Poverty in Germany appears to be rising, with one charity group warning of a "crisis-like situation." Meanwhile, Hungary’s new prime minister, Peter Magyar, is visiting Chancellor Friedrich Merz in Berlin. DW has more.
These updates are now closed. These were the latest headlines from and about Germany on Tuesday, June 2, 2026:
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Italian banking group UniCredit, which is based in Milan, has increased its stake to over 30% in its takeover bid of Frankfurt-based Commerzbank.
“UniCredit views the strength of the early tender response as reflective of the inherent value that investors are recognizing in UniCredit’s takeover offer,” UniCredit said in a statement.
UniCredit now has 34.4% stake in Commerzbank after raising additional capital from Commerzbank shareholders. UniCredit earlier had a 26.77% stake in Commerzbank.
UniCredit began taking a substantial stake in Commerzbank in September 2024, after the German government disposed of shares in Commerzbank it had acquired amid the 2008 banking crisis.
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz has criticized UniCredit’s hostile takeover bid for Commerzbank.
Commerzbank is Germany’s third-largest.
If Commerzbank is taken over by UniCredit, it would cause further consolidation in Germany’s financial industry and it could create more competition for Germany’s top bank Deutsche Bank. Deutsche Bank was weakened as a result fo the financial crisis and eurozone debt crisis.
Commerzbank has warned that the takeover bid could cause as many as 11,000 job cuts. Commerzbank is also a key lender to Germany’s Mittelstand or medium-sized firms.
A foreign policy spokesman with the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) has defended his trip to an economic forum in Saint Petersburg, despite criticism.
Markus Frohnmaier said he aimed to “keep communication channels open and represent German economic interests under difficult conditions,” AFP news agency reported.
“German economic interests in Russia persist, even if the German government largely ignores them,” he said.
Politicians from the conservative Christian Democrats (CDU), the center-left Social Democrats (SPD) and the Greens criticized the visit, warning such events could pose security risks.
Intelligence committee chair Marc Henrichmann said Russian agencies may use them for information gathering and recruitment.
Frohnmaier rejected the allegations, saying his focus was on German companies, energy security and maintaining dialogue.
The forum, once dubbed the “Russian Davos,” has seen declining Western participation since sanctions over the war in Ukraine.
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Regular passengers on a flight to Chicago have been handed Germany jerseys as they boarded alongside the national soccer side.
The squad, led by coach Julian Nagelsmann and captain Joshua Kimmich, traveled on a regular Lufthansa flight instead of a charter.
Travelers on flight LH434 received the shirts as a surprise at the gate, with many then boarding the Airbus A350 dressed in the national colors. The business class section was reserved for the players.
The team will prepare in Chicago for the World Cup, which begins on June 11 across Canada, Mexico and the United States.
Germany face the US in a final warm-up match at Chicago’s Soldier Field on Saturday.
At least 20 people have been injured in a tram accident in Berlin, three of them seriously.
Emergency services said the injured were being taken to hospitals, with several others also requiring further treatment.
The crash occurred in the Lichtenberg district, where part of the tram is believed to have hit an overhead line mast in a curve, tearing open the right side. The last carriage derailed.
Around 60 firefighters were deployed to the scene, while local transport officials sent an emergency manager to cut power.
Recovery operations are expected to take time, with tram lines suspended and replacement services planned.
A 29-year-old man was killed in a stabbing at a supermarket in the northern city of Hamburg, according to police.
Police said the victim got into an argument with another man late Monday in the Altona district shortly before the supermarket was due to close.
He suffered multiple stab wounds and died later in the hospital.
Officers arrested a 31-year-old suspect at the scene. A homicide unit has launched an investigation.
Germany’s far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party has suffered a legal setback in the northern state of Lower Saxony, after a court upheld a decision allowing authorities to monitor the party more closely.
It means the state’s Office for the Protection of the Constitution can continue to classify the AfD’s regional branch as “an object of considerable importance for observation.”
