title: Why does git create merge commits? And how to remove these?
body: <p>A co-worker was working over a couple of weeks on a feature, and now the git commits look like:</p>
  
  <pre><code>colleag  add class  8b5bec5
  colleag  add change 3535adc5
  colleag  Merge branch 'NEW' of github.example.de:example/app into NEW   0cc2d24
  colleag  add change
  colleag  add validation     7eff440
  colleag  rebase done wrong merge    f8e35e3
  colleag  Merge branch 'NEW' of github.example.de:example/app into NEW   2168ac6
  colleag  wrong merge    a6ed636
  colleag  typo in spec   7b23633
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>I guess he is doing a:</p>
  
  <pre><code>git pull origin master
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>on his working branch.</p>
  
  <p>So, my questions:</p>
  
  <p>1) What does this mean: </p>
  
  <pre><code>Merge branch 'NEW' of github.example.de:example/app into NEW    2168ac6 
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>It is a merge commit, but why does git merge with remote here?</p>
  
  <p>2) Is it possible to clean these merge commits? I am currently cherry-picking the commits, but not sure if this is best.</p>
  
  <p>What else can be advised after reading the git log?</p>