Chancellor Olaf Scholz fired Finance Minister Christian Lindner, the leader of one of the three coalition parties, on Wednesday night. Two of Lindner's three colleagues in cabinet promptly quit, effectively breaking apart the coalition government.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz on Wednesday fired Finance Minister Christian Lindner after months of budget disputes as his three-way coalition falls apart, plunging the government in a political crisis.

E ARLY IN THE morning of November 6th, as Europe digested the result of America’s presidential election, three senior figures in Germany’s government were huddling for crisis talks in Berlin. But Olaf Scholz,