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News from Berlin and Germany, 11th March 2026

Weekly news round-up from Berlin and Germany

The Left Berlin
11/03/2026

News From Berlin

Weimer removes left-wing bookstores from the prize list

Wolfram Weimer (independent), the Minister of State for Culture, is once again intervening politically in cultural affairs. Having already acted in the context of the debate surrounding Berlinale director Tricia Tuttle, he is now intervened in the German Bookstore Prize. He has excluded three bookstores already shortlisted by the jury from the award ceremony: the Berlin bookstore “Schwankende Weltkugel” (Shaky Globe), the Bremen “Golden Shop,” and the Göttingen “Rote Straße” (Red Street). Weimer justified his decision with “findings relevant to the protection of the constitution,” without specifying what these were. Those affected intend to take legal action. The prize ceremony has been cancelled following the backslash. Source: spiegel

“From the River to the Sea” – with the blessing of the police

Anyone on Berlin’s streets who shouts a single phrase of the pro-Palestinian slogan “From the River to the Sea, Palestine will be free” risks arrest, charges, and criminal proceedings. However, when a Christian association with the opposite agenda proclaims that “God in the Bible grants the land of Canaan ‘from the river to the sea’ exclusively and irrevocably to the Jewish people,” this apparently poses no problem. On the contrary: Berlin’s chief of police, Barbara Slowik Meisel, even participated as a guest of honor at the “Israel Day Berlin-Brandenburg 2026” organised by the association “Christians on the Side of Israel”— the very organization that questions the right of Palestinians to exist in Israel and Palestine. Source: taz

Tricia Tuttle remains director of the Berlinale – but with conditions

The potential dismissal of Berlinale director Tricia Tuttle last week has immediately mobilized the film industry, and she will remain director of the Berlin International Film Festival. However, there will be certain conditions in the future. This is the outcome of a meeting of the festival’s supervisory board, the Federal Government’s Cultural Events in Berlin (KBB), as Minister of State for Culture Wolfram Weimer (no party) announced on March 4. Plans include an “advisory forum” and the development of a code of conduct for all cultural events funded by the German state, Weimer explained. Source: dw

A Berlin factory and the controversy over militarisation in Germany

A factory in Wedding is in the midst of a controversial transformation. Starting this summer, most of its employees will be tasked with manufacturing grenades for large-caliber ammunition—without any actual explosives being present on site, as the owner, Pierburg, a subsidiary of the industrial conglomerate Rheinmetall, emphasises. Activists from the “Berlin Alliance Against Arms Production” (BBgW), a group of around 30 organizations fighting against militarisation of German industry, have tried to talk to the employees, without much success. In a statement to DW, Rheinmetall said converting the factory to weapons production was a response to economic developments “characterised by shrinking sales in the automotive sector, coupled with a huge increase in demand in the military sector.” Source: dw

News From Germany

“The long-term is disastrous”

In an interview, “nd” reports that, despite a settlement has been in place for two weeks in the public sector wage dispute in the German states, there are still issues. For example, the raise of 5.8% which employees are to receive in three stages over 27 months will not be enough to cover inflation. There is also the belief that the long contract term of 27 months is a disastrous flaw, as it’s only slightly shorter than the term demanded by the collective bargaining association of the federal states. In this case, a demand for a twelve-month contract term should be a central objective, to enhance the mobilisation of the employees. Source: nd-aktuell

AfD achieves around 19% in Baden-Württemberg: a poisoned success for the “fighting dwarf”

The Greens won in Baden-Württemberg and the AfD doubled its result there: Around 19%, the third-strongest party. For many in the AfD, this now feels nevertheless like a defeat. After all, its politicians know the AfD is far from a majority government in the southwest, and no one wants to form a coalition with them. Its candidate, Markus Frohnmaier, managed the feat of spending election week not in Baden-Württemberg, but in Washington, D.C., where he networked with the MAGA movement. Nevertheless, the AfD is likely to emerge from election night with a boost once the result shows how stable its electorate has become. Source: tagesspiel

