Germany news: EU ministers meet for migration showdown

• European interior ministers stitchery successful Munich to tighten EU migration policy
• Germany's Olympic committee to determine which metropolis volition bid to host the Games in 2036, 2040 or 2044
• Trade unions stage protests successful 15 cities against health, welfare cuts
• Former Chancellor Angela Merkel, a Protestant, wins apical Catholic charity's prize

Follow our blog for the latest quality and investigation from crossed Germany for the play of September 26-27, 2026.

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09/26/2026September 26, 2026

Rail services canceled, delayed aft suspected cablegram theft

Police blamed disruption to high-speed obstruction services successful occidental Germany on deliberate harm to awesome cabling overnight.

National obstruction relation Deutsche Bahn said trains running between Dortmund and Munich, Hamburg and Basel, and bluish Germany and Cologne faced cancellations, delays and diversions.

According to the Zuginfo.nrw website, the full Gelsenkirchen metropolitan country is presently impassable.

A constabulary spokesperson said officers were investigating suspected cablegram theft connected a railway enactment successful Gelsenkirchen-Ückendorf, wherever signals and power systems had failed.

The suspects are believed to person crudely chopped and ripped retired cables beside the tracks astatine respective points.

It is unclear however agelong the repair enactment volition take.

09/26/2026September 26, 2026

Caritas honors Merkel with prize for societal cohesion

Merkel was Germany’s chancellor from 2005 to 2021Image: Michael Bihlmayer/CHROMORANGE/picture alliance

Former Chancellor Angela Merkel, a Protestant, received 1 of the highest honors of the Catholic Church's social payment foundation successful Germany.

The 72-year-old was awarded the Elisabeth Prize by the Catholic Caritas Association astatine an lawsuit successful the confederate metropolis of Augsburg connected Friday evening.

The prize is named aft Saint Elizabeth of Thuringia, who lived from 1207 to 1231 and who helped radical successful need. She is the patron saint of Caritas.

The grant recognized Merkel's committedness to societal cohesion, with Caritas President Eva Welskop-Deffaa paying tribute to the "inner compass with which she [Merkel] successfully steered the country's fortunes."

The erstwhile chancellor told the astir 400 guests that "there volition ever beryllium a request for radical to beryllium determination for 1 another."

Once seen by immoderate arsenic Mutti — Germany’s reassuring parent fig — Merkel has go an progressively divisive fig due to the fact that of her 2015 decision to unfastened the borders to much than a cardinal refugees.

Critics accidental Merkel’s determination fueled years of backlash that helped crook the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) from a fringe protestation enactment into a unit that present leads astir nationalist polls.

09/26/2026September 26, 2026

Dobrindt seeks 'hardening' of EU borders astatine Munich talks

Several European Union interior ministers are gathering successful Munich this day to sermon tightening the bloc's migration policy.

A spokesperson for German Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt told the Münchner Merkur paper that the talks volition absorption connected the "implementation of a displacement successful migration policy."

The 17 ministers volition sermon "further refining the European Migration Pact, consistently hardening the European Union's outer borders, and accelerating returns from Europe," the spokesperson added.

Germany and Denmark, Austria, the Netherlands, and Greece are owed to clasp abstracted talks about the creation of deportation centers or instrumentality hubs successful 3rd countries.

Germany hopes to unafraid a woody with a state successful Africa oregon perchance Asia by the extremity of the year.

Dobrindt's spokesperson said the EU's borderline agency, Frontex, could beryllium turned into a "border extortion and genuine instrumentality agency."

Currently, EU subordinate states are liable for returning asylum seekers whose applications person failed.

EU Commissioner for Internal Affairs and Migration Magnus Brunner will besides be the Munich talks. 

09/26/2026September 26, 2026

Munich oregon Cologne: Germany acceptable to prime Olympic bid metropolis

Germany plans to bid for either the 2036, 2040 oregon 2044 Olympic GamesImage: Jan Woitas/dpa/picture alliance

Germany's Olympic Sports Confederation (DOSB) volition reveal at lunchtime which metropolis volition bid to big a aboriginal Olympic Games.

After the capital, Berlin, withdrew earlier this week, the ballot volition beryllium a two-horse race  betwixt Munich and Cologne-Rhine-Ruhr to beryllium the campaigner metropolis for either the 2036, 2040 oregon 2044 Games.

Germany is keeping its options unfastened regarding which Games to bid for, arsenic the 2036 Olympics is wide expected to spell to an Asian country.

The twelvemonth 2036 is besides politically delicate arsenic it would people 100 years since Berlin hosted the 1936 Olympics during the Nazi era.

Some policymakers privation Germany to bid for 2040, arsenic it volition people 50 years since German reunification.

If it wins, Munich plans to big astir Olympic events wrong metropolis limits and already has stadia and different sports infrastructure successful place, including the Olympic Park, which was built for the 1972 Games.

Cologne-Rhine-Ruhr plans to dispersed the Games crossed respective cities, including Schalke for swimming events, Düsseldorf for hoops and shot astatine Borussia Dortmund's 81,000-seat stadium.

09/26/2026September 26, 2026

Welcome to our coverage

Good greeting from DW. In Munich, you'll often perceive Grüss Gott (greet God), portion successful Cologne and Germany's Rhine-Ruhr region, radical often accidental Tachchen (Hey there). 

It's determination time for some cities arsenic Germany's Olympic Sports Confederation (DOSB) picks which 1 volition bid to big the Olympic Games successful 2036, 2040, oregon 2044.

Munich volition besides beryllium hosting European interior ministers for talks on implementing a tougher EU migration policy.

Fifteen different cities, including Berlin, Hamburg and Nuremberg, volition signifier protests against the government's planned cuts to the societal payment bill.

We'll bring you updates connected these and different apical quality stories from crossed Germany passim the day.