Germany news: School students lag behind in science and math

We're pausing our coverage here, but we'll soon have an explainer on the row over military service in Germany. See you tomorrow!

Hundreds of visitors have flocked to a museum in central Germany, after a painting there was featured in Taylor Swift's hit video "The Fate of Ophelia."

The video opens with superstar Swift lying down in a white dress, in stark resemblance to an Art Nouveau painting by Friedrich Heyser. The painting features Ophelia, Hamlet's beloved in  William Shakespeare's play of the same name.

Andreas Henning, the director of the Hessische Landesmuseum, told the German DPA news agency he saw similarities between Swift's video and Heyser's work.

"We are surprised and delighted that Taylor Swift used this painting from the museum as inspiration for her video," Henning said. "This is, of course, a great opportunity to attract people to the museum who don't know us yet."

Henning said attempts to reach out to the megastar have thus far been unsuccessful, expressing a wish to "to show Taylor Swift the original painting sometime."

Defense Minister Boris Pistorius opened the parliamentary debate on his draft legislation for reintroducing voluntary military service in Germany, after a week where the plan and coalition divisions on details surrounding it dominated domestic headlines. 

The Social Democrat started by praising parliament, saying he was "proud and grateful that we in this house have found democratic paths to considerably and rapidly improve the defensive capabilities of our country" in recent years in light of Russia's invasion of Ukraine. 

"Today we are taking the next logical step together: the step to expand our combat forces," Pistorius said. 

He said the coalition government had agreed "to first try to do this using the voluntary route."

This follows the confusion on Tuesday as coalition circles leaked news of a breakthrough on a means of mandatory recruitment via lottery if necessary, only to then abruptly cancel a press conference that was supposed to brief defense reporters on the plan that evening. CDU Chancellor Friedrich Merz had also voiced doubts about the adequacy of entirely voluntary recruitment earlier this month.

Pistorius also made oblique mention of this, but more by seeking to stress that any decision on obligatory recruitment was not part of the current bill and was a matter for a future debate. 

"What's also clear is that if voluntary recruitment does not suffice, there will be no alternative besides some form of obligatory recruitement," Pistorius said. "But even then, that would clearly only take place under the authority of a Bundestag resolution, and using methods that are yet to be decided."

The defense minster tried to argue that the friction of recent days should come as no surprise, even as a reassurance, not least given Germany's difficult 20th century military history. 

"Anything less than a passionate, open and also heated debate on a question like this would have been a disappointment to me, be it in parliament, in classrooms, or in society in general," Pistorius said. "This issue deserves an open and honest debate because it affects the lives of many people." 

Germany's Frankfurt Higher Regional Court is planning to seize some €720 million ($839 million) worth of Russian frozen assets, the judiciary in Germany's central state of Hesse said on Wednesday.

The assets belong to a Russian financial institution and were frozen following Russia's 2022 full-scale invasion of Ukraine. The assets were held in a Frankfurt bank account that has since been added to EU embargo list against Russia, according to a statementposted to the website for Hesse's judiciary.

The Federal Public Prosecutor's Office has initiated special proceedings to carry out the seizure.

According to the statement, shortly after the freezing of the assets, unknown people attempted, unsuccessfully, to withdraw the funds.

As per proceedings, the funds are to be seized in favor of the state treasury.

In an address to Germany's parliament,the Bundestag, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz on Thursday repeated his call for some €140 billion in frozen Russian assets to be used to invest in weapons for Ukraine. 

The Greens and the Left have called on Chancellor Friedrich Merz to apologize for a controversial remark about migration and Germany's cities.

During an appearance in Potsdam earlier this week, Merz had said his government was correcting past migration policy mistakes and reducing numbers by 60% year-on-year. He added, "But we still have this problem in the cityscape, and that is why the interior minister is working to carry out large-scale deportations."

Speaking in the Bundestag, Green parliamentary leader Katharina Dröge challenged Merz. She asked, "How can one see this 'problem' other than by the color of people's skin? Dröge said Merz’s words were hurtful, discriminatory, and indecent.

and have the courage to apologize for that sentence

Left Party leader Sören Pellmann joined the demand, saying in parliament that Merz's "slip of the tongue" had placed "another thorn in the side of our democracy."