Asylum policy and family separation

The Bundestag decided in June 2025 the special protection of the family, as emphasized in Article 6 of the “Basic Law” (Grundgesezt) would not apply to refugees, or would apply even less than before. For those who came to Germany as minors from war zones, this means that they will be separated from their relatives for longer. Last week, Jan Köstering (Left Party) asked the federal government about the consequences of that measure. Daniela Ludwig (CSU), from the Federal Ministry of the Interior, stated this measure had “significantly reduced” the number of people entering the German social welfare system: according to ministry figures, only 150 visas for family reunification with beneficiaries of subsidiary protection have been issued since August 2025. Source: nd-aktuell

Germany is looking for a female president

In one year, Germany’s head of state will be re-elected. Many would like to see a woman at the helm for the first time. But who? Chanceler Friedrich Merz (CDU) plans to announce a name in September. The Green Party suggested former Chancellor Angela Merkel as a candidate, but she immediately dismissed that proposal. Other names such as Julia Klöckner (CDU), Ilse Aigner (CSU), and Karin Prien (CDU) are also frequently mentioned, each of them with gains and eventual political constraints. Even the name of a writer, Juli Zeh, is being considered since she already has administrative experience as a volunteer constitutional judge in her state. Source: dw

The hidden ingredients in your food delivery

How do you like the taste of exploitation?

T. Giddins
08/03/2026

We live in an age of ingredient obsession, where labels are read like confessionals and the exact origin of what we consume becomes shorthand for responsibility and wellbeing. “Organic”, “unprocessed”, “corn-fed”, “free-range” and “farm-to-table” are everyday aspirations in parts of society privileged enough to find morality on the supermarket shelf. Oils are ranked, grams are counted, transparency is requested at every stage, and for some the small print on packaging becomes more important than the price tag.

But when we don’t feel like cooking, we open an app and order dinner from a system built to keep its own less-than-palatable “ingredients” off the receipt. The small print that would, if it existed, mention extremely inhumane working conditions, social security fraud, risk pushed onto workers and customers, and a subcontracting business model that prizes entrepreneurial “freedom” over the people who prop it up.

How the subcontracting model works

In Germany’s food delivery sector, this is a structure which companies such as Wolt, Uber Eats and Lieferando have increasingly shifted toward. Lieferando was long considered a shining example in the industry, with the majority of its drivers directly employed by the company and having works councils in place. However, last year they announced plans to lay off 2,000 couriers.

When this happens, permanent contracts are phased out, the directly employed riders are let go, and the delivery work is outsourced to external fleets that appear days later offering the same jobs back, only now with fewer rights, lower wages, and little in the way of insurance or sick pay. On paper, the employer has changed, but on the street everything looks identical. It’s a murky world, even for Lieferando’s high-vis orange branding.

Once riders are in the subcontracting maze, they report to a so-called fleet manager who—despite being their de facto boss—offers no contract, insurance, or security. More often than not, it’s just a WhatsApp number, a delivery app login, and the hope they don’t block you or disappear before payday. If they do, you have no proof you ever worked, only the absurd risk of being fined (or worse, deported) for unauthorized employment you never got to choose. Meanwhile, the multibillion-euro platform that actually directs your labour shrugs and points at the subcontractor, who points at the fleet manager, who’s likely pointing at the departures timetable in the nearest airport.

“They call it subcontracting, but it’s not,” says Lieferando Works Council (LWC) leader Samee Ullah. “We’re just pushed into the hands of middlemen so they can make money. In Germany a subcontractor usually gives you instructions for the job. Here the instructions still come from Lieferando or Uber Eats but employment rights and protections disappear.”

The extra ingredients in your food order

Trying to understand any business model that relies on legal loopholes to exist can feel complex and labyrinthine—which, of course, is the point. To help unpack it, we’ve highlighted the things everyone should be aware of before tapping “order now”.

