Germany news: Bavarian police arrest suspected spies

Finance Minister Lars Klingbeil has set out more details of his plans for the coalitions planned income tax reforms in an interview published in the Wirtschaftswoche business magazine, which will hit German newsstands as a hard copy on Friday. 

According to Klingbeil, the chairman of the Social Democrat junior coalition partners, told the magazine that he wanted people on comparatively low full-time salaries to benefit most of all. 

"I am talking above all aboout people who are earning €2,500 (roughly $2,925) to €3,000 before tax each month and who should have more money in their wallets," Klingbeil said. "That's reality for a great many people in Germany. I want to make it easier for precisely them." 

This income bracket named by Klingbeil equates to just over minimum wage. Somebody working a full-time, 40-hour week at the German minimum wage would earn in the region of €2,400 a month. In previous comments he said he wanted the savings to equate to "several hundred euros" a year.

The grand coalition has voiced its desire to implement an income tax reform by January 1, 2027 that will prioritize providing lasting relief to people on low and middle incomes. This, however, is the most numerous cohort of taxpayers and so reducing their rates is liable to make a big dent in public finances. 

How to fund the reductions seems to be where the coalition risks losing unanimity. Klingbeil's SPD has recommended higher taxes for top earners and increased inheritance tax, proposals the Christian Democrats have met with skepticism. The conservatives have laid more emphasis on possible cuts in various state subsidies and benefits, and also called for the abolition of a special additional tax levied against the highest earners called the solidarity surcharge (Solidaritäatszuschlag) so that high earners also see reduced tax bills.

Asked about these disagreements, Klingbeil acknowledged that there was still work to do. 

"Each side has its ideas about how offsetting tax cuts could look like. The suggestions must now be weighed up together. In the end there will be a good solution. For me it is clear that broad shoulders are capable of carrying more," he said. 

Klingbeil argud that high earners or asset-rich individuals had to do their part so that economic disparities did not grow yet further: "That's what I understand by solidarity," he said.

German officials are trying to secure delivery of oil from Kazakhstan to the PCK refinery in the eastern town of Schwedt, which Russia has said will be diverted starting next week.

Until now, much of the oil arrived via the Russian Druzhba pipeline, the largest principal artery for the transportation of Russian and Kazakh oil across Europe.

Dietmar Woidke, the premier of the eastern state of Brandenburg, home of the Schwedt refinery, told reporters that a halt to deliveries would be "a clear setback."

"But it is also completely clear that we will do everything — the Brandenburg state government together with PCK management and the federal government — to ensure that production will continue and that security of supply in the region can also be ensured," Woidke told reporters. 

Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak, who is responsible for energy issues, told the Russian news agency Interfax earlier this week that the oil would be diverted via other routes for technical reasons.

Kazakh Energy Minister Yerlan Akkenshenov said Russia would be stopping the transit of oil to Schwedt, saying he suspected this could be linked to the latest Ukrainian attacks on facilities belonging to Russia's oil industry. 

The state's Economy Minister Martina Klement said the reason behind Moscow's decision remained unclear and complicated matters. 

"Sadly, we don't know the exact background to this and, at the present time, we also don't know how long the restrictions will last," she said. "But what we do know is that the talks are being conducted at a high pace and by everyone who is involved."

There are alternative routes for oil to reach the refinery via the ports of Gdansk and Rostock. 

After Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine began in 2022, the German government decided to stop importing Russian pipeline oil.

A spokeswoman for the European Commission has told the German DPA news agency that Brussels does not plan to pursue an increased windfall tax on energy companies at the EU level, after a call to do so from German Finance Minister Lars Klingbeil and his counterparts from four other member states. 

"The Commission currently has no plans to introduce windfall taxes, and will not speculate on whether such measures might be introduced in the future or not," she told DPA. 

Energy Commissioner Dan Jorgensen had made a similar indication on Wednesday in Brussels, when he said that such a decision on the EU level would require the unanimous approval of all member states. He said the Commission did not currently perceive such unanimity to exist. 

However, the Commission also noted that individual member states were empowered to implement such legislation individually and said that Brussels would respect their decisions and provide support if requested.

Ministers from Austria, Germany, Italy, Portugal and Spain put forward the recommendation to act in coordination across the EU. 

However, while the proposal was supported by Social Democrat chairman and Finance Minister Klingbeil, Germany's Minister for energy and the economy, Katherina Reiche of the Christian Democrats, criticized the proposal. 

The instability of the oil and gas markets driving up prices amid the war in Iran and the wider Gulf region is leading to increased revenues and margins for suppliers.

Germany's Green Party want to adjust the principle of sexual consent in German law to "Only Yes means Yes" — rather than simply "No means No," as is currently the case.

"Silence and passiveness are not consent," said lawmaker Lena Gumnior, adding that consent can be signaled using "words, nods and general body language."

Carmen Wegge of the Social Democrats (SPD) said the anchoring of "No means No" in German law in 2016 was a success but warned of loopholes.

