Germany news: Three missing after Görlitz house collapse
What you need to know
- Three people missing after house collapses in Görlitz
- One in five German petrol stations in breach of fuel price break — study
- German Chancellor Friedrich Merz to welcome Swiss President Guy Parmelinin Berlin
Welcome to DW's coverage of what Germany is talking about on Tuesday, May 19, 2026. You can catch up on yesterday's news here.
Skip next section Electric car subsidy: over 1,800 applications in first hour05/19/2026May 19, 2026Electric car subsidy: over 1,800 applications in first hour
A new German state subsidy for electric vehicles has attracted significant interest since applications began on Tuesday morning.
The German government has put aside €3 billion ($3.5 billion) to subsidize the purchase of electric or hybrid vehicles by private households, who are eligible for subsidies ranging from €1,500 to €6,000 ($1,740 to $7,000) depending on family size, annual income and vehicle model.
"We have already had 1,858 applications," said Mandy Pastohr, the president of the Federal Office for Economic Affairs and Export Control (Bafa), just 15 minutes after the government portal foerderzentrale.gov.de went live on Tuesday morning.
The subsidies are available until 2029 and can be backdated to January 1, 2026, with German Environment Minister Carsten Schneider (SPD) hoping to encourage the purchase of up to 800,000 environmentally friendly vehicles.
EVs back in the fast lane as oil prices surges
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https://p.dw.com/p/5DxjoSkip next section Thousands of German petrol stations breach 12 o'clock rule05/19/2026May 19, 2026Thousands of German petrol stations breach 12 o'clock rule
Almost one in five petrol stations in Germany have breached a new law in the last month by increasing prices at non-permitted times.
The so-called "12 o'clock rule" was introduced on April 1 and stipulates that German petrol stations may only raise gas prices once per day — namely at midday.
The price break is intended to protect drivers from sudden, extreme price rises in the context of global shortages due to the war in the Middle East, and give them more planning security.
But a study by the lobby group "Mehr-Tanken" ("fill up more") has found that 2,995 out of 15,240 petrol stations had increased prices at non-permitted times on around 17,000 occasions between April 1 and May 11.
The highest rate of violation was in the southern state of Bavaria, where 25.6% of petrol stations were found to have broken the rules, while the lowest rate was in Berlin (8.2%).
Overall, 19.7% of petrol stations infringed regulations — almost one in five. But petrol station operators have rejected the accusations.
"We have received reports that we're dealing with the consequences of a badly designed law, not with intentional breaches," insisted Daniel Kaddik, head of the National Federation of Free Petrol Stations, in an interview with local newspapers in the eastern German city of Leipzig.
Kaddik claimed that submissions of price changes were being delayed in many cases by various automated systems, slow pipes or ongoing transactions, thus skewing the statistics.
https://p.dw.com/p/5DxWLSkip next section Görlitz: Three missing after house collapse in eastern German city05/19/2026May 19, 2026Görlitz: Three missing after house collapse in eastern German city
Three people remained missing in the eastern German city of Görlitz on Tuesday after a residential building collapsed on Monday evening.
The precise cause of the collapse of the 19th-century house in the city center is still unclear, although local police suspect a gas explosion.
Emergency services are therefore proceeding cautiously with the help of gas readers, and also to prevent further collapses of rubble.
Initially, five people were listed as missing — but two were holidaymakers who had not yet arrived in Görlitz, and appeared shortly after midnight.
"They're fine, they weren't in the building at the time of the collapse," said police spokeswoman Anja Leuschner, explaining that the building housed rented accommodation and holiday homes. "They were lucky that they weren't there."
Görlitz, located in the eastern state of Saxony, is Germany's most easterly city, and lies directly on the border with Poland.
https://p.dw.com/p/5DxPNSkip next section Welcome to our coverage05/19/2026May 19, 2026Welcome to our coverage
Dmytro Hubenko EditorGuten Morgen! Welcome to DW's coverage of what Germany is talking about on Tuesday, May 19, 2026.
Emergency services are still searching for three missing people after a house collapsed in the center of Germany's most easterly city, Görlitz, on Monday evening. Local police suspect a gas explosion.
Meanwhile, a new study suggests that almost one in five German petrol stations have breached new rules limiting the amount of times they can increase fuel prices.
Later on Tuesday, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz will welcome Swiss President Guy Parmelin to Berlin, and we're also expecting the results of an inquiry into the car attack at Magdeburg Christmas Market in December 2024.
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