Chancellor Merz says a proposed pension reform package should be fully implemented. A survey has shown that almost half of teachers in Germany find pupils' behavior stressful. DW has more.
What you need to know
Chancellor Friedrich Merz has said 33 proposed reforms to Germany's pension system should be rapidly implemented
Almost a half of teachers are stressed by pupils' behavior, a survey shows
The number of companies in Germany filing for bankruptcy reached the highest level since 2013
These updates are now closed. This was a roundup of the top stories from and about Germany on Tuesday, June 23, 2026.
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Deutsche Bahn witnesses nationwide cancellations due to IT disruption
German rail company Deutsche Bahn is cancelling trains across the country due to an IT disruption, a spokesperson for the company told German news agencies.
Trains are being held back and travelers are staying in their seats amid the disruption.
The spokesperson said the GSMR digital rail radio system is experiencing a malfunction, and technicians are working to resolve the issue.
Deutsche Bahn is notorious for frequent late trains and cancellations.
Police shoot man near Frankfurt's central train station
Police in Germany's financial capital, Frankfurt, said a man attacked an officer near the city's main train station on Tuesday afternoon and was shot.
State Criminal Police (LKA) in the state of Hesse said Tuesday that the assailant was inured in the incident as was the officer.
"Around 4 p.m. (1400 GMT), as police were conducting an operation near Kaisertor [a square across from the train station], an officer was attacked by a man wielding a sharp object, injuring him," said the LKA in a statement. "The officer then made use of his service pistol."
Police say the injured assailant, who was conscious but lying on the ground, was cared for by officers on the scene until an ambulance arrived and took him to a nearby hospital for treatment.
No further information about the attacker was given.
The area around Frankfurt's Hauptbahnhof is a magnet for the city's drug scene, posing a real problem for travelers and businesses for years.
Of late, police have stepped up patrols of the area, conducting more than 50 coordinated sweeps since the city declared its so-called downtown clean-up offensive in February 2024.
They were conducting such a sweep when Tuesday's shooting occurred.
The LKA is investigating the incident, as it regularly does in instances in which officers discharge firearms.
State Interior Minister Roman Poseck has been vocal in his criticism of the city's drug policies. On Tuesday, he praised the restraint and professionalism shown by police.
A meeting between state and city officials on the situation near the station is planned for this Friday.
Merz rallies European NATO partners for Berlin meeting
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz will host a handful of fellow European NATO leaders Wednesday for a meeting in the German capital that is to be followed by an afternoon press conference.
E5 NATO leaders include Merz, French President Emmanuel Macron, outgoing UK Prime Minister Kier Starmer, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk.
Wednesday's meeting is expected to cover European positions on several key issues prior to this year's NATO summit in Ankara, Turkey , where the 32-member military alliance will convene from July 7-9.
Discussions on Wednesday are expected to center on continued European and NATO support for Ukraine, Europe's role in Iran, and burden sharing among NATO partners as the US shifts its focus away from Europe.
NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte will join the meeting via video from Washington DC, where he is scheduled to meet with President Donald Trump after the Berlin sit-down wraps up.
European NATO nations have lobbied hard for continued support of Ukraine — something the US has at times shown little support for — while at the same time trying to placate US President Donald Trump, who has grown angry with E5 states for their lack of support for his war in Iran, among other things.
Tensions within the group will also likely be addressed after criticism from Italy and Poland over what they see as an outsized role being played by the so-called E3 — France, Germany and the UK — which the smaller nations argue do not speak for the whole of Europe.
NATO front-line nations push for 'drone wall,' expert says
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Two dead after small plane crashes in central Germany
Two men, aged 69 and 56, died Tuesday when the plane they were traveling in crashed in a farm field adjacent to a regional airport runway in Pohlheim, a small town in the central state of Hesse .
Emergency services were alerted to the crash around 11:30 a.m. local time (0930 GMT), according to a police spokesperson.
Upon arrival, first responders removed the lifeless individuals from the plane's wreckage and attempted to reanimate them. The injured were then rushed to a nearby hospital, where both succumbed to their injuries.
Chaplains were on the scene to care for traumatized witnesses and first responders.
Authorities are now attempting to assess any danger the wreckage may pose.
Bomb experts, for instance, were called to the scene to inspect an emergency parachute in the plane that is built to be deployed with an explosive charge.
Firefighters are on site to prevent any type of fire in the dry field amid blazing summer temperatures.
