Germany news: FM Wadephul heads for Western Balkans

A controversial auction of items and documents from Holocaust victims was canceled just a day before it was scheduled to take place in Neuss, a city near Düsseldorf in western Germany. 

Prior to the cancellation, the International Auschwitz Committee had urged the auction house to cancel the event, calling it "cynical and shameless," and saying that the history of Holocaust survivors was was "being exploited for commercial gain."

You can read about what happened here: Auction of Holocaust items canceled after outrage

Some two years ago, municipalities across Germany sounded the alarm.

Many places simply could not cope with the influx of refugees, in particular people fleeing war in Ukraine.

A survey of almost 900 municipalities now shows some improvement.

However, at the same time, "more than 70% of municipalities continue to say that the situation is challenging," said Boris Kühn from the Migration Policy Research Group at the University of Hildesheim.

Read more about housing challenges for refugees in Germany.

Germany's Social Democratic Party (SPD) criticized the premier of the southern German state of Bavaria, after he urged for the construction of new nuclear power plants in Germany.

Markus Söder, the leader of Bavaria's conservative Christian Social Union (CSU) party, the sister party of Chancellor Friedrich Merz's Christian Democratic Union (CDU), called for Germany to invest in "smaller, smart reactors, such as those already in use in Canada."

He argued that these "mini reactors" would require less state funding than previous plants.

But Nina Scheer, energy policy spokesperson for the SPD parliamentary group in the Bundestag, responded to the idea, saying in an interview with the daily Welt, "Nuclear energy production is the most expensive form of energy production." 

She said that, like conventional nuclear power plants, small modular reactors (SMRs) pose an enormous safety risk and produce even more nuclear waste than larger nuclear reactors.

Scheer added that it would be "irresponsible to ignore these facts and burden the general public with the associated costs." 

In a speech before the German parliament on Sunday, Italian President Sergio Mattarella urged stronger multilateral structures to prevent new wars.

"Multilateralism is not bureaucracy, as autocratic rulers claim," he told the memorial service for the national day of mourning, or Volkstrauertag, in the German parliament.

He described multilateralism as a tool that "makes peaceful solutions possible."

"It is the language of shared responsibility," Mattarella added.

"How many more deaths will it take before we stop considering war as a means of resolving conflicts between states?" he asked.

Mattarella also warned that the pledge of "never again" in response to the Holocaust is at risk.

"This is what we are experiencing right now: war again, racism again, great inequality again, violence again, aggression again," he said. 

Finance Minister and Vice Chancellor Lars Klingbeil is scheduled to arrive in China on Monday — the first visit to China by a Cabinet minister of the current German government

The trip to Berlin's most important trading partner comes at a difficult time. Chinese export controls, especially on rare earths, have highlighted the German economy's heavy dependence on Beijing. 

The German automotive industry, for example, has felt the effects as it faces a shortage of important parts.

Read more about the German vice chancellor's high-stakes visit to China.

Eighty years after Adolf Hitler's death, a new documentary by British public broadcaster Channel 4 claims to reveal medical facts about the dictator.

"Hitler's DNA: Blueprint of a Dictator" also attempts to explain his behavior based on genetic analysis. But from a scientific point of view, this is a highly questionable endeavor.

Read more to find out why linking Hitler's behavior to genetics is problematic.

A flock of around 600 sheep was herded through the German city of Nuremberg on Sunday as shepherds led the animals to their winter quarters. 

Pedestrians lined up the central streets of Nuremberg to see shepherd Thomas Gackstatter's woolly stars. The annual spectacle attracts hundreds every year. 

The bleating sheep were traveling from the summer pastures in the Pegnitz Valley to the Zenn Valley in the city's west.

Bavarian Premier Markus Söder on Sunday has accused politicians from the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) of being subservient to Russian PresidentVladimir Putin.

"These people are sycophants; they are Putin's court jesters; they areKremlin servants," said Söder, who also leads the Bavaria-only Christian Social Union (CSU), at a conservative youth conference in southwestern Germany. 

In comments made after the AfD said some of its politicians will pay a visit to Moscow, Söder said that AfD lawmakers had also invited groups of visitors to the Russian Embassy in Berlin.

He said the CSU and its sister party, Chancellor Friedrich Merz's Christian Democratic Union (CDU), were the only parties that could offer a successful counterweight to the AfD, which is the strongest opposition force in the Bundestag.

"The only ones capable of keeping the radicals out of power are the CDU and CSU, no one else in the country," he said, while echoing Merz's assertions that the conservative bloc would never cooperate with the AfD.

These remarks seemed to counter criticism from some quarters that the conservative CDU/CSU bloc was using rhetoric redolent of the far-right populist party, particularly on the issue of migration.

At the same time, he predicted "big and tough battles" in upcoming state elections, especially in eastern Germany. 

Söder went one to say that the AfD is partly made up of "strange people," many of whom were suspected of right-wing extremism or are even under indictment.

 

A 45-year-old man in Hamburg has been hospitalized with serious injuries, including a broken arm, after being run over by a suburban train and living to tell the tale.

According to federal police, the man fell from the platform onto a track at Hamburg's central train station early on Sunday morning and was hit by an incoming train after waiting passengers were unable to warn its driver in time.

The onlookers called emergency services and comforted the injured man until they arrived.

Police officers and emergency responders freed the man by pushing the train back.

The driver also received care from police and an emergency manager following the incident, with police saying on the basis of witness statements and video recordings that there were no indications of third-party negligence or a suicide attempt.

