Germany news: Most doubt Bundeswehr military readiness — poll
What you need to know
- A poll finds that less than one-in-five Germans believe the Bundeswehr could adequately defend the country
- A record number of people obtained a German passport in 2025, according to a newspaper report
- The German Chamber of Industry and Commerce has lowered its economic prognosis for this year as the conflict in the Middle East continues
Here is a roundup of the top stories from and about Germany on Saturday, May 23, 2026.
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Skip next section Poll shows doubts over Germany's defense readiness05/24/2026May 24, 2026Poll shows doubts over Germany's defense readiness
Many people in Germany have expressed doubts about the country's ability to defend itself in case of an attack.
A survey by Insa for the newspaper Bild am Sonntag found only 17% believe the Bundeswehr could adequately defend the country, while 72% disagreed.
Concerns about a potential Russian attack have declined, with 38% saying they are worried compared with 50% who are not. In September 2025, a majority had still expressed concern.
Fears are significantly higher when it comes to hybrid threats. Around two-thirds of respondents said they are concerned about cyberattacks, sabotage, or disinformation affecting life in Germany, while just over one in five said they were not worried.
The survey was conducted between May 21 and 22 among 1,005 respondents and is considered representative.
https://p.dw.com/p/5EFWeSkip next section German lawmakers visit Taiwan to boost ties05/24/2026May 24, 2026German lawmakers visit Taiwan to boost ties
A delegation from the German Bundestag has arrived in Taiwan to deepen parliamentary cooperation.
The five-member group, led by Green Party lawmaker Till Steffen, said the visit aims to strengthen ties with the island claimed by China.
Steffen said Taiwan is an important partner sharing democratic values, adding that both sides face growing challenges from authoritarian forces. He said the delegation also wants to convey this message to President Lai Ching-te.
The group is set to meet Lai on Tuesday and hold talks with former president Tsai Ing-wen, as well as lawmakers, business representatives and civil society figures.
The delegation, which includes members from multiple German parties, is scheduled to remain in Taiwan until May 31.
https://p.dw.com/p/5EFS8Skip next section Fans celebrate Bayern league and cup double05/24/2026May 24, 2026Fans celebrate Bayern league and cup double
Bayern Munich fans have been celebrating after striker Harry Kane scored three times to fire Bayern Munich to a 3-0 victory over Stuttgart in the German Cup final.
The win delivered a domestic double for the Bavarian giants and ended a six-year trophy drought.
It caps a dominant season for Bayern, who had already secured the Bundesliga title with four games to spare.
Read more about the story here.
https://p.dw.com/p/5EFSmSkip next section Welcolme back to our coverage05/24/2026May 24, 2026Welcolme back to our coverage
Richard ConnorWelcome back and Güten Tag from the DW newsroom in Bonn.
We'll be here once again bringing you the latest news headlines coming out of Germany on Sunday.
https://p.dw.com/p/5EFS1Skip next section We are pausing our coverage05/23/2026May 23, 2026We are pausing our coverage
Thanks for following our coverage today. We will have more from Germany in our blog on Sunday.
https://p.dw.com/p/5EEhrSkip next section Dozens injured in head-on tram crash in Düsseldorf 05/23/2026May 23, 2026Dozens injured in head-on tram crash in Düsseldorf
Twenty-eight people were injured when two trams collided in the western German city of Düsseldorf.
The head-on crash happened at around 11:30 am local time (0930 UTC/GMT) at the busy intersection of Berliner Allee and Graf-Adolf-Strasse.
The intersection is located in the Friedrichstadt area, near the city center
The local fire service said five people sustained serious injuries and were taken to the hospital.
DPA news agency cited a police spokesperson as saying that none of them is in a critical condition.
The fire brigade said most of the passengers on board were able to leave the carriages without issue.
A further 28 people were treated by paramedics at the scene.
Public broadcaster WDR reported that both trams derailed in the collision and that some of the seats were torn from their mountings.
According to reports, the trams were busy as hundreds of thousands of people converged on the city to celebrate Europe's largest Japanese cultural festival.
Known as Little Tokyo on the Rhine, Düsseldorf is home to around 8,000–8,500 Japanese residents — the largest in Germany.