Authorities say federal aviation investigators have begun searching for the cause of the accident.
Police officer dies during motorcycle safety training at Hockenheim race track
Police in the southwestern German state of Baden-Württemberg said a colleague stationed in Aalen was killed during a motorcycle safety session late Monday evening.
In a press release, Baden-Württemberg state police said it is unclear how, but the 53-year-old officer crashed his service motorcycle while maneuvering through a right-hand turn at Germany's famous "Hockenheimring" race track.
He then collided into a retaining wall.
Despite immediate measures taken to save the injured officer, he was pronounced dead at the scene.
The traffic section of the Mannheim police department will lead an investigation into the incident.
German police stop man attempting to self-immolate in a city hall
Police in Lengerich, near the northwestern German city of Münster, said that a man who doused himself with flammable liquid and threatened to ignite himself was taken to a nearby hospital on Tuesday after a standoff lasting several hours.
The incident took place in an office at city hall.
"The situation was resolved in a positive manner. Special police units were on the scene. No one was injured," said a police spokesperson.
Police arrested the man and took him to a local hospital. The motive for the man's actions remains unclear.
Early reports said that another person had been seen near the man, therefore police treated the whole as a potential hostage situation.
City hall employees were allowed back into their offices later in the afternoon, however, services for citizens were cancelled for the remainder of the day.
Bankruptcies on the up in Germany
The number of companies in Germany filing for bankruptcy reached the highest level since 2013 in the first half of 2026, new figures show.
According to a study by financial services network Creditreform, there were 12,900 bankruptcies, 7.8% more than in the same period last year.
Bankruptcies also rose by 2.3% among private individuals to a total of 38,800 cases.
The head of economic research at Creditreform, Patrick-Ludwig Hantzsch, said the bankruptcy figures "reveal a deep structural crisis among companies that has been exacerbated by the conflict in the Middle East."
He said the zenith had not yet been reached.
"This development will restabilize when the economy grows at last. So in 2027 at the earliest, as things stand," he said.
Goethe-Institut turns 75 as Germany's image faces challenges
The general secretary of the Goethe -Institut, Johannes Ebert, said on Tuesday that while Germany's international image is good, it has taken some blows in recent times.
In remarks the 75th anniversary of the founding of the Goethe-Institut, Ebert told radio broadcaster RBB that "Germany has a good reputation in the world" and was seen as a stable partner and "hub for economy and education."
But, he said, "We are already seeing that the reputation is crumbling a bit."
Ebert said that not only the country's economic stagnation, but the Middle East conflict was having an influence on the institute.
He said the German position was seen as "too one-sided" and had to be explained with reference to its historical background.
The Goethe-Institut was founded in 1951 and has 154 branches in 100 countries that are tasked with promoting the German language, as well as cultivating cultural exchange and providing information about Germany.
The institute is holding an event to mark the anniversary in Berlin on Tuesday evening, with President Frank-Walter Steinmeier among the invitees.
You can read more about the Goethe-Institut in this article: 75 years of Germany's Goethe-Institut
Three bodies retrieved from Rhine after missing reports
The bodies of three men have been recovered from the Rhine River near the southwestern town of Biblis after they were previously reported missing, police said on Tuesday.
The men aged 23, 27 and 50 were found dead on Monday morning, police said in a statement.
They said there was no evidence of third-party involvement.
The family of the 50-year-old had reported him as missing on Saturday evening after he did not return 2 1/2 hours after he had left to go swimming.
While police were carrying out a search by boat and helicopter, passersby alerted them to the case of the two other men who had gone underwater near a boat ramp.
Neither of them knew how to swim. Swimming in the Rhine River is considered extremely dangerous because of its strong underwater currents.
The major riverside cities of Düsseldorf and Cologne banned swimming last year following a spate of drownings.
Police search homes of suspected 'Islamic State' members
German police have carried out searches at the homes of five people suspected of being members of the so-called "Islamic State" (IS) militant group, federal prosecutors said on Tuesday.
The raids were conducted in the southwestern town of Filderstadt, in Potsdam, just outside the capital, Berlin and in the Limburg-Weilburg region in central Germany, they said.
No arrests were made.
Further raids were carried out at premises linked to 11 people who are not considered suspects.
The IS group is designated as a terrorist organization globally by major international bodies and multiple countries.
Summer holidays unaffordable for one in five — Destatis
Going on even a one-week holiday in summer is something that 21% of the population in Germany — 17.3 million people — cannot afford, according to figures from the Federal Statistical Office (Destatis).
