Germany news: More than 1,900 missing children

Emergency services in Munich got an unusual callout Sunday evening after receiving a distress call from a man trapped in a local zoo's bison enclosure.

Police said the call for help came in at around 9:45 p.m. (1945 UTC/GMT) from a 23-year-old man who said he had gotten lost in the bison enclosure, after trying to retrieve a lost shoe.

The man told emergency services that he had accidentally knocked his shoe over a fence and that his attempt to retrieve his footwear resulted in him getting stuck in the electrified enclosure housing the Thalkirchen Zoo's bisons.

Responding police officers managed to locate the man and, together with zoo staff, rescue him.

The man suffered some minor scrapes and a head injury and was taken to hospital by ambulance.

Police said the rescue operation proceeded smoothly and that the bison were able to go about their business unimpeded.

The missing footwear, police said, was located.

A fire at a poultry farm in the western German state of Saarland has killed several thousand chickens.  

Police said that preliminary assessments indicated that the cost of the damage at the farm in the district of Hemmerdorf could amount to some €1 million ($1.16 million).

They said a large proportion of the 7,000 animals at the farm had been killed in the blaze, which broke out in the early hours of Monday.

The fire brigade needed several hours to bring the conflagration under control, according to the police. 

The cause of the fire remains unclear.  

Saarland, the second smallest German state by area, borders directly on both France and Luxembourg.

German authorities say that more than 1,900 children are listed as missing and that the figure is up from a year before.

German news agency dpa cited the Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA) as saying that there were 1,933 unresolved missing children cases nationwide.

That figure is up from the year before where there were 1,810 open missing children cases, representing an upward trend of 6.8%.

The BKA said that the numbers include recent disappearances and unsolved cases from years prior.

The vast majority of are resolved the federal agency said.

"Even though the number of cases have risen significantly, the clearance rate has remained consistently high," a police spokesman said.

The figures deal with children aged up to and including 13 years old.

"Generally speaking, 96% of cases are resolved within three months," the spokesman said.

Most missing children cases involve parental abductions, repeat runaways or unaccompanied minor refugees, dpa cited the BKA as saying.

A new survey has found that a high proportion of travellers from Germany are concerned about the possibility of a jet fuel shortage as a result of the war in Iran.

The representative poll conducted by management firm SAP Concur found that 62% of respondents had changed travel behaviour due to the possibility of disruption.

Nearly half were ditching air travel altogether, with 46% opting to travel by train or by car.

The company found that one in five people surveyed had already cancelled or rebooked their flights or had experienced an airline cancel their flight due to the concerns.

"Anyone travelling in the coming weeks should plan flexibly," the German news agency DPA quoted Michael Schmitz, a manager at SAP Concur, as saying.

"That means considering alternatives to flying, such as trains or rental cars, where possible, and rebooking as quickly as possible in the event of cancellations. Travellers should document any additional costs and keep their receipts," Schmitz said.

A man is under investigation after he allegedly threatened children with a weapon in Berlin, triggering a major police response.

Police on Sunday said the 35-year-old stepped onto a balcony in the Hellersdorf district on Saturday evening, complained about noise and held a long gun while threatening to cause them harm.

The children ran away, and a witness alerted authorities. Officers, including a special forces unit, entered the apartment and found two other adults inside, a 47-year-old man and a 43-year-old woman.

Police seized a long gun with a magazine but no ammunition, two prohibited knives and nearly 8,700 suspected smuggled cigarettes.

After his identity was verified and police procedures were completed on-site, the 35-year-old was released. The 47-year-old apartment resident, to whom the seized items were attributed, was taken into police custody for identification procedures, after which he was also released. Further investigations are ongoing.

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz has sharply condemned Russia's latest missile attacks on the Ukrainian capital region.

He said the government denounced the "reckless escalation" and reaffirmed that Germany stands firmly with Ukraine.

Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul described Russia's "missile terror" as shocking, calling the use of the Oreschnik intermediate-range missile a further escalation. He said it underscored the need to continue strengthening Ukraine.

Wadephul discussed additional financial support for Ukraine with counterparts at a NATO foreign ministers' meeting in Helsingborg, according to the Foreign Office.

Russia said it had used the missile in response to what it called Ukrainian attacks on civilian targets. Ukrainian authorities said the strike hit the city of Bila Tserkva.

Earlier, Ukraine's air defense there had been a combined attack involving 600 drones, 90 missiles and cruise missiles. One strike damaged the studio of German broadcaster ARD in Kyiv, prompting condemnation from Germany's leading journalists' association.

Bayern Munich's German Cup win is arguably good news for archrivals Borussia Dortmund.

Stuttgart’s loss to the Bavarians in Saturday’s match means they don’t get to play in the German Supercup.

That gives Dortmund, who finished the league in second place, a chance to take a tilt at another title and prize money.

The two sides last met in the Supercup in 2021, when Bayern won 3–1.

The Franz Beckenbauer Supercup is scheduled for August 22, 2026. The match guarantees a boost to finances, with recent prize money at €3 million ($3.48 million) for the winner and €2 million for the runner-up. The venue has yet to be announced.

