The pilot of a small aircraft died after it crashed into the garden of a residential building in Plettenberg in Germany's western North-Rhein Westphalia state. The man's identity had yet to be ...

Mr. Merz, now 69, was born and still lives in the Sauerland, a district of western Germany known for hills, heavy food and picturesque nature. It was from there that he was first elected into the ...

Merz, a man who has never held a government role, is preparing to take the reins in Germany just as the country faces economic and diplomatic crises.

Hailing from the Sauerland, a Catholic upland region in far western Germany known for its social conservatism and close-knit village communities, he embodied many of the virtues of West Germany ...