That figure rises to 39% among single parents, it said.
The statistic compares to 28% across the entire European Union, according to the European statistics office Eurostat.
The highest percentage of a European country's population unable to take a one-week holiday is in Romania , at 61%.
The proportion is smallest in Luxembourg (11%), Sweden (12%) and the Netherlands (13%).
Almost half of teachers stressed by pupils' behavior — School Barometer
Almost every second teacher in Germany (46%) considers that pupils' behavior is the biggest source of stress in the profession, according to a School Barometer survey issued on Tuesday.
That is an increase of more than 10 percentage points over 2024, when just 35% of teachers said pupils' conduct was their main challenge.
According to the survey carried out for the Robert Bosch Foundation, it is not just a lack of discipline that causes problems for teachers.
The teachers who responded to the survey said that a quarter of pupils had trouble working in a group, while 13% found it difficult to motivate themselves to learn.
Many teachers said that they were having to teach pupils more than just specialized knowledge, saying that empathy, self-organization and critical thinking also needed cultivating among pupils.
Four out of five teachers (82%) said they would like to receive extra training in these fields.
Almost every second respondent said more had to be done to educate pupils about democracy, with a similar number wanting more training in the use of artificial intelligence.
However, 83% ranked their job satisfaction as high. More than every fourth teacher said, however, that they would give up the job if there was an acceptable alternative.
A School Barometer survey of pupils published last week showed that every fourth pupil in Germany felt they had a poor quality of life, while around the same proportion displayed psychological difficulties.
June heat record could be broken Friday — DWD
Temperatures in some parts of Germany could reach 40 C (104 F) on Friday, breaking the previous June record, a spokeswoman for the German Weather Service (DWD) has told the German DPA news agency.
This was most likely to happen in the west and southwest of the country, she said.
The previous record for June was set on June 30, 2019, in the town of Bernburg in the eastern state of Saxony-Anhalt , with 39.6 C.
The record for the highest temperature ever recorded in Germany was hit just some four weeks later, with 41.2 C registered in the western cities of Tönisvorst and Duisburg.
Temperatures of just above 30 C are forecast for most of Germany on Tuesday, with extreme heat returning on Wednesday and remaining for the rest of the week.
Fire danger is also increasing across the country, with large parts of the south forecast to be at level 4-5 (high danger) by Thursday, while parts of the state of Brandenburg will be at level 5 (very high danger).
Climate scientists say such heat waves will become more common as the Earth continues to warm , largely as a result of the use of fossil fuels by humans.
Merz pushes for full implementation of pension reform package
Chancellor Friedrich Merz has said that 33 reform proposals made by a special pensions commission formed a unified whole that must be implemented in its entirety.
"All the elements of this reform package must now be implemented quickly," he said on Tuesday after the commission handed in its report.
He said it would not suffice to simply adopt certain elements and reject others, as they were interlinked and balanced each other out.
The proposals "form an overall concept that only functions in its entirety," he said.
"Pensions remain secured, and the burden is fairly spread over all social groups and all generations," he said.
What are some of the commission's proposals?
This would mean employees and employers should pay a shared additional sum of up to 2 percentage points on top of current pension contributions for investment in the capital market
The retirement age should gradually rise to over 67 in the next decades in keeping with the rise in life expectancy
The self-employed and politicians should also pay into the system, but not civil servants and public officials ( Beamten )
The earliest retirement age should be raised to 64
Early retirement on full pension for people who have worked at least 45 years should be abolished
Welcome to our coverage
The DW newsroom in Bonn wishes all readers a literally warm guten Tag as a midsummer heat wave continues to grip Germany along with much of Europe.
Some schools have decided to let their pupils go home early as the thermometer rises.
But another measuring device, the School Barometer, is also in focus on Tuesday, with teachers asked about their views on the situation at schools today.
The issue of pensions, which has long plagued the coalition government, is also at the fore, after a commission presented a list of more than 30 proposals to reform the system.
Chancellor Friedrich Merz has called for their full implementation, saying they distribute the burden fairly across the generations.
We will also be looking at the visit to Berlin by Senegalese President Bassirou Diomaye Faye, whose country is going through a period of political turbulence.
And the famous Michelin guide is to give its star ratings to what it considers to be the best German restaurants at an event in the evening.
Read on for more headlines from Europe's biggest economy on Tuesday, June 23.