Germany news: Bavarian police arrest suspected spies

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AdvertisementSkip next section What you need to know

What you need to know

• Police in Bavaria have arrested two men suspected of spying
• Frankfurt Airport's new Terminal 3 welcomes its first passengers
• Former US President Obama has praised German climate activist Luisa Neubauer
• Football: Stuttgart host Freiburg in second German Cup semi-final

Welcome to DW's coverage of what Germany is talking about on Thursday, 23 April. Catch up with yesterday's news here.

Skip next section Ritter Sport to made first ever redundancies 04/23/2026April 23, 2026

Ritter Sport to made first ever redundancies

German chocolate manufacturer Ritter Sport is set to make redundancies for the first time in the company's 110-year history, a spokesman confirmed on Thursday, with just over 10% of jobs affected.

Ritter, famous for its square-shaped chocolate bars and its slogan "Quadratisch. Praktisch. Gut." (Square. Practical. Good.), has actually increased turnover in recent years — but still posted a loss in 2025.

Reasons for the loss, according to the spokesman, include a sharp increase in the cost of raw ingredients such as cocoa beans as well as the rising costs of energy and packaging.

He also said the company, based in Waldenbuch near the southern German city of Stuttgart, had registered a drop in purchasing power among customers opting not to spend their money on chocolate.

Ritter employs around 1,900 people globally, about 1,000 of whom are based in Germany, including about 600 in administration. Around 70 of those admin jobs are expected to be cut.

Chocolate has become significantly more expensive in recent years, partly due to fears of crop failures in West Africa as a result of plant diseases and extreme weather, and manufacturers and food retailers have passed on increased costs to consumers.

According to Germany's Federal Statistical Office, a bar of chocolate was on average 71% more expensive in March 2026 than in 2020.

https://p.dw.com/p/5Ci7SSkip next section Football: Stuttgart host Freiburg in cup semi-final04/23/2026April 23, 2026

Football: Stuttgart host Freiburg in cup semi-final

After Bayern Munich beat Bayer Leverkusen on Wednesday night to reach their first German Cup (DFB Pokal) final since 2020, their opponents in the Berlin showcase will be determined in the second semi-final on Thursday as VfB Stuttgart host SC Freiburg.

Current cup-holders Stuttgart have so far beaten Eintracht Braunschweig, Mainz 05, VfL Bochum and Holstein Kiel to reach a third semi-final in four years — and Sebastian Hoeness' team are also doing well in the Bundesliga, currently sat fourth with four league games remaining.

Striker Deniz Undav has scored 18 Bundesliga goals this season (second only to Bayern's Harry Kane), leading to calls for Germany head coach Julian Nagelsmann to include him in the starting XI at this summer's World Cup.

But Freiburg are also having another quietly impressive season. A comparatively small club from the Black Forest, Freiburg earned nationwide plaudits when they reached the cup final in 2022 under legendary former coach Christian Streich  and they have continued their development under his successor, Julian Schuster.

Indeed, this isn't the only semi-final Freiburg are involved in this season; they're also in the final four of the UEFA Europa League for the first ever time.

Both Freiburg and Stuttgart are based in the southwestern German state of Baden-Württemberg, whereby Freiburg are historically from Baden and Stuttgart are from Württemberg, making the fixture an intriguing local derby.

https://p.dw.com/p/5ChoBSkip next section Reza Pahlavi in Berlin: Former Crown Prince calls for regime change in Iran04/23/2026April 23, 2026

Reza Pahlavi in Berlin: Former Crown Prince calls for regime change in Iran

The exiled son of Iran's last Shah, Reza Pahlavi, was in Berlin on Thursday where he called on European governments not to negotiate with or appease the Iranian regime.

"If you think you can make peace with this regime, you are sorely mistaken," the opposition figure said at a press conference.

"There will never be stability, even if a watered-down version of this system survives," he added.

Read the full story of Reza Pahlavi's visit to Berlin here.

https://p.dw.com/p/5ChW6Skip next section Bavaria: Police arrest two suspected spies04/23/2026April 23, 2026

Bavaria: Police arrest two suspected spies

Police in Bavaria arrested two suspected spies earlier this month, authorities announced on Thursday.

