Berlin sends troops to reinforce Poland border – DW – 12/13/2025

Fewer tourists have visited Berlin this year, causing the city to miss out on a key milestone in 2025, the head of its tourism agency has said.

Burkhard Kiecker, chief executive of VisitBerlin, told Tagesspiegel that the number of overnight stays will be less than 30 million.

Berlin is expected to record 30.6 million night stays in 2024.

By the end of October, the Berlin-Brandenburg statistics office had counted 24.8 million migrations, 4.1% less than the same period last year.

Kiker said the slow recovery was mainly due to weak consumer sentiment in Germany and Europe and a lack of macroeconomic momentum.

He said traffic at Berlin-Brandenburg Airport is down about 30% from pre-coronavirus levels, while tourism overall is still about 9% below 2019 levels.

Germany has announced plans for its armed forces, the Bundeswehr, to help secure Poland’s eastern border with Belarus and Russia.

Several dozen German troops were set to join Poland’s Operation Eastern Shield from April 2026, the Defense Ministry said on Saturday, with the mission initially scheduled to last until the end of 2027.

A ministry spokesman said the main task of German troops in northern and eastern Poland would be engineering work.

This was described as building positions, digging trenches, laying barbed wire and constructing anti-tank obstacles. No further duties are planned.

The operation is underway from May 2024 in border areas with Moscow’s ally Belarus and Russia’s Kaliningrad exclave.

These measures are aimed at strengthening security against a possible attack on NATO member Poland.

The deployment does not require parliamentary approval, the ministry said, because it is not considered an armed foreign mission under German law and the troops are not expected to face direct military confrontation.

good day From DW’s newsroom in Bonn.

thank you so much Join us, as Germany plans to send several dozen Bundeswehr troops to support Poland’s border security with Belarus and Russia.

The troops are set to join Poland’s Operation Eastern Shield from April 2026, carrying out engineering work such as digging trenches, laying barbed wire and building anti-tank obstacles.

The mission is planned to run until the end of 2027 and does not require parliamentary approval, as it is not classified as an armed overseas deployment.

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