Here are the extra ingredients in your delivery that don’t appear on the receipt.

1. Conditions of forced labor

The delivery apps sell a story of flexible side hustles and entrepreneurial freedom. What they actually rely on is a workforce that can’t afford to walk away.

In Germany, most of the riders aren’t hobby cyclists topping up a comfortable income. They’re migrant workers and international students whose right to be in the country is tied to a fragile combination of paperwork and payments.

Increasingly drawn here by aggressive marketing promises of affordable education and high-paying tech jobs, many have to open a “blocked account” and deposit €12,000–14,000 before they even land. By the time they’re riding through winter traffic, they’re already in the red.

Add to that the cost of cramped, overpriced rooms, private university fees, and limited access to other legal employment, and the fear of falling behind is never far away. If riders default on tuition or fail to prove sufficient income, they don’t just receive a stern email from a bank—they risk losing their student status, their visa, and their legal right to remain in the country.

This is not a labor market where people can weigh up offers and choose the best one—it’s a trap in which saying “no” can mean homelessness, debt collectors, or worse, deportation. So, when your food arrives a few minutes early, it may well have been carried by someone riding not just against the clock, but against a countdown built into their passport and bank account.

2. Theft from the social state

If a restaurant failed to pay VAT, we’d call it tax fraud. When delivery platforms and their fleets hollow out entire sections of the welfare state, it’s called innovation.

Germany’s social safety net—health insurance, pensions, unemployment benefits, and paid leave—depends on employer contributions tied to formal employment. But in the subcontracting world of the delivery sector, large platforms are allowed to step delicately around many of these obligations.

Riders are reclassified as “self‑employed”, pushed onto the books of the aforementioned small fleets, and hired under “contracts” that amount to little more than WhatsApp or Telegram messages.

The end result is simple: less money goes into the collective pot. Health insurance funds are deprived of contributions, pension systems lose out on payments, and accident insurance is left to pick up the bill when a rider is hit by a car. These costs don’t disappear, they’re pushed onto the public.

And then, when the numbers don’t add up, the same racist politicians who cheered on entrepreneurial freedom turn around and blame migrants for stretching the system.

3. Delivering while sick

When it comes to food and eating out, we’ve every right to be concerned about potential contaminants. We expect regulators to keep salmonella, listeria and mold at bay. If a kitchen cuts corners, we talk about hygiene scandals and public health.

In a normal employment relationship, health and safety laws are meant to guarantee that people don’t have to work while they’re ill—that they can stay home with pay and not gamble their rent on a blocked nose and a fever. In the subcontracting world, these protections are non-existent, because riders are hired through opaque fleets and middlemen who think of sick pay and workplace safety as little more than a fantasy.

For customers, that means something very simple: there’s no real guarantee that the person bringing your food could afford to stay home when they’re ill. If they have a temperature, a bad cough, or a stomach bug, they almost certainly ride anyway because not riding might mean not eating, not paying tuition, or not meeting the conditions of a visa.

4. Risk for profit

Delivery apps like to describe themselves as neutral intermediaries. They don’t own the kitchens, they don’t own the restaurants, and crucially, they don’t even own the bikes. This absence isn’t an accident—it’s by design.

Everywhere you look in the delivery chain, risk is pushed downwards. Riders are expected to rent or buy their own e‑bikes, often paying around €150 a month just to keep the wheels turning. An e‑bike becomes a depreciating asset workers can’t really afford but have to shoulder if they want the job. If the bike is stolen or if the battery disappears while they’re running up four flights of stairs to drop off a pizza, that’s their loss.

And once bike rental and equipment costs are factored in, many riders report that their effective earnings fall close to—or even below—Germany’s statutory minimum wage, despite the promises of competitive pay.

Even the act of charging a battery becomes an unpaid hazard. Sometimes they just get warm and buzz, but other times they explode into flames and turn a shared flat into a blackened shell. No push notification pops up from the app to say: “By the way, one of our riders lost everything last night so that you could get your burger on time.”

