Germany news: Deutsche Bank raided in money laundering probe

Thuringia's state Premier Mario Voigt announced on Wednesday that the Technical University of Chemnitz was revoking his Ph.D. title amid allegations of plagiarism in his thesis. 

He said he would appeal the decision. He accused the university of an unfair evaluation of the charges, which originally surfaced in the heat of the 2024 state election campaign. 

Voigt argued that the university had brought in external evaluators in 2024 who did not find grounds to revoke the title.

"Why the university did not heed this report, which it had commissioned itself, is not clear to me," he said at a press conference, arguing that they then reevaluated the case after coming up with "new rules of the game." 

Christian Democrat Voigt completed his doctorate in 2008, with a thesis that he had primarily compiled in the United States, entitled: "The American presidential election campaign. George W. Bush versus John F. Kerry." That was the 2004 presidential election, when Bush won a second term.

A considerable number of German politicians seek advanced degrees before entering politics. In recent decades, similar plagiarism scandals have emerged and dogged or even destroyed a string of senior politicians' careers.

The populist, far-right Alternative for Germany, which leads the opposition and was the largest single party in 2024's regional election, has called for Voigt's resignation, saying the alleged plagiarism brings shame on the eastern state.

A proposal from the economic wing of Germany's conservative Christian Democrats to place tighter restrictions on part-time contracts has come under hefty criticism.

A wing of the party that represents entrepreneurs has called for measures to discourage people from cutting their hours for "lifestyle" reasons.

Read the full story here.

 

The German government has lowered its 2026 growth forecast to 1%, conceding that efforts to kickstart Europe's beleaguered top economy with vast public spending were moving more slowly than hoped.

"The expected stimulus from economic and fiscal policy measures did not materialize as quickly or to the extent that we had assumed," Economy Minister Katherina Reiche (CDU) said on Wednesday.

Back in October, the government had predicted 1.3% growth and, while the performance is still set to be better than in recent years, officials in Berlin had hoped for a stronger turnaround.

After two years of recession between 2023 and 2025, and further challenges including a manufacturing slump, high energy prices, fierce international competition and US President Donald Trump's tariff blitz, Germany's export-driven economy has been struggling.

Since taking office last year, Chancellor Friedrich Merz, has eased Germany's strict debt rules to pave the way for hundreds of billions of euros of defense and infrastructure spending, but critics say the outlays have been slow to filter through to the wider economy.

Nevertheless, Reiche insisted that "we are now seeing a significant recovery" — albeit slower than hoped.

The offices of Germany's leading bank, Deutsche Bank, were searched by police prosecutors on Wednesday morning as part of an investigation into suspected money laundering.

The raid, which took place at the bank's headquarters in Frankfurt as well as at one of its offices in Berlin, come one day before the bank presents its annual results for 2025.

According to Der Spiegel news magazine, the search in Frankfurt started just after 10:00 a.m. and involved around 30 plainclothes investigators.

"We can confirm that the Frankfurt prosecutors' office is carrying out measures at the premises of Deutsche Bank," a bank spokesman told the AFP news agency, adding that it was "cooperating fully with prosecutors."

Why did authorities raid Deutsche Bank?

The probe, which is being conducted by Frankfurt state prosecutors in cooperation with the Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA), is believed to be linked to the bank's previous business dealings with foreign companies that are themselves suspected of money laundering.

According to the Süddeutsche Zeitung (SZ) broadsheet, the foreign companies in question are linked to Russian billionaire businessman Roman Abramovich – who has been sanctioned by the European Union following Russia's invasion of Ukraine due to his proximity to the Kremlin.

Abramovich is most well known as the former owner of English Premier League football club Chelsea, which he was forced to sell for around £2.5 billion (€2.88 billion, $3.44 billion) in May in 2022 in the wake of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

"No further information can be provided regarding the background to the business relationships, the transactions carried out via Deutsche Bank AG and their scope, or the companies themselves," a spokesman for the Frankfurt prosecutor's office explained.

