Germany's rocky path towards Sunday's early elections began when the outgoing coalition government collapsed in acrimony on November 6, the very day Donald Trump won re-election to the White House.

The campaign since then has been shaken by a series of deadly attacks, a heated battle in parliament around the far-right AfD and unprecedented hostility from the United States.

Here is a look at the bombshell events that have made this an election campaign unlike any other.

Five days after Chancellor Olaf Scholz lost a confidence vote in December, a man drove an SUV at high speed through a Christmas market crowd, killing six people and wounding hundreds in the eastern city of Magdeburg.

The carnage recalled past jihadist attacks, but investigators soon learnt that the Saudi suspect arrested at the scene had voiced far-right and anti-Islam sentiments and was believed to be mentally disturbed.

Germans were shocked by another attack in early January when a man with a kitchen knife attacked a kindergarten group, killing a two-year-old boy........

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