition, but now even the new president of her own pick is distancing himself.   I can't claim to understand all the subtle complexities of Merkel's political maneuvers, but they appear to be more adroit/clever than Sarkozy's (I thought).    I somehow enjoy following the german political scene in the last few
years (so fluid and a lot of drama ) but there are things that I need to be enlightened to put all the pieces together.

Hartz was VW and VW was Schröder as he was the governeur (and now is Putins poodle).

Merkel has made secret contracts with the power companies without asking parliament.

http://www.ftd.de/unternehmen/indust.../50166716.html

Mappus (BW governor) has been working for Siemens and still as a work contract with them. Siemens builds a lot of the station infrastructure in Stuttgart.

And tonight on Unity Day, they've build a fence around the area where the cut down the trees.

DAX, maybe it would be wiser to continue this discussion via private email ... it's not exactly travel related and might attract nasty comments in the future.

Anyway ... Federal elections are done every 4 years. The whole federal parliament is elected at once and usually the members of the Bundestag keep their seats the whole period, except someone dies or steps down. So yes, the CDU/FDP coalition in the Bundestag will have another 3 years to continue with their crap (personal opinion ;-) ). Local/state elections inbetween only affect the respective parliaments.

I agree the way Merkel comes over to foreigners (and sometimes also to Germans) is intriguing. She 'moderates' more than she governs. It looks like balancing out the different interests/opinions. The coalition had a really bad start with the unfortunate redution of tax for hotels, some other decisions and especially some non-decisions. Merkel basically was invisible for too long, she travelled outside the country, made good face and seemed not to care about what happened *in* Germany. Meanwhile Guido Westerwelle, his FDP cronies and some CDU/CSU politicians made a mess at home. I would not call that very clever of Merkel, she should have spoken up and made decisions. And if she decided - like picking Wulff as candidate for president - she had no feeling for what German people wanted. (They wanted Gauck. It was obvious it was a political maneuver of Merkel. And, boy, was it an embarrassing presidential election for CDU/CSU/FDP and Merkel! LOL)

Now that the coalition with Merkel on top decided some important cases - like the nuclear power plants case, health insurance reform etc. - they apparently decided in favour of the industry. No, I would not call it corruption and I don't see evidence for that. It's lobbying at the worst, ignoring what the best for the German people is. Polls show that Germans are totally disgusted with the politics of Merkel and her coalition. The upcoming elections - though only states affecting, not the federal coalition - will reflect that. I expect a SPD/Green government in Baden-Württemberg. As said before, this will for sure result in a rebellion in the CDU and Merkel will be replaced by someone more conservative, someone who is going to listen to the people more. At least I hope so

In the end I'd rather have Merkel than Sarkozy, no doubt about THAT! And here's the link to an article on occasion of German Reunification Day which I find is spot on:
http://www.thelocal.de/opinion/20100930-30181.html

I.

Thanks for your clarifications.

Merkel here, Merkel there... the fact that the station has been designed too small for the actual use is true, but the typical Logos' truisms like "noone needs it" ruin the argument again. As a tourist you may like the rail lines into Stuttgart which offer nice views, or the painfully slow descent from Ulm to Stuttgart via Geislinger Steige, but for an average commuter it's a PITA of the highest degree. The combination of the new station and the new line was intended to address this issue, despite the bungle DB and the BaWue government made out of it.

And after seeing some of the protesters IRL, I can only ensure that the demos are made to 1/3 out of genuine protesters who want to protect something dear to them, and to 2/3 out of professional protesters who will protest anything, as a hobby.

Of course Logos solution will be "just driving".

>2/3 out of professional protesters who will protest anything, as a hobby.
Said by somenone whio lives on public money.
ICE travel Munich-Stuttgart took 2h4min just a few years ago, today it takes 2h35. After the station and all the tunnels are bulid (=never) it may be 1h30min. If you commute from Stuttgart to Ulm every day, you may save 30min per day. But if do this, you have other issues anyway, i.e. organizing your personal life.