Now, finally, just in time for the World Cup, Iraqis have the opportunity to savour German cuisine and culture following last week's opening of the country's first German restaurant, in the northern city of Arbil.

The "Deutscher Hof Arbil" was set up by Gunter Völker, a former German soldier who already runs a German restaurant in the Afghan capital of Kabul. The restaurant will stage parties to mark highlights in the German calendar such as the Oktoberfest beer festival and carnival. Its musical offerings will range from Oompah band classics to local Kurdish tunes.

For Völker, the prospect of unemployment at home in Germany is worse than any safety concerns in war-torn Iraq. "I'm not fit for Germany any more," he told Neue Osnabrücker Zeitung. "There are more people on the dole than job vacancies there."

Völker is no stranger to crisis regions, having served as a catering officer in German peacekeeping missions in Bosnia, Kosovo and Macedonia.

Despite the kidnapping of two German engineers in Iraq in January and continuous sectarian violence in the country, Völker maintains that the north is safe and that the German government's strict warning against travelling to Iraq is "totally exaggerated". "(The Berlin district of) Kreuzberg is far more dangerous than the Kurdish regions in the north," Völker dubiously alleges.