Germany news: Reservist union head wants troops in Greenland

A drawing by German Renaissance artist Hans Baldung Grien has surfaced after more than 500 years.

The silver pen portrait of Susanna Pfeffinger, dated 1517, was found in a wooden box belonging to her Alsatian family. Experts at a Paris gallery have confirmed its authenticity, calling the find “a shock.”

Baldung, a contemporary of Albrecht Dürer, is known for his dramatic religious and witchcraft scenes. His works are considered highly significant and extremely rare.

The drawing will go under the hammer on March 23 at Beaussant Lefèvre & Associés in Paris. Its estimated value: between €1.5 and €3 million ($1.75 - $3.5 million).

Baldung spent most of his life in Strasbourg and died in 1545.

German Vice Chancellor and Finance Minister Lars Klingbeil said that Europe's ties with the United States were "disintegrating" amid a "historic period of upheaval" under President Donald Trump's administration.

"The transatlantic alliance is undergoing a much more profound upheaval than we have been willing to acknowledge until now," Klingbeil said Wednesday is a speech in Berlin. "The transatlantic relationship as we have known it is currently disintegrating."

Klingbeil was referring to the US military intervention against Venezuela. He said that the US invasion of Venezuela under Trump, which violates international law, and the capture of President Nicolas Maduro, should not be seen as an isolated incident. "The Trump administration has made it clear that it wants to dominate the Western Hemisphere," he said.

Under Trump, "the US administration is continuing to turn away from Europe politically and culturally," Klingbeil said, adding that this is evident in Trump's behavior regarding Greenland and the US government's new national security strategy.

"These strategies and actions could be seen as a declaration of war on the European Union and our free democratic order," he added.

Two employees were injured in a stabbing at a shopping center in the southern German city of Ulm. According to a police spokesperson, the alleged perpetrator was arrested while fleeing. Emergency services stopped the man with gunshots after he left the electronics store.

The suspect was taken to the hospital for treatment of his injuries. According to the police, the victims were also taken to the hospital.

Officials say there is no danger to the public. "Rumors of a rampage cannot be confirmed," said the spokesperson. Initially, the police did not provide any information about the alleged perpetrator's identity or the extent of his injuries. The background of the incident is also unclear at this time.

The spokesperson said the store was closed after the attack. Forensic investigators worked in the store and at the spot where the suspected perpetrator was shot

Several people were reported to have been injured in a mass brawl that broke out on the sidelines of a trial in the western German city of Düsseldorf, according to a court spokesman.

About 20 to 25 people began fighting in a hallway of the Düsseldorf Regional Court after a witness testified in the trial of a driver accused of hitting a woman with his car during a street festival.

The cause of the fight was initially unclear.

According to the spokesman, two court officers were among those injured. The trial was interrupted and adjourned due to the brawl.

Authorities conducted a large-scale raid across five German states to crack down on illegal employment in nail salons.

According to the officials, more than 1,000 officers searched 49 residential and commercial premises in North Rhine-Westphalia, Baden-Württemberg, Bavaria, Hesse, and Lower Saxony.

The investigation focuses on a 56-year-old suspect from Düsseldorf. Since 2010, he has allegedly operated up to ten nail salons in several cities and employed Vietnamese nationals without residence permits.

Investigators estimate that unreported wages and sales resulted in damages exceeding €7 million ($8.16 million). The man is accused of commercial and organized smuggling of foreigners, withholding wages, and tax evasion.

The investigation also targets 26 other suspects, including two store managers, aged 36 and 44, who are accused of aiding and abetting. The 56-year-old man and the two store managers have been remanded to custody.

The western German state of Rhineland-Palatinate has suspended deportations to Iran with immediate effect.

"The human rights situation in Iran has been characterized by systematic oppression for years," Interior Minister Katharina Binz said.

However, she added that the situation has worsened dramatically once again as security forces respond with extreme force to the protests that erupted in late December.

According to the minister, anyone currently sent back to Iran faces real risks to their life and freedom. "We have a humanitarian responsibility to protect the people living here," Binz said.

Deportations will be suspended for three months initially, with convicted criminals and individuals deemed to pose a security risk exempted from the measure.

Meanwhile, Federal Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt said he does not support a nationwide ban on deportations to Iran, despite the situation in the country.

Germany has said it is reviewing which companies are still trading with Iran as tensions rise and the United States issues new threats.