Services along the affected tram lines were diverted, a spokesperson for Rheinbahn, the public transport operator, told DPA.
https://p.dw.com/p/5EEcwSkip next section Zelenskyy rejects Merz proposal for special EU status05/23/2026May 23, 2026Zelenskyy rejects Merz proposal for special EU status
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has rejected a proposal by German Chancellor Friedrich Merz to make Ukraine an “associate member” of the European Union.
“It would be unfair for Ukraine to be present in the European Union but remain without a voice,” Zelenskyy wrote in a letter to EU leaders seen by German news agency dpa.
He demanded full membership, adding that the enlargement process was taking too long.
"There can be no complete European project without Ukraine, and Ukraine’s place in the European Union must also be complete – full and equal," he said.
In a letter to EU leaders Ursula von der Leyen and Antonio Costa seen by news agencies on Thursday, the German leader proposed allowing Ukrainian officials to take part in EU summits and ministerial meetings but without voting rights.
"It is obvious that we will not be able to complete the accession process shortly, given the countless hurdles as well as the political complexities of ratification processes," Merz wrote.
"What I envisage is a political solution that brings Ukraine substantially closer to the European Union and its core institutions immediately," he wrote.
https://p.dw.com/p/5EEb9Skip next section Former Chancellor Scholz set to head Global South committee — report05/23/2026May 23, 2026Former Chancellor Scholz set to head Global South committee — report
Former German Chancellor Olaf Scholz will likely be selected as the chair of a government committee focusing on enhancing ties with the Global South, according to the Tagespiegel daily.
A Development Ministry spokeswoman declined to confirm the report to the dpa news agency but did say that internal government consultations were ongoing to pick a head for the body, to be called the North-South Committee.
The coalition deal between Chancellor Friedrich Merz's conservatives and the Social Democrats (SPD), Scholz's party, contained provisions to create such a committee, which is expected to be appointed within a few months.
The committee is to advise the government on how to diversify and intensify relations with countries in the Global South and develop them into a global network, according to the spokeswoman.
Scholz, who is still in the German parliament representing a constituency near Berlin, served as Germany's chancellor from 2021 until May 2025.
The three-way SPD/Greens/Free Democrats (FDP) coalition he headed ended prematurely in November 2024 after collapsing amid an internal row over how best to bolster the ailing economy.
In the subsequent snap election in February 2025, his SPD lost to Friedrich Merz's Christian Democrats (CDU), receiving the lowest the lowest result in its post-war history.
Scholz stayed on in a caretaker capacity until Merz took office in May 2026 at the head of a coalition of his conservative bloc and the SPD.
https://p.dw.com/p/5EEQySkip next section READ: What is Pentecost?05/23/2026May 23, 2026READ: What is Pentecost?
Pentecost ("Pfingsten" in German) is a moveable feast celebrated by the Christian church on a Sunday in spring, 50 days after Easter.
Also called Whitsun, it is followed by Whit Monday, which is a public holiday in many countries, including Germany.
It marks the day when, according to the Christian holy book, the bible, the Holy Spirit is believed to have descended upon the apostles of Jesus, his mother, Mary, and other followers of Christ.
You can read more about Pentecost in this DW article by Tanya Ott: What is Pentecost?
https://p.dw.com/p/5EEM6Skip next section German lawmakers to visit Taiwan despite likely Chinese ire05/23/2026May 23, 2026
German lawmakers to visit Taiwan despite likely Chinese ire
A delegation of German lawmakers is traveling to Taiwan for a visit to start on Sunday, with a participating Green lawmaker calling on China "not to interfere" despite Beijing's view that the democratically governed island belongs to it.
Till Steffen, chairman of the Berlin-Taipei Parliamentary Circle of Friends, told the dpa news agency that relations with Taiwan were "extremely important" to the German parliament, or Bundestag.
"I would advise China not to interfere,” he said. "These are long-standing and stable relations that we have. We maintain them, and we are expanding them."
Steffen also said Taiwan was turning increasingly to Europe and Germany amid waning support from the United States under the Trump administration.
Steffen is leading the five-person delegation, which will be in Taiwan until May 31.
The group also includes lawmakers Klaus-Peter Willsch and Markus Reichel from Chancellor Friedrich Merz's conservative Christian Democrats, as well as Rainer Kraft from the far-right Alternative for Germany and Mandy Eissing from the Left Party.
The delegation plans to meet both with Taiwanese parliamentarians and with President Lai Ching-te.
