Germany news: Oktoberfest reopens after Munich bomb scare

Bavarian Interior Minister Joachim Herrmann also spoke at the Munich press conference on Wednesday evening, saying there were no signs of a political motive or extremism involved in the deaths and explosion in the Bavarian capital that led to the temporary closing of the Oktoberfest beer festival. 

Instead, he said preliminary investigations pointed to a fight inside the family over issues that included the suspect's paternity of his daughter.

The suspect had filed petitions with city authorities related to these problems, Herrmann said, albeit noting that the case remained very nascent and the investigation was continuing. 

Herrmann also praised emergency services for their rapid response in the early morning hours of Wednesday.

"What happened today in Munich was shocking for us all in the first moments," Herrmann said. "But in times just like these it becomes apparent how important our various emergency services are, how well staffed they are, how good they are in the field." 

Herrmann praised fire services and medics for reaching the scene quickly, and also the police for keeping track of the suspect. 

"Police responded immediately and intensely," Herrmann said. "The helicopter led to the then-fleeing suspect being discovered and police quickly being on his tail."

Though Herrmann acknowledged it was speculative, he said it was not yet known what else the suspect might have had planned, and that it was possible that his failure to escape prevented further violence on Wednesday morning.  

Herrmann also noted and thanked colleagues from nearby Austria for their offers of assistance during the course of the day. 

Munich Police Deputy President Christian Huber then went on to explain why an "already very dramatic" police operation became even more sensitive hours before Oktoberfest opened its gates on Wednesday.

"In the course of our preliminary investigations, we found a note written by the suspect, in which — along with several other aspects — a bomb threat directed at the Oktoberfest could also be interpreted," Huber said.

The timing was conspicuous, just hours before the Theresienwiese was set to open for vistors on Wednesday, he said. 

"It was necessary to quickly decide: How will we deal with this aspect, this threat to the Oktoberfest?" Huber explained.

He said emergency services, organizers and local officials then decided in close consultation that they would not open the grounds as planned, at least not at first. This was in part to avoid a potential situation of having to close the area and clear it of visitors in the case the threat solidified. 

Police used the time with the area closed to the public during the day to search it thoroughly with explosives experts and specialist canine units, Huber said. 

"The large tents are examined daily anyway, but we expanded these checks appropriately and also examined areas outside the tents," he said. 

Meanwhile, Huber said, investigative teams sought to evaluate the suspect's note and the seriousness of his apparent threat, which by mid-afternoon they deemed did not pose a genuine risk. 

"By mid-afternoon we reached the decision that we will open the festival grounds and the Oktoberfest can start at around 5:30 p.m.," he said.

First responders at the scene found explosives near a Mercedes Sprinter van, which went off and set the vehicle fully alight, said Thomas Hampel, of the Munich police, who added that it was now clear this was the vehicle belonging to the suspect. 

After first clearing the area and briefly suspending public transport, Hampel said police were able to track a man seen fleeing the garden of the home. 

"We had on one hand a police helicopter which was able to identify the individual on the run," Hampel said, before officers could give chase on the ground. "And in the end, the person was cornered near the Lerchenauer See [lake] and then took his own life. But the person could not be immediately checked, because the individual had a rucksack on his person and we had to assume this might contain further unknown explosives." 

The weapon the suspect used to take his own life was homemade, Hampel said.

Munich police are speaking at a press conference on the major operations in the city that began shortly before 5 a.m. on Wednesday. 

They describe a rapid deployment to the scene within roughly 10 minutes of the first emergency calls reporting the sound of gunfire, explosions and signs of a man fleeing the scene of a home in the north of the Bavarian capital. 

Officers found the suspect's 81-year-old mother hidden and injured in the garden just outside the building, police said.

A woman, who police believe to be the suspect's 21-year-old daughter, was on the first floor of a building that was "fully ablaze" when officers arrived, Munich Police President Thomas Hampel said. 

Meanwhile, first responders also know that a person, thought to be the suspect's father, is lying dead inside the burning building. Because of the extreme heat following the fire, they have not yet been able to reach the body. 

Prosecutors in Berlin say three suspected Hamas operatives have been arrested. The suspects were preparing a serious act of violence in Germany, authorities said.

The three men are suspected of being involved in gathering firearms and ammunition for Hamas to be used for assassinations targeting Israeli or Jewish institutions in Germany.

Security forces said they found various weapons during the arrest, including an AK-47 assault rifle, several pistols and a large amount of ammunition.

Read more about this and other developments in our coverage of the Middle East. 

The Oktoberfest in central Munich will reopen at 5:30 p.m. local time (roughly two hours from now, at 1530 GMT/UTC), Munich's Mayor Dieter Reiter said in a video posted to Instagram. 

He said police had told him there was no cause for concern in allowing the delayed festival to open. Therefore, he said, the grounds on the Theresienwiese, where the annual festival is held, would be reopened.

The 57-year-old deceased suspect found near the Lerchenauer See lake was apparently carrying an explosive device in his backpack which needed to be defused, Munich police said in an update on their investigations early on Wednesday afternoon. 

Police said investigations, including possible defusal operations, continued both at the site where the man was found and at the house in Starnberg, which he is thought to have set on fire. 

"The suspect was carrying a rucksack which based on current findings contained an explosive device which then needed to be defused," police said in the follow-up statement. 