Government spokesman Stefan Kornelius said on Wednesday in Berlin that the government would take a closer look at trade volumes and the types of goods involved.

"The federal government will take a closer look at these trade volumes," Kornelius said, adding that officials would also examine "to what extent we ourselves can increase pressure through expanding sanctions."
He said no final conclusions had yet been reached.

A spokeswoman for the economy ministry said German-Iranian trade totaled about €1.5 billion in 2024, with Iran ranking only 79th among Germany's trading partners, between Kuwait and the Cayman Islands.

From January to November 2025, exports to Iran fell a further 25.0% to about €871 million, less than 0.1% of total German exports, according to the Federal Statistical Office.

The review comes as US President Donald Trump has threatened punitive tariffs against all countries trading with Iran.

Germany is open to deepening relations with the new Syrian government, a German government spokesperson said.

"The German government is, of course, open to deepening relations and a ⁠fresh start with the new Syrian government," said ‌the spokesperson at regular government press ‌conference.

However, the spokesperson added that Berlin is closely monitoring the situation in Aleppo, where deadly clashes recently broke out.

"The situation in Syria is such that it needs to be reassessed almost daily," the spokesperson said, adding that there will be an opportunity to discuss this in more detail in the coming days.

On Tuesday, the German newspaper Bild reported, citing security and government sources, that Syrian President Ahmed
al-Sharaa is expected to visit Berlin early next week.

Germany's Armed Forces, the Bundeswehr, have started mailing out the first questionnaires as part of its new military service program.

German authorities want to boost the number of military personnel in the country, particularly in the wake of Russia's invasion of Ukraine in 2022 and the increased threat from Moscow, as well as what is seen as increasingly unreliable support from the United States.

Under the program, which wasunveiled by the coalition government last year, anyone who turned 18 since January 1, 2026, will receive a letter with a link to a questionnaire — known as a "declaration of willingness" — that will determine their physical fitness and their interest in serving in the armed forces.

The program also opens the door for the potential return of mandatory conscription, which was scrapped in 2011, should the armed forces' numbers not swell as hoped.

Who will receive the questionnaire and what will it contain?

• All people who turn 18 in 2026 will be sent a letter containing a QR code leading to an online questionnaire

• Men must complete the questionnaire within one month, while women are not compelled to respond

• The questionnaire will assess the recipient's 'motivation and suitability for service in the armed forces'

• The questionnaire will require the recipient's general information, as well as their marital status, education

• Recipients will also be asked to assess their physical fitness according to a set of predefined answers

• The answers will range from 'very good, I am (almost) physically active every day' to 'low, I avoid physical activity'

• Respondents will also have their general interest in serving as a volunteer soldier assessed

• Recipients will be able to indicate their interest on a scale of zero ('I have no interest') to ten ('I want to become a soldier')

• Respondents will be able to indicate which branch of the armed forces they prefer

What happens if respondents fail to complete the questionnaire?

• Men who don't respond to the letter could face a fine of up to €1,000 ($1,164)

• Those who refuse military service still have to complete the questionnaire

• The right to be a conscientious objector remains intact

How is the Bundeswehr planning to recruit volunteers?

• Volunteer recruits will be offered a gross monthly wage of €2,600 to €2,650

• Volunteers who commit to at least one year will receive €2,700 as well as free accommodation

• Recruits will have their car or truck driver's license subsidized

The Bavarian state is to give over €1 million to a man who spent 13 years in jail on murder charges that were later overturned.

Prosecutors had previously called for him to pay for board and lodgings in jail after his release.

Get the full story in our report.

Germany's Agriculture Minister Alois Rainer has said he supports a proposition that would make it easier to cull the country's growing wolf population.

The German parliament is set to debate a proposal on amending the country's hunting laws for the first time on Wednesday.

"We now have over 200 wolf packs in Germany," Rainer told public broadcaster ARD on Wednesday morning.

"In terms of area, we have more wolves than they have in Russia," he added as he called for intervention.

Rainer said the amendment was needed to protect farm animals. "It's about protecting grazing livestock," he said, adding that the killing of livestock is a significant physical and emotional burden for their owners.

The agriculture minister also dismissed criticism from conservationists. "We absolutely do not want to eradicate the wolf," Rainer said. 

Conservation group NABU argues that facilitating the culling of wolves would not help protect livestock or their owners.

"Instead, it could destabilize functioning pack structures and thus increase the risk of further attacks," NABU's Marie Neuwald told German news agency dpa.