She referred to dropped charges in a case in the eastern German state of Thuringia in which a man had allegedly dragged a woman into a bush and sexually abused her, prompting her to fall into a state of shock and leaving her unable to object.

However, the conservative Christian Democrats (CDU) and the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) on Thursday rejected the Greens' motion, with the latter warning of a "criminalization of human misunderstandings."

AfD lawmaker Knuth Meyer-Soltau accused the Greens of "moral grandstanding" and of attacking the central pillars of German law by trying to reverse the burden of proof.

Lawmakers from Germany's Social Democratic Party (SPD) have reported being targeted by phishing attacks via the Signal messenger app.

"Based on what we know so far, a small number of parliamentarians from our faction have been affected by these attacks," a party spokesman confirmed to the AFP news agency on Thursday, adding that the SPD was "working closely with the security services and supporting enquiries fully."

German and foreign security services have been warning for months of attempts to hack the Signal accounts of politicians, civil servants, diplomats, journalists and military figures — attempts which are believed to stem from Russia.

"Hybrid attacks on parliamentary processes are a constant threat," said the spokesman. "We are constantly adapting our security apparatus in order to permanently guarantee the integrity of our communications."

On Wednesday, Spiegel news magazine reported that Germany's parliamentary speaker, Julia Klöckner, had been among those targeted. Klöckner is reportedly in several Signal groups with senior Christian Democrat (CDU) politicians including party chief and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz. A spokesman for Klöckner would neither confirm nor deny the report.

Indeed, apart from the SPD, no other party represented in the Bundestag would officially confirm cases of phishing attacks. Spokespeople for the Green Party and the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) said they weren't aware of any incidents, while the CDU and the Left Party declined to comment.

Signal is a messenger service similar to WhatsApp which is used by politicians due to its strong end-to-end encryption but which, unlike Meta-owned WhatsApp, is a non-profit organization that hardly collects any user data.

The incidents reported by Germany's SPD are not Signal security breaches but rather attempts by third parties to access a user's account, either by tricking the user into giving away their pin, or by having them log into an additional device using a QR code.

Signal insists that its support staff will never contact users using in-app messaging, SMS or social media and will never ask for confirmation codes or pins. It says the best defense against phishing attempts is "user alertness."

Police in the western German state of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) caught a wallaby on Thursday morning and have appealed for information regarding its owner.

The animal, which is similar to a kangaroo but smaller, was spotted by locals near Ahaus, a small town close to the Dutch border.

Officers managed to catch the mini marsupial with a net and took it to a veterinary clinic for treatment.

Where exactly it escaped from and who it belongs to is unclear.

German schools have reported a sharp increase in the number of extreme-right, racist and antisemitic incidents in recent years, according to Spiegel news magazine, citing figures from a survey conducted by regional education and culture ministries across nine of Germany's 16 federal states.

Overall, around 1,500 cases of illegal symbols or graffiti were reported in 2024 in the nine states alone.

In the western state of Hesse, for example, the number of such incidents reportedly more than quadrupled from 39 in 2023 to 159 in 2025.

The northern state of Lower Saxony saw an increase from 133 in 2022 to 322 in 2024.

In the eastern state of Saxony, the figure rose from 149 to 247 between 2023 and 2025.

Saxony's state culture minister, Conrad Clemens (CDU), said that "far-right extremism is the biggest social problem in Saxony's schools."

German chocolate manufacturer Ritter Sport is set to make redundancies for the first time in the company's 110-year history, a spokesman confirmed on Thursday, with just over 10% of jobs affected.

Ritter, famous for its square-shaped chocolate bars and its slogan "Quadratisch. Praktisch. Gut." (Square. Practical. Good.), has actually increased turnover in recent years — but still posted a loss in 2025.

Reasons for the loss, according to the spokesman, include a sharp increase in the cost of raw ingredients such as cocoa beans as well as the rising costs of energy and packaging.

He also said the company, based in Waldenbuch near the southern German city of Stuttgart, had registered a drop in purchasing power among customers opting not to spend their money on chocolate.

Ritter employs around 1,900 people globally, about 1,000 of whom are based in Germany, including about 600 in administration. Around 70 of those admin jobs are expected to be cut.

Chocolate has become significantly more expensive in recent years, partly due to fears of crop failures in West Africa as a result of plant diseases and extreme weather, and manufacturers and food retailers have passed on increased costs to consumers.

According to Germany's Federal Statistical Office, a bar of chocolate was on average 71% more expensive in March 2026 than in 2020.

After Bayern Munich beat Bayer Leverkusen on Wednesday night to reach their first German Cup (DFB Pokal) final since 2020, their opponents in the Berlin showcase will be determined in the second semi-final on Thursday as VfB Stuttgart host SC Freiburg.

