FRANKFURT: Unemployment in Germany rose above five million people in January for first time since the 1930s under the effects of cold winter weather and changes in benefit rules.

The number of people registered as unemployed in Germany, which has the biggest economy in the eurozone, rose by 573,000 to 5.037 million in January, equivalent to a jobless rate of 12.1 percent, the Federal Labour Agency in Nuremberg calculated Wednesday.

The last time the jobless total was above five million in Germany was in the 1930s, when the record stood at 6.128 million in February 1932, even if the situation in Germany before World War II is not really comparable to post-war Germany. . . .

"The high-point hasn't been reached yet," said labour office executive Heinrich Alt.

It's time for Schroeder and his Anti-American collegues to go.