Winners and Losers in ... Germany

It was a good year for ... Gerhard Schroder

Germany's centre-left chancellor, written off earlier this year as a lame duck, has made a remarkable political comeback.

Mass opposition in the summer to his plans to reform Germany's welfare state appears to have fizzled out, and the opinion poll ratings of his SPD party have climbed back from 24% to a respectable 33%.

He has also become a dad for the first time, adopting with his wife Doris a three-year-old Russian girl, Victoria.

The Schröders' dog Holly has had a good year too. The border terrier has starred in several canine commercials, and can now be seen promoting chewy bones and dog brushes.

It was a bad year for ... Angela Merkel :

At the beginning of this year it seemed that Ms Merkel, the leader of Germany's opposition conservative party, the CDU, would almost certainly become the country's next leader when Germans went to the polls in 2006.

Since then, however, she has seen a 50% rating in the opinion polls shrink to 38%, amid a series of feuds with male colleagues in her party.

Several of them have quit, while others have made little attempt to hide their ambition to replace her.

Coming up in 2005 ... War memories

Next year includes several events marking the 60th anniversary of the end of the second world war. It is likely to be the last time that many of those who were actually there will take part. In January, Germans will reflect on the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz (in Poland). In February there is the anniversary of the RAF's destruction of Dresden, and in May the fall of Berlin at the hands of the Red Army will be commemorated.