What you need to know

• Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt says Germany is to expand drone security research
• Algeria says it has taken charge of a German citizen kidnapped in Niger some two weeks ago
• Low water levels in the Rhine and other rivers are posing a growing risk for Germany, an expert says
• Protesters in eastern Germany have called for new elections, while demonstrators in Berlin have demanded a ban on far-right parties

Here is a roundup of the stories from and about Germany that are hitting the headlines on the weekend of August 8-9, 2026:

Transport minister wants Deutsch Bahn bonuses tied to punctuality targets

Germany's new transport minister, Steffen Bilger of the conservative Christian Democrats (CDU), said on Sunday that he planned to step up pressure on notoriously delayed railway operator Deutsche Bahn.

He told the mass-market Bild newspaper that bonus payments for Bahn managers would be impacted if government-set punctuality targets are not met.

"There will be a concrete impact on the bonus payments of rail managers if the targets set by the federal government are not met," Bilger said. "I think rail customers and taxpayers have a right to have success genuinely measured."

Chancellor Friedrich Merz's government is preparing a new financing agreement for the state-owned company that is to tie funding to specific targets.

Bilger took his ministerial post after Merz reshuffled his Cabinet last month, a move sparked by the resignation of senior conservative lawmaker Jens Spahn over a surrogacy scandal.

Deutsche Bahn is mired in a major structural crisis around delays and cancellations. In 2025, only 60% arrived on time or experienced delays of under six minutes, not including trains that were canceled or ended their journeys prematurely.

The center-left Social Democrats (SPD), who are junior coalition partners in Merz's government, expressed support for the planned measure.

"I expressly welcome the fact that Transport Minister Bilger wants to link the bonus payments of rail managers to punctuality," the SPD's Isabel Cademartori told the Tagesspiegel newspaper.

"People expect the railway to become more reliable," she said. "As politicians, we are providing record investments in infrastructure and expect this to be reflected in punctuality."

Nudist cyclists ride through Berlin for World Naked Bike Ride

The German capital's first World Naked Bike Ride began in Berlin on Sunday.

Hundreds of people participated in the event, cycling either naked or partially naked through the streets of Berlin.

Organizers said that participants can join "dressed or undressed in whatever way they themselves feel most comfortable."

They said the event was to embody the idea that "naked we are all equal" and the German nudism movement, historically known as Freikörperkultur (meaning "free body culture" in Germany) or by the acronym FKK.

Organizers said they aimed to send a message of "tolerance and self-acceptance, closeness to nature and protection of the environment and for inclusion and diversity."

The German capital was experiencing hot weather of around 30 degrees Celsius (86 degrees Fahrenheit).

The event started in Mauerpark in eastern Berlin and proceeded to the government district.

Organizers said the route was to follow the Berlin Wall Trail to the Schönefeld neighborhood in the southeast of the Berlin metropolitan area. The suburb contains Berlin Brandenburg Airport.

Berlin police investigating shooting incidents amid rise in gun crime

Berlin police are looking into two incidents in which shots were fired, as shooting incidents in the German capital seem on the rise.

In one incident early on Sunday, shots were fired at a hairdressing salon in the Marzahn-Hellersdorf district in the city's northeast, while a gunshot hole was also found at a nearby nightclub, a police spokeswoman said.

She said no one was injured.

That was, however, not the case with another shooting incident in Kreuzberg on Friday evening.

There, a 22-year-old man was shot and injured by an assailant, who fled the scene.

Homicide squad officers are investigating possible links to previous shooting incidents in the area.

Last year, Berlin police set up the Ferrum specialist unit to investigate gun crime.

German national kidnapped in Niger freed — Algeria

Algeria said on Saturday that a German citizen kidnapped by an armed criminal group some two weeks ago in neighboring Niger was safe and in the hands of the Algerian military.

The German national was taken in charge by the Algerian army's security services on Friday, according to a statement from the Defense Ministry shared on the official Algerian news agency.

He has now been taken on a special flight from Guezzam in the far south to the Boufarik military base near the capital Algiers, it said, adding that he was in "good health" and would be handed to German authorities "at a later date."

No details were provided on how the German national was freed.

A spokesperson for the German Foreign Ministry told DW it was aware of the case, but added that the government "does not comment on cases involving the abduction of German citizens abroad."

Niger, which has been under military rule since a July 2023 coup, has in the past few years been wracked by violence from jihadis linked to the al-Qaeda or the "Islamic State" (IS) terrorist groups.

Trucks underway in several states as Sunday motorway ban lifted

Several states have lifted a rule banning most trucks from using motorways on Sundays and public holidays in view of the low river water levels currently hampering cargo vessels.

The DPA news agency reported that a number of trucks have already been sighted on motorways in the western state of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW).

The NRW transport minister, Oliver Krischer, said that "this exceptional regulation allows us to ensure that delivery chains are maintained and supply shortages are avoided."

Industrial associations have welcomed the lifting of the truck ban.

But one of Germany's main unions, Verdi, has criticized the move.

"This measure comes at the cost of employees in the transport and logistics branch and calls into question the legal protection of Sundays and public holidays as days of rest and recreation," said Uwe Köpke, who heads the union's postal services, freight forwarding and logistics department.

