Skip next section Champions League: Potential all-German playoff clash
Champions League: Potential all-German playoff clash
Bundesliga sides Borussia Dortmund and Bayer Leverkusen could potentially be drawn against each other in the Champions League playoff round next month after both failed to qualify directly from the tournament's league stage on Wednesday night.
Direct progression was already impossible for Leverkusen — and only mathematically possible for Dortmund ahead of Wednesday's games, but the German teams ended up 16th and 17th respectively, meaning that they could face each other in a two-legged playoff when the draw is conducted on Friday.
Leverkusen's comfortable 3-0 win over Spanish side Villarreal saw them secure a seeded position in the playoff draw while Dortmund's 0-2 defeat to Italian giants Inter Milan saw them finish one point behind Leverkusen in an unseeded position — hence why the two could now meet.
Bayern Munich had already qualified automatically for the knock-out stage ahead of their 2-1 win away at Dutch side PSV Eindhoven, and will not have to go via the playoff round.
Eintracht Frankfurt had already been eliminated, but their 0-2 defeat at home to English side Tottenham Hotspur saw them finish fourth-bottom of the league table with only four points.
Skip next section Berlin rabbi loses appeal in sexual abuse case
Berlin rabbi loses appeal in sexual abuse case
A German rabbi who was dismissed from his position due to allegations of sexual abuse has seen a second appeal thrown out by a state labor court.
The rabbi was sacked by the official Jewish Congregation in Berlin (Jüdische Gemeinde zu Berlin or JGzB) in 2023 after being accused of forcibly kissing a woman during a one-on-one therapeutic session and claiming it was part of a "healing" ritual.
The rabbi claims any sexual contact between the pair was consensual. A first appeal was dismissed by a city labor court in Berlin and a second appeal has now been dismissed by the state labor court for Berlin and the surrounding state of Brandenburg.
The court found that the sexual harassment constituted an abuse of the trust placed in the claimant as a rabbi and therefore that his dismissal was justified.
Skip next section Weidel: Merz turning down 'Board of Peace' invite was an 'error'
Weidel: Merz turning down 'Board of Peace' invite was an 'error'
The co-leader of the populist Alternative for Germany (AfD), Alice Weidel, criticized Chancellor Merz when responding to his parliamentary address on foreign affairs on Thursday.
She said the German government had made a "mistake" in turning down, at least for the moment, an invitation to Donald Trump's "Board of Peace" along with the majority of its European allies.
She called the initiative "a chance to resolve the many blockages caused by a UN that is incapable of action."
'A nonstarter' – Volker Perthes on the Board of Peace
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Weidel, whose AfD has enjoyed support from some prominent Trump allies, not least Vice President JD Vance and tech mogul Elon Musk, hit several other talking points aimed at the current US administration.
She said it was "in Germany's interest to rapidly bring an end to the war in Ukraine," amid continued US-led efforts to broker a compromise between Moscow and Kyiv.
Weidel also criticized Berlin's handling of Trump's Greenland demands last week.
"To send a dozen soldiers to Greenland and order them back the next day is slapstick, if you'll pardon my saying so," she told the chamber.
Several European NATO members sent small numbers of troops to Greenland on an impromptu reconnaissance and fact-finding trip last week, in a bid to counter Trump's allegations that the defense of the massive island was being neglected. It was always billed as a short and small operation, but received considerable attention given the broader atmosphere.
Skip next section Merz: Germany needs 'technological sovereignty'
Merz: Germany needs 'technological sovereignty'
Friedrich Merz said on Wednesday that Germany and Europe need to obtain greater technological independence in order to reduce reliance on the United States, given more antagonistic attitudes in Washington.
The German chancellor called for "measures to reduce dependencies, dependencies which we have entered into all too flippantly in the last years and decades, measures for more sovereignty and in particular technological sovereignty."
However, the German government's own Federal Office for Information Security (BSI) said Germany's reliance on foreign and particularly US-led cloud services, artificial intelligence and other tech products will not be overcome in the near future.
"When it comes to digital sovereignty, the use of European or German services for satellites or AI, we have to be honest," BSI President Claudia Plattner told the dpa news agency.
"The biggest firms, especially in the USA, are already ten years ahead in terms of investment."
For Plattner, it's "unrealistic to believe that we'll be able to do everything ourselves in the short term."
