Skip next section What you need to know
What you need to know
- Merz spoke to Azerbaijan’s Aliyev about gas and oil supplies
- A 2025 report on sexual crimes against minors in Germany has been presented in Berlin
- An anti-racism association is also to present an annual report on far-right, racist violence
Here is a round-up of the top headlines from and about Germany on Tuesday, July 21, 2026:
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Skip next section Pistorius says Germany wants influence over tank maker KNDS07/21/2026July 21, 2026
Pistorius says Germany wants influence over tank maker KNDS
Defense Minister Boris Pistorius said on Tuesday that Germany wants to secure its influence over tank maker KNDS in some way.
“We want to keep this key technology within Germany’s control — on an equal footing with our partners from France,” he said, while visiting a company site in the central city of Kassel.
“Which shape this will take will be subject to discussions and decisions over the next few weeks,” he said.
Pistorius said the company was of the highest importance for the defense and economy of Germany.
KNDS, which produces German Leopard-2 and French Leclerc battle tanks, is currently owned half by the French state and half by the German Wegmann Group.
In early July, it postponed a planned stock market flotation that had been set to enable the German government to take a 40% stake in the company.
The German government has said it remains committed to the project despite the postponement, which the company said was due to “unfavorable market conditions.”
An agreement was struck with France to ensure both states would hold equal shares of 40%, with 20% to be floated publicly, according to the news magazine Spiegel.
https://p.dw.com/p/5HUvLSkip next section Danish waste triggered 2021 industrial accident — prosecutors07/21/2026July 21, 2026
Danish waste triggered 2021 industrial accident — prosecutors
Waste from Denmark triggered a deadly 2021 explosion at an hazardous waste incineration plant in western Germany that killed seven people, prosecutors said on Tuesday.
Prosecutors said the “technical cause and starting point of the explosion” was the Danish waste, which had been stored in a tank above the so-called self-heating temperature.
This caused “an exponential rise in temperature and pressure and ultimately to an explosion followed by a fire,” they said.
Ongoing investigation into waste source
The prosecutors, from the central unit for the prosecution of environmental crime in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, (ZeUK) said they were looking into culpability on the part of a Danish waste producer and a Hamburg-based broker.
They said the plant operators seem not to have received enough information from those companies to recognize that the waste had the “self-decomposing property” that led to the blast.
Proceedings against Currenta, the operator of the chemical park in Leverkusen where the accident occurred on July 27, 2021, had been dropped, they said.
Nonetheless, the ZeUK says it has applied to the Dortmund Regional Court for a fine of €1.9 million ($2.2 million) to be imposed on Currenta, which the company has indicated that it is willing to pay.
The accident was one of the worst in Germany in recent decades.
https://p.dw.com/p/5HULHSkip next section Charity organization Caritas warns on government aid cuts07/21/2026July 21, 2026
Charity organization Caritas warns on government aid cuts
The Catholic-run aid organization Caritas international received some €39.9 million ($45.6 million) in private donations in 2025, it said on Tuesday.
Caritas head Oliver Müller, who presented the organization’s annual report in Freiburg on Tuesday, said the sum was roughly the same as a year before, speaking of “impressive solidarity.”
However, Müller criticized Germany’s recent cuts to humanitarian aid, saying they were not just morally wrong but weakened the country’s credibility in the world.
“The cuts take away Germany’s possibilities for political influence, make the world more uncertain and thus in the end cause damage to ourselves,” he said.
Caritas called on Germany to set aside at least €3 billion annually for humanitarian aid, saying this sum was an “appropriate and just share” in view of the country’s economic power.
Germany’s budget for 2026 has earmarked just €1 billion for humanitarian aid.
https://p.dw.com/p/5HTuCSkip next section Railway operator DB plans alcohol ban at all stations07/21/2026July 21, 2026
Railway operator DB plans alcohol ban at all stations
Germany’s national railway operator, Deutsche Bahn (DB), is planning to introduce a ban on drinking alcohol at all train stations in a bid to improve security.
The ban is scheduled to go into force by mid-October, with only restaurants and bars on railway premises, as well as restaurants on the trains themselves, to be exempted.
Some large stations in Germany, such as Berlin, Hamburg and Cologne, already have such a ban in place.
Violent incident prompts alcohol ban
The planned ban has been prompted by an incident on Friday in which a railway security guard fell from a moving train, sustaining critical injuries, after an altercation with a drunken passenger during a ticket inspection.
DB chief Evelyn Palla told the mass-circulation Bild newspaper: “We want more order and security in our trains stations and in our trains.”
However, the police union GdP has voiced doubts about how the ban can be properly enforced, given personnel shortages, and also called for a ban on alcohol on the trains themselves.
“It makes little sense to introduce an alcohol ban at stations and then for people to be able to consume alcohol in trains,” GdP deputy federal chairman Alexander Poitz told broadcaster RTL/ntv.
https://p.dw.com/p/5HTPBSkip next section Reports of sexual crimes against minors rising sharply in Germany07/21/2026July 21, 2026
Reports of sexual crimes against minors rising sharply in Germany
Germany has seen a considerable rise in registered cases of child sexual abuse over the past five years, according to a report by the Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA) for 2025.
Last year, the police registered 17,126 cases, some 4.7% more than a year before, according to the report, entitled “Sexual offenses to the detriment of children and youth.”
The report showed that in more than half of the cases, the victims and suspected perpetrators had a prior relationship with another, while the overwhelming majority of suspected offenders were males acting on their own.
In Germany’s penal law, a child is defined as anyone below 14 years of age.
The number of sexual abuse cases against young people aged 14 or more rose from 1,191 in 2024 to 1,239 in 2025.
The report, which was presented by Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt, BKA President Holger Munch and the government’s commissioner against child sexual abuse, Kerstin Claus, warned that a large number of offenses go unreported.
Dobrindt described the figures in the report as highly alarming.
“We have to protect our children better, especially in the digital sphere,” he said.
https://p.dw.com/p/5HTRkSkip next section Merz to sign agreement with Azerbaijan’s Aliyev after talks07/21/2026July 21, 2026
Merz to sign agreement with Azerbaijan’s Aliyev after talks
Chancellor Friedrich Merz is to hold talks with Azerbaijan’s president, Ilham Aliyev, in Berlin on Tuesday, with the focus expected to be on issues such as energy and trade in raw materials.
The talks will also touch on the peace process between Azerbaijan and Armenia amid remaining tensions over the Nagorno-Karabakh region and other territorial issues, the German government has said.
Azerbaijan derives most of its state revenue from the sale of oil and natural gas, including to the European Union.
Ahead of the talks, Aliyev will first be received by President Frank-Walter Steinmeier earlier in the morning, before being welcomed by Merz with full military honors.
https://p.dw.com/p/5HT3uSkip next section Welcome to our coverage07/21/2026July 21, 2026
Welcome to our coverage
Timothy Jones | Rana Taha Editor
A hearty guten Tag from DW’s newsroom in Bonn to all our readers!
Tuesday is shaping up to be a day of reports in Germany.
Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt is to join Holger Munch, the president of the Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA), in presenting a 2025 review of the situation regarding sexual crimes against minors.
An association for victims of racist violence will also be presenting its annual report for 2025, which is expected to show an alarmingly high level of such offenses.
And the charity organization Caritas will also be giving its donation results for 2025 along with a review of current humanitarian crisis zones and the problems caused by dwindling financial resources.
Alongside all of this, Chancellor Merz will be hosting Azerbaijani leader Ilham Aliyev, one of the longest-serving presidents in Europe.
Read on here for more details on these and other stories.
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