It’s a multiple crisis and Germany’s answer is to be nice. During Greek protests, rioters painted toothbrush moustaches on posters of Merkel. Now migrants, passed on from Greece to Germany, arrive with photos of her as their patron saint. That’s brilliant PR, a triumph of soft power, and not enitirely cynical. There really are many Germans — Gutmenschen — who wish to give a helping hand.

German is also becoming popular among adult Israelis, and not only the more than 20,000 who have moved to Berlin in recent years. This reflects a broader shift in perceptions. Fifty years after Germany and Israel established diplomatic relations, 70% of Israelis have a positive view of the country, according to a poll by the Konrad Adenauer Foundation, a German think-tank. Many find Germans honest and trustworthy. With the possible exception (at least lately) of Greece, people elsewhere agree, polls show.

Music is a language that everyone understands, and music is above politics,” says Claudia Frenzel of Wanted! International, a German company organizing the musical exchange. [...] Today, Israel and Germany have doffed their starched formality and emerged as true partners. 

Germany's Chancellor Angela Merkel was on a whirlwind trip to Brazil on Thursday to cement trade ties with South America's biggest economy. She also used the occasion to urge Brazil to take the necessary steps to protect the Amazon rainforest, calling the country "key" to controlling global climate change.

A Taiwanese artist donated his latest work made from discarded steel cables to Karlsruhe as a gift to the German city that is celebrating its 300th anniversary this year. Speaking about his work "Taiwan Wishful" at a news conference Tuesday, sculptor Kang Mu-xiang said he was pleased to play a part in promoting cultural diplomacy.

It was for the first time since its formation in 2011 that players from the Tibet Women's Soccer team soared the skies and played on an international pitch last month. The Tibetan footballers-in-exile were invited to attend the Discover Football Beyond Borders festival in Berlin, Germany from June 27 to July 6. 

It was a “public diplomacy disaster,” thinks Thorsten Benner, director of the Global Public Policy Institute (GPPi), a Berlin think-tank. “Germany is seen as the harsh, heartless hegemon of the euro zone, ready to bully small countries into submission.”