When accidents happen—crashes, fires, long‑term injuries—the costs fall either on the individual or on the public services that patch them back together. The platforms that orchestrate the work keep their hands clean and their balance sheets light. Everything that might go wrong is quietly billed to someone else.

5. Speed over safety

Food delivery lives and dies on the promise of speed. This urgency is marketed as convenience but in reality it’s backed up by a systematic refusal to invest in safety. Many riders have been in Germany for only a few weeks or months but are legally allowed to drive or ride on licences from countries with completely different traffic patterns. Instead of training, the companies provide little more than a branded jacket and an app login.

For Aju John, a Berlin-based lawyer and researcher who’s supported delivery riders in legal disputes, that combination is not accidental—it concentrates the risk on those least equipped to carry it.

“This is a job that even those with no experience are easily able to get into. They are especially attractive for those whose previous work experience and education are not valued in the German job market. Even those with no experience of the circumstances on German roads. Neither the fleet partner nor the platform corporations provide them with any training. In the first six months of your stay here, you are actually allowed to use an Indian driving license to drive around in Germany, and deliver for such companies. These are completely different driving circumstances. And who bears the risk of a traffic violation or an accident happening at that time? It’s either the worker or the state, rarely the corporation that is profiting off this risk.”

The last ingredient in your takeaway is not just someone rushing through the rain. It’s a system in which other people’s safety is routinely traded for speed and convenience.

So what can we do?

The point of all this isn’t to say “never order food again” and cut people off from one of the few income sources available to them. But if you care about what’s in your food, it’s time to care about the labour architecture that gets it to the door. There are a few concrete things we can all do to help:

1. Back the riders’ petition and follow LWC.

Lieferando’s Works Council is working on a petition demanding that the company halt outsourcing plans, protect existing jobs, and commit to direct employment with full social insurance contributions and enforceable labour rights.

Add your name to their contact form here to get the petition emailed directly to you once it’s ready. For more information on the Lieferando workers fight, please follow and contact the group through here.

2. Practice everyday solidarity.

If you order, tip generously and in cash. It’s one of the few ways to get money directly to riders without a cut being taken on the way.

3. Support the broader fight against subcontracting with UAS.

United Against Subcontracting is a collective of workers organizing to improve the conditions for precarious workers in Berlin and across Germany. Follow them here.

Survival as a business model

It’s common to call standing shoulder to shoulder on a crowded platform, or waiting for a rush-hour train to a secure job, the “rat race.” If that is our benchmark for stress, what do we call the race delivery workers are expected to run?

This isn’t about people who arrive in Germany being naïve or unaware, as part of the press would have you believe. It’s not a story about poor personal choices. It’s about a system that concentrates the risks at the bottom, strips away stability, and then treats the outcome as personal responsibility. Please sign the petition, tip well, and enjoy your meal!

The article was modified on March 11 to update the status of the LWC petition.

News from Berlin and Germany, 3rd March 2026

Weekly news round-up from Berlin and Germany

The Left Berlin
03/03/2026

News from Berlin

German citizenship applications: around 5% rejected in Berlin

According to figures from the Berlin State Office for Immigration (LEA), cited by Interior State Secretary Christian Hochgrebe (SPD), the LEA’s naturalisation department rejected one in 20 citizenship applications in 2025: 39,034 Berliners were successfully naturalised last year, while 1,931 had their applications rejected. Hochgrebe said there were multiple reasons why applications might be rejected, for example, if information is missing, inconsistent or incorrect. In some applications, workers may suspect documents have been forged. Since operations were centralised at the LEA, staff numbers have nearly doubled, and the application process has been almost entirely digitised. According to Hochgrebe, digitisation means security standards are now “significantly higher”. Source: iamexpat

An example

On February 25, Bild announced that Berlinale festival director Tricia Tuttle was about to be dismissed, not only because of Syrian-Palestinian director Abdallah Alkhatib’s speech at the closing gala, but also because a photo taken before that shows her with the Alkhatib film crew and a Palestinian flag. However, making an example out of Tuttle did not work. Tuttle has received a great deal of solidarity: more than 600 filmmakers signed an open letter on the “Future of the Berlinale,” and the German Cultural Council, the Federal Association of Directors and a group of Israeli directors have expressed their support. Source: jW

EU: armaments instead of urban development?

