Skip next section Nuremberg Christkindlesmarkt opens with traditional prologue
11/28/2025November 28, 2025
Nuremberg Christkindlesmarkt opens with traditional prologue
The Nuremberg Christkindlesmarkt is one of the oldest and best-known in GermanyImage: Dwi Anoraganingrum/Panama Pictures/picture alliance
The world-famous Nuremberg Christkindlesmarkt has opened. With the traditional prologue, Nuremberg’s Christkind, schoolgirl Nora Falk, launched the market in the early evening.
Many onlookers gathered on the main market to listen to the multi-verse poem that a student delivered from the balcony of the Frauenkirche, dressed in an angelic costume with golden wings.
The city expects, as in previous years, around two million visitors from Germany and abroad. The Christkindlesmarkt is considered one of the oldest Christmas markets in Germany, alongside the Dresden Striezelmarkt. According to the city, it was first mentioned in writing in 1628 as the “Kindles-Marck,” though its roots likely reach back even further. It always opens on the Friday before the first Sunday of Advent and runs until Christmas Eve.
The stalls mainly offer traditional Christmas goods such as the famous Nuremberg gingerbread, fruit breads, ornaments, nativity figures, and mulled wine. Children and adults can regularly meet the Christkind during its rounds through the market.
To help the large number of guests reach the Christkindlesmarkt in the Old Town, the local transport services have expanded their schedules. On Advent weekends, up to twice as many subway trains as usual are running through the city center.
https://p.dw.com/p/54T7u
Skip next section German Interior Ministry confirms arrival of 71 Afghans
11/28/2025November 28, 2025
German Interior Ministry confirms arrival of 71 Afghans
Germany’s Interior Ministry on Friday confirmed that 71 asylum-seeking Afghan citizens had arrived by plane from the Pakistani capital Islamabad as part of a federal admissions program.
The new arrivals were flown to the cities of Hanover and Berlin.
Despite promising a crackdown on immigration, this is the tenth such flight carrying Afghans to Germany since Friedrich Merz took office in May.
Although all 71 received a government commitment to allow them into Germany, 63 of them have not received final approval to stay. The Interior Ministry said, however, that all 71 arrivals had gone through security checks and completed their travel paperwork.
Some 1,900 Afghans are hoping to gain entry to Germany through various federal admissions programs, these include individuals who worked for German institutions in Afghanistan before the Taliban returned to power as well as the families of those people.
Moreover, Germany has also opened its doors to individuals deemed at risk in a country run by the Islamist Taliban, such as human rights lawyers and journalists.
Those Afghans seeking a new life in Germany due to the threats they face under the Taliban are currently in Pakistan awaiting flights. Pakistan has given Germany until the end of the year wrap up the process. After that, says Islamabad, Afghans in the country will be deported.
Under Taliban shadow, Afghans in Pakistan look to Germany
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Skip next section Merz emphasizes urgency of using frozen Russian assets to support Ukraine
11/28/2025November 28, 2025
Merz emphasizes urgency of using frozen Russian assets to support Ukraine
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz on Friday repeated his calls for the EU to use frozen Russian assets held in Europe to help finance support for Ukraine, saying that to do so would be, “a sign of strength and a lever for really getting Moscow to sit down and negotiate.”
“I see the need to do this as increasingly urgent,” said Merz. “Ukraine needs our support. Russian attacks are intensifying. Winter is approaching — or rather, it’s already here.”
Standing beside Slovenian Prime Minister Robert Golob in Berlin, Merz said, “We’re trying to find a common European Union solution.” Merz said consensus was also needed in “addressing Belgium’s valid interests.”
Early on Friday, Belgium’s Prime Minister Bart De Wever rejected the plan to use frozen assets to finance loans to Ukraine in a letter to European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, who has voiced support for it.
De Wever claimed that using Russian assets held in Belgium could expose the country to legal actions by Moscow and possibly derail peace negotiations aimed at ending Russia’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine.
Merz, however, called Russian threats over EU use of the funds “a recurring ritual — we will not let ourselves be intimidated.”
EU plan to use frozen Russian assets to fund Ukraine
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Skip next section German lawmakers pass 2026 budget11/28/2025November 28, 2025
German lawmakers pass 2026 budget
After months of political wrangling and last minute negotiations, German parliamentarians on Friday passed the country’s €524 billion ($606.86 billion) 2026 budget.
The federal budget passed through the lower house, or Bundestag, and contains nearly €180 billion in borrowed funds.
The budget is €21.5 billion higher than in 2025. It includes approximately €108 billion in military spending, which is the highest amount since the end of the Cold War. This increase was made possible by a constitutional amendment passed earlier this year.
Ukraine is to receive a record-breaking €11.5 billion for artillery, drones, military vehicles, and other equipment to defend itself against Russia.
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Skip next section Nord Stream sabotage suspect remanded in custody in Germany
11/28/2025November 28, 2025
Nord Stream sabotage suspect remanded in custody in Germany
A Ukrainian suspected of coordinating the Nord Stream pipeline attacks in 2022 has been remanded in custody in Germany, following his extradition from Italy.
The suspect, identified under German privacy laws only as Serhii K., was ordered into pre-trial detention by a judge at the Federal Court of Justice in Karlsruhe, according to a spokeswoman from the Federal Prosecutor’s Office.
