The Germans' top Google searches in 2019

"The Floss" is a dance move in which a person clenches their fists and swings their arms from the back of their body to the front. It gained popularity after teenager Russell Horning performed it during Katy Perry's performance of "Swish Swish" on Saturday Night Live in May 2017 and through the computer game "Fortnite Battle Royale," kickstarting a trend of people recording their own renditions.

Swedish teenage climate activist Greta Thunberg became the face of the youth protest movement for climate action after she started a solo protest outside the parliament building in Stockholm in August 2018. Her actions sparked the global "Fridays for Future" movement, which has seen students take to the streets to demand action on climate change instead of attending classes on Fridays.

October 31 is famously Halloween, but it is also Reformation Day, a Protestant Christian religious holiday. It has been a public holiday in the five former East German states since Reunification in 1990. Adding to the Germans' confusion, four more states from the north of the country also adopted the holiday in 2018. Five Catholic states have the next day off, on November 1 — All Saints' Day.

The European Parliament elections were held in May 2019. The European People's Party, led by Manfred Weber, won the most seats in the European Parliament, which should've made Weber the candidate likely to head the European Commission. But following the election, the European Council decided to nominate Ursula von der Leyen as the new president of the European Commission.

"The Joker" was one of the most anticipated films of 2019. But its arrival in cinemas wasn't met without controversy. People questioned the film's portrayal of mental illness and debated whether the story of a bullied loner who is shunned by society and turns violent could inspire similar acts of violence by people who related to him. It also featured a song by convicted pedophile Gary Glitter.

Article 13 (now Article 17) is a part of the European Union's new copyright directive, which came into force in June 2019. Supporters of the amendment say it will help to prevent instances of copyright infringement, but content creators, mainly for social media platforms and YouTube, are worried the directive will result in censorship.

German creative director and fashion designer Karl Lagerfeld passed away on February 19, 2019. He was one of the most prominent figures in the fashion world and was often photographed with his equally well-known Birman cat Choupette. Lagerfeld was best known for being the creative director of French fashion house Chanel, a position he held from 1983 up until his death.

Leroy Sane is a 23-year-old German football player for the English Premier League football club Manchester City and the German national team. There had been talk that Sane would be transferring to Bayern Munich, but he suffered a major injury in August that required surgery and ruled him out of the game for months. Bayern fans were likely turning to Google to keep track of his recovery.