Germany news: Berlin releases report on hidden violence

Deutsche Bahn has presented a first offer in wage talks with the German Train Drivers' Union (GDL), proposing a total 6% increase for employees over a 30-month contract term.

The national rail operator said 3.8% would come through pay rises in two steps, with the remaining 2.2% delivered via structural adjustments in the wage system, including a new pay grade sought by the union. Deutsche Bahn is also offering a one-time payment of €400 ($477).

"This is a good and very comprehensive offer," said Martin Seiler, Deutsche Bahn's Chief Human Resources Officer. "We are addressing key demands of the GDL and sending a clear signal for further negotiations: an agreement at the negotiating table is possible."

GDL Chairman Mario Reiss, however, criticized the offer as too low. "On paper, this may initially appear to be progress," he stated. “However, the crucial factor is the specific detail.”

Reiss said the offer was weakened by the planned 30-month duration for the deal. Still, the union described it as a basis for further talks, with negotiations scheduled to continue through Friday.

The GDL is demanding an 8% increase with a duration for the new agreement of 12 months. The two parties have the rest of February to negotiate, with strikes only possible from the start of March.

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz's wife, Charlotte Merz, was taken to hospital after falling during a bike ride with her husband in Arnsberg in the Sauerland region, a government spokeswoman has said.

"Because she was wearing a helmet, she did not suffer any serious injuries and was released after a brief observation period," said the spokeswoman. "The chancellor himself was always by her side."

Federal prosecutors in Germany have filed charges in Düsseldorf against a German-Moroccan woman accused of belonging to the so-called "Islamic State" militant group.

The prosecutors said she traveled to Syria with her husband in early 2015 and joined the organization there.

After her husband was killed in fighting, she later married two other IS members in succession, the Federal Public Prosecutor's Office said, accusing her of membership in a foreign terrorist organization.

Authorities said Kurdish forces detained her in March 2019, after which she was held until 2021 in the notorious al-Hol camp in northeastern Syria.

Prosecutors said the woman returned to Germany in December 2022 and has remained free, with the state security senate at the Düsseldorf Higher Regional Court now set to decide whether to admit the indictment and when a trial could begin.

A train attendant has been attacked in Baden-Württemberg after a dispute over a passenger's ticket, prompting an investigation by federal police.

Police in Stuttgart said the 42-year-old conductor checked the ticket of a 21-year-old man on Sunday, and issued a fare surcharge after he was apparently unable to show a valid ticket.

Witnesses said the suspect approached her again shortly after the next stop on the train from Stuttgart toward Crailsheim, spat on her leg and tried to strike her in the stomach with a bottle before fleeing.

Federal police have opened an investigation on suspicion of attempted aggravated assault and are seeking witnesses.

The attack comes less than a week after a fatal attack on a train attendant.

German prosecutors in Göttingen have launched coordinated searches in Germany and Switzerland after undercover investigations into the far-right scene uncovered suspected trafficking in inciting audio recordings and extremist merchandise.

Senior prosecutor Andreas Buick said a 43-year-old man from the Göttingen district was taken into custody as the main suspect, after officers searched 11 properties across five German states and in Switzerland.

Investigators said they seized around 1,000 far-right CDs and vinyl records, along with large quantities of scene items such as pins, lanyards, clothing and stickers, including merchandise bearing swastikas, Reich eagles, SS skull symbols and Hitler figures.

Authorities believe the suspect ordered large shipments from abroad, produced some items himself and offered them for sale, with five additional suspects allegedly involved in the trade.

A warehouse searched in the state of Thuringia was also identified as a meeting point for the local far-right scene, while investigators are also examining suspected weapons law violations and possible trafficking in illegal doping substances and prescription drugs.

Among the items found were explosives requiring permits, so-called homemade laboratory substances, several knuckle-dusters and a blank-firing pistol.

Buick said the 43-year-old has since been released from pretrial detention under strict conditions, including being required to remain registered in the Goettingen district and surrendering his passport.

Corporate insolvencies in Germany have fallen at the start of the year, with the Halle Institute for Economic Research (IWH) reporting an 8% monthly decline to 1,391 cases, a level that still remains above recent norms.

Researchers said the figure was 4% higher than a year earlier and 54% above an average January in 2016 to 2019, before the coronavirus pandemic. IWH insolvency researcher Steffen Mueller said February and March were still expected to bring high numbers, while some easing could be possible from April, with the trend pointing to a stabilization at a high level rather than a complete easing off.

Insolvencies in January were below their sector-specific peaks across all industries and in almost every sector under the 12-month average, the analysis found. The main exception was business-related services, where more than 5,000 jobs were affected — twice the 12-month average — after several larger staffing firms collapsed alongside a major car rental company and a building services provider.

The IWH said nearly 17,000 jobs were affected among the largest 10% of insolvent companies in January, up 10% from December 2025 and 18% from the same month a year earlier.

The German military plans to spend around €536 million (about $640 million) on an initial tranche of new combat drones.

The contracts are for loitering munitions — weapon systems that orbit a target area until an operator on the ground assigns them a target, which they then attack autonomously.

Such drones are initially intended to increase the combat power and protection of Bundeswehr troops stationed in Lithuania as a German contribution to deterrence on NATO's eastern flank.

The deal is part of a larger €4.3 billion arrangement to be concluded with the German companies Helsing and Stark, according to two documents seen by the Reuters news agency. It is expected to be rubber-stamped by the lower house of parliament’s budget committee.

Delivery of the first systems is scheduled to begin as early as 2026 and be completed by the beginning of 2027.

A study into hidden violence in Germany shows that only a tiny fraction of sexual assaults against women are actually reported.

The so-called "dark field" study answers some questions that are not covered by annually published crime statistics, as these only include offenses reported to the police.

It attempts to uncover the true extent of crime, since not all offenses are reported, for example, due to shame or mistrust.

The data from this study shows, for instance, that while women are significantly more often victims of sexual assault, they report these offenses less frequently than men.

The reporting rate for female victims of these offenses, which include rape and other non-consensual sexual acts, is just 3%.

According to the study, male victims report such assaults in 14.5% of cases. However, the researchers point out that the reporting rate for men is subject to measurement inaccuracies due to the low number of cases.

Germany has improved its ranking in Transparency International's annual Corruption Perceptions Index, but this is primarily due to the decline of other countries.

The country ranks 10th out of 182 countries in the 2025 index, which ranks countries and territories on how they guard against public sector corruption.

This represents a climb of five places compared to the previous year. Denmark remains in first place with the lowest perceived corruption.

Read more about the index here.

Short-term "warning strikes" are planned at university hospitals, colleges, daycare centers and schools in several German states on Tuesday.

Walkouts are planned across almost the entire country — with the sole exception of the central state of Hesse.

In the western state of North Rhine-Westphalia, five tunnels will also have to be temporarily closed because employees in the control room of the state-owned operating company also intend to participate in the actions.

Rallies are planned, with the Verdi union and the German Civil Service Federation (DBB) demanding a 7% pay increase, or at least €300 (about $360) more per month.

Negotiations will take place on Wednesday — likely for the last time in this round of wage talks.

Guten Tag from DW's newsroom in Bonn.

You join us as the German government is set to present a study on the prevalence of violent incidents that do not appear in official crime statistics.

The study examines all forms of violence, with a focus on intimate partner violence, sexual violence, and digital violence.

It will also shed light on the differences in the experiences of violence faced by women and men.

Stay with us for this and other Germany-related headlines from Tuesday, February 10.