Current cup-holders Stuttgart have so far beaten Eintracht Braunschweig, Mainz 05, VfL Bochum and Holstein Kiel to reach a third semi-final in four years — and Sebastian Hoeness' team are also doing well in the Bundesliga, currently sat fourth with four league games remaining.

Striker Deniz Undav has scored 18 Bundesliga goals this season (second only to Bayern's Harry Kane), leading to calls for Germany head coach Julian Nagelsmann to include him in the starting XI at this summer's World Cup.

But Freiburg are also having another quietly impressive season. A comparatively small club from the Black Forest, Freiburg earned nationwide plaudits when they reached the cup final in 2022 under legendary former coach Christian Streich  and they have continued their development under his successor, Julian Schuster.

Indeed, this isn't the only semi-final Freiburg are involved in this season; they're also in the final four of the UEFA Europa League for the first ever time.

Both Freiburg and Stuttgart are based in the southwestern German state of Baden-Württemberg, whereby Freiburg are historically from Baden and Stuttgart are from Württemberg, making the fixture an intriguing local derby.

The exiled son of Iran's last Shah, Reza Pahlavi, was in Berlin on Thursday where he called on European governments not to negotiate with or appease the Iranian regime.

"If you think you can make peace with this regime, you are sorely mistaken," the opposition figure said at a press conference.

"There will never be stability, even if a watered-down version of this system survives," he added.

Read the full story of Reza Pahlavi's visit to Berlin here.

Police in Bavaria arrested two suspected spies earlier this month, authorities announced on Thursday.

Prosecutors in Munich said that the two men had been arrested during a routine check on the A6 autobahn near the small town of Neuendettelsau just outside Nuremberg on April 12.

The men — a 45-year-old from Latvia and a 43-year-old from Ukraine — reportedly had "various suspicious objects" in their vehicle, including false identity papers, cameras, a drone, GPS trackers and radios as well as several mobile phones and SIM cards.

The men are suspected of "acting on behalf of a group or institution outside Germany," said authorities, who have charged them with espionage activities with the aim of sabotage and the procurement of false documents.

Neither man is a resident of Germany, and both remain in pre-trial detention. 

Both Latvia and Ukraine are home to Russian-speaking minorities, some of whom are sympathetic to Russia. The alleged need to protect Russian-speakers from "persecution" in Ukraine is regularly repeated by Kremlin spokespeople as justification for the 2022 full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

Independent reports from the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, the Council of Europe and others have consistently found no evidence that Russian speakers or ethnic Russians in Ukraine have faced "persecution" at the hands of Ukrainian authorities.

The first passengers arrived at Frankfurt Airport's new Terminal 3 on Thursday after the official opening of the building a day earlier.

The first airplane to land early in the morning was a China Southern Airlines flight from Shenyang.

The Chinese airline is one of 57 set to move their Frankfurt operations to Terminal 3 from Terminal 2, which is to be closed and renovated.

The new Terminal 3, which came in only slightly over budget at €4 billion and only slightly delayed (largely due to the COVID-19 pandemic) after 10 years of construction, has the capacity to handle around 19 million passengers per year — with the potential to expand to 25 million.

Former US President Barack Obama has praised German climate activist Luisa Neubauer for her "incredible" work in raising awareness of climate change.

Obama said the 30-year-old, who took part in the Obama Foundation Leaders program in 2020, was an example of a young person who gives him "hope."

In a video message recorded to mark Earth Day on April 22, Obama said Neubauer was someone who "decided not to wait for someone else to make change" but who has taken action and made an impact herself.

Neubauer, one of the chief organizers of the Fridays for Future climate protection movement in Germany, is then seen on a boat off Antarctica, which she describes as a "place of hope."

She said the fact that Antarctica is the only continent which is protected by a collaborative international treaty is "quite utopian" in today's world.

Police removed a man from a deportation flight at Berlin Brandenburg Airport on Thursday after he reportedly disrupted pre-flight preparations.

According to the dpa news agency, the deportee began behaving loudly and uncooperatively in the back rows of the A320 airplane and had to be escorted off the flight.

During the tussle to remove him, an emergency slide was reportedly deployed, forcing all 161 passengers to leave the plane for safety reasons.

Since the emergency slide could not immediately be replaced, the flight's capacity had to be reduced by 51 to 110 and ultimately set off to Vienna with a two-and-a-half-hour delay.

In the last year, 1,593 deportations were stopped due to interventions by federal police for various reasons, including medical emergencies, resistance, staff shortages, missing documents or self-harm.

In 2025, a total of 22,787 people were deported from Germany  19,987 by air.

Guten Tag! Welcome to DW's coverage of what Germany is talking about on Thursday, 23 April, 2026.

The first passengers began passing through Frankfurt Airport's new Terminal 3 on Thursday morning following the terminal's official opening on Wednesday.

Meanwhile, at Berlin Airport, a disruptive passenger had to be removed from a deportation flight.

Elsewhere, former US President Barack Obama has praised German climate activist Luisa Neubauer.