Germany news: Crowds throng streets for Carnival parades

An agreement signed last Friday by the defense ministers of Germany and Ukraine will allow the German military, Bundeswehr, to benefit from the expertise of military instructors from Ukraine.

"The plan is to incorporate the experience of Ukrainian soldiers into army training, particularly at the army's troop schools," a Bundeswehr spokesperson told the DPA news agency, without providing details.

Germany is responding to the significant changes that have occurred on the battlefield in Ukraine since Russia attacked almost four years ago. Ukrainian soldiers, for example, have extensive experience deploying and fighting drones and integrating modern command and control technologies into combat units.

Last week, The Wall Street Journal reported that a team of approximately ten Ukrainians destroyed numerous armored vehicles and other targets in a short period of time during a NATO exercise in the Baltic States last year, while the NATO side did not succeed in eliminating the opposing drone teams. 

Germany's major rail link between Berlin and Hamburg will remain closed for longer than planned. 

Deutsche Bahn says severe winter weather has pushed back renovation work that was due to finish by the end of April.

The main issue is underground cabling for signalling systems, which has fallen far behind schedule.

The 280‑kilometre line has been shut since August 2025, affecting some 30,000 long‑distance passengers and 470 trains every day.

Services are being rerouted via Stendal and Uelzen, adding around 45 minutes to travel times.

The overhaul is part of Deutsche Bahn's wider plan to modernize more than 40 busy corridors by 2036, following the first upgrade between Frankfurt and Mannheim in 2024.

More than one in four children and young people in Germany use social media in a problematic way, a new study has shown.

Health insurer DAK-Gesundheit released new figures on social media use, which were made available to the German DPA news agency on Monday. They pointed to a rise in addictive behavior among social media users.

Some 21.5% of respondents reported last autumn risky overall social media use, against 21.1% in the autumn of 2024. Online videos' consumption rose significantly, with 21.4% of the respondents saying they consumed a risky amount, compared to 13.4% in 2024.

Some 6.6% of social media users and 4% of video users are considered to be addicted, according to the study. By DAK-Gesundheit estimates, this means that some 350,000 children and young people have a "pathological" use of social media.

Pathological social media use means the platforms are used excessively in an unplanned manner beyond the permitted limits, and that such usage has negative consequences in other areas, such as delays at schools and sleep disorders.

"We must act quickly now to protect and strengthen our children," he said, warning that it wasn't enough to introduce age limits; more media literacy training is also needed.

Germany's coalition government is studying ways to limit children's access to social media.

Germany's Defense Minister Boris Pistorius told DW on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference this weekend that he did not see a problem with an ongoing drone procurement deal for the Bundeswehr military. 

Parliament's budget committee is expected to discuss and approve the deal at some point in February.

But it has come under criticism from some opposition politicians in the Greens because the Berlin military startup "Stark Defence" has investment from Palantir CEO Peter Thiel. Sara Nanni of the Greens characterized billionaire Thiel as someone who says "freedom and democracy are incompatible," citing a 2009 essay he wrote.

Pistorius however said that to the best of his understanding, Thiel's share in the company was small and there was no reason to believe he exerted great influence over it. 

"As far as I am informed, we are not talking about a 'key' stakeholder, we are talking about somebody who has between 3 and 4.5%. So this is not a key role and stakeholder," he told DW. "So we should consider seriously, but it's not an obstacle really to make contracts with that company." 

Asked whether the share of ownership was the decisive factor, Pistorius nodded in the affirmative but added: "And the influence, which is really there or not." 

German media reports last week suggest that a first tranche of combat drones purchases from two companies, Stark and Helsing, would be worth around €536 million (roughly $635 million), as part of a procurement program set to be worth around €4.3 billion in total. 

German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier urged Lebanon to continue to disarm the militant group Hezbollah, during a two-day visit to Lebanon on Monday.

"Do not believe that we in Germany imagine that to be so easy. We know it is a demanding task," he added.

The German president argued that Hezbollah's disarmament, on par with a November 2024 ceasefire agreement with Israel, would help ensure Israel's withdrawal from Lebanese territory.

As per the agreement, Israel was to gradually withdraw completely from Lebanese territory while only the Lebanese military and security forces were to be allowed to carry weapons in the southern Litani area.

"Both sides are obliged to fulfil the ceasefire agreement -- I say this in Israel as well as in Lebanon," he told a press conference with his Lebanese counterpart Joseph Aoun, calling the deal "an opportunity."

Lebanon's government has committed, as part of the cease-fire agreement, to disarming the Iran-backed Hezbollah. Last month, the army announced completing the first phase of the plan, which covers the area between the Litani river and the Israeli border.