The designation — based on a 200-page dossier — indicates that authorities consider the party a potential threat to the democratic order. It allows intelligence services to use expanded surveillance measures, including informants.
The AfD challenged the classification in court. However, the Administrative Court in Hanover has now rejected the party’s urgent appeal, ruling that the designation can stand.
Lower Saxony’s interior minister welcomed the decision as a “milestone victory.”
In its reasoning, the court sided with the assessment of security services, stating that the AfD “agitates against the central basic principles of the free democratic order,” including human dignity, democracy, and the rule of law.
Officials argue that the party promotes positions that would deny equal rights to refugees, immigrants, and German citizens with migrant backgrounds. Central to this concern is what authorities describe as the AfD’s “ethnic concept” of German citizenship.
The party is also accused of dehumanizing migrants, asylum seekers, and Muslims. Authorities say such rhetoric violates Article 1 of Germany’s constitution, which holds that human dignity is inviolable.
The AfD rejects these accusations and is currently involved in multiple legal challenges across Germany against similar classifications by regional domestic intelligence agencies.
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The mayor of the eastern Dutch city of Nijmegen, Hubert Bruls, has warned that Germany’s border controls are damaging relations with the Netherlands.
Bruls, who also chairs the Euregio Rhine-Waal cross-border cooperation body, said he understood the introduction of temporary checks in 2024. However, he argued that keeping them in place for nearly two years was now straining ties between the neighboring countries.
“Our two countries have gone through very dark periods in their long history, but over the last 80 years our relationship has become ever closer and friendlier. And that is now under threat,” he said.
German Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt recently said the controls would remain despite a decline in asylum applications.
Germany reintroduced checks along its land borders in September 2024 to curb irregular migration. The temporary measures have since been extended three times, most recently until mid-September 2026. The controls, originally introduced under former Interior Minister Nancy Faeser, were intensified after the current coalition government took office.
Bruls said the situation increasingly resembled the era before the Schengen Area. At the Elten border crossing, vehicles are now checked almost continuously, often causing traffic jams stretching for kilometers into the Netherlands.
According to Germany’s Federal Police, 1,867 people were turned back at the North Rhine-Westphalia border to the Netherlands between September 16, 2024, and April 30, 2026.
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Germany could make itself independent of US and Chinese data centers for artificial intelligence, Chancellor Friedrich Merz has said.
Speaking at an economic forum in eastern Germany, Merz said rapid investment in domestic computing infrastructure had changed his outlook.
“Two years ago, I did not believe that we would succeed in doing this. But in a massive catch-up process, we have now established these centers in many German states, including, incidentally, in the east [of Germany],” said Merz.
“Computing capacity is, after all, the infrastructure of tomorrow’s industry,” the chancellor said. “If we want AI, then we need large-scale computing capacity. In this sense, innovative strength is also a fundamental prerequisite for the future of our country.”
He drew attention to the federal government’s data center strategy, which aims to double Germany’s existing data center capacity by 2030. Merz also highlighted the importance of research hubs in eastern Germany, particularly in Saxony, as important.
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Cologne Cathedral will begin charging tourists €12 (about $14) for entry from July 1.
Church officials said the fee is needed to cover maintenance, security and daily operations of the landmark.
Visitors attending services, praying or lighting candles will still be able to enter free of charge, with separate access areas to be created.
The maintenance cost for the building is estimated to be €16 million per year — about €44,000 per day.
“The Cathedral costs money; the Cathedral needs a lot of money,” cathedral administrator Clemens van de Ven said. “Naturally, the admission fee of €12 is, therefore, more than welcome.”
Provost Guido Assmann said the charge was set at a socially acceptable level, with exemptions for some groups, such as children, discounts and free entry on certain holidays.
Most churches in Germany remain free to enter, though exceptions include Berlin Cathedral, where visitors already pay an entrance fee of €15.