The Ukrainian man was arrested in Italy’s Rimini in August on a European warrant, while on holiday with his family on the Adriatic coast.
Italy’s supreme court, last week, authorized his extradition and he was handed over to German authorities on Thursday.
The charges against him include collusion to cause an explosion, anti-constitutional sabotage and destruction of important structures.
5 things you need to know about Nord Stream
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Skip next section Amazon workers in Germany strike on Black Friday
11/28/2025November 28, 2025
Amazon workers in Germany strike on Black Friday
Workers at a number of Amazon’s nine warehouses across Germany walked out on Friday. The Verdi services union said some 3,000 workers were expected to participate in the strike.
Amazon employs some 40,000 workers at its German logistics centers. It also hires an additional crew of about 12,000 extra workers for the Christmas shopping season. Verdi says workers intend to disrupt services this Friday to force Jeff Bezos and his company to pay employees more as organized workers seek the right to collective bargaining at the massive US company.
The strike comes on “Black Friday,” one of the biggest shopping days of the year. Coming on the day after the Thanksgiving holiday in the US, many shoppers traditionally begin purchasing Christmas gifts for family and friends on Black Friday.
Like many US traditions, this trend has also established itself in the EU, meaning that Amazon workers who already experience stress at work come under increased pressure to be even more efficient.
Despite endless accounts of difficult working conditions for low pay and no job security, Amazon on Friday said it pays all of its workers fair wages while assuring customers that their orders would not be affected.
Inside Amazon
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Skip next section Germany to push for changes to combustion engine ban
11/28/2025November 28, 2025
Germany to push for changes to combustion engine ban
In a boost to Germany’s struggling automobile industry, leading politicians backed a plan calling for changes to the EU’s effective ban on new combustion engines from 2035.
Chancellor Friedrich Merz is expected to send a letter to Brussels on Friday informing European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen of Germany’s position.
The EU proposed the ban in 2022, but the EU Commission announced that it would review the proposal after complaints were lodged by member states as well as manufacturers.
A revised EU proposal is scheduled for presentation on December 10.
Electromobility – A question of time and cost
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Skip next section Government reaches pension deal after long night of Chancellery talks11/28/2025November 28, 2025
Government reaches pension deal after long night of Chancellery talks
“We’ve cleared some major hurdles. I didn’t leave here until 2:15 a.m., but it was worth it,” Markus Söder, chairman of the conservative Bavarian CSU, said on Friday morning at the Chancellery.
Looking a little tired but satisfied, Chancellor Friedrich Merz (CDU), who sat next to Söder at the press conference, echoed this sentiment.
“The coalition is capable of acting,” said the chancellor.
There had been doubts about its ability to govern in recent days, mainly because a group of young lawmakers in the conservative government faction wanted to block a planned pension bill they said would prove too costly to younger generations.
On this tricky issue, the coalition of Merz’s CDU, Söder’s CSU and the Social Democrats said on Friday it would not change the pension bill, but to commit to comprehensive pension reform after 2032.
Whether that will be enough for the young conservatives will be seen next week — that is when the pension bill is to be brought before the Bundestag.
The coalition has only a majority of 12 votes, and at least 18 conservative members of parliament voiced strong opposition to the bill. So it could be a close vote.
Merz, for his part, said he was “counting on approval.”
https://p.dw.com/p/54QWs
Skip next section Berlin set to pass 2026 budget
11/28/2025November 28, 2025
Berlin set to pass 2026 budget
Parliamentarians in Berlin on Friday are expected to pass Germany’s 2026 budget after months of wrangling. This year’s budget diverges from those of the past by depending heavily on borrowing to finance big-ticket programs after decades of balanced budgets and calls to stick to the so-called “black zero” policy of incurring no new debt.
Approved by the country’s Budget Committee, the plan allocates a total of €524 billion ($607.7 billion), €97.9 billion of which will be borrowed. Some €58.3 billion will also be poured into new infrastructure investments through a special budgetary measure that passed in March and is exempted from prior rules clamping down on debt spending.
Germany’s so-called “debt brake” — from which special funds are excluded — limits new borrowing to 0.35% of GDP.
Germany has increased investment 10% year-on-year over 2025, pumping it up to €126.7 billion for 2026.
Total new debt resulting from the budget and special funds will be around €180 billion, an amount surpassed only at the peak of the coronavirus pandemic.
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) projects Berlin’s budget deficit will grow to 4% of GDP in 2027, with debt expected to climb to 68% — the lowest in the G7.
German lawmakers approve easing ‘debt brake’
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Skip next section Welcome to our coverage11/28/2025November 28, 2025
Welcome to our coverage
Guten Tag from the DW newsroom here in Bonn!
Today, we will be following news from Berlin, where lawmakers have been wrangling over the budget for months and will vote on its final passage. The vote comes after infighting in the conservative bloc, where the youth wing has been keen to see adjustments to proposed retirement reforms.
German politicians are also reportedly pushing the EU to water down its plan to ban new internal combustion engines after 2035 as a result of tightened emissions laws.
Stay with us as we bring you updates from the day’s events in Europe’s biggest economy on November 28.
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