Extreme heat heads east, Greens want air con

At least seven people have died in swimming accidents in Germany over the weekend, which saw record-breaking temperatures.

The heat sent many people to lakes and rivers, as they attempted to cool off amid the scorching heat.

In the capital, police said two people died in separate swimming accidents. A 42-year-old man was found in the Jungfernheideteich man-made lake in western Berlin, while a 51-year-old man was found at the Tempelhofer urban harbor.

Meanwhile in the south-western state of Baden-Württemberg, a 27-year-old man drowned in the Neckar River near the city of Heidelberg, and a 30-year-old man died in a lake near Mannheim.

A child was also reported missing in the Rhine-Herne Canal in western Germany.

In the central state of Hesse, the body of a 40-year-old man was found from a lake near the financial capital Frankfurt.

And in Germany’s most-populous state of North Rhine-Westphalia, a 45-year-old man was found in a lake near Dortmund. Northward near Hanover, an 8-year-old was found in a lake.

At Lake Constance near the border with Switzerland and Austria, the bodies of two elderly swimmers were recovered on Friday. They had disappeared a day earlier after jumping from a rental boat.

No trams will run in Leipzig until early on Monday morning. 

The soaring temperatures have melted asphalt and otherwised damaged the tracks and points in multiple locations around the city. 

The Leipzig Transport Authority (LVB) initially suspended services until late on Saturday night, but subsequently extended the stoppage throughout the weekend.

The heat has caused the joint sealant for asphalt and concrete in points and tracks to run and clump together. The company said it was not currently safe for trains to operate. 

Buses were still running largely according to schedule in the city of well over half a million people southwest of Berlin. 

Firefighters in the western city of Hagen near Dortmund worked through the night trying to quench a large fire at a garbage dump. 

The fire department said that a “pile of electrical trash” caught fire, with the emergency call coming in at around 3 a.m. Drivers on the nearby A45 highway noticed the flames and called emergency services.

Career and volunteer firefighters cooperated in the operation.

The efforts to control the fire took around three hours. The cause of the blaze was not yet clear, authorities said. 

A warning was issued, but later lifted, because of a heavy build-up of smoke. However, the area in question is not very densely populated.

The German Weather Service (DWD) is again issuing extreme heat warnings for the vast majority of the country. 

“The focal point of the heat is gradually moving eastwards,” the DWD wrote in its Sunday morning warning status update.

It warned of a “strong to extreme heat burden in almost all parts of the country … among other things because of only slight overnight cooling and high humidity.”

Extreme heat warning were in place nationwide, expect for the northern, western and southern extremities, on Sunday morning. Most other areas either faces high heat warnings or the threat of thunderstorms. 

Additionally, severe thunderstorms, sudden heavy rain and high winds were forecast in parts of Schleswig-Holstein on Sunday morning, while the DWD said that localized storms were possible “above all in the eastern half [of the country] but also in the west.”

Storm fronts were expected to move in from the west and southwest, also breaking the worst of the high temperatures, by the evening. 

Here in Bonn, for instance, Sunday’s forecast high temperatures are several degrees cooler than in recent days, albeit still at 34 degrees Celsius (93.2 degrees Fahrneheit) — while Monday’s predicted highs are considerably cooler, down at 27 degrees Celsius. 

The co-leader of Germany’s Greens, Katharina Dröge, appeals in this week’s Bild am Sonntag newspaper for rapid moves to install air conditioning units in key public buildings. 

“Germany needs an immediate cooling-off program, to air condition hospitals, care facilities, daycares and schools,” Dröge told the German tabloid on Sunday. 

The ecologist opposition party leader called for expanding air conditioning capacities “at full speed” but also “in connection with solar power units.” She said her party would therefore also be advocating a subsidy plan for what she called “air conditioning solar facilities.”

Dröge said this was the combination that “made most sense” — looking to simultaneously install air conditioning but also put solar panels on the buildings in question. 

“The heat by day is accompanied by high solar radiation and therefore a particularly high solar output,” Dröge said. 

Traditionally Germany, not known as the sunniest country on the planet all year round, had put more resources into wind power than solar. Wind currently accounts for roughly twice as much power generation as solar in the country. 

Dröge also advocated using a part of the German government’s so-called special fund for longer-term infrastructure projects, or Sondervermögen, for the purpose. These funds are not subject to some of the more restrictive standard budget rules. 

It’s past 10 p.m. here in Germany, and we’re putting a halt on our coverage of the news coming out of Germany until Sunday morning. Thanks for sticking with us. 

The annual Pride parade through Germany’s southern city of Munich drew a crowd of tens of thousands.

More than 200 groups took part in the celebrations to promote equality for the LGBTQ+ community, under the motto “Our Diversity. Our Strength.”

Organizers are also concerned about anti-LGBTQ+ crime, which rose 43% in the state of Bavaria last year to 414 incidents, according to the campaign group Strong!

Police said around 30,000 people took part in Saturday’s parade, along with around 200,000 spectators, who lined the route. 

Later in the day, many people were expected to join a street festival.

In Germany, the Pride parade is known as the Christopher Street Day (CSD) parade.

