Germany news: Lufthansa scraps 20,000 flights
What you need to know
- German airline Lufthansa to scrap 20,000 short-haul flights
- New Terminal 3 opens at Frankfurt International Airport
- Defense Minister Pistorius lays out future Bundeswehr plans
- Football: Bayer Leverkusen host Bayern Munich in cup semi-final
Welcome to DW's coverage of what Germany is talking about on Wednesday, April 22, 2026.
Skip next section Germany halves 2026 growth forecast amid Iran war fallout04/22/2026April 22, 2026Germany halves 2026 growth forecast amid Iran war fallout
The German Economy Ministry has cut its growth forecasts for 2026 and 2027 as a result of rising energy prices triggered by the Iran war.
The ministry now expects 0.5% growth for 2026, down from an earlier projection of 1%, with the 2027 outlook cut from 1.3% to 0.9%.
"The economic recovery expected for this year is once again being held back by external geopolitical shocks," Economy Minister Katherina Reiche said.
Europe's largest economy has been struggling since the coronavirus pandemic, with surging energy costs driven by the Ukraine war and now the Iran conflict posing a significant challenge to its recovery.
"The war in Iran is driving up energy and raw material prices. This is putting a strain on private households and increasing costs for the German economy," Reiche said.
The ministry also adjusted its inflation projections to 2.7% this year and 2.8% in 2027, up from 2.2% last year.
https://p.dw.com/p/5CeWWSkip next section Boar gets head stuck in fence on shopping street 04/22/2026April 22, 2026Boar gets head stuck in fence on shopping street
A wild boar had to be put down after getting its head stuck in a metal fence in a German town on Tuesday night.
According to local police, the wild pig had wandered into the pedestrian area of Bad Harzburg, a small town near the Harz National Park in Lower Saxony in central Germany.
Authorities said the animal was unable to free itself from the fence and was put down by a professional hunter "in order to prevent further suffering."
It remained unclear how the pig managed to enter the town center unnoticed.
The local fire brigade disposed of the cadaver.
Interactions between wild boars and humans are not uncommon in Germany. In 2020, one pig made headlines after stealing a laptop from a naked man on a nudist beach.
https://p.dw.com/p/5CeDbSkip next section Football: Bayer Leverkusen host Bayern Munich in German Cup semi-final04/22/2026April 22, 2026Football: Bayer Leverkusen host Bayern Munich in German Cup semi-final
Three days after securing their 34th Bundesliga title, Bayern Munich travel to Bayer Leverkusen in the semi-final of the German Cup (DFB Pokal) on Wednesday night.
Incredibly, given their recent domestic dominance, Bayern haven't reached this stage of the competition since 2020, suffering a series of early exits — including humiliating defeats against lower-league sides Holstein Kiel and Saarbrücken.
This season, however, Vincent Kompany's team has seen off Wiesbaden, Cologne, Union Berlin and RB Leipzig to reach the final four and keep their chances of a league-and-cup double alive.
Youngsters Lennart Karl and Tom Bischof are set to miss out with light muscle injuries, as will German international Serge Gnabry, whose World Cup chances are also in doubt as he recovers from a thigh strain.
But fellow Germany star Jamal Musiala is likely to start as he continues his difficult recovery from a bad leg break at the start of the season.
For Leverkusen, it's a third consecutive semi-final appearance. In 2024, they beat Fortuna Düsseldorf en route to winning the cup. Last season, they sensationally lost to Arminia Bielefeld, who were then in the third division.
The second semi-final sees VfB Stuttgart host SC Freiburg in a southwestern derby on Thursday.
https://p.dw.com/p/5Ce27Skip next section Stranded whale: Rescue attempts continue despite criticism04/22/2026April 22, 2026Stranded whale: Rescue attempts continue despite criticism
Attempts to rescue the humpback whale that has been stranded off Germany's northeastern coast continued on Wednesday, despite some experts giving up hope.
The whale — nicknamed "Timmy" after the Timmendorfer beach where it was first stranded three weeks ago — has managed to free itself on several occasions, only to end up stranded again. Since Tuesday, it has been lying in a shallow bay off the island of Poel, near the northern German town of Wismar.
Local authorities abandoned official attempts to save the whale earlier this week, but a private initiative funded by two businessmen has been permitted to continue the rescue efforts.
The initiative has been beset by internal disagreements and disputes, but work continued on Wednesday, with helpers using specialist equipment to try to dig a channel deep enough for the whale to swim free.
According to Sergio Bambaren, a Peruvian author and philanthropist who is also the vice-president of environmental protection organization "Mundo Azul" and who is acting as spokesman for the rescue initiative, the whale still has a 50-50 chance of survival.
"The whale is a fighter and wants to live," Bambaren told local media.
Humpback whale stranded again off German coast
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But Bambaren and another member of the initiative, an influencer by the name of Danny "Firstclass" Hilse, have been criticized by US veterinarian Jenna Walace, who quit the initiative and returned to Hawaii earlier this week.
"The rescue group are battling against huge restrictions, but they also have two completely ridiculous people who don't belong anywhere near this mission," she told public broadcaster NDR, accusing the pair of attention-seeking for "clicks, likes and to sell books."
