Every third food bank beneficiary is a child – DW – 12/23/2025

Nearly one in three people in Germany dependent on food banks is a child, highlighting growing social pressure despite stable overall demand.

Around 1.5 million people from the food bank volunteer organization Tafel Deutschland are currently using the services of more than 970 food distribution centers across the country.

About 30% of users are children, while about 20% are over the age of 63.

“The biggest thing is that the number of children has increased slightly compared to last year and that worries us,” said Andreas Steppuhn, president of Tafel Germany.

Rising rents and food prices are leaving many families with less money each month, Steppuhn said, adding that about one-third of food banks are still running waitlists or have stopped taking on new users.

In 2025, food banks saved approximately 265,000 metric tons of food that otherwise would have been thrown away.

According to the organization, its volume is about 500 kilograms (about 1,100 pounds) per minute, which is equivalent to about 500 cartons of milk per minute.

Investigators in the German city of Giessen continued working overnight after a car crash in the city center left several people injured.

The incident occurred on Monday afternoon when a 32-year-old driver turned towards oncoming traffic on a main road and collided with another vehicle near a bus stop.

According to a police spokesperson, a woman standing nearby was seriously injured. Three other people suffered minor injuries, including the driver. How exactly the injuries occurred – and whether the accident was accidental or intentional – remains under investigation.

The driver, a 32-year-old man from Azerbaijan who lived in Giessen, was temporarily detained. Police said they were investigating “in all directions”.

Hesse Interior Minister Roman Posek said late Monday that a political or terrorist motive appeared unlikely for now. He said it was possible that an illness played a role, and that the serious injury was caused by a collision with another vehicle rather than an intentional act.

With sparkling wine sales in sharp decline over the past decade, Germans are taking out fewer corks.

The country’s statistics agency said Tuesday that 255.3 million liters of sparkling wine were sold last year, down 19.5% from 10 years earlier. Alcohol-free sparkling wine was not included.

On average, people ages 16 and older drink about 4.8 bottles of sparkling wine, or 36 glasses, over the course of a year. This represents a clear decline compared to 2014, when per capita consumption was 6.1 bottles or 46 glasses.

The figures are based on tax data, as sparkling wines with more than 1.2% alcohol are subject to a special excise tax. In 2024, the federal government collected approximately €352 million ($415 million) from the sparkling wine tax, which was only 0.04% of total public tax revenue.

By comparison, beer tax revenue – collected by individual states – was higher, amounting to about 558 million euros, the statistics office said.

The tax on sparkling wine was imposed in 1902 to help fund the German Navy, making it one of the oldest still existing consumer excise taxes in the country.

House and apartment prices in Germany continued to climb in autumn, marking the fourth consecutive quarter of increases.

Germany’s federal statistics office said prices rose 3.3% between July and September from a year earlier, extending a rebound after a steady decline since the end of 2022.

According to the Statistics Office, residential property prices rose in all regions.

Single- and two-family homes increased the most by 3.6% in urban districts and by 3.5% in large independent cities, while gains in less populated rural areas averaged 3.2%.

Apartment prices in cities rose even faster. Buyers paid 4.7% more in urban districts and 5.0% in larger cities, while prices rose 2.6% in less populated rural areas and 5.5% in densely populated rural districts.

In Germany’s seven largest cities – Berlin, Hamburg, Munich, Cologne, Frankfurt, Stuttgart and Düsseldorf – prices for single- and two-family homes increased by 2.7%. Apartment prices in those cities rose slightly more, up 2.8% year over year.

Seven people were injured in a crash in Hamburg on Monday evening caused by a driver fleeing from police.

The 37-year-old man faced questions after his failed attempt to vandalize cars, but he fled the scene in another vehicle, police said.

While escaping, his car got stuck between a city bus and another vehicle.

Police said three people on the bus and three people in the car suffered minor injuries or shock.

The driver was trapped inside his vehicle and had to be rescued by emergency personnel. He was then taken to hospital and treated for minor injuries.

Good morning! From DW’s newsroom in Bonn, where the Christmas market season is slowly coming to an end and the holiday season is about to begin.

However, as Christmas approaches, all is not rosy. Today, figures released by a food bank charity show that one in three people dependent on food banks is a child.

Tafel Deutschland says rising rents and food prices are leaving many families with less money each month.

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