Germany news: Man jailed over killing of train conductor

This blog is now closed. Read below for a roundup of the latest headlines from Germany on Thursday, July 8:

German author Christine Wunnicke has been awarded the Georg Büchner Prize , widely regarded as one of the most prestigious awards for German-language literature .

The prize is presented by the German Academy for Language and Literature, whose jury praised Wunnicke's "consistently surprising and masterfully crafted body of work, set in such diverse locations as Hollywood, Nagasaki, and Paris.”

Wunnicke’s novels are set in the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries, blending historical facts with fiction.

Her 2020 novel "The Lady with the Painted Hand," follows a fictional meeting between the real-life German mathematician Carsten Niebuhr and Musa, a Persian maker of astrolabes. Stranded on an island off the coast of India, the two men must find ways to communicate despite their different languages and cultural backgrounds.

In her most recent novel "Wachs" ("Wax"), which is set in Paris amid the backdrop of the French Revolution, Wunnicke tells the story of young girl who is determined to buy corpses in order to become an anatomist.

"Christine Wunnicke's brilliant art reveals the fictional within the supposedly historical, thereby offering a revealing perspective on European scientific and colonial history without denying empathy for her characters," the jury's explanation reads.

The Büchner Prize has been awarded annually since 1951. According to its charter, it honors authors "writing in the German language whose work is considered especially meritorious and who have made a significant contribution to contemporary German culture."

The award carries a €50,000 prize, and will be handed out on October 24 in Darmstadt.

German Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt confirmed on Thursday that the country's border with Denmark will maintain immigration controls for the foreseeable future.

"For us, border controls play an important role in curbing illegal migration," Dobrindt said. While admitting that Denmark plays only a small role in irregular immigration to Germany , he said that authorities had uncovered some people-smuggling operations at the border in the past.

Despite both belonging to the Schengen free-movement area, the two countries have had regular controls at their shared border since September 2024.

The news comes just after the government also decided to extend similar controls at the border with Austria until at least September 15.

Investigators in Germany and Switzerland have arrested five men suspected of belonging to a people-smuggling gang accused of bringing more than 700 people into Germany.

Prosecutors in the Bavarian city of Landshut and Germany's Federal Police said one suspected organizer was detained in Geneva, while four other men were arrested in Dortmund, Berlin and the town of Delmenhorst near Bremen .

The suspects, aged between 25 and 45, are Syrian and Lebanese nationals and are believed to belong to the upper leadership of the criminal organization, police said.

They are accused of organizing the smuggling of 164 people, including 13 children, between October 2023 and March 2024.

Authorities said the wider gang is suspected of illegally bringing more than 700 people into Germany and making millions of euros from the operation.

The investigation began in 2023 after 30 people were found being transported on the loading areas of vans and trucks in the Passau region of Lower Bavaria in southern Germany. Investigators currently believe those being smuggled were put in mortal danger.

Two other alleged gang members have already been sentenced to several years in prison by regional courts in Landshut and Passau. Four more members are in pretrial, criminal or extradition detention in Greece, Austria, Slovenia and Kosovo.

Germany's Federal Constitutional Court in Karlsruhe has cleared the way for the Bundestag to vote this Friday on a bill aimed at stabilizing statutory health insurance contributions .

The court rejected urgent applications from opposition lawmakers Janosch Dahmen of the Green Party and Ates Gürpinar of the socialist Left Party to remove the bill from the parliamentary agenda.

The two lawmakers had filed the applications in Karlsruhe on Wednesday, arguing that Chancellor Friedrich Merz's conservative-led government was rushing the bill through parliament and had submitted amendments too late for serious scrutiny.

They said the process violated their right to equal participation in parliamentary decision-making. The court did not immediately give reasons for its decision, saying its explanation would be sent separately to the parties involved.

The government wants to pass the reform on the final sitting day before the summer recess. It remains unclear whether Germany's upper chamber, the Bundesrat, will also allow the bill to pass Friday, with the federal government and the states still at odds over changes to hospital finances.

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Despite economic uncertainty caused by the Iran conflict and ongoing US tariffs , German exports rose unexpectedly in May, extending their growth streak to a fourth consecutive month.

Exports increased by 0.9% compared with April, according to preliminary figures from Germany’s Federal Statistical Office, reaching a total of €137.9 billion ($157 billion). That number is 6.1% higher than in May 2025.

Moreover, Germany's trade surplus widened to €19.1 billion in May, up from €14.7 billion in April, helped by 2.5% decline in imports over the same period.

The largest growth came in exports to the US, the top destination for German products, where exports rose by 23.1% compared to April. Exports to China also notched a 7.1.% increase, while exports to EU countries fell by 1.1.%.

"Exports are being helped by the fact that the ‌US economy continues to steam ahead," said Alexander Krüger, chief economist ‌at ABN ​Amro Germany.

Economists nevertheless urged caution. "The robust growth in exports to the United States should not be interpreted as a reversal of the trend in transatlantic trade," wrote Thomas Gitzel, Chief Economist at VP Bank.

"Trade barriers have increased as a result of Trump's tariffs, and at the same time, many companies are relocating their production directly to the US” he added. In the long run, this could mean less trade between the US and Germany .

The US currently imposes a 15% baseline tariff on EU goods .

The International Monetary Fund forecasts that the German economy will grow by 0.7% in 2026.

One day after the NATO summit in Ankara, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz (CDU) made a surprising announcement: The German government would purchase US Tomahawk medium-range missiles and station them in Germany. An agreement to this effect had been reached with the US government during the summit in Ankara, Merz said told the Bundestag.

"This closes an important strategic gap in our defense," the chancellor explained. At the same time, Germany would continue to work on developing its own European systems, he announced.

Originally, the US intended to station Tomahawk cruise missiles in Germany as a gesture of support among allies. This had been agreed upon by then-Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) and US President Joe Biden in 2024. The deployment was intended to bridge the gap until comparable European weapons were developed.

But in May 2026, US President Donald Trump scrapped his predecessor's plan, and announced the withdrawal of at least 5,000 US troops from Germany . The US argued it did not have enough Tomahawks to go through with stationing them in Germany, according to a US statement.

The German government therefore had to look for alternatives and began negotiations to purchase Tomahawks. With a range of up to 2,500 kilometers (1553 miles), they can reach Russian territory from Germany . Their deployment is seen as a key element in deterring Russia. Moscow has stationed Iskander cruise missiles in its Kaliningrad exclave, which can be armed with nuclear warheads.