"It's OK to have a voice and draw attention to something, but once you've done so, you need to put your ego aside and do what's best for the animal," she said. "I don't want to lose my job and I cannot be held accountable or risk my veterinary license over individuals' mistakes."
https://p.dw.com/p/5CdySSkip next section Frankfurt Airport: New Terminal 3 opens04/22/2026April 22, 2026Frankfurt Airport: New Terminal 3 opens
The brand new Terminal 3 at Frankfurt International Airport was officially opened on Wednesday — with only a slight delay and only marginally over-budget.
The new passenger terminal at Germany's largest airport is designed to handle around 19 million passengers per year with the potential to expand to 25 million, which would make it bigger on its own than Germany's fourth-largest airport ofDüsseldorf (24 million passengers).
When work began 10 years ago, Frankfurt Airport operator Fraport initially budgeted for costs of between €2.5 million to €3 million ($3 million to $3.5 million) which eventually ended up at around €4 million. The new terminal was expected to open in 2022, but construction was delayed largely due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Nevertheless, compared to the notorious delays and soaring costs which turned the new Berlin Brandenburg Airport into a national running joke in Germany throughout the 2010s, Frankfurt's new Terminal 3 has been completed comparatively on-time and on-budget.
Frankfurt Airport's Terminal 3 faces crucial stress test
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The reasons for the largely smooth operation lie in a compartmentalized building process consisting of more than 300 individual construction projects and a so-called design freeze overseen by experienced managers, according to Harald Rohr, chief executive of Fraport's expansion project.
Rohr himself had already overseen the expansion of Frankfurt's Terminal 2, the Frankfurt Airport Train Station building known as "The Squaire," and the airport's freight terminal.
Fellow project CEO Stephanie Pudwitz had previously worked on several construction projects in Berlin's diplomatic quarter as well as the new European Central Bank headquarters in Frankfurt.
Criticism of the new terminal came from groups such as the IKUL Initiative for climate and environment protection, which slammed the project as a "symbol of mismanagement, environmental destruction and megalomania."
Regular operations at the new Terminal 3 are expected to begin on Thursday.
https://p.dw.com/p/5CdnISkip next section Lufthansa to scrap 20,000 flights between now and October04/22/2026April 22, 2026Lufthansa to scrap 20,000 flights between now and October
After announcing the discontinuation of its CityLine subsidiary last week, German flagship airline Lufthansa confirmed on Wednesday that the move would lead to the scrapping of 20,000 flights between now and October.
"Uneconomical" short-haul routes which have been "at least temporarily" discontinued include connections from Lufthansa's Frankfurt hub to Bydgoszcz and Rzeszow in Poland and Stavanger in Norway.
Ten further connections to Heringsdorf and Stuttgart (Germany), Gdansk and Wroclaw (Poland), Cork (Ireland), Ljubljana (Slovenia), Rijeka (Croatia), Sibiu (Romania), Trondheim (Norway) and Tivat (Montenegro) will be rerouted via other Lufthansa hubs which, in addition to Frankfurt, include Munich, Vienna, Zurich, Brussels and Rome.
Lufthansa said it would provide further details about its "flight optimization plan" at the end of April but that the cancelations so far would save more than 40,000 tons of kerosene, the price of which has doubled since the start of the US-Israeli war on Iran.
The airline insisted that it expected "stable fuel provisions" for its summer holiday flight plans.
https://p.dw.com/p/5CdHXSkip next section Defense Minister presents German military strategy 04/22/2026April 22, 2026Defense Minister presents German military strategy
German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius on Wednesday presented his strategy for the future development of Germany's armed forces, the Bundeswehr.
The senior Social Democrat (SPD) said Germany was aiming to develop "the strongest conventional army in Europe" and named Russia as a chief threat.
"With its rearmament, [Russia] is preparing for a military confrontation with NATO and sees the use of military force as a legitimate instrument to enforce its interests," Pistorius said in a policy document.
He said Moscow was increasingly using "hybrid means" of waging war, such as espionage, sabotage, cyber-attacks and disinformation campaigns.
"In the short term, we are increasing our capabilities in defense and resilience," said Pistorius. "In the medium term, we are aiming for a significant overall increase in our capabilities and, in the longer term, we will establish technological superiority."
Startups are revolutionizing drone technology
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https://p.dw.com/p/5Cd4BSkip next section Welcome to our coverage04/22/2026April 22, 2026Welcome to our coverage
Matt Ford | Sean Sinico EditorGuten Morgen! Welcome to our coverage of what Germany is talking about on Wednesday, April 22.
After axing its CityLine subsidiary, German flagship airline Lufthansa has announced it is scrapping 20,000 flights, at least partly due to soaring fuel prices amid the ongoing conflict in the Middle East.
Meanwhile, however, Frankfurt International Airport is set to officially open its new Terminal 3, through which around 19 million passengers per year are expected to pass.
And in Berlin, German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius has laid out his strategy for the future of Germany's armed forces.
Want to know what was going on in Germany on Tuesday? You can catch up here.
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