Read the full article here.

Germany’s auto industry is under pressure: profits down, sales slumping, China racing ahead. Can VW, BMW & Mercedes survive alone— or is a mega-merger the only way to stay in the game?

Ahead of the 2025 European AIDS Conference, researchers discovered a new antibody against HIV. They say it can prevent infections and neutralize the virus in the lab. But can it help boost the immune system in real life?

Read the full story here. 

The public prosecutor in the northern German city of Rostock said Thursday that preliminary autopsy results of a boy found dead in the nearby city of Güstrow revealed injuries consistent with a violent crime. 

However, authorities have not yet confirmed whether the deceased an eight-year-old named in the German press as Fabian, who has been missing since last Friday. DNA test results are expected by Friday.

However, officials said Monday after the body was discovered that there is "a very high probability" that the body discovered in a nearby forest in the northeastern state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania is the missing boy, Fabian. 

Officials have withheld further details as an investigation is ongoing. No suspects have been identified at this time.

The case has shocked the community in central Mecklenburg–Western Pomerania, where volunteers had joined the large-scale search effort.

German students have been meeting core education standards less often and missing minimum benchmarks more frequently, according to a leaked preview of the "IQB Education Trend 2024" still set to be released.

Germany's Bild newspaper reported it had obtained the findings from what it called political sources. The report, compiled by the Institute for Quality Development in Education (IQB), assessed student performance in secondary-level math, physics, chemistry and biology — so-called STEM subjects — describing the results as negative.

"In all four subjects, regular standards are being met less often and minimum standards are being missed more often than in 2012 and 2018," the report said, according to Bild.

The share of ninth graders who failed to reach the minimum standard for a lower secondary school certificate rose by three percentage points from 2018 to 2024. For the intermediate school certificate, the number increased by nearly ten points.

In 2024, almost 9% of ninth graders failed to meet the minimum math standard for the lower secondary level, while around 34% missed the benchmark for the intermediate level.

About nine months after a deadly knife attack on a group of nursery children in Aschaffenburg, court proceedings have begun to determine whether the suspect can be held criminally responsible.

The Aschaffenburg district court is examining whether the 28-year-old Afghan man, who is believed to suffer from mental illness, was legally sane at the time of the January 22, 2025 attack. Prosecutors, citing an initial forensic-psychiatric report suggesting insanity, are seeking his permanent confinement in a psychiatric hospital.

According to investigators, the suspect used a 30-centimeter kitchen knife to attack a group of children in Schöntal Park.

A two-year-old Moroccan boy was fatally wounded, and a 41-year-old German man who tried to help was also killed. The attacker also allegedly stabbed a two-year-old Syrian girl and a 73-year-old German man, both of whom survived. A 59-year-old teacher broke her arm during the assault.

Prosecutors have charged him with murder, attempted murder, manslaughter, attempted manslaughter, threats, and multiple counts of bodily harm. The psychiatric report found a "high probability" that he acted while legally insane, unable to recognize the wrongdoing due to his mental condition.

The suspect, known to police for previous assaults, property damage, and resisting officers, fled the scene but was arrested about 12 minutes after the first emergency call near railway tracks. The blood-stained knife was found nearby.

The proceedings also cover a separate incident in August 2024 at a refugee shelter in Alzenau, where the man allegedly strangled and injured a female resident with a knife. Six court sessions are scheduled through October 30.

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz has reaffirmed his support for using frozen Russian assets in Europe to fund Ukraine's defense and reconstruction.

Speaking in the Bundestag ahead of the EU summit, Merz said the assets could provide Ukraine with about €140 billion (about $160 billion) in additional interest-free loans, securing its military resilience for years.

He stressed that the move was not aimed at prolonging the war but at helping end it as quickly as possible by increasing pressure on Russian President Vladimir Putin to negotiate.

Guten Tag! Welcome to our round up of news, analysis and other noteworthy content concerning Germany on Wednesday, October 15.

You join us as a leaked report says German students are meeting education standards less often and missing minimum goals more frequently.

And Germany's government is continuing discussions on how to help defend Europe from Russian military aggression. 

Follow DW for more news about this and other stories from Germany here in our blog.