New Year, New Fear

Usually people look forward to promising changes and new opportunities as the New Year approaches, but the same can't be said of Germans: according to a recent poll, German citizens are fearful about what 2016 will bring.

The poll, carried out by the German market research institute GfK on behalf of the Hamburg BAT Foundation for Future Studies, found that 55 percent of Germans are fearful about the coming year, up from 31 percent last year, and 28 percent in 2013.

"The current humanitarian crisis and growing fear of terrorist attacks has deeply unsettled the population and made them doubt a positive future," said Reinhardt.