The European Commission is urging member states to use funding from cohesion policy—funds intended for the social and economic development of regions—for the expansion of military infrastructure. The Commission is planning 4 multimodal corridors for “short-term and large-scale military movements” in Europe. For the period 2021 to 2027, Berlin is earmarked for approximately €680 million from the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF). Whether Berlin and Brandenburg could also be directly involved in a “dual-use” infrastructure (i.e, for civilian and military purposes) is unclear: the Berlin Senate claims to have no knowledge about it. Source: BZ

“NOlympia” and the potential withdrawal from the Olympic bid

The Berlin Senate anticipates that withdrawing its bid for the Olympic and Paralympic Games would incur administrative costs of “up to one million euros.” This is according to the official cost estimate from the Senate Department for the citizens’ initiative “For Berlin—Against the Olympics. We say no to a bid for the Olympic Games in 2036, 2040, and 2044.” The “NOlympia” alliance sharply criticized the Senate Department for the Interior for its calculations. “This cost estimate is a political smokescreen,” said Gabriele Hiller, spokesperson for the alliance. “The Senate is trying to convince the people of Berlin that it would be more expensive not to host the Games than to hold them.” Source: tagesspiegel

“Wing of Zion” at the Berlin Brandenburg Airport (BER)

While fighting between Israel and Iran continues to escalate in the Middle East, the Israeli government plane has been moved from the crisis region to Berlin. The Boeing 767 used for government travel, known as “Wing of Zion,” is now safely parked on the tarmac at BER Airport, away from the fighting—apparently as a precautionary measure. BER declined to comment on the aircraft’s whereabouts when asked, and the Israeli embassy also did not initially respond to a request for comment. According to Israeli media reports, the aircraft had been moved out of the country during previous conflicts to protect it from missile attacks. Source: morgenpost

Protest against Görlitzer Park closure remains peaceful

After years of debate, Görlitzer Park in Berlin-Kreuzberg was closed for the first time at night on March 1. Earlier in the evening, around 300 people protested the closure at a demonstration, partly moderated by a representative of the Green Party. They gathered in the park for a concert under the motto “Rave against the Zaun” (Rave against the Fence). Approximately 200 police officers were deployed. According to reports, the protest remained peaceful, with one person arrested. In the future, the 16 entrances will be closed every evening with the newly constructed gates, as the Senate had announced. Exiting the park will still be possible via revolving doors. Source: rbb

News from Germany

AfD wins summary proceedings regarding classification as “right-wing extremist”

The Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV) is not permitted to classify and treat the AfD as “confirmed right-wing extremist” for the time being. The Cologne Administrative Court has ruled that the federal authority must await the outcome of the main proceedings. The court noted that the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution based its assessment exclusively on publicly available sources. The Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution must also refrain from publicly announcing such a classification. An urgent application by the AfD has thus been granted in essence. The decision can still be appealed. Source: jW

Tough measures against Left Youth spokesperson

Martha Chiara Wüthrich (Die Linke) was elected last November to the seven-member Federal Spokesperson Council of the Left Youth Solid, the party’s youth organization. However, according to a decision by the Thuringian State Arbitration Commission of Die Linke, all her membership rights have been revoked for two years, and she is no longer welcome in the party. She is alleged to have made “antisemitic” and “violence-glorifying” statements and to have relativized the Holocaust. Wüthrich intends to first examine the possibility of challenging the Thuringian decision on the grounds of “procedural errors.” She can also appeal to the federal arbitration commission. Source: nd

Fritz-Kola, a supporter of the CDU?