The cathedral said it was planning to introduce an entrance fee in March, without setting an exact amount. At the time, architect Barbara Schock-Werner, who heads the Central Cathedral Construction Association (ZDV), said a charge of more than €10 would be excessive.
The ZDV has been raising funds for the cathedral since 1842, initially for its completion, and since its finalization in 1880, for its maintenance.
At 157 meters (515 feet) tall, Cologne Cathedral is the highest twin-spired church in the world. When completed, 600 years after work began, it was briefly the tallest building on the planet.
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People in Germany are getting slightly heavier, while average height has largely stopped increasing.
Data from the Federal Statistics Agency showed the average adult weighed 78.3 kilograms (173 pounds) in 2025, up from 77.7 in 2021 and 77.0 in 2017, while average height remained unchanged at 1.73 meters (5 feet, 8.11 inches).
The figures point to a steady upward trend in body weight, even as physical growth has plateaued.
More than half of adults, 53.4%, are now classified as overweight, with 17.9% considered obese under World Health Organization standards.
Men are significantly more affected than women. Nearly two-thirds of men, 62.6%, are overweight, and 19.9% are obese. Among women, 43.8% are overweight and 15.8% fall into the obese category.
The average German man is 1.79 meters tall and weighs 86.5 kilograms, while the average woman stands 1.66 meters and weighs 69.7 kilograms.
The data also shows a clear age pattern: younger adults are the tallest and lightest, while people aged 50 to 59 weigh the most on average.
The results are based on self-reported data from a 2025 microcensus survey.
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Poverty in Germany has climbed to its highest level since comparable records began in 2020, according to an umbrella group for charitable organizations.
The Parity Welfare Association reports that 13.34 million people, or 16.1% of the population, were living in poverty in 2025, citing data from the German Federal Statistics Office. The figure was up from 15.5% a year earlier.
The number has risen by about 1.2 million since a low in 2023, with the association warning of a “crisis-like situation.”
Managing director Joachim Rock urged the government not to cut social benefits, warning further reductions would worsen the situation.
Single parents and people living alone remain the most affected groups, while poverty rates are also above average among young adults aged 18 to 25 and people over 65.
Regional disparities have widened further across Germany, with poverty rates varying sharply between states. Around one in eight people are affected in the wealthier southern states of Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg, compared with more than one in five in Saxony-Anhalt and more than one in four in Bremen.
Under the EU definition, people are considered at risk of poverty if their household income is below 60% of the national median. In 2025, that threshold stood at €1,445 ($1,680) per month for a single person.
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New Hungarian Prime Minister Peter Magyar is set to visit Berlin for his first official trip to Germany since taking office.
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz is set to receive him with military honors before talks and a joint press conference, with EU policy and support for Ukraine expected to dominate discussions.
Magyar came to power after his Tisza Party secured a two-thirds majority in April’s elections, ending 16 years of rule by nationalist populist Viktor Orban.
Since taking office, the 45-year-old has pledged sweeping reforms and a political reset. He has already visited Poland, Austria and EU and NATO leaders in Brussels.
Magyar on Monday said his government would begin steps to remove President Tamas Sulyok if he does not resign. Magyar has repeatedly called on Sulyok, appointed by Orban’s party, to resign, referring to him as “Orban’s puppet.”
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Police are on the hunt for a suspect after a shooting in northern Germany that left a man in a life-threatening condition.
Multiple people reported gunshots in an apartment building in the town of Buxtehude at 7:15 p.m. on Monday. Officers found the victim with serious gunshot wounds.
The suspected attacker fled the scene and remained at large late into the evening.
Authorities deployed a large police presence, sealing off parts of the city center and suspending public transport in the area. Armed officers secured the scene as additional units from nearby districts were called in.
The motive for the attack was not immediately clear.
Guten Tag from the DW newsroom in Bonn.
You join us as a charity group reports that poverty in Germany is creeping up.
More than 13 million people are living in poverty, according to figures cited by the Parity Welfare Association.
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