The SZ reported that Deutsche Bank was being investigated on suspicion of not reporting possible money laundering in a timely manner – an accusation the bank has faced once before.

The bank's headquarters were raided in April 2022, while the national financial supervisory authority also assigned a special representative to monitor its progress in the fight against money laundering.

As the generation that witnessed the Holocaust slowly passes away, Germany "must find new ways to keep remembrance alive," parliamentary speaker Julia Klöckner (CDU) said at a commemorative event in the Bundestag on Wednesday.

"We don't just uphold our reason of state outside our borders," she said. "It begins here on the streets of Berlin, outside the synagogue in Munich, on school playgrounds, in lecture theaters, on X and TikTok."

Klöckner said life in Germany had become "more dangerous" for Jews in recent years and called for greater protection of Jewish life through increased understanding and also tougher punishment for antisemitic crimes.

"If you live in Germany, you live in the freedom and protection afforded by the constitution," she said. "If you have a German passport, whether by birth or naturalization, that constitution must be respected. It's not a suggestion; it's a categorical imperative. It's your country, and your history."

Police in Berlin have confirmed that 14 people were injured in a fire at the city's Jewish Hospital on Tuesday night (see earlier post) but said that no political motive had been established.

A 71-year-old patient, who was being treated for generally ill health in the clinic, is suspected of setting fire to an object near his bed, with the fire spreading to his mattress.

Hospital staff immediately began tackling the blaze and moved patients to another ward, but couldn't prevent 14 smoke inhalation injuries to patients, staff and two police officers.

Prosecutors are investigating a case of suspected arson, but have ruled out any political motive behind the incident.

The Jewish Hospital in Berlin's northern Wedding district was founded more than 260 years ago by the city's Jewish community, offering rabbi visits and kosher food for Jewish patients, but also offers medical services regardless of religion, origin, or political beliefs.

German customs officials have made one of their biggest drug busts in years, uncovering 400 kilograms (880 pounds) of heroin being smuggled into the Hamburg port.

Following an X-ray check, about 400 individual packages of the drug were discovered in a container arriving from Singapore full of paper for the printing industry. That took place on December 5, but was only announced on Wednesday for investigative reasons.

The street value of the haul is around €32 million ($38 million). According to the Federal Criminal Police Office, a total of 144 kilos of heroin was found by authorities in Germany in the whole of 2024.

Following investigations, the customs authorities raided several residences and businesses in Bremen, Bremerhaven and Osterholz-Scharmbeck. The investigations are still ongoing.

Despite the historic size of the find in Hamburg, Dutch authorities secured an even greater drug bust in Rotterdam, seizing 5,000 kilograms of cocaine, with an expected value of around €250 million.

All four German Bundesliga representatives are in action in the final round of the Champions League league-phase on Wednesday night – although only Borussia Dortmund and Bayer Leverkusen have anything left to play for.

After drawing at home to Norwegian side Bodo/Glimt in December and losing away at Premier League side Tottenham Hotspur last week, Dortmund only have a mathematical chance of finishing in the top eight and qualifying directly for the knock-out stage.

A draw at home to Italian giants Inter Milan at the Westfalenstadion will secure qualification for the play-off round  in which BVB can ensure they land in the top half of the draw with a win.

For Leverkusen, the situation is more dangerous as they host Spanish side Villarreal. Only a win will guarantee a play-off spot while a defeat or a draw could leave them reliant on results elsewhere.

Meanwhile, Bayern Munich travel to PSV Eindhoven having already qualified directly for the knock-out round, and Eintracht Frankfurt host Tottenham, but have already been eliminated.

The eastern German state of Saxony-Anhalt on Wednesday elected a new state premier, seven months ahead of key state elections.

Sven Schulze — a member of Chancellor Friedrich Merz's conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU) — was elected by local parliamentarians, achieving an absolute majority in the first round of voting.

