On Tuesday, everything at Deutsche Bahn suddenly came to a halt when a malfunction occurred during scheduled maintenance of the outdated GSM-R railway radio system. All train services were stopped, and thousands of passengers were left stranded overnight because control centers and train drivers could no longer communicate with one another. The extreme summer heat has brought even more trouble. With temperatures at times exceeding 40 degrees Celsius (104 Fahrenheit), tracks and switches become highly prone to faults. In recent years, air-conditioning systems on trains have also frequently failed. As a precaution, Deutsche Bahn is already offering customers the option to cancel tickets for travel up to June 30 free of charge. This has never happened before. Yet the current problems are only the tip of the iceberg. Deutsche Bahn: Reliable no more? To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video Only 60%...

The debate over banning Germany’s far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) gained new impetus this week when the Society for Civil Rights (GFF) presented a legal assessment which concluded that the party was “demonstrably unconstitutional” and that an attempt to ban it could be successful.  The GFF was originally founded by a Green Party politician, who still serves as its Secretary General, but the board is made up of lawyers and law professors.The NGO’s team of legal experts and researchers said they spent a year combing through 77,000 parliamentary documents, 55,000 press releases and 2.9 million social media posts to “examine the AfD according to academic standards.” The researchers claimed that the report represented “the first comprehensive assessment on the unconstitutionality of the AfD” that would “significantly improve the basis for a discussion on a ban.” However, any attempt to ban the party is likely to be politically explosive, not least...

Magdeburg’s State Court has found a 51-year-old psychiatrist from Saudi Arabia guilty of murder for driving a rental car into a crowd at the Christmas market in the eastern city in 2024.  The judge sentenced the defendant to life in prison and said that the German equivalent of a first-degree murder charge in the US — known in German as a particular severity of guilt — had been established. This makes the possibilty of early parole less likely.  The verdict can be appealed. In addition to six counts of murder, the man was convicted of mutliple cases of attempted murder and aggravated bodily harm. Germany’s Christmas markets open amid security concerns To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video What happened in the attack? The attack on December 20 killed five women and a 9-year-old child, with more than 300 sustaining injuries. ...

What to do with one more World Cup group stage game when you’ve already won the group? The answer is score two minutes into the game and don’t look back. Germany did the first part, but then faded as momentum was replaced by a messy loss that exposes this team’s limitations. There is a way to spin this as a defeat that can sharpen the minds, that can blow away any complacency ahead of the knockouts.  Germany captain Joshua Kimmich was certainly bullish in defeat. “We keep inviting the opponent to attack by turning the ball over, which makes them stronger,” Kimmich said on MagentaTV, adding: “Fortunately, this doesn’t change much. But we can’t afford any more losses. That much is clear. We can’t let in one or two goals every game. We have to minimize the number of turnovers, and then we can beat anyone.” But that’s not how...

About halfway through a marathon session on Thursday, Germany’s lower house of parliament, the Bundestag, re-opened a debate that had last closed six years ago: Should Germany bring itself in line with many other European countries and make organ donation an “opt-out” rather than an “opt-in” choice.  Germany’s parliamentarians rejected the so-called “presumed consent” system in 2020, despite a push from the Health Ministry, and opted for a compromise where people would be asked when renewing their national ID cards whether they would like to become organ donors. Now, an inter-party group of parliamentarians has launched a new push to bring presumed consent in, which was debated for two hours on Thursday. The parliamentarians want every German citizen to be considered an organ donor, unless they have expressly objected to the idea.  How an organ transplant transformed this woman’s life To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to...

The 2026 Peace Prize of the German Book Trade, a prestigious award that honors individuals who contribute to the realization of peace through their work, goes to French-British lawyer and author Philippe Sands, the prize’s board of trustees announced on Thursday. “In his literary work, which is distinguished both by narrative brilliance and historical depth, Philippe Sands devotes as much attention to the motives of the perpetrators as to the suffering and lives of the victims,” the jury noted in its statement. “At the heart of his legal work is a commitment to the universal rights of every human being, evidenced in his advocacy for victims of war crimes, racism, torture and colonial injustice.” More than a chronicler of crimes and violations of international law, Sands is also a prominent figure in the campaign advocating for the recognition of ecocide as an international crime.   A family history leading to a life devoted to justice Born on 17 October 1960...

Europe’s five most powerful NATO member states gathered in Berlin for top-level talks on Wednesday evening. The meeting comes two weeks before the NATO summit in Turkey. Known collectively as the E5, the gathering was hosted by German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, who was joined by French President Emmanuel Macron, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk and outgoing British Prime Minister Keir Starmer. After the meeting, Merz said “our neighbors should feel more secure if Germany grows stronger.”  “That is why we want to firmly anchor Germany, its armed forces, and its defense industry within the alliance and in Europe. We have a profound interest of our own in doing so,” he added.  Europe’s military powers are hoping to build momentum after last week’s G7Image: Michael Kappeler/dpa/picture alliance Macron pushes for better US-Europe ties Despite rocky ties with Washington and the US’ European allies under President Donald Trump, French...

A desk by the window, a building that faces south — during Germany’s cold and dark season, sunlight and warmth are a clear advantage. In summer, however, such workstations, without shading and air conditioning, can become unbearably hot. As a result of climate change, heatwaves of up to 40 degrees Celcius are now occurring in Germany more frequently — and lasting longer. Effective cooling is still relatively uncommon in Germany. While air conditioning is considered virtually standard in the United States, it is present in just 6% of private households in Germany. By contrast, 50% of office and administrative buildings are now equipped with cooling systems. “In northern countries, buildings tend to be designed to retain heat because of the cold winters”, explained economist Katharina Utermöhl, who works in economic policy research at the insurance group Allianz. She is a co-author of a study examining the impact of heat on...

How do you put the unspeakable into words? Following the horrors of the Holocaust, this question haunted postwar German authors. They aimed to reject the heritage of the Nazi era while documenting the trauma of bombed-out cities and the country’s starving population. They explored the complexities of collective guilt and individual responsibility. But the German-language literary scene that took up these daunting issues was dominated by male authors. Women’s writing was frequently dismissed as trivial. The anti-fascist and feminist Austrian writer and poet, Ingeborg Bachmann, was one of the few women to assert their voice in the face of a deeply sexist literary industry. The literary icon remains extremely relevant today, notes Regina Schilling, a longtime Bachmann fan and director of the new documentary, “Ingeborg Bachmann: Someone who was once me.”  Through her research for the film, Schilling was particularly struck by “how visionary and contemporary Bachmann’s texts are.” “She addressed themes that are central to today’s social discourse, such...

If you’re affected by the outage, follow the guidelines at the Deutsche Bahn website here. German rail company Deutsche Bahn is halting trains across the country due to an IT disruption, a spokesperson for the company told German news agencies.   Trains are being held at stations and travelers are staying in their seats amid the tech meltdown.  Deutsche Bahn said the outage was stemming from a nationwide problem with the so-called Global System ⁠for ​Mobile ​Communication for Railways (GSM-R)communication system, which is used for international communication on the railway network. All trains are suspended in Germany’s most populous state, North Rhine-Westphalia. Berlin’s public transport authorities say that municipal, regional and long-distance trains run by Deutsche Bahn are impacted by the outage.  Problem identified and technicians working to resolve issue The disruption that led to the internal communications outage has been identified meaning technicians can solve the issue in due time. Deutsche Bahn CEO Evelyn Palla a little earlier...