Skip next section Berlin power restored two days after alleged arson attack
09/11/2025September 11, 2025
Berlin power restored two days after alleged arson attack
Berlin’s Interior Minister said investigations to identify the alleged arsonists are ongoingImage: Jens Kalaene/dpa/picture alliance
Electricity was restored Thursday to thousands of homes in southeast Berlin that were affected by a massive power outage.
The interruption was caused by an suspected arson attack by left-wing extremists on Tuesday, authorities said.
A letter claiming responsibility, signed by “anarchists,” was published on a leftist platform online, which said the attack targeted the “military-industrial complex” in a science park in Berlin’s Adlershof district.
The area is home to a variety of firms and research institutes involved in IT, robotics, biotech, aerospace, artificial intelligence (AI) security and the weapons industry.
The blackout was the longest to affect the German capital in a quarter of a century. Some 50,000 homes and businesses were affected.
Public transport, shopping centers and nursing homes were also affected, as were several schools which were closed on Wednesday.
Grid operator Stromnetz Berlin said complications had delayed repair work until Thursday.
https://p.dw.com/p/50MFq
Skip next section WATCH: Could remigration blow up the AfD’s plan for power?09/11/2025September 11, 2025
WATCH: Could remigration blow up the AfD’s plan for power?
Germany’s far-right AfD is the second largest party in parliament, and gaining support in the polls. But one word — remigration — risks dividing the party. Featuring exclusive interviews, this deep dive reveals the internal battles, extremist ties, and constitutional risks that could make or break the AfD’s future.
Could remigration blow up the AfD’s plan for power?
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https://p.dw.com/p/50MAY
Skip next section Solingen attacker appeals guilty verdict
09/11/2025September 11, 2025
Solingen attacker appeals guilty verdict
Issa Al H. has asked for the case to be reviewedImage: Ina Fassbender/AFP
A Syrian national who was sentenced to life imprisonment after being found guilty of a terror attack at a street festival in Solingen, western Germany, has appealed the verdict.
Issa Al H. was given the maximum sentence on Wednesday for killing three people and injuring eight others in a stabbing attack during the Solingen Festival of Diversity on August 23, 2024.
He was also found guilty of being a member of the so-called Islamic State terror organization.
His defense team appealed for the case to be reviewed for potential legal errors, the court in Düsseldorf said.
The defendant turned himself into police the day after the attack. He admitted to carrying out the knife attack on the first day of his trial, which began in May.
Should Germany change its migration policy?
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https://p.dw.com/p/50M9A
Skip next section Merz warns of grave security threats, calls for stronger spy service
09/11/2025September 11, 2025
Merz warns of grave security threats, calls for stronger spy service
New BND chief Martin Jaeger was appointed after serving as ambassador to UkraineImage: Liesa Johannssen/REUTERS
Germany needs its foreign intelligence service (BND) to match the country’s global stature and counter hybrid threats, Chancellor Friedrich Merz said.
“We are on a daily basis fending off hybrid attacks against our infrastructure: acts of sabotage, espionage, disinformation campaigns. We once again have systemic rivals and adversaries – and they are becoming increasingly aggressive,” Merz said.
“Seldom in Germany since World War Two has the security situation been so grave,” he added.
Merz made the remarks at the inauguration of Martin Jäger as the country’s new spy boss.
Jäger, who was Germany’s ambassador to Ukraine before taking the helm at the BND said he would
cooperate with European and international partners and confront opponents wherever possible.
“My message will be: the BND is a force to be reckoned with,” said Jaeger, who replaces Bruno Kahl who had led the BND since 2016.
https://p.dw.com/p/50LR6
Skip next section Top industry association forecasts exports to fall by 2.5% in 2025 as US tariffs bite
09/11/2025September 11, 2025
Top industry association forecasts exports to fall by 2.5% in 2025 as US tariffs bite
German exports are set to decline by 2.5% this year, industry association BGA predicted on
Thursday.
Its forecast comes as German businesses struggle with new US tariffs and domestic regulations.
“There is currently no sign of a sustained upturn in German exports — it remains unlikely that previous growth rates will be achieved,” said BGA president Dirk Jandura.
Germany had a total export volume of €1.549 trillion ($1.81 trillion) in 2024, a decline of 1.7% compared with the previous year.
In the first six months of 2025, total exports amounted to some €786 billion, according to the Federal Statistical Office.
