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He grew up on a farm in North Rhine–Westphalia state’s Muensterland region, hundreds of kilometers northwest of Bavaria, so he did not grow up wearing the leather pants like some country boys in southern Germany still do.

In North Rhine Westphalia, Germany's most populous state, consumer prices in August rose 0.5% month-on-month and 5.9% year-on-year.

The inflation rate rose to 6.2% in North-Rhine Westphalia and Bavaria, while rising to 6.7% in Brandenburg, 6.1% in Hesse and 6.9% in Baden-Wuerttemberg.

Last summer, Göttingen in Lower Saxony and Siegen in North Rhine Westphalia allowed women to swim topless.

Cities across the western state of North Rhine Westphalia, including Cologne, Leverkusen and Bonn, were also affected by public service worker strikes on Monday.