Fritz-Kola was one of the companies which sponsored the CDU Party Conference last month. Given the company’s background, it sounds strange. Such support caused many negative reactions online, even calling for a boycott of the beverage. According to a statement published on Instagram and Facebook by founder and CEO Mirco Wolf Wiegert, that was not an easy decision for the company but considered necessary in the interest of democracy and an open society. Nevertheless, some commentators accuse the Hamburg-based company of lobbying, since the sugar tax was discussed at the conference. Fritz-Kola is against it, advocating instead for conscious consumption. Source: mopo

Hennigsdorf CDU Votes with AfD for Citizens’ Militia

The Hennigsdorf city council (SVV) intends to establish a kind of citizens’ militia to strengthen the “subjective sense of security” near its train station. Five CDU councilors, four councilors from the “Citizens for Hennigsdorf” voters’ association, and the entire seven-member AfD faction voted in favor. The Brandenburg branch of the AfD is classified as a confirmed right-wing extremist organization by the Office for the Protection of the Constitution. Police see no benefit from the initiative: the head of the Hennigsdorf police, Chief Inspector Gerald Bliß, had made it very clear how pointless he considered the project. He was familiar with such security partnerships from neighborhoods or allotment garden associations, Bliß said. But they “should originate from the grassroots.” Source: taz

News from Berlin and Germany, 25th February 2026

Weekly news round-up from Berlin and Germany

The Left Berlin
25/02/2026

News from Berlin

Berliners increasingly chauvinistic

“Shocking, but not surprising,” says Alina Voinea, commenting on the findings of the new Berlin Monitor. The study finds that 24.4% of Berliners express chauvinistic attitudes. The monitor also examines a broader range of social and political attitudes, including discrimination and democratic stability. Voinea is the Berlin state government’s contact person for antigypsyism. Commissioned by the Senate Department for Anti-Discrimination, the monitor examines racism against Sinti and Roma alongside antisemitism. The results of the study, which surveyed more than 2,000 Berliners, were presented on February 23. While 70% of respondents agreed in 2021 that they were generally satisfied with the democracy as it exists in Germany, this figure dropped to 62% by 2025. And 40% of Berliners were classified as “fragile democrats”—the highest percentage since the study began in 2019. Source: nd-aktuell

Environment Minister Schneider leaves the Berlinale awards ceremony

Excitement surrounding a speech at the Berlinale: the Federal Environment Minister Carsten Schneider (SPD) left the hall on February 21 in protest. That happened because the Syrian-Palestinian director Abdallah Alkhatib, who won the award for best feature film debut with “Chronicles from the Siege”, had accused the federal government of “being a partner in the genocide in Gaza.”. The Gaza war was also discussed when Lebanese director Marie-Rose Osta (“Yawman ma walad” – “Someday a Child”), said that the ceasefire was not being observed. Festival director Tricia Tuttle affirmed that a festival like Berlinale cannot solve the world’s conflicts. “But it can create space for complexity, for listening and for humanizing one another.” Source: spiegel

Kreuzberg ticket office files for insolvency

The Berlin ticket office KOKA36 has filed for insolvency. This was revealed in a filing dated February 11 at the Charlottenburg District Court. The shop, a fixture for concertgoers on Oranienstraße in Berlin’s Kreuzberg district for over 30 years, has been closed since last week. Although insolvency proceedings are initially just a court-ordered process to determine how debts can be settled or the company restructured, it is currently unclear whether regular operations will resume. The SO36 concert venue is also affected by the insolvency. A crowdfunding campaign (at https://www.startnext.com/so36-cool/mehr-infos) is now underway to minimize the losses. Source: groove.de

News from Germany

Intelligence officers oppose AfD ban

It is another setback for a ban on the AfD: Germany’s domestic intelligence agency, the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution, is skeptical about a ban on the party. The intelligence officers fear being “blind and deaf” in the event of a ban, with informants and undercover investigators being deactivated or withdrawn. There is actually no unanimous opinion among intelligence officials if informants are necessary to keep an eye on the AfD. Source: nd-aktuell