"It is not the number of wolves in a pack that determines the number of attacks, but the herd protection measures in place," she added.

Wolves are a protected species in Germany, and their numbers have been increasing in recent years in some parts of the country.

The new legislation would, if approved, allow for federal states to regulate the number of wolves where wolf numbers are high as part of a "regional population management" scheme.

In those areas with high wolf populations, hunting would be allowed from July 1st to October 31st.

Two men have been detained after they allegedly tore down the flag of the Islamic Republic of Iran at the country's embassy in Berlin, police said Wednesday.

The men climbed over a fence outside the embassy compound in southwest Berlin during a protest on Tuesday night, police said.

During the rally, demonstrators, many of them waving the historical, pre-1979 revolution Iranian flag, distracted security guards defending the compound, allowing the two men to allegedly climb over the fence, according to police.

They allegedly tried and failed to hoist two of the historical flags after tearing down the current Iranian flag. 

Embassy security guards used pepper spray to force them to leave. Police detained the two men, aged 28 and 33, outside the compound.

An investigation has been opened into six people suspected of property damage, trespassing and desecrating national symbols, police said.

The rally outside the Iranian embassy is one of many that have been held across Europe in recent days to denounce the brutal crackdown on Iranian protesters by the country's security forces.

At the Iranian embassy in London this week, protesters similarly tried to replace the Islamic regime's flag with the pre‑revolutionary one.

A particularly cold winter and higher gas prices are set to cause a noticeable spike in heating costs for German consumers, forecasts warn.

Price comparison portal Verivox and energy service provider Techem told German news agency dpa that consumers should prepare to feel the pinch with pricier heating bills for the past year.

According to Verivox, a typical German household with gas heating, which would normally consume around 20,000 kilowatt-hours, will have to pay nearly 13% more in 2025 than the previous year.

The spike is due to higher consumption because of a relatively cold February 2025 and an unusually early cold snap in November, which brought frost and snow. Gas prices have also increased slightly.

Households that use oil heating will also see a price jump, although that will be around just 4% on average.

"Heating with oil was cheaper than heating with gas for the fourth year in a row," Verivox energy expert Thorsten Storck said. "Ultimately, consumers with oil heating had to spend almost 16 percent less for a warm home last year than gas customers."

According to Techem, heating costs are set to jump by an average of 8.6% in 2025 compared to the previous year.

Techem forecasts the steepest increase to be felt in households that use district heating, which are expected to see a 13.2 % price hike.

Prices are forecast to climb even though energy prices have fallen in some areas. That is because of higher consumption due to the cold temperatures.

In recent weeks, much of Germany saw icy winter weather with sometimes severe frost. According to the German Weather Service, the Christmas holiday season was, on average, the coldest in 15 years.

The president of the German Armed Forces Reservists Association, Patrick Sensburg, has said European troops, including from Germany, should be deployed to Greenland.

Sensburg said the move is needed to prevent the United States from taking over the semi-autonomous Arctic territory that is owned by Denmark — a US ally and fellow NATO member

US President Donald Trump has repeatedly said in recent weeks that Washington will take control of Greenland "one way or the other", citing US national security concerns.

Trump has claimed, without evidence, that Greenland is "covered with Chinese and Russian ships all over the place."

"We need Greenland from the standpoint of national security, and Denmark isn't going to be able to do it," Trump said this week.

"We have to assume that US President Donald Trump is serious about Greenland. Europe must therefore show a much stronger presence in Greenland," said in remarks to German newspaper Bild on Tuesday.

"We must deploy two European brigades there under Danish command in a short period of time," Sensburg added.

The reservists' union head said the deployment of reservist brigades would also present opportunities. Sensburg said Germany's Armed Forces could "also train and educate soldiers in Greenland. This will strengthen European unity."

Guten morgen from Bonn, where the snow and ice from the weekend have given way to cloudy skies and rain.

In this blog, we will bring you the latest news from and about Germany, including calls from the head of the country's Armed Forces reservist association for European and German troops to be deployed to Greenland to ward off threats of annexation from the US and President Donald Trump.

Meanwhile, the colder-than-normal winter season and higher-than-usual gas prices are set to cause heating bills to jump for Germany's households.

And Agriculture Minister Alois Rainer has defended a proposal to make culling Germany's growing wolf population easier, ahead of a debate in the country's parliament, the Bundestag, on Wednesday.

Follow along as we bring you the latest on those stories and more from Germany.