Prosecutors in Munich said that the two men had been arrested during a routine check on the A6 autobahn near the small town of Neuendettelsau just outside Nuremberg on April 12.

The men — a 45-year-old from Latvia and a 43-year-old from Ukraine — reportedly had "various suspicious objects" in their vehicle, including false identity papers, cameras, a drone, GPS trackers and radios as well as several mobile phones and SIM cards.

The men are suspected of "acting on behalf of a group or institution outside Germany," said authorities, who have charged them with espionage activities with the aim of sabotage and the procurement of false documents.

Neither man is a resident of Germany, and both remain in pre-trial detention. 

Both Latvia and Ukraine are home to Russian-speaking minorities, some of whom are sympathetic to Russia. The alleged need to protect Russian-speakers from "persecution" in Ukraine is regularly repeated by Kremlin spokespeople as justification for the 2022 full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

Independent reports from the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, the Council of Europe and others have consistently found no evidence that Russian speakers or ethnic Russians in Ukraine have faced "persecution" at the hands of Ukrainian authorities.

How Russian speakers in Germany feel about the Ukraine war

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https://p.dw.com/p/5Ch40Skip next section First passengers arrive at Frankfurt's new Terminal 304/23/2026April 23, 2026

First passengers arrive at Frankfurt's new Terminal 3

The first passengers arrived at Frankfurt Airport's new Terminal 3 on Thursday after the official opening of the building a day earlier.

The first airplane to land early in the morning was a China Southern Airlines flight from Shenyang.

The Chinese airline is one of 57 set to move their Frankfurt operations to Terminal 3 from Terminal 2, which is to be closed and renovated.

The new Terminal 3, which came in only slightly over budget at €4 billion and only slightly delayed (largely due to the COVID-19 pandemic) after 10 years of construction, has the capacity to handle around 19 million passengers per year — with the potential to expand to 25 million.

https://p.dw.com/p/5CgegSkip next section Obama: Young people like Luisa Neubauer give me hope04/23/2026April 23, 2026

Obama: Young people like Luisa Neubauer give me hope

Former US President Barack Obama has praised German climate activist Luisa Neubauer for her "incredible" work in raising awareness of climate change.

Obama said the 30-year-old, who took part in the Obama Foundation Leaders program in 2020, was an example of a young person who gives him "hope."

In a video message recorded to mark Earth Day on April 22, Obama said Neubauer was someone who "decided not to wait for someone else to make change" but who has taken action and made an impact herself.

Neubauer, one of the chief organizers of the Fridays for Future climate protection movement in Germany, is then seen on a boat off Antarctica, which she describes as a "place of hope."

She said the fact that Antarctica is the only continent which is protected by a collaborative international treaty is "quite utopian" in today's world.

https://p.dw.com/p/5CgrkSkip next section Disruptive passenger removed from deportation flight 04/23/2026April 23, 2026

Disruptive passenger removed from deportation flight

Police removed a man from a deportation flight at Berlin Brandenburg Airport on Thursday after he reportedly disrupted pre-flight preparations.

According to the dpa news agency, the deportee began behaving loudly and uncooperatively in the back rows of the A320 airplane and had to be escorted off the flight.

During the tussle to remove him, an emergency slide was reportedly deployed, forcing all 161 passengers to leave the plane for safety reasons.

Since the emergency slide could not immediately be replaced, the flight's capacity had to be reduced by 51 to 110 and ultimately set off to Vienna with a two-and-a-half-hour delay.

In the last year, 1,593 deportations were stopped due to interventions by federal police for various reasons, including medical emergencies, resistance, staff shortages, missing documents or self-harm.

In 2025, a total of 22,787 people were deported from Germany  19,987 by air.

https://p.dw.com/p/5CgmiSkip next section Welcome to our coverage04/23/2026April 23, 2026

Welcome to our coverage

Matt Ford | Sean Sinico Editor

Guten Tag! Welcome to DW's coverage of what Germany is talking about on Thursday, 23 April, 2026.

The first passengers began passing through Frankfurt Airport's new Terminal 3 on Thursday morning following the terminal's official opening on Wednesday.

Meanwhile, at Berlin Airport, a disruptive passenger had to be removed from a deportation flight.

Elsewhere, former US President Barack Obama has praised German climate activist Luisa Neubauer.

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