Germany news: Nationwide strikes hit public transport

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said Europe needed to become more technologically independent amid changes in the nature of its relationship with the US.

"We are currently experiencing probably the greatest period of political uncertainty and insecurity, certainly a profound turning point. It is a watershed moment," Merz told ​political and business leaders ‌in ‌Frankfurt.

The German leader said Europe needed to be capable of defending itself and create conditions for European businesses to regain their competitive edge.

"Transatlantic relations have changed. No one ‍in this room regrets this ​more than I do," Merz said.

He emphasized that Europe needed to act in a "united and decisive manner" and that he could see a path to "sovereign, free, peaceful, and economically prosperous Europe."

German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius highlighted the importance of being a step ahead when it comes to military innovation as he attended the launch of a new innovation center near Munich.

"Innovation is not just nice to have for the German armed forces. It is key to success," Pistorius emphasized during the opening ceremony of the facility in Erding, just outside Munich.

Pistorius pointed to drones, which have become a key feature in the war in Ukraine, as an example of the ever-changing technological landscape.

Pistorius said that artificial intelligence was expected to play a key role in possible defense and security scenarios and that the number of human casualties could be lowered "if we send in technology first," the minister said.

Germany's Defense Ministry said the innovation center in Erding aims to use research, science and start-ups "to develop and procure technologies for the conflicts of tomorrow."

The center would focus on shortening innovation processes and get innovative systems up and running within the armed forces as soon as possible.

A Chinese student in the southern German city of Munich went on trial Monday for allegedly drugging and raping his Chinese girlfriend on film numerous times in his apartment.

Video footage showed the 27-year-old man both injecting the woman with drugs, or pressing anesthetic-soaked cloth into her face to ensure she did not wake up, investigators said. The footage was not shown to the public to protect the victim.

Prosecutors allege the man was aware the woman's life was at risk due to the heavy amount of sedatives used, and have charged him with seven counts of attempted murder, grievous bodily harm and aggravated rape, alongside other offences.

The defendant did not address the court on Monday, and is expected to do so at a later date. The court has set 18 trial dates, with a verdict expected by the end of March.

German breweries' sales of beer containing alcohol dropped by a record 6% to 7.8 billion liters (2.06 billion gallons) in 2025, official figures released on Monday show.

The figure is the lowest since records began in 1993, the Federal Statistical Office (Destatis) said.

As such, it is even below that in the pandemic years of 2020 and 2021, when restaurants and bars were subject to strict restrictions in a bid to contain the spread of COVID-19.

The huge reduction comes as many consumers either cut back or instead prefer to buy nonalcoholic beer, which now makes up some 10% of the market for the beverage.

German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul has held talks in Singapore on deepening bilateral  cooperation at the start of his tour of Southeast Asia and the Pacific region.

Wadephul wrote on X that he had had a "trustful exchange on common challenges" at a meeting with Prime Minister Lawrence Wong.

"We discussed strengthening our strong political & economic ties even further," he wrote, adding that the two countries had "a lot to offer to each other as reliable & steadfast partners" in uncertain times.

Earlier, he met with his Singaporean counterpart, Vivian Balakrishnan, with the two ministers discussing deepening the cooperation between the two countries amid a shifting global political landscape.

Wadephul stressed that "international cooperation and multilateral institutions are being called into question," saying that Germany and Singapore know only too well that "we owe our freedom, our security and our prosperity to a stable international order with reliable rules." 

Balakrishnan also said that the world order had dramatically changed, but added that he still believed many countries "continue to believe in a rules-based world order, in multilateralism, in the UN charter, in free and fair trade, in economic integration and in global supply chains."

Balakrishnan called on Germany and the European Union to expand their cooperation with Singapore and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).

He also raised the prospect of a future free trade agreement between the EU and the ASEAN group of states.

Daniel Halemba, a lawmaker from the far-right Alternative for Germany (AFD) party, has been handed a fine after being found guilty on charges of money laundering and coercion.

A court in the southern city of Würzburg fined Halemba altogether €30,400 ($36,066). The penalty is subject to appeal.

The 24-year-old has had a seat in the Bavarian state parliament since 2023. He was tried by a juvenile court because of his age at the time of the money-laundering offenses in 2022.

The AfD politician was convicted of transferring a four-figure sum from his private account to an account in a Baltic country, using money said to originate from fraud committed by third parties.

He was also found guilty of having intimidated a witness in the preliminary investigation before his planned interrogation by the Würzburg public prosecutor's office.

Halemba, who is considered to belong to the most extreme fringe of the Bavarian AfD chapter, was however acquitted on charges of incitement to hatred over the alleged playing of a banned song advocating the expulsion of migrants from Germany at his birthday party.

He and his lawyers have claimed that all accusations against him are politically motivated.

Five people have been taken into custody in Germany during nationwide raids on a network that is allowing the circumvention of EU sanctions on Russia imposed over Moscow's invasion of Ukraine.

The five, identified as German, Ukrainian and Russian nationals, are suspected of procuring industrial goods for Russian defense companies in violation of the sanctions, the Federal Public Prosecutor's Office said.

They are believed to have used shell companies to enable them to buy industrial goods and export them to Russia despite the trade restrictions.

The prosecutor's office estimated ⁠that approximately 16,000 shipments ​worth at least €30 million ($36 million) in total had been arranged since ‌February 2022.

The arrests took place in the northern port city of Lübeck and the ‌surrounding Herzogtum Lauenburg district, the prosecutors said.

Russia has found several ways of circumventing the sanctions, including with shell companies and its "shadow fleet," which is a network  of often falsely flagged or renamed sea vessels used to export its sanctioned oil. 

The sanctions imposed by the EU aim to prevent Russia from gaining the revenue it needs to maintain its full-scale invasion of its neighbor.

Germany allows victims of Nazi persecution and their descendants to reclaim citizenship that was deliberately taken from them.

As ever more people fear rising authoritarianism, racism and antisemitism in the US under the Trump administration, growing numbers of American Jews are now taking advantage of this opportunity.

One of them is 103-year-old Holocaust survivor Ruth Gruenthal, who features in this video from DW: 

 

The number of asylum-seekers returning home after receiving financial help to do so from Germany grew markedly in 2025, according to figures from the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees (BAMF) cited by media.

Altogether 16,576 people returned home of their own free will in 2025 under the REAG/GARP subsidy scheme run by BAMF, as compared with 10,358 the year before, a BAMF spokeswoman told newspapers from the Funke media group.

The BAMF scheme aims to encourage refugees to return to their homelands or go to other countries willing to accept them by paying for flights and providing €1,000 ($1,186) in start-up money per adult and €500 per child or minor.

The growth in the number of returnees is attributed largely to the fact that the subsidy became available again for Syrian refugees in January 2025, after having been stopped for some time because of the civil war in their country.

BAMF said 5,976 people had applied to leave Germany for Syria under the scheme by the end of December 2025, of whom 3,678 had already departed.

German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul has kicked off a tour of Southeast Asia and the Pacific region with a visit to the city-state of Singapore.

There, he was due to hold talks with Prime Minister Lawrence Wong and his counterpart Vivian Balakrishnan.

He is also scheduled to give a speech at the International Institute for Strategic Studies.

In 2024, Germany and Singapore agreed to an action plan specifically focusing on future technologies.

The EU and the city-state are also parties to a free trade agreement that came into force in 2019.

More than 2,000 companies from Germany have operations in Singapore, which is a leading financial, technology and logistics hub in the region.

Wadephul's trip comes as Germany continues its drive to diversify its range of international partners amid dwindling confidence in the US as a reliable ally.

Many bus, trams and underground services in Germany will not be operating on Monday amid a nationwide strike by the trade union Verdi.

Millions of employees and schoolchildren who rely on public transport will be forced to find alternative methods of getting to work or school, with wintry weather conditions adding to their problems.

All 16 German states bar one, Lower Saxony, where employees have agreed not to strike for now, are to be initially affected by the industrial action, Verdi said.

Employees of national rail operator Deutsche Bahn (DB) will not be taking part in the strike, meaning that its train services are expected to run without restrictions.

"The suburban commuter trains in Berlin, Hamburg, Munich, Stuttgart, Cologne, Nuremberg, Rhein-Main [the Frankfurt metropolitan area] and the regional and long-distance services of DB are not represented by Verdi as a company and are therefore not affected by the strike," DB said.

Verdi is demanding improvements to working conditions, including shorter working weeks and shifts and longer rest periods.

It is also calling for higher bonuses for nighttime and weekend shifts.

According to the union, negotiations are also taking place on higher wages and salaries in the states of Bavaria, Brandenburg, Saarland and Thuringia, and at the Hamburg underground network.

A warm guten Tag from DW's newsroom in Bonn at the start of another wintry week.

Many users of buses, trams and underground rail systems will be left out in the cold on Monday as members of the large Verdi trade union stage a strike affecting almost all German states.

The industrial action aims to pressure municipal authorities into granting public transport workers better working conditions.

Meanwhile, German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul is visiting Singapore at the start of a tour of Southeast Asia and the Pacific region that will also take him to New Zealand, Tonga and Australia in the course of the week.

Please read on for more on these and other stories from and about Germany in our blog on Monday, February 2!