Many people in Germany have expressed doubts about the country's ability to defend itself in an attack.

A survey by Insa for the newspaper Bild am Sonntag found that only 17% of respondents believe the Bundeswehr could adequately defend Germany; 72% disagreed.

Concerns about a potential Russian attack have declined, with 38% saying they are worried compared with 50% who are not. In September 2025, a majority had still expressed concern.

Fears are significantly higher when it comes to hybrid threats. Around two-thirds of respondents said they are concerned about cyberattacks, sabotage, or disinformation affecting life in Germany, while just over one in five said they were not worried.

The survey was conducted between May 21 and 22 among 1,005 respondents and is considered representative.

A delegation from the German Bundestag has arrived in Taiwan to deepen parliamentary cooperation.

The five-member group, led by Green Party lawmaker Till Steffen, said the visit aims to strengthen ties with the island claimed by China.

Steffen said Taiwan is an important partner sharing democratic values, adding that both sides face growing challenges from authoritarian forces. He said the delegation also wants to convey this message to President Lai Ching-te.

The group is set to meet Lai on Tuesday and hold talks with former president Tsai Ing-wen, as well as lawmakers, business representatives and civil society figures.

The delegation, which includes members from multiple German parties, is scheduled to remain in Taiwan until May 31.

Bayern Munich fans have been celebrating after striker Harry Kane scored three times to fire Bayern Munich to a 3-0 victory over Stuttgart in the German Cup final.

The win delivered a domestic double for the Bavarian giants and ended a six-year trophy drought.

It caps a dominant season for Bayern, who had already secured the Bundesliga title with four games to spare.

Read more about the story here.

Welcome back and Güten Tag from the DW newsroom in Bonn.

We'll be here once again bringing you the latest news headlines coming out of Germany on Sunday.

Thanks for following our coverage today. We will have more from Germany in our blog on Sunday.

Twenty-eight people were injured when two trams collided in the western German city of Düsseldorf.

The head-on crash happened at around 11:30 am local time (0930 UTC/GMT) at the busy intersection of Berliner Allee and Graf-Adolf-Strasse.

The intersection is located in the Friedrichstadt area, near the city center

The local fire service said five people sustained serious injuries and were taken to the hospital.

DPA news agency cited a police spokesperson as saying that none of them is in a critical condition.

The fire brigade said most of the passengers on board were able to leave the carriages without issue.

A further 28 people were treated by paramedics at the scene.

Public broadcaster WDR reported that both trams derailed in the collision and that some of the seats were torn from their mountings.

According to reports, the trams were busy as hundreds of thousands of people converged on the city to celebrate Europe's largest Japanese cultural festival.

Known as Little Tokyo on the Rhine, Düsseldorf is home to around 8,000–8,500 Japanese residents — the largest in Germany.

Services along the affected tram lines were diverted, a spokesperson for Rheinbahn, the public transport operator, told DPA.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has rejected a proposal by German Chancellor Friedrich Merz to make Ukraine an “associate member” of the European Union.

“It would be unfair for Ukraine to be present in the European Union but remain without a voice,” Zelenskyy wrote in a letter to EU leaders seen by German news agency dpa.

He demanded full membership, adding that the enlargement process was taking too long.

"There can be no complete European project without Ukraine, and Ukraine’s place in the European Union must also be complete – full and equal," he said.

In a letter to EU leaders Ursula von der Leyen and Antonio Costa seen by news agencies on Thursday, the German leader proposed allowing Ukrainian officials to take part in EU summits and ministerial meetings but without voting rights.

"It is obvious that we will not be able to complete the accession process shortly, given the countless hurdles as well as the political complexities of ratification processes," Merz wrote.

"What I envisage is a political solution that brings Ukraine substantially closer to the European Union and its core institutions immediately," he wrote.

Former German Chancellor Olaf Scholz will likely be selected as the chair of a government committee focusing on enhancing ties with the Global South, according to the Tagespiegel daily.

A Development Ministry spokeswoman declined to confirm the report to the dpa news agency but did say that internal government consultations were ongoing to pick a head for the body, to be called the North-South Committee.

The coalition deal between Chancellor Friedrich Merz's conservatives and the Social Democrats (SPD), Scholz's party, contained provisions to create such a committee, which is expected to be appointed within a few months.

The committee is to advise the government on how to diversify and intensify relations with countries in the Global South and develop them into a global network, according to the spokeswoman.

Scholz, who is still in the German parliament representing a constituency near Berlin,  served as Germany's chancellor from 2021 until May 2025.

The three-way SPD/Greens/Free Democrats (FDP) coalition he headed ended prematurely in November 2024 after collapsing amid an internal row over how best to bolster the ailing economy. 

In the subsequent snap election in February 2025, his SPD lost to Friedrich Merz's Christian Democrats (CDU), receiving the lowest the lowest result in its post-war history.

Scholz stayed on in a caretaker capacity until Merz took office in May 2026 at the head of a coalition of his conservative bloc and the SPD.