How Taiwan is planning to outlast China
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https://p.dw.com/p/5EEIPSkip next section What is Germany's Basic Law (Grundgesetz)?05/23/2026May 23, 2026What is Germany's Basic Law (Grundgesetz)?
The Grundgesetz or Basic Law is the constitution of the Federal Republic of Germany.
Its 146 articles lay out the basic rights of German citizens, the responsibilities of each state institution and other laws, all with the tenor of putting the state's exercise of power under democratic control.
In many ways, it was a response to the country's experiences under the Nazi dictatorship from 1933-1945 and aimed to prevent such things as dictatorships, the Holocaust and a world war started by Germany from every happening again.
It was written shortly after the end of World War II by the Parliamentary Council in what to soon become the West German capital, Bonn, and went into effect on May 23, 1949, effectively establishing the Federal Republic of Germany.
The Basic Law is placed over all other laws. The Constitutional Court in the western city of Karlsruhe is responsible for making sure that it is adhered to.
Its oft-quoted first article is as follows: "Human dignity shall be inviolable. To respect and protect it shall be the duty of all state authority."
The second article then says that the German people "acknowledge inviolable and inalienable human rights as the basis of every community, of peace and of justice in the world."
Among other things, the Basic Law goes on to stipulate that men and women have equal rights, that everyone has freedom of religious belief and that the politically persecuted have a right to asylum.
Any amendments to the constitution must be passed by a two-thirds majority in both houses of parliament: the Bundestag and the Bundesrat.
They must then be signed by the federal president.
Some 70 amendments have been made since 1949, including one to lower the voting age from 21 to 18 in 1972 and another in 1990 to admit several new federal states following reunification.
However, several of its core principles, including those in its first article, are not able to be changed even with a two-thirds majority.
https://p.dw.com/p/5EEFpSkip next section READ: Record number of people take German passport in 202505/23/2026May 23, 2026READ: Record number of people take German passport in 2025
More than 300,000 people obtained German passports in 2025, a 6% increase over the previous year, a newspaper has reported.
A new boom in naturalizations is expected next year when the many Ukrainian refugees in the country are likely to seek citizenship as they lose some of their protected status.
You can read more in this article: Germany: Record numbers take German passport in 2025
https://p.dw.com/p/5EE1ySkip next section President Steinmeier calls for democratic commitment, voluntary work05/23/2026May 23, 2026President Steinmeier calls for democratic commitment, voluntary work
German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier has called on people in Germany to work to uphold democracy in comments to mark the anniversary of the country's constitution or Basic Law (Grundgesetz).
"Democracy needs active citizens. It needs energy," he told the dpa news agency in Berlin.
"Our free democratic order lives from the contributions of every individual and from commitment in our society," he said.
He said that the Basic Law was a real achievement for the country and its social cohesion.
"But democracy is not just something intellectual. It needs arms and legs — people who get involved, who join in," he added.
Steinmeier has also called on people in Germany to become engaged in voluntary social work as part of their commitment to a democratic society, calling this year's anniversary an Ehrentag ("Day of Honor"). Ehrenamtlich is also a German word for "voluntary."
"By becoming involved, we can have a kind of basic democratic experience as a society and become aware that every one of us can do something, change something," he said.
The president plans to give an example himself on Saturday by doing gardening work at a public cemetery and taking part in activities at an aged-care home.
"It is a heartfelt wish of mine to anchor the birthday of our constitution much more strongly in the general awareness, beyond politics," he told dpa.
https://p.dw.com/p/5EEAkSkip next section Welcome to our coverage05/23/2026May 23, 2026Welcome to our coverage
Timothy Jones | Wesley Dockery EditorThe DW newsroom welcomes all users of Germany's international broadcaster with a warm guten Tag in keeping with the current summer-like temperatures.
Saturday is "Grundgesetztag" in Germany — the day on which the country marks the anniversary of the day the constitution ("Grundgesetz" or "Basic Law") went into effect: May 23, 1949.
German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier is using the occasion to call on people to take part in voluntary work, while himself giving a good example by reading to children, doing gardening work in a park and helping out in an elderly care home.
He has also urged Germans to be proactive in their defense of democratic ideals.
This comes as a newspaper report says that a record number of people took German citizenship in 2025, the year after the country made it legal for non-German nationals to hold two passports.
It is also the Pentecost weekend, and you can find out more about this holiday and its significance in Germany.
You can learn more about these and other stories from Europe's biggest economy in this blog. We wish you enjoyable reading!
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