 

German Economy Minister Katherina Reiche is kicking off a four-day trip to the Gulf on Sunday during which she plans to visit the United Arab Emirates and Qatar.

She is scheduled to chair a German-Emirati energy forum and hold talks with officials during the trip, on which she is to be accompanied by an economic delegation that includes ChancellorFriedrich Merz's personal investment representative., Martin Blessing.

Before leaving Berlin, Reiche called both the companies important partners that were "economically ambitious and strong in technology and capital."

She said her visit would bring "a number of contracts signed involving major industrial cooperation."

According to Reiche, the visit marked Germany's return "to economic rationality, reforms and partnerships that focus on technology." 

One topic under discussion is likely to be the planned takeover of German plastics manufacturer Covestro by the UAE's state-owned Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC), a deal that has been approved by the EU but not yet by Germany itself.

In Qatar, talks are likely to center for one on that country's threat to freeze or halt the export of liquefied natural gas (LNG) to Europe because of the EU's planned supply chain law.

That law, which would require companies to address human rights and environmental risks in their value chains, is currently in the process of possible reform, with the European Parliament on Thursday agreeing to soften that obligation.
 

Germany's national day of morning, called "Volkstrauertag" in German, will be marked by a ceremony in parliament on Sunday, with flags flown at half-mast at the Reichstag building in the capital, Berlin.

Italian President Sergio Mattarella, who is on a two-day visit to Germany, will mark the occasion with a speech in the Bundestag or lower house of parliament.

Since 1952, the day has been used to commemorate victims of war and oppression across the world.

The president of the Bundestag, Julia Klöckner, said ahead of the ceremony that it was important to do more than just remember at a time when peace and democracy are under growing threat in many places.

"Those who honur the victims of war and violence, those who know where hatred and blindness lead, must not remain silent when peace and democracy are threatened anywhere in the world," said Klöckner.

She called the day of mourning "a loud warning to us today, at a time of growing historical distance from the horrors of the two world wars and the simultaneous reality of war — and, unfortunately, a certain normality of war in Europe."

After Mattarella's speech, German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier is to speak at the traditional memorial service.

For the first time this year, his speech will also explicitly mention those persecuted for their gender or sexual identity, as well as police officers killed in service.

 

After several deadly incidents at Germany's famous Christmas markets in past years, many people are concerned about security at the events, a study commissioned by the DPA news agency has shown.

Altogether 22% of respondents in the YouGov survey said they were "very" worried about attacks on Christmas markets and 40% said they were "somewhat" concerned.

However, more than a third of respondents (35%) said they were not worried at all.

Security measures at Chrismas markets across the country are being tightened after a car-ramming attack killed six people in the eastern city of Magdeburg last December.  

They include vehicle barriers on access roads and a ban on knives that has been in place since 2024.

Not all are convinced that the stepped-up precautions are adequate, with 37% of respondents saying they are not enough.

However, such fears do not seem to excessively deter potential Christmas market visitors, with 59% saying they plan to go to one as opposed to 33% who say they will stay away this year.

The most commonly cited reasons for staying away were high prices for food and drinks (53%), excessive crowds and congestion (50%), a lack of interest (36%) and safety concerns (32%).

Christmas markets in Germany, which are a major tourist attraction as well, often open well before December.

An auction house in western Germany has been criticized for a planned auction of items belonging to Holocaust victims scheduled for Monday. 

The International Auschwitz Committee (IAC) has urged the Felzmann auction house in Neuss to cancel the event, calling the auction "cynical and shameless."

You can read more in this article: Holocaust items auction draws outrage in Germany

 

A hotel in Istanbul has been evacuated following the deaths of a German-Turkish mother and her two children from suspected poisoning, local media have reported.

Another two tourists staying at the same hotel in the Fatih neighborhood of Turkey's largest city were hospitalized on Saturday after displaying symptoms of nausea and vomiting, BirGun newspaper said.

Although the main focus has so far been on the possibility of food poisoning being behind the deaths, investigators have also found that a room on the ground floor of the hotel had recently been sprayed with pesticides, the Hurriyet news website reported Saturday. 

Police have detained a hotel employee and two pest control workers, meaning that seven people have now been arrested in connection with the deaths, it added.

The father from the family from Hamburg remained in "critical condition" in hospital, Istanbul's regional health chief Abdullah Emre Guner said late Friday on X.

German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul is starting a tour of the six Western Balkan countries on Sunday, with his first visit being to Bosnia and Herzegovina.

There, the Christian Democrat (CDU) politician plans to meet with the three members of the country's presidency: one representative each from the Bosniak, Serbian and Croatian ethnic groups.  

A meeting with Christian Schmidt, the international community's High Representative for Bosnia and Herzegovina under the Dayton Peace Agreement, is also on the agenda.

That pact ended a three-year civil war in 1995.

Wadephul's tour, which is planned to take him on to Montenegro, Albania and Serbia on Monday, then Kosovo and North Macedonia on Tuesday, will be focused on the countries' EU accession processes.

In Serbia, a meeting with President President Aleksandar Vucic — a populist leader whom critics call authoritarian — is planned.

Ahead of Wadephul's trip, a spokesman for the German Foreign Ministry emphasized Germany's support for the Western Balkans in their aspiration to join the bloc. 

"For us, one thing is certain: the Western Balkans are part of the European family," he said.

In 2003, the EU agreed that the Western Balkan countries would be eligible to become members once they had carried out requisite reforms.

However, there is growing frustration in several states over the lengthy process involved.