Lower Saxony, Rhineland-Palatinate and Saarland are so far the only other states to have lifted the ban as one of the measures announced by Transport Minister Steffen Bilger last week to mitigate the economic effect of the cargo shipping shortfalls.

In NRW and Lower Saxony, the suspension of the ban is to run initially until August 31, and in Rhineland-Palatinate and Saarland until September 30 at the latest.

In NRW, all trucks will also be able to use the motorways on Saturdays during the day in the current summer holidays as an exemption to an existing regulation.

Germany's trade deficit with China grows in first half of 2026

New preliminary data released on Sunday has shown that German exports to China fell more than 12% year-on-year from January through June. German imports from China rose 8.9%.

That raises the trade deficit to about €55 billion ($63.6 billion) from €40 billion for the same period in 2025.

The data from the state-run agency Germany Trade & Invest (GTAI) reflects the decreasing reliance by Chinese firms on European imports.

They show that although China remains Germany's top trading partner, the Asian powerhouse is now only the ninth-biggest market for German goods, with far smaller economies like Austria and Switzerland buying more from Germany in 2026.

As recently as 2021, China was Germany's second-biggest export market.

The US remains Germany's single-biggest foreign market, despite a drop in German exports there amid protectionist tariffs introduced under President Donald Trump.

Rheinmetall's Papperger says he's not 'chickening out' amid threats

The CEO of arms giant Rheinmetall, Armin Papperger, has said he will not be intimidated despite the many threats that have been made to his safety.

"These jobs must be done, and anyone that can't take the pressure doesn't belong in this job," he told the DPA news agency, saying "chickening out" was no option in his field.

Pappberger, 63, who is believed to be a possible target of Russian murder plots, is under constant police protection at a level similar to that given to Chancellor Friedrich Merz.

Rheinmetall is supplying large quantities of weapons to Ukraine amid the Russian invasion, potentially putting the company in Moscow's crosshairs.

Germany's domestic intelligence services recently called on employees in the defense sector to be very vigilant amid the threat of espionage and sabotage by Russian state agencies.

Dobrindt announces stepped-up drone security research amid 'arms race'

Germany is establishing a new drone security research facility as it seeks to counter a growing threat from UAVs that are possibly under foreign control, Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt has told Sunday's edition of the Bild tabloid.

"The arms race in drone technology requires dedicated research units to keep pace," he said.

He said the new center, to be established on August 18 at a German Aerospace Center (DLR) test airport in the eastern state of Saxony-Anhalt, would develop and test technologies to protect against drones.

His remarks come after a number of incidents involving drones in the past week raised security concerns.

You can read more on Dobrindt's statements on security here.

Welcome back

The DW newsroom in Bonn says a warm guten Morgen to its readers as we resume our coverage of all things German on Sunday.

Concerns about national security amid a myriad of threats are featuring largely in today's headlines, with, for example, the interior minister warning of hybrid warfare after several drone incidents.

Some of those threats even target particular people, as the CEO of arms giant Rheinmetall, Armin Papperger, is experiencing.

And nature itself is also posing a security challenge, with the lack of water in the Rhine and other rivers having a widening impact on the economy and beyond.

Read on for more on these and other stories.

We are pausing our coverage

We are pausing our coverage as the clock is about to strike midnight here in Bonn. Join us again on Sunday, when we will update this blog with the latest news from Germany.

WATCH: CDU's Saxony-Anhalt candidate warns against AfD taking power

Sven Schulze, state premier and the CDU's candidate in the upcoming regional election in Saxony-Anhalt has slammed the AfD for its xenophobia, and underscored his state's reliance on exports and foreign workers.

WATCH: Why low Rhine water levels are a growing risk for Germany

Germany's most important river is running low unusually early in the year.

Ships are still moving on the Rhine, but falling water levels are forcing many to carry lighter loads. Professor Kerstin Stahl, a hydrologist at the University of Freiburg, explains what is driving the drought and why the consequences reach far beyond shipping.

Thousands call for Merz resignation, new elections at protest in eastern Germany

Some 10,000 people protested in the eastern German city of Plauen to call for Chancellor Friedrich Merz's resignation and for new elections to be held immediately.

While the "Unity for Germany" protest was officially independent of political parties, a local pro-democracy group warned that some of the rally's organizers are right-wing extremists.

"The event is being promoted by relevant far-right channels; on Facebook, the comments on the demonstration contain hateful remarks, and the calls to action spread antisemitic and ethno-nationalist narratives," the Alliance for Democracy, Tolerance and Civil Courage said.

Apart from the government's resignation and new elections, the protesters' 11 demands also include:

• The immediate deportation of 'all convicted, criminal and illegal migrants'

• Lower energy prices

• A cheaper nationwide monthly travel pass, for €29 ($33.50)

• Reform to public service broadcasting

• Scrapping the carbon dioxide tax

• Introducing a direct democracy model like in Switzerland

The protesters also chanted "We are the people," the slogan that was used at pro-democracy rallies during the peaceful revolution of 1989 in East Germany that preceded the end of the former German Democratic Republic.

Many German national flags, as well as banners of the historical Kingdom of Saxony — often used by the far-right Free Saxons party — were seen at the rally, as were blue peace flags with white doves, the German news agency dpa reported.

Demonstrations in Germany call for