The tariffs imposed by US President Donald Trump have weighed particularly heavily on Germany’s economy, with exports to its most important trading partner down for a fourth month in a row in July.
As of August 7, most EU exports to the US have been subjected to a 15% baseline duty, with imports of steel and aluminum facing tariffs as high as 50%.
“Many of the new US tariffs are so high that business is simply becoming impossible — for numerous German exporters, this effectively means losing the US market,” Jandura said, calling on the government to counterbalance the development by reducing bureaucracy, securing supply chains and concluding new free trade agreements.
https://p.dw.com/p/50L2O
Skip next section Top German court upholds Nazi slogan convictions of AfD’s Höcke
09/11/2025September 11, 2025
Top German court upholds Nazi slogan convictions of AfD’s Höcke
The Federal Court of Justice, Germany’s highest court of civil and criminal jurisdiction, on Thursday upheld two convictions of AfD politician Björn Höcke over his use of a Nazi slogan.
Höcke, who leads the far-right AfD chapter in the eastern state of Thuringia — which has been classified as “confirmed right-wing extremist” by Germany’s domestic intelligence agency — used the slogan “Alles für Deutschland” (“Everything for Germany”), in speeches in May 2021 and December 2023, respectively.
In 2024, he was fined twice by a regional court in the eastern German city of Halle for his use of the phrase, which was a slogan of the Nazi Sturmabteilung (SA), or stormtroopers.
Höcke had argued in his first trial that he was not aware the SA had used the phrase, which judges found unlikely, particularly in view of the fact that he has been a history teacher.
The second time he used the slogan, he uttered only the first two words, but was judged to have incited listeners to complete it by calling out “Germany” and also to have been aware of the illegality of his act in view of the investigation already underway over his first employment of the phrase.
https://p.dw.com/p/50Kim
Skip next section Chinese man draws knife on officers ahead of deportation bid
09/11/2025September 11, 2025
Chinese man draws knife on officers ahead of deportation bid
A Chinese national drew a knife while at Germany’s Hamburg Airport on Thursday as he was about to be deported to his home country along with his daughter, aged 9, police have said.
The 42-year-old man threatened to harm himself in what seemed to be an attempt to avert his deportation, a police spokesman told the dpa news agency.
However, officers were able to disarm the man after an hour of trying to placate him, and no one was injured, the spokesman said.
The man has since been placed in psychiatric care on a doctor’s advice, while social services have been looking after the child.
https://p.dw.com/p/50KFJ
Skip next section Far-right AfD’s Maximilian Krah loses immunity
09/11/2025September 11, 2025
Far-right AfD’s Maximilian Krah loses immunity
Maximilian Krah is under investigation for suspected money-laundering and bribery while a European Parliament memberImage: Michael Kappeler/dpa/picture alliance
The German parliament, or Bundestag, on Thursday lifted the immunity of Maximilian Krah, a parliamentarian from the far-right opposition party Alternative for Germany (AfD) who is under investigation for alleged offenses committed while he sat in the European Parliament.
The Bundestag said in a statement it had “approved the execution of court search and seizure orders” against Krah, who is suspected among other things of money-laundering and bribery.
According to the president of the Bundestag, Julia Klöckner, the decision was passed “with the votes of all parliamentary groups” — thus, also by Krah’s own AfD group.
Krah was voted into the Bundestag in February elections, following a troubled stint in the European Parliament during which he came under fire amid numerous scandals and controversial statements that eventually led to him being thrown out from the European parliamentary group that includes the AfD.
In addition, an aide to Krah is currently on trial accused of spying for China.
https://p.dw.com/p/50KBu
Skip next section Social Democrats nominate new top court candidate after scandal
09/11/2025September 11, 2025
Social Democrats nominate new top court candidate after scandal
The center-left Social Democrats (SPD), the junior partners in Germany’s conservative-led coalition government, have tapped a new candidate for the Constitutional Court, according to the DPA news agency.
The proposed candidate is reportedly Sigrid Emmenegger, who has served as a judge at the Federal Administrative Court in the eastern city of Leipzig since 2021.
Coalition leaders “have each been able to gain a very positive impression of Dr. Emmenegger in personal discussions,” said a letter cited by DPA that was addressed to the SPD parliamentary groups and the conservative bloc of Chancellor Friedrich Merz.
The news comes following a political uproar in July, when the SPD’s previous nomination for the court, law professor Frauke Brosius-Gersdorf, was rejected by conservative elements over her support of liberal abortion laws.
