For the third day in a row, the tabloid Bild fills its pages with large color photos of the dead. Many of the photos are the last taken of families together. They show tanned glowing faces amid tropical paradise. Bild's lead photo, however, shows two overweight men who survived the tsunami wearing bathing suits and drinking beer among the rubble. "1,000 German tourists dead, but the beer tastes good again!" shouts the headline.

The more serious Sueddeutsche Zeitung focuses on the world's heartfelt reaction and the large amounts of aid and funds coming from around the globe to help victims. It hopes that the unprecedented help is a sign that globalization has taken a step forward and that the world not only feels connected through business but also through a shared sense of responsibility for those in need. "Maybe in the coming months and years, something will truly come from this eagerness to help," it writes. It also warns Berlin not to get involved in the low key competition emerging between the United Nations and the United States about who should coordinate the relief efforts. "Such rivalry will not help anyone," it insists. "The German government should point this out to all involved. It's important to act in the best interest of those most in need."

The business daily Financial Times Deutschland also praises the German government for immediately offering €20 million in aid and dispatching planes and specialists to help identify bodies. But, says the paper, even the help offered is not enough. "The dimension of the catastrophe is still not clear. The number of dead keeps climbing. Millions are lacking clean drinking water and food. The outbreak of disease threatens even more people than the floodwaters killed. The German people and government have to be ready for the sort of emergency aid and long-term rebuilding that will far exceed anything known to date. The means for that will have to be counted in the billions, not in the millions."

The Berliner Zeitung too, looks for a long-term solution to ease the way for the most hard-hit regions in southeast Asia. The tsunami is not "only a natural disaster," the paper writes. "It is an event of the century, whose results will be felt for years. The countries of southeast Asia will need our help -- for a long time." The paper also praises an idea floated by German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder in his New Year's speech. In it, he suggested that each German state take on an affected area as a sister region. This, says the paper is practical on a long-term basis, as "in a few weeks or months, when the catastrophe is no longer the focus on the world, then we will be able to see how our partner area is doing and if we can continue to help. The chancellor suggested it. Now it is up to us to follow through."

The left-leaning Die Tageszeitung says the tsunami has done something extraordinary: it has politicized vacations for Germans. In coming months, and years, where Germans go on vacation, will have international weight. "Choosing not to go to southeast Asia for a holiday because of the disaster that happened will not help," writes the paper. "Those who go to the affected countries for their holidays but don't want to know anything about the disaster would rightly earn the title of ignorant. But those who claim they are going to take holidays to southeast Asia in order to help "pay for" the rebuilding process, will be turning themselves into laughingstocks."

The financial daily Handelsblatt praises the humanity that has emerged from the disaster and lauds the rapidity of the world's response. Why it, then wonders, can't the world also so effectively help victims of political unrest? "When such international solidarity and such massive mobilization is possible in the case of a huge civil catastrophe it begs the question of why the same response is never manifested during a political crises. Prime examples of such theaters of war include Congo, Rwanda, and Sudan. These are just catchwords for a long list. But, in these places, we were also confronted, day after day, with humanitarian catastrophes. In Asia, the UN is showing that in terms of finances and logistics it can lead the way in crisis management. It should engage itself this way more often, also when the climate is a tough political one."