Germany is shrinking

The wave of bankruptcies in Germany continues to persist: in January, 1,391 partnerships and corporations officially filed for insolvency. While this was fewer than in December, it was 4% higher than in 2025. Steffen Müller, head of insolvency research at the Leibniz Institute for Economic Research Halle, believes that “easing of the situation” is possible no earlier than April. Furthermore, job losses in the industrial sector were almost twice as high as in 2024, according to data from the Federal Statistical Office and an analysis which covers companies with at least 50 employees. This means the actual decline is greater. Source: jungewelt

Greens offer cooperation to Merz on constitutional amendments

The Greens have signaled their willingness to discuss constitutional amendments with Chancellor Friedrich Merz (CDU). At the same time, the party is presenting its own reform package entitled “Immediate Action Program for the Future,” which proposes far-reaching changes to the pension and healthcare systems. The authors are Katharina Dröge and Britta Haßelmann, the two co-chairs of the Greens’ parliamentary group in the Bundestag. The document is largely very general, and the Greens only provide specifics on two points. On the one hand, they advocate for net immigration of 400,000 workers per year. On the other hand, they want to replace the Riester pension scheme with a state-run citizens’ fund. Source: berliner Zeitung

BKA figures for 2025: right-wing violence increases again

According to figures from the Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA), there was in 2025 1,521 cases of politically motivated violence from the right-wing spectrum in Germany. In 2024, there were 1,488 of those crimes in the country. Such figures are part of a response from the Federal Government to the Left Party. The Government also pointed out that the number of crimes may still change due to late reports. Ferat Kocak, domestic policy expert for the Left Party, observes that “Right-wing violence continues to escalate, and the federal government is looking the other way.” Source: tagesspiel

Exactly 100 years after the NSDAP Reich Party Rally

The AfD wants to meet in Erfurt at the beginning of July – exactly a century after the NSDAP party conference in Weimar. Historians and politicians see this as a deliberate provocation. “The deliberately chosen parallel shows once again who the brainchild of the AfD is,” said Foreign Office State Minister Serap Güler (CDU) to the “Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger”. ” It disgusts me how little decency and respect this party has for our history,” Güler added. The historian and totalitarianism researcher Jörg Ganzenmüller, director of the Hannah Arendt Institute for Research on Totalitarianism at the TU Dresden, spoke of “a conscious symbolic act that works on several levels”. Source: tagesspiel

A 13-Year-Old attacks a Muslim schoolmate with knife

A 13-year-old boy allegedly attacked a Muslim schoolmate with a knife at a school in Bretten, near Karlsruhe, inflicting minor injuries. According to the Baden-Württemberg State Criminal Police Office, the suspected perpetrator had recently come to their attention for making far-right extremist statements. In Germany, children under 14 are not criminally responsible in Germany, and therefore they do not face criminal charges. “Nevertheless, it is our goal to clarify the background of the incident and to support the responsible youth welfare office in providing the boy and his family with the necessary assistance,” the State Criminal Police Office further stated. Source: islamiq

“Germany Monitor”: strong support for democracy, doubts about its function

The world is changing, mostly for the worse: autocracies are on the rise, and democratic societies are under pressure. The “Germany Monitor 2025” concludes nevertheless that 98% of all Germans have a positive attitude toward the idea of democracy. However, only 68% say that democracy means the government must adhere to parliamentary decisions and the separation of powers. The focus of such study, with the participation of 4,000 representative individuals across Germany, were also asked in which areas of politics they most perceive these changes. The strongest change is in defense policy. Source: dw

