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DW's most-read articles of 2018

Timothy Jones
December 29, 2018

Visitors to our website also found religion and gun control particularly fascinating topics in 2018. We present some of our most popular articles — along with our heartfelt thanks to our readers!

https://p.dw.com/p/3Al0b
Sex dolls sitting on sofa
Image: DW/C. Winter

A delicate subject

An old maxim has it that one shouldn't discuss religion at the dinner table. But reading about it seems to be a popular pastime, as our most-read article for 2018 shows:

The main differences between Catholics and Protestants

Kassel Kirchenwoche Woche für das Leben Reinhard Marx und Heinrich Bedford-Strohm
So close, but so far apart: Catholic and Protestant leaders in GermanyImage: Imago/A. Fischer

An ongoing debate

Few topics in the US are more hotly debated than the issue of gun control. And many people across the world seem to have been stirred by this action by American school students: 

Florida school shooting survivors launch US-wide gun-reform tour

Time for a change — or change for a time?

A very different debate gripped the European Union in 2018 — and no, it wasn't Brexit this time:

EU to stop changing the clocks in 2019

But such haste is not really Brussels' thing, as this follow-up article shows:
EU needs more time before ending clock changes

Field of clocks on poles in Düsseldorf
Most Germans seem to oppose daylight saving timeImage: Imago/Future Image/C. Hardt

And meanwhile in Germany ...

The perennial favorite

Our intrepid reporter Chase Winter delved into the innermost recesses of the human psyche with this one: 

Inside Bordoll, a German sex-doll brothel in Dortmund

Dolls at the bordel
All dolled-up and ready to go at Dortmund's BordollImage: DW/C. Winter

No, not alive and well and living in ...

DW's Jefferson Chase reported on dental evidence of Hitler's certain death in 1945:

Hitler teeth test dispels myths of Nazi leader's survival

Too good to be true

One article about the heavy-metal Wacken festival generated huge amounts of reader interest:

Elderly men escape nursing home to go to Wacken metal festival

— only to turn out not to be (quite) true:

Man wearing fruit on his head
Heavy metal, pineapples and melons: What's not to like?Image: picture-alliance/dpa/A. Heimken

Men escape nursing home for Wacken? What really happened

And here's looking forward to another interesting news year in 2019! Thanks for reading DW!<div class="opinary-widget-embed" data-poll="which-of-these-topic-areas-are-you-most-" data-customer="deutschewelleeng"></div> <script async type="text/javascript" src="//widgets.opinary.com/embed.js"></script>Each evening at 1830 UTC, DW's editors send out a selection of the day's hard news and quality feature journalism. You can sign up to receive it directly here.