Germany updates: Soldiers gather for first-ever Veterans Day

German Chancellor Friedrich MerzMerz has arrived in Canadafor the G7 summit.

The chancellor is scheduled to meet with Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney for talks on Sunday evening.

Speaking before his departure, Merz said his main topics for summit are the conflict between Israel and Iran, efforts to end the war in Ukraine, the trade dispute with the United States and migration. 

"Iran must not be allowed to develop or have nuclear weapons," he stressed.

"Israel has the right to defend its existence and the security of its citizens," he said, adding that Iran's nuclear weapons program was an existential threat to Israel.

On Monday and Tuesday, Merz is scheduled to hold bilateral talks on the sidelines with leaders from Japan, Australia, India, Brazil and South Africa.

SC Magdeburg won the Handball Champions League for the third time in the club's history, after 2002 and 2023.

The German runners-up won the final in Cologne against Füchse Berlin with a score of 32–26 (16–12). In front of 20,000 fans, Gisli Kristjansson scored eight goals for Magdeburg. 

The Berlin club, which became German champions for the first time a week ago, still has to wait for its first Champions League triumph.

Füchse had eliminated the French representative HBC Nantes in the semi-finals, while SC Magdeburg reached the final with a narrow victory against record winners and defending champions FC Barcelona.

In the match for third place, HBC Nantes defeated Barcelona 30-25.

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz has said that Iran must "never be allowed to have nuclear weapons" and demanded that Tehran "stop the bombardment of civilian targets in Israel immediately."

Merz spoke to Haitham bin Tariq of Oman by phone on Sunday morning, thanking the Sultan for Muscat's efforts to mediate with Iran regarding an end to the latter's nuclear program.

A German government spokesman said the two leaders "were in agreement that a proliferation of the conflict must be avoided."

Later, before departing for the G7 summit in Canada, Merz also said that Germany was making preparations for potential Iranian attacks on "Israeli or Jewish targets" and reiterated: "Israel has the right to defend its existence and the security of its civilians."

The current conflict between Israel and Iran, which has now seen both countries exchange missile and drone strikes for three nights running, escalated when around 200 Israeli planes attacked around 100 infrastructural and personnel targets linked to Iran's nuclear program on Friday morning in an operation codenamed "Rising Lion."

The president of the German parliament, Julia Klöckner, officially opened the country's first national Veterans Day on Sunday, saying it was "high time" for such an occasion.

"This day has created something which has always been lacking: public visibility, recognition and respect for all those who have served in our country's armed forces," she said at an event in Berlin.

Speaking on a stage in front of the Reichstag, the seat of Germany's parliament, Klöckner highlighted the role of the German army, known as the Bundeswehr, as a "parliamentary army" which is answerable to parliament – as opposed to an individual head of state as commander-in-chief.

"That is why we as parliamentarians carry particular responsibility," she said. "And today, we honor those people who were prepared to serve this country, our country, our values."

Writing on social media, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz called the Bundeswehr a "key component of our society" and said: "The men and women who serve, or have served, in it deserve our thanks, our recognition and our respect. This service for our country belongs in center of our society."

On Saturday, Defense Minister Boris Pistorius praised the professionalism of German troops and said that the challenges facing them will increase in years to come.

"In the last two-and-a-half years, I have experienced first hand the professionalism of our troops, whether on exercises at home or abroad, in tanks or planes, on [NATO's] eastern flank in Lithuania or when evacuating citizens in Sudan," he told the Rheinische Post newspaper.

"The threat has increased in recent years," he nevertheless warned. "We have to be clear: we have to be able to defend our country and our alliance if it is attacked."

A major fire in the center of Villingen in the southwestern state of Baden-Württemberg has left six people injured, including two firefighters, and caused damage estimated at several million euros.

The fire, the precise cause of which remains unclear, broke out in a house and quickly spread to four neighboring buildings, causing three roofs to collapse in the flames which reached up to ten meters (32 feet) high.

Around 130 firefighters were involved in efforts to extinguish the flames, work which continued into the early hours of Sunday morning.

Local residents were told to temporarily close their doors and windows due to the amount of smoke.

Local police are investigating the cause of the fire.

The president of the German parliament, Julia Klöckner, has warned members of the far-right populist Alternative for Germany (AfD) and the socialist Left Party (Die Linke) over their behavior in the Bundestag, accusing of them of using the platform offered by parliament to go viral on social media.

"We have a strengthened Left Party and a strengthened AfD in parliament who seem to need each other to serve their respective constituencies on TikTok and other platforms," said Bundestagspräsidentin Klöckner, who fulfils functions similar to that of a parliamentary speaker in other countries.

"There are currently several candidates for top spot when it comes to rule breaches," she told the Redaktionsnetzwerk Deutschland (RND) media outlet this weekend.

"And that shouldn't be taken as an accolade. The floor [of parliament] is not a stage on which to produce content for digital media. This is where we confront each other using words."

Klöckner, a member of Chancellor Friedrich Merz's conservative Christian Democrats (CDU), recently ordered two Left Party members to leave the hall after donning items of clothing which conveyed "intentional provocations."

Last week, lawmaker Cansin Köktürk was asked to change out of a black t-shirt which bore the word "Palestine" while her colleague Marcel Bauer refused to remove a Basque beret. Klöckner judged that both items contravened rules which state that lawmakers' attire must "respect the dignity of the house."

Darts players Martin Schindler and Ricardo Pietreczko pulled off what German media are calling "the greatest victory in the history of German darts" on Saturday when they beat favorites England 8-4 in the last-16 of the World Cup of Darts event in Frankfurt.