The dispute led to a postponement of a vote on the top court appointments, and Brosius-Gersdorf later withdrew her candidacy, with the affair calling the stability of the coalition into question.
Although appointments to the court rarely cause political fights, theyrequire a two-thirds parliamentary majority, which means cross-party consensus is essential.
A new vote to confirm Emmenegger and two other candidates for the Karlsruhe-based court is expected later in September.
To have the candidates accepted, the government will require support from the Greens and The Left Party, as all mainstream parties reject cooperation with the largest opposition group, the far-right Alternative for Germany.
https://p.dw.com/p/50Jke
Skip next section Fewer asylum-seekers receive state aid in 2024
09/11/2025September 11, 2025
Fewer asylum-seekers receive state aid in 2024
The number of asylum-seekers receiving welfare payments in Germany dropped some 10% — from 513,700 to 461,000 — between the end of 2023 to the end of 2024, official statistics have shown.
The reduction was accompanied by a fall in the number of asylum applications overall.
According to figures from the German Federal Statistical Office (Destatis), 64% of those receiving the welfare payments due to asylum-seekers at the end of 2024 were male, and 29% were minors.
Most of those entitled to payments were from Turkey (15%), Syria (14%) and Afghanistan (11%), with Turkish nationals overtaking people from Syria as the top recipients.
New figures from the EU’s asylum agency have also shown that for the first time in more than a decade, Germany is not the EU country with the most new asylum applications.
In its mid-year review for 2025, the agency said there were 70,000 new applications in Germany, putting the country in third place behind France (78,000) and Spain (77,000).
https://p.dw.com/p/50JN9
Skip next section Most pilots nap during flights, German pilots’ union says
09/11/2025September 11, 2025
Most pilots nap during flights, German pilots’ union says
Most pilots on German airlines allow themselves quick naps during flights, the union Vereinigung Cockpit has said.
According to a survey conducted by the union of more than 900 of its members, 93% said they had snatched forty winks while in the air during the past months.
The deputy chair of the union, Katharina Dieseldorff, said the figures indicated that pilots were suffering under growing work strains.
“Something that was originally meant as a short-term measure to gain relief has grown into a permanent way to combat structural overload,” she said.
She stressed that short naps were “uncritical” in themselves, as two pilots were always present in the cockpit and mostly used autopilot while in the air.
“But a permanently exhausted cockpit team is a considerable risk,” she said.
The union said it had been highlighting pilot exhaustion for years.
Would you fly with one pilot in the cockpit?
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Skip next section Berlin rebukes Belgian festival over cancelation of Israeli conductor
09/11/2025September 11, 2025
Berlin rebukes Belgian festival over cancelation of Israeli conductor
German Culture Minister Wolfram Weimer has spoken of a “disgrace for Europe” after a Belgian festival canceled a performance by a top German orchestra to be given with an Israeli conductor.
Weimer accused the Flanders Festival Ghent of carrying out “a cultural boycott” disguised as criticism of Israel.
Festival organizers late on Wednesday announced that the Munich Philharmonic would no longer perform on September 18 as planned, saying they were concerned about conductor Lahav Shani’s attitude to the Israeli government.
Shani, who is to officially take over as conductor of the orchestra for the 2026/27 season, currently serves as music director of the Israel Philharmonic.
In a statement, the organizers said they were “unable to provide sufficient clarity about his attitude” towards the Israeli government, which is currently waging a war against the Palestinian militant group Hamas in Gaza, triggering a humanitarian crisis in the territory.
“We have chosen to refrain from collaboration with partners who have not distanced themselves unequivocally from that regime,” the organizers said, though they noted that Shani had “spoken out in favor of peace and reconciliation several times in the past.”
In March 2022, the orchestra itself dropped Russian maestro Valery Gergiev as its chief conductor after he failed to denounce Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
The orchestra and the city of Munich also criticized the festival’s move, calling it a collective punishment of Israeli artists and saying that excluding people from cultural venues because of their origin or religion was “an attack on fundamental European and democratic values.”
https://p.dw.com/p/50JLr
Skip next section Welcome to our coverage09/11/2025September 11, 2025
Welcome to our coverage
In this blog, DW brings you an array of stories that are causing a stir in Germany at the moment.
We’ll cover not only urgent political issues but also topics of human and cultural interest in a country that sits at the heart of the European continent.
So read on to find out what people are talking about on Thursday in Europe’s largest economy!
https://p.dw.com/p/50JOB
