Germany news

Germany news

After Russian drones were shot down over Poland this week, there are renewed calls to boost Germany's air defense. Meanwhile, Bayer Leverkusen are looking to reboot their Bundesliga season under a new coach. DW has more. The German army reportedly only has 18 Skyranger air defense turrets not enough, say politicians. What you need to know Politicians call for German air defense boost after Russian drones shot down over Poland

I can't just glance at my phone anymore, or quickly send a message during break. At first, many students asked what the point of it was. But with time, many have come to realize that it's not so bad, and that it actually has quite a few benefits.

In addition to more traditional military capabilities, this effort will also feature elements designed to address the particular challenges associated with the use of drones. In the early hours of Wednesday 21 Russian drones, thought to be unarmed decoys, crossed the border into Poland. Only three or four were said to have be shot down and one drone flew 160 miles into the country in an incident that forced the closure of four airports.

expanding Ukraine's capabilities to weaken Russia's war machinery in the hinterland, providing an effective defence

Tom Bischof suffered an ill-timed appendectomy, which has him out of club and country during a period where he might have had a chance to establish himself as a potential starter. Now, though, Bischof is back in action and took the pitch for parts of team training on Monday at Säbener Straße. Clearly, Bischof will be looking to get healthy as soon as possible, so he can re-throw his hat into the midfield ring:

And then it's completely normal and human that we were a bit shocked and unsettled," said Raum (as captured by @iMiaSanMia). "We have to learn from these mistakes, grow as a team, stand together more, and show more confidence. We are Germany, a great footballing nation. We have a lot of quality, and we simply have to show that even more and then develop quality through our mentality. We did that well in the second half and deserved to win.

Lawmakers from Chancellor Friedrich Merz's Conservative Democrats are calling for more to be done to make returning home a more attractive prospect for Syrians who have sought refuge in Germany.

Although she lost her post in the German government this year, Annalena Baerbock, the former German foreign minister, will continue to play a prominent role on the world stage. Until May, when Friedrich Merz of the center-right Christian Democratic Union (CDU) was elected as the new German chancellor, the 44-year-old Green Party politician was still Germany's top diplomat. Then, on June 2, she was elected as the new president of the United Nations (UN) General Assembly in New York.

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz has said Europe is failing to assert itself on the global stage. "What worries me, and I have to admit weighs on me, is that we Europeans are not currently taking the role in the world that we want and should play to properly protect our interests," Merz told CDU.TV, the official media channel of his Christian Democratic Union (CDU) party. He pointed to the war in Ukraine as one example, saying Europe lacks the leverage to pressure Russia.

Chancellor Friedrich Merz's Cabinet last month agreed a new law requiring young men born after 2008 to fill out a questionnaire as of next year on whether they would potentially join the army. Many see this as the first step towards reintroducing military service in Germany, which was suspended, but not abolished, in 2011. In an interview with the French broadcaster TF1, Merz said it had been a "mistake, from today's point of view" to suspend military service, but added that reintroducing it was complex.

Infighting over the budget, the financing of social security benefits and climate protection projects led to the collapse of Germany's previous coalition government of the center-left Social Democrats (SPD), environmentalist Greens and neoliberal Free Democrats (FDP) in November 2024. Back then, Friedrich Merz was the opposition leader in the Bundestag federal parliament and took every opportunity to criticize the government for its quarrelling.

Jian G. was an accredited assistant to Krah throughout the politician's term in the European Parliament, which gave him access to the parliament's negotiations and procedures. While he was there, according to German federal prosecutors, he gathered hundreds of documents that he "reviewed for intelligence purposes, in order to pass on to the Chinese secret service."

Otte recommended that one year of service be mandatory for all men and women, but not exclusively for the military. He recommended a system sounding more than a little reminiscent of the one Germany abolished as recently as 2011, except that it would apply to men and women alike. Otte advocated "a mandatory year of service, for men and women, not just in the armed forces but also in emergency services, cultural, sports, or volunteer work."

I started my career in law enforcement, working for many years (17) as a police officer. That experience grounded me in investigative work, crisis response, and people leadership under pressure. I later worked in high-risk international environments like Afghanistan and Libya, advising and managing complex security operations - experiences that deeply shaped my resilience and strategic thinking. After transitioning to the private sector in 2015, I held leadership roles in the retail and automotive industries before joining BASF in 2022.

In 1959, as smoke billowed from the blast furnaces of the newly inaugurated Rourkela Steel Plant, India's then prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, walked through rows of German-built machinery alongside engineers from West Germany. The plant, one of the South Asian nation's first large-scale industrial ventures, was more than a steel factory it was a symbol of post-independence ambition and international collaboration. Nehru called it a "temple of modern India," a place where German technical expertise met Indian determination, forging a legacy of industrial partnership that has endured for over six decades.

Ten years after former Chancellor Angela Merkel insisted that "wir schaffen das" (we can do it), Germany is still grappling with the consequences of its migration policy. Meanwhile, an arrest warrant has been ordered for German far-right activist Marla-Svenja Liebich after she failed to start her 18-month prison sentence for incitement and defamation. Below is a roundup of what Germany is talking about on Saturday and Sunday, August 30 and 31.

Marla-Svenja Liebich, 54, was until recently a man who went by the name of Sven. Liebich was a high-profile figure in eastern Germany's right-wing extremist scene for decades and used to be a member of the banned Blood and Honour group, according to German media reports. He also ran a business that sold products online that are popular with xenophobic groups, including a baseball bat with the slogan "deportation assistant".

A forlorn disco ball counting down the time remaining hangs at the entrance of the beloved Berlin club Wilde Renate, known only as Renate, which is rapidly heading into its final nights of wild abandon. Unlike its more hyped cousin Berghain and posher late sister Watergate, Renate has long stood for a certain more relaxed type of Berlin-brand partying more poor than sexy to borrow the capital's lamented motto.

Since 2017, German political parties have had to pay a cumulative 1.8 million ($2.1 million) in administrative penalties with over half issued to the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD). The fines pertain to issues such as illegal donations, the misuse of parliamentary group funds and the provision of false information in financial reports. And according to official figures reported in this weekend's Welt am Sonntag broadsheet and seen by the Germany dpa news agency, the AfD alone has been fined around 1.1 million.