The English pairing of Luke Littler and Luke Humphries, the reigning world champion and current world number one respectively, and two of the biggest names in the sport, were overriding favorites to win the tournament. But they were sensationally shocked by their German opponents in front of a raucous and partisan home crowd.

"Everyone expected England to win, so we used that as a psychological advantage," said Schindler, ranked 18 in the world. "We are delighted to go through. German darts is in good shape right now and we will continue to push forward."

Traditionally a British and Irish pastime, darts is gaining in popularity in Germany, with hundreds of German fans traveling to the world championships at Alexandra Palace in London every year. And they recreated some of the famously raucous "Ally Pally" atmosphere in Frankfurt on Saturday by loudly booing the English players.

"I think it was definitely one of the best atmospheres we've had in a World Cup," said Schindler, but added: "Obviously we have to say that we don't approve of the whistling and booing."

For Littler in particular, the defeat continued a series of frustrating experiences in Germany. After being booed at a Premier League night in Berlin in February and again at the German Darts Grand Prix in Munich in April, the teenage superstar withdrew and said his next visit to Germany would be the European Championship in Dortmund in October, something he cryptically said he was "glad to say."

In the end, he returned earlier — but only for a short visit until the defeat to Schindler and Pietreczko, who went on to beat Damon Heta and Simon Whitlock of Australia in the quarterfinals. They will face Josh Rock and Daryl Gurney of Northern Ireland in the semifinal on Sunday evening.

German champions Bayern Munich are set to get their Club World Cup campaign underway on Sunday against semi-professional New Zealand side Auckland City in Cincinnati, Ohio.

It's the second game of the controversial, newly-expanded tournament, which kicked off with a goalless draw between Egyptian champions Al Ahly and Lionel Messi's Inter Miami on Saturday.

"You can't really feel much excitement so far, can you?" said Bayern midfielder and vice-captain Joshua Kimmich of the tournament for which organizers FIFA have struggled to sell broadcast rights and tickets. "You can tell that people here [in the United States] are sports enthusiasts but that there are other sports here."

The German international also expressed frustration at his club's squad planning after the Bavarians missed out on the signing of German superstar Florian Wirtz (who is joining Premier League side Liverpool instead) and allowed mainstays Thomas Müller and Leroy Sané to leave — although the pair will still feature in the Club World Cup.

"Of course, you feel that we could do something given that Flo [Wirtz] isn't coming and that Leroy and Thomas are leaving," he said on the weekend it was also reported that Bayern striker Mathys Tel is set to make his current loan to Tottenham Hotspur permanent, leaving Bayern even shorter staffed.

"Any solutions will have to wait until after this tournament," said head coach Vincent Kompany, preferring to focus on the game against the underdogs from Auckland City.

"Just because they're an amateur team doesn't mean that they don't have good ideas," said the Belgian. "We've prepared the team for this game just like for any other."

Kimmich also said it was "our job to take them seriously." Perhaps referring to recent German Cup defeats to second-division Holstein Kiel in 2020 and third-division FC Saarbrücken in 2023, or the Champions League defeat to Spanish side Villarreal in 2022, he warned: "We've lost games against supposedly small opponents before, so we've been warned."

Germany is set to honor its armed forces personnel with its first ever Veterans Day on Sunday.

With a series of events around the country, including in front of the Reichstag parliament building in Berlin from 1 p.m. local time, the German government is hoping to strengthen the bond between the army, known as the Bundeswehr, and the general public.

A key topic on Veteranentag will be the physical and psychological injuries suffered by soldiers on deployment and the difficulties they face when it comes to reintegrating into civilian life.

But critics have warned against what they see as the "glorification" of the armed forces and accused the government of using Veterans Day as a marketing ploy to boost recruitment for its understaffed army.

According to government figures, there are around 10 million army veterans in Germany – defined as soldiers who are either currently in active service or who have been honorably discharged.

You can read more about Germany's new Veterans Day and the country's complex relationship with its armed forces here.

Germany's complex relationship with its armed forces can be traced back in large part to the crimes committed by German troops during the Second World War — especially in eastern Europe and in Poland in particular.

On Monday, a new monument is set to be unveiled in central Berlin to commemorate the victims of the Nazi invasion and occupation of its neighbor between 1939 and 1945, during which an estimated six million Poles, around a fifth of the civilian population, were murdered.

The new monument will consist of a large boulder from the northeastern German state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, which borders Poland, on the site of the former Kroll Opera House.

The Opera House served as the seat of the German parliament for much of the Nazi period after the nearby Reichstag building was damaged in the 1933 Reichstag fire. As such, it was the location for dictator Adolf Hitler's declaration of war on Poland in September 1939.

Peter Oliver Loew, the director of the German-Polish Institute, told the Catholic news agency KNA that it is "important to send a message, even if it's only a temporary location for now."

In June 2024, the German government approved plans for a permanent monument and a "German-Polish House," a precise timeline for which has not yet been set.

Nowadays, Germany and Poland are key allies at the heart of the European Union, but the memory of the German occupation of Poland remains a live issue, especially in Warsaw, where nationalist politicians frequently raise the issue of German reparations for Nazi crimes.

"I will fight for them from the very first day of my presidency," promised new Polish President Karol Nawrocki during his recent campaign, for instance.

For historian Loew of the German-Polish Institute, the new memorial is therefore "a necessary and important step on the road to rapprochement between our two countries."

Guten Tag! Welcome to DW's coverage of developments in Germany on Sunday, June 15.

Germany is marking its first ever Veterans Day with a series of events in Berlin and across the country.

The day is designed to highlight the difficulties faced by service personnel who return from deployments injured or traumatized, but critics have warned against "glorifying" the armed forces.

In football, Bayern Munich are set to get their Club World Cup campaign underway in Cincinnati later. FIFA's new tournament is not without controversy.