News from Berlin and Germany, 18th February 2026

Weekly news round-up from Berlin and Germany

The Left Berlin
18/02/2026

News from Berlin

Arundhati Roy cancels Berlinale participation due to Wim Wenders’ statement

Indian writer Arundhati Roy has canceled her participation in the Berlinale film festival because she was offended by a statement made by jury president Wim Wenders regarding the Gaza war. As Spiegel Online reported, the 80-year-old director was asked about the German government’s stance on the Gaza war. Wenders replied that filmmakers should stay out of politics. Arundhati Roy (author of The Great God of Small Things) called the statement that art is not political “unbelievable,” according to Spiegel Online. Roy wrote the screenplay for the 1989 film In Which Annie Gives It Those Ones, which is being screened as part of the festival’s classic film program. Source: deutschlandfunk

Tesla vs. IG Metall

Police were called to the works council meeting at the Tesla plant in Grünheide near Berlin. Plant manager André Thierig, writing on the “X” portal, accused a representative of the IG Metall union of recording the meeting without authorization. Tesla contacted the police and filed a complaint. IG Metall called it a smear campaign and rejected the accusation. A new works council is to be elected at Elon Musk’s only European Tesla factory at the beginning of March. A conflict has existed between Tesla and the IG Metall union for some time. Tesla refuses to introduce a collective bargaining agreement. Source: t-online

News from Germany

4,200 Germans Serve in Israel’s Military

More than 50,000 soldiers in the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) hold at least one other nationality in addition to their Israeli citizenship. By far the largest group consists of US citizens (more than 13,000). Germany ranks fourth with a total of 4,193 soldiers. These figures come from the response to a 2025 Freedom of Information Request submitted by an Israeli NGO. Such double citizenship poses a question: many European countries are obligated to investigate crimes against humanity as soon as their own citizens are involved. Currently, investigations are underway against several Israelis with dual citizenship who are suspected of involvement in war crimes. Source: nd

Migration: CDU wants tough rules at EU borders

The CDU wants to push through a further tightening of migration policy. A resolution is targeted for adoption at the CDU conference on February 20 and 21. According to Bild, the CDU wants asylum seekers attempting to enter the EU from safe third countries to be immediately turned back at the EU’s external border without any checks. The motion proposes, among others, advanced language skills and at least five years of residence without social assistance for naturalization. It also establishes certain principles for those who have already been naturalized: for example, participants in demonstrations demanding the caliphate or Sharia law, as well as those convicted of antisemitic crimes, should lose their passports. Source: merkur

Afghan killed for opposing royalist Iran’s “Lion and Sun” flag

A 43-year-old Afghan citizen named Morteza Sadeghi, owner of the Sepideh restaurant in Hamburg, died after being stabbed multiple times on February 12. He had lived in Germany for more than 35 years and founded the restaurant about 25 years ago. Preliminary information indicates that the confrontation occurred when Sadeghi opposed a royalist Iranian immigrant’s request to erect the “Lion and Sun” flag of the overthrown Iranian monarchy in his restaurant, leading to a fight and ultimately his murder. Reports indicate that the suspect fled the scene after the incident, and efforts are ongoing to identify and arrest him. Source: ava

Government in Germany announces further rent regulations

In June 2025, the CDU/CSU-SPD coalition extended the rent brake law (Mietpreisbremse) until 2029. Now, Justice Minister Stefanie Hubig (SPD) has announced a “second package” regulating index-linked rental contracts, furnished apartments and short-term lets. According to the draft law, seen by public broadcaster ARD, landlords will, for instance, be able to annually increase index-linked rents by a maximum of 3.5% of the previous net cold rent. Hubig said, in an interview with ARD, that the law should be ready by parliamentary recess this summer. Opposition parties point out that the proposed reform is too slow and still too lax. Source: iamexpat

German integration course admissions are frozen until further notice

The Federal Office for Migration and Refugees (BAMF) has confirmed that it is not currently admitting new students to German integration courses and that admissions are paused until further notice. The BAMF stopped integration course admissions in December 2025. Integration courses are designed by the German government to help anyone who has recently arrived in Germany to adjust to everyday life. “We don’t know the reason for the suspension,” Institute for Language and Communication (ISK) representative Gerd Heymann told Correctiv, a German investigative journalism nonprofit organization. Source: iamexpat