Skip next section Merz: Europe 'must learn to speak the language of power politics'
Merz: Europe 'must learn to speak the language of power politics'
Chancellor Merz has hailed Europe's "unity and determination" in standing up to US President Donald Trump's tariff threats over the Greenland crisis and called upon the continent to act with greater self-confidence on the global stage.
"We were all in agreement that we would not allow ourselves to be intimidated by tariff threats," he told the German parliament, the Bundestag, in Berlin. "If anyone in the world thinks they can play politics by threatening tariffs against Europe, they now know that we can and will defend ourselves."
Merz called on Europe to learn from the experience, saying: "We have seen with our own eyes, perhaps for the first time, that we can be a power — founded on values which we don't want to give up."
"However, we will only be able to use this activity and this self-confidence for our benefit, and we will only be able to implement our ideas in the world, at least in part, if we ourselves learn to speak the language of power politics, if we ourselves become a European power."
Skip next section Merz slams Trump criticism of NATO troops in Afghanistan
Merz slams Trump criticism of NATO troops in Afghanistan
Chancellor Merz also delivered a strong rebuke to Donald Trump after the US President criticized the deployment of European troops in Afghanistan in support of the United States.
"We will not allow that deployment – which was carried out in the interests of our ally, the United States – to be scorned and demeaned as it has been," he said.
59 German troops were killed in Afghanistan and over 100 injured, many seriously, after Germany and other NATO countries responded to the only ever invocation of Article 5 in the alliance's history, following the September 11 terror attacks on the United States.
"I would like to tell our soldiers on deployment: your service was and is valuable," Merz said. "It is for our freedom, for freedom across the world, and the Federal Government will always stand behind you."
Skip next section Merz: 'We are partners and allies, not subordinates'
Merz: 'We are partners and allies, not subordinates'
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz has insisted that Germany and other European nations will not submit to the increasingly belligerent foreign policy demands of the United States under President Donald Trump.
"As democracies, we are partners and allies, not subordinates," Merz told the German parliament, the Bundestag, in Berlin on Thursday.
"We want to be part of a dynamic and agile network of sovereign states who want to continue working within a rules-based order."
He said Germany will always be open to cooperation with the United States but only as long as those basic principles remain.
"The transatlantic alliance and transatlantic trust still have value," he said. "Especially for us in Germany."
Skip next section German population sinks for first time since 2020
German population sinks for first time since 2020
The number of people living in Germany has sunk slightly for the first time in five years, according to new figures released by the Federal Statistics Office on Thursday.
According to the figures, about 83.5 million people were living in Germany at the end of 2025 — around 100,000 fewer than at the end of 2024.
The last population decreases were recorded between 2003 and 2010, but Germany's population had been steadily increasing between 2011 and 2024 — with the exception of the pandemic year 2020.
As in every year since German reunification in 1990, the country recorded more deaths than births but, unlike in previous years, this wasn't compensated by immigration in 2025.
According to the official figures, between 220,000 and 260,000 more people arrived in Germany than left the country at least 40% fewer than 2024, when immigration to Germany outweighed emigration from Germany by about 430,000.
Skip next section Deutsche Bank announces record profits
Deutsche Bank announces record profits
On Thursday, Deutsche Bank, Germany's biggest bank, announced a record pretax profit of €9.7 billion ($11.6 billion) — up 84% from 2024, when various legal battles took their toll on the balance sheet.
The net profit of €6.1 billion ($7.3 billion) is more double that of the previous year. Total turnover increased by 7%, to €32.1 billion ($38.4 billion).
"We have reached all our financial targets for 2025," said chief executive Christian Sewing. "This puts us in the best possible position to execute the next stage of our strategy.
The announcement comes a day after prosecutors raided Deutsche Bank's Frankfurt headquarters and another office in Berlin as part of an investigation into money laundering by foreign companies linked to the bank — including some linked to Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich, who has been sanctioned by the European Union due to his close ties to the Kremlin.
The raids were a setback in a big week for Deutsche Bank as it looks to restore its reputation following a series of scandals.
Skip next section Welcome to our coverage
Welcome to our coverage
Guten Morgen! Welcome to DW's coverage of what Germany is talking about on Thursday, January 29.
Chancellor Friedrich Merz is expected to make a foreign policy statement this morning. We'll bring you what he has to say.
Domestically, just one day after its offices were searched as part of a money laundering investigation, Deutsche Bank has announced record profits.
And new statistics show that Germany's population fell slightly in 2025.