Schulze, 46, who previously served as Saxony-Anhalt's economy minister, takes over from long-serving predecessor Reiner Haseloff (also CDU) at the head of a coalition government which also includes the Social Democrats (SPD) and Free Democrats (FDP).

But it's the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) who are leading in the polls ahead of the September 6 elections with 39%, followed by the CDU (26%), the Left Party (11%), the SPD (8%) and the Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance (BSW) on 6%.

As it stands, the Green Party (3%) and FDP (2%) would fall short of the 5% hurdle required to enter the state parliament.

Like other CDU leaders across Germany, Schulze has ruled out forming a coalition with the AfD.

The AfD won a state election for the first time in neighboring Thuringia in 2024, but was unable to form a government after other parties refused to form coalitions with it  a policy known in Germany as the Brandmauer, or "firewall."

Police in Berlin said on Wednesday morning that they had indications of a possible political motive following a fire at the Jewish Hospital in the German capital.

The fire occurred at the clinic in the northern Berlin district of Gesundbrunnen on Tuesday evening.

Investigators said a 71-year-old patient was detained after allegedly setting fire to an object in a hospital room — thought to have been a mattress that then caused heavy smoke.

Initial reports said three emergency responders and five hospital staff members suffered smoke inhalation while the suspect was also injured.

The fire was reportedly extinguished without the need to evacuate the hospital.

A police spokesman said investigations into the motive were ongoing.

Germany's parliament, the Bundestag, will hold an hour of remembrance for the victims of the Holocaust on Wednesday, in the presence of Tova Friedman, a survivor of the Nazi genocide.

Friedman, now 87, was born near Gdansk, Poland, in September 1938 and imprisoned in Auschwitz concentration camp in June 1944. She and her mother survived and were liberated by Soviet troops on January 27, 1945.

"The authentic voice of Tova Friedman is a voice of warning in the present day," said parliament speaker Julia Klöckner , of the Christian Democrats. "Her special commitment against forgetting is more important than ever."

Now a US citizen after moving to the United States, Friedman is a therapist and author who, with the help of her grandson, produces short videos for TikTok to raise awareness about the Holocaust.

International Holocaust Remembrance Day is celebrated on January 27, the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz by the Red Army. Wednesday is the German parliament's closest plenary session to the actual day.

Two men reportedly fired shots at an elite police unit during a car chase in southern Germany Tuesday evening, causing a road accident in which five people were lightly injured.

Officers from the Spezialeinsatzkommando (special deployment unit, or SEK) had attempted to arrest three men, aged 23, 24 and 30, in the small town of Absberg near the city of Nuremberg on suspicion of illegal possession of weapons.

While the 30-year-old was arrested, the other two reportedly fled in a car and fired shots at pursuing SEK officers before crashing into another vehicle near the town of Weißenburg, about 23 kilometers (14 miles) away. According to police, the SEK also fired one targeted shot at the tires of the fleeing car in order to bring it to a halt.

"We have to presume at the moment that we were dealing with live ammunition, since the officers' car has a bullet hole in it," said a police spokesman, confirming that both men had been arrested and a firearm recovered from the vehicle.

Prosecutors have charged the 23-year-old driver with dangerous driving and the 24-year-old passenger with attempted murder, while an investigation has been opened into whether the suspects were involved with violent criminal groups.

Police were also looking for a potential fourth suspect with the help of a helicopter and sniffer dog — but found no one was found.

Guten Morgen! Welcome to DW's coverage of what Germany is talking about on Wednesday, January 28.

Five people were lightly injured Tuesday evening in a dramatic car chase in Bavaria, during which fleeing suspects and pursuing police officers exchanged gunfire.

Police are also investigating whether a fire at the Jewish Hospital in Berlin on Tuesday night had a political motive.

And Germany's parliament, the Bundestag, is on Wednesday set to mark Holocaust Memorial Day (which took place yesterday) in the presence of a survivor.