It takes its name from the New York street where the 1969 Stonewall uprising took place, a key moment in the modern LGBTQ+ rights movement.

Despite temperatures in Munich hitting 36 degrees Celsius, no major heat-related incidents were reported, organizer Conrad Breyer said.

Germany broke its all-time heat record for the second straight day, with a preliminary reading of 41.5 degrees Celsius  (106.7 Fahrenheit), the German Weather Service (DWD) reported.

The new record was measured in the town of Möckern-Drewitz in eastern Germany.

“It can’t be ruled out that temperatures could approach 42 degrees Celsius,” the service, which issued a red alert for most of the country on Saturday, said.

The previous record was set only a day earlier, when temperatures reached 41.3 degrees Celsius in the southwestern city Saarbrücken.

The figures published by DWD are still preliminary and could be revised.

Leaders and representatives from the steel, chemical and automobile industry called out Germany’s beleaguered Deutsche Bahn (DB) Saturday, saying the rail provider is costing their businesses billions as the result of ongoing track closures.

In a report published by Germany’s Welt am Sonntag (WaS) newspaper, industry reps say rotting DB infrastructure has increasingly forced them to shift transport of their goods and materials to highways over the past several years, pointing out that truck transport is far less efficient than rail.

The steel industry, which transports nearly 50% of its products and raw production materials by rail, is being especially hard hit.

A speaker from Germany’s Salzgitter steel company told the paper, “we’ve had to throttle steel production.” 

And a representative at ArcelorMittal said ore reserves at the company’s Eisenhüttenstadt steel works had reached “critically low” levels.

Germany’s chemical industry, which transports some 25 million tons of products and materials via rail annually, has also been hit hard.

Wolfgang Große Entrup of the Chemical Industry Association (VCI), told WaS the Deutsche Bahn needs to “urgently adjust” its planning, coordination and prioritization,” adding, “freight transport must take precedence on detour routes” when construction is taking place.

As politicians in Berlin debate serious structural reforms, Germany’s former federal president, Joachim Gauck is imploring them to put nation before party, saying citizens “expect resolve.”

“Every true reform demands sacrifices. We need political leadership that can muster the strength to explain to the public why these sacrifices must be made,” said Gauck in an interview to be published Sunday in the Welt on Sonntag (WaS) newspaper.

Gauck warned against avoiding difficult political decisions, saying doing so erodes the very “core of democracy.” 

Gauck’s statement comes as politicians seem unable to agree on longterm reforms, chief among them, those revolving around retirement and pensions. 

The current tug-of-war comes as the government prepares to vote on proposals put forth by a special pension commission.

Chancellor Friedrich Merz and Labor Minister Bärbel Bas promised quick passage of the entire 33-point list of reforms earlier this week.

The fate of the legislation, however, remains unclear with voices in Merz’s conservative CDU, such as Pascal Reddig, calling for passage and quick implementation; and others in Bas’ center-left SPD, such as Manuela Schwesig and Franziska Giffey, arguing instead for slower, partial reforms.

Germany’s DWD weather service is forecasting another day of record-breaking heat.

“This Saturday temperatures of more than 36 degrees (96.8 Fahrenheit) can be expected across the country, with only some coastal regions being slightly less hot” said DWD meteorologists who warned that temperatures, “may climb as high as 42 degrees (107.6) in some places.”

On Friday, Germany registered its highest temperature ever when the mercury rose to 41.3 degrees in southwestern Saarbrücken at 5:00 p.m. local time (1500 GMT).

The DWD said “tropical nights” remain in the forecast, calling the lack of cool temperatures at night especially strenuous.

Forecasters said people in Germany should expect little relief, however, with high temperatures holding until at least Monday, when thunderstorms are expected to drive temperatures down to below 30.

The DWD warned that isolated thunderstorms arriving from the west will begin Saturday evening and continue through the remainder of the weekend, adding that residents should prepare to see “the full program — from heavy rain to high winds and even hail.”

Guten Tag from DW in Bonn, and Mensch, ist es heiß! (Man, is it hot!) for those who are keen to flex a bit of heatwave-related German. 

Today we will be following record-high temperatures across the country as Europe’s heatwave continues unabated and slowly moves eastward from France and the UK. The federal weather service has forecast thunderstorms for later in the day so there may be some relief on the horizon but they warn it will still be a while before temperatures drop. 

Meanwhile as former Federal President Joachim Gauck says “the nation expects resolve,” the country’s politicians seem stuck in a tug-of-war over reforms — specifically to retirement rules — with some arguing changes are happening too fast, and others saying they are too slow.

In a weekend report in the Welt am Sonntag newspaper, several heavy industry leaders bemoan billions in losses due to inefficiency at the nation’s rail carrier, Deutsche Bahn, noting that they have been forced to move much of their transport to roads due to poor logistics and slow infrastructure improvement to the rail system.

Lastly, outgoing Federal Antisemitism Representative Felix Klein expressed regret over the deteriorating quality of life experienced by Jews in Germany, noting that the conflation of Jewishness as such with Israeli politics in particular was one of several major problems facing the community.   

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