Israel has maintained regular strikes on Lebanon and kept its troops in five south Lebanon areas. Israel accuses Hezbollah, which has rejected calls to put down its weapons, of rearming.

Lebanese President Aoun called on Berlin to "demand the Israeli side implement the ceasefire agreement and withdraw from the territories it occupies." 

Lebanon calls for German military support

Aoun also asked for German assistance after the departure of United Nations peacekeepers, whose mandate expires later this year. The United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) includes 179 German personnel and Germany has headed the mission's maritime taskforce since 2021.

"We continue to stand by your country's side," Steinmeier said in Beirut in a press conference with Aoun.

Federal Transport Minister Patrick Schnieder (CDU) urged faster action to protect Germany's critical infrastructure in an interview with DW, citing roads, bridges, railways, waterways and digital systems.

He also warned against relying too heavily on foreign manufacturers, singling out China. Deutsche Bahn has contracted a Chinese firm to build 200 electric buses as part of an expansion.

"We must pay even closer attention to this, because these cases are well known and we cannot rely on infrastructure and components from China, for example, especially when it comes to critical infrastructure," Schnieder said. "You have to bring your own expertise. We are developing that too."

Schnieder linked infrastructure upgrades to Europe's security, noting Germany's central location and the need for transport routes that can handle troop movements in a potential conflict.

"This shows the value of infrastructure in terms of security policy. And that is currently the topic of almost all international discussions we are having, including in the European context," he said, referring to talks with France and Poland under the Weimar Triangle.

This year's parade in Cologne is skipping floats from sculpturor Jacques Tilly, whose anti-Putin floats have earned him trouble with the Russian authorities.

The Dusseldorfer has three anti-Putin floats joining the parades in his home city this year.

But in neighboring Cologne, Carnival Festival Committee President Christoph Kuckelkorn opted instead for the slogan "we are all Tilly" in the local dialect as a gesture of solidarity.

The decision to exclude Tilly's work in Cologne has drawn criticism. 

Tilly faces prosecution in Russia for his earlier satirical depictions of Putin and could face aa fine or imprisonment up to 10 years.

Unidentified participants at a Carnival event in Koblenz used pepper spray during a party on Sunday evening in Spay, near the western German city of Koblenz.

Koblenz police said the irritant gas was sprayed following a dispute within a group of party attendees, citing witness statements.

Some 59 people received treatment, including nine who were temporarily hospitalized, police said.

Authorities said criminal procedures are underway to identify the perpetrators and called on witnesses and victims to come forward with any information.

It wasn't just your imagination that Germany-bashing was not a feature of this year's Munich Security Conference. On the contrary, the host country was singled out for praise repeatedly, as has also been the case at NATO, for its dramatically increased defense budget and ambition to become, as Chancellor Friedrich Merz says, Europe's "strongest army."

On the part of the United States, Jana Puglierin of the European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR) told DW, "there is a renewed attempt to reach out to Germany because what the Americans want, besides civilizational allies, is a more capable Europe when it comes to defense."

Speaking on the sidelines of MSC, Puglierin said the message of Elbridge Colby, the Pentagon's undersecretary for policy, was that the US wants to work with those countries he called "model allies" which have "done their homework." Germany is included in that group, Puglierin explains, for decisions such as more than doubling its defense budget within five years.

At the same time, Puglierin, who heads up ECFR's Berlin office, says the shift in the Trump administration's attitude toward Germany may also be affected by two other factors: that the European Union reacted strongly with potential economic retaliation to what she calls the "near-death experience" of Trump's threat to invade Greenland and, quite simply, the "fact that we now are governed by a man called Friedrich Merz and not a woman called Angela Merkel."

"I think there is a very personal aspect in there," Puglierin suggests. "Donald Trump did not get along with Angela Merkel, she was hailed as the leader of the free world back then, I think he hated this."

Carnival traditions differ from city to city, though people in Cologne take pride in hosting the biggest party.

In Düsseldorf, the floats are known for being brazenly political, where no one and no theme appears to be off-limits.

Germany's public broadcaster WDR has released some figures on the festivities in Cologne:

• Around 11,500 participants
• 1,122 musicians
• 300 tons of sweets thrown from floats
• 2,000 polic officers deployed

Carnival maestro Jacques Tilly's floats are a closely guarded secret because of the topical themes he confronts.

Tilly has gathered international attention because of his no-holds-barred floats where jokes poking fun at the rich and famous are a Carnival-given right. Here are photos from his floats this year, though he did make his sketches online for the first time:

Some of the photos of the first floats are in, with these along with many others set to make their way through the city of Cologne, a route that runs 8 kilometers (4.9 miles) long.