The suspect's 81-year-old mother and 21-year-old daughter were both injured and were receiving treatment in the hospital, police said. 

Police said a total of more than 500 officers were on the case, many of them carrying out precautionary checks at and around the Oktoberfest site, given the note mentioning the event written by the suspect. 

Investigators also said that an online post boasting about destroying high-price cars overnight was not thought to have any connection to the case. 

"Currently there is no indication that other areas of Munich are in danger," police wrote.

Cologne's renovated and expanded Opera Hall complex will open in September 2026, the outgoing city mayor and opera officials have announced at a press conference.

Speaking on the renovated main stage, Mayor Henriette Reker said the opening celebrations would take place on September 19 and 20, 2026. 

That will be almost 11 years after the originally scheduled reopening date of November 7, 2015. The now-14-year expansion and renovation project became synonymous with delays and cost overruns as the expenditure ballooned to €1.47 billion (roughly $1.7 billion).

"By the end of the year the construction work on the four stages at Offenbachplatz will be complete," Reker said. "Cologne is getting back what's so long been missing in the heart of our city: a place for great art, emotions and cosmopolitanism."

The four-part project involves the renovation of the opera hall, with 1,291 seats, originally built in 1957; the renovation of a 1962 theater with 700 seats; the construction of a new 217-seat underground children's opera hall; and a new studio hall with a capacity of 220.

Authorities are currently trying to muster as many bomb-sniffing dogs as possible to sweep the Oktoberfest grounds, the DPA news agency has reported.

The agency cited security sources saying the animals must search the grounds multiple times, something that requires a great deal of time and personnel.

The city has announced that the Wiesn, the local name for the site, will remain closed until at least 5 p.m. following the bomb threat. If the searches are not completed by then, the closure may have to be extended.

Security at Munich's Oktoberfest has been tightened over the years in response to past threats and a deadly attack.

Organizers have implemented permanent security measures, including fences around the festival grounds, bag restrictions, and a heavy police presence.

The most notorious incident was on September 26, 1980, when a far-right extremist detonated a pipe bomb at the festival's main entrance, killing 13 people and injuring more than 200. 

In 2009, German authorities said they foiled a suspected Islamist plot against the event, leading to stricter entry checks. Police had taken two suspected Islamists into custody after a series of al-Qaeda videos threatened Germany with attacks 

Security was heightened again in 2016 after a separate mass shooting several weeks earlier at Munich's Olympia shopping center, which killed nine people. 

Authorities say they continue to treat Oktoberfest as a potential target for both domestic and international threats.

Police in Munich have confirmed that the man found dead after a house fire and reported blasts in the city's north as the suspect in the arson attack.

A police spokeswoman said Wednesday the man could also be linked to a vague bomb threat that prompted the temporary closure of the Oktoberfest grounds.

Firefighters and police were called early Wednesday to a blaze at a single-family home in the Lerchenau district. A severely injured man was discovered near Lerchenauer See and died shortly afterward. Police later confirmed he was the suspect.

Investigators believe a family dispute triggered the arson. Explosive devices were also discovered inside the house. The whereabouts of one missing person remained unclear, but police said the individual was not considered a danger.

The Oktoberfest site in central Munich remains shut down until 5 p.m. as a precaution after the threat was received.

Chancellor Friedrich Merz has described his conservative–Social Democrat coalition as working well together, despite its difficult start.

"We have really managed in recent months to create a very good, very collegial, very open working atmosphere in this coalition," the CDU leader said at the end of his cabinet's retreat in northern Berlin. "That is why I am confident the tasks ahead can be solved."

The coalition has been in office for about five months and held its first retreat this week. Merz said the government sees the economy's challenges and aims to restore Germany's leading position. He added that federal investment programs are already being well received, with companies increasing spending.

Speaking alongside him, Finance Minister Lars Klingbeil called the two-day meeting both enjoyable and effective.

Klingbeil said the focus was on strengthening competitiveness and innovation and on securing growth and jobs.

Munich authorities have confirmed the Oktoberfest grounds were shut down after a letter was discovered threatening an attack connected to earlier explosions and a fire in the city's north.

After a fire and explosions rocked a building elsewhere in the southern city, investigators are also probing a possible extremist link after a post on the indymedia.org website claimed responsibility for arson and assaults under the title "Antifa means attack."

The post said, "We torched several luxury cars and paid house visits in the north of Munich."

DW's Michael Watzke gives the latest on the situation in Munich amid the Oktoberfest bomb threat and the earlier fire.

Almost five months after being sworn in, the conservative and center–left federal cabinet is wrapping up its first retreat with a modernization plan aimed at rebuilding momentum after a stuttering start.

The two-day meeting at Villa Borsig on Lake Tegel has focused on cutting bureaucracy and strengthening Germany's competitiveness. The government has approved about 80 measures to make state and administration more efficient, citizen-friendly, and digital.

The Ministry for Digital and State Modernization said initial projects will begin immediately. Plans include reducing bureaucracy costs by 25% — about €16 billion (about $18.8 billion) — cutting federal staff levels by 8%, launching a central online vehicle registration portal, and creating a digital reporting platform for citizens to flag red tape.

Digital Minister Karsten Wildberger said the agenda represents a major step to ease burdens on citizens and businesses, adding it would serve as the government’s foundation for the legislative term with projects implemented "step by step."