Skip next section What you need to know
What you need to know
- Lawmakers debate whether to introduce an opt-out scheme for organ donation
- The Bundestag will also examine government proposals to grant intelligence agencies a wider scope to counter manifold security threats
- German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul has warned of Russia’s growing aggression against Europe
- The first-ever Islamic theology faculty in Germany is to open in Münster
Here is a roundup of the top news stories from and about Germany on Thursday, September 24, 2026:
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Skip next section Planned intelligence reforms trigger heated Bundestag debate09/24/2026September 24, 2026
Planned intelligence reforms trigger heated Bundestag debate
The German parliament has held its first debate on government plans to give intelligence agencies more power as national security is threatened by new dangers at home and from abroad.
Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt told parliamentarians that the planned reforms would turn Germany’s intelligence agencies — the BND (Bundesnachrichtendienst), in charge of international intelligence, and the BfV (Bundesamt für Verfassungschutz), responsible for domestic intelligence — into “true secret services.”
He said the agencies would no longer just gather information on threats but be equipped to provide “real defense against dangers, attacks and terror.”
Under the plans, the agencies would receive more power to collect, save and automatically evaluate data, as well as permission to react to sabotage or hacking attacks with counterattacks.
Intelligence reforms under fire
Various parliamentarians voiced concerns about the reform’s implications in what was sometimes a heated discussion.
Konstantin von Notz from the Green Party said he recognized the need to “update” the powers of the agencies in view of the growing threat from Russia.
But, he said, “the excessive plans for domestic intelligence activities” needed to be trimmed or the the reforms would not survive an appeal to the Constitutional Court.
He said the government needed to take the interests of people professionally entrusted with confidential information much more into consideration, especially psychotherapists.
Clara Bünger of the socialistLeft Party accused the government of breaking down the distinction between intelligence agencies and the police that had been a lesson learned “from the crimes of the German fascists.”
The far-right politician Gottfried Curio from the Alternative for Germany (AfD) party was strongest in his criticism, saying the government wanted to create a “Stasi 2.0,” a reference to the secret service in former communist East Germany.
The reforms would bring about “more than a total surveillance state,” he said.
https://p.dw.com/p/5NCF7Skip next section Bundestag set for organ donation debate09/24/2026September 24, 2026
Bundestag set for organ donation debate
The Bundestag will discuss two separate cross-party proposals on Thursday to increase the number of human organs donated for often life-saving transplant operations.
One proposal upholds Germany’s current system, under which people who wish to donate organs must actively give permission.
Advocates of the proposal say that the shortfall of donated organs can be remedied by campaigns calling on adults to take part and making it easier to register the desire to donate.
The other proposal calls for an opt-out scheme under which organs can be removed postmortem from anyone who has not expressly rejected being an organ donor.
Backers of this proposal say that although surveys show that most people in Germany are willing to donate their organs, very few actually document this wish.
They also cite statistics showing that countries with opt-out schemes have more donations, with Germany lagging behind in international comparisons.
Altogether 254 of the 630 members of the Bundestag have signed on to the opt-out scheme, and 58 have backed the first proposal to maintain the current national system.
The Bundestag last voted on the issue in 2020, with a majority supporting the opt-in model, even though an opt-out proposal had more signees then, too.
France, Spain and the Netherlands are examples of European countries that have opt-out models in place.
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https://p.dw.com/p/5NBbKSkip next section Welcome to our coverage09/24/2026September 24, 2026
Welcome to our coverage
The DW newsroom in Bonn says guten Tag and willkommen to its readers around the world!
You join our coverage as the German parliament is set to revisit a debate on organ donations: Should an opt-out scheme replace the current opt-in one in view of the dwindling supply?
Parliamentarians will also be looking at goverment proposals to give more powers to the country’s intelligence agencies to enable them to cope with the current myriad of security threats.
And the university in Münster is to open a faculty of Islamic theology — the first in the country — that will have an equal status with the Catholic and Protestant faculties there.
All this comes amid a bit of good news for the German economy, which experts say will grow twice as much this year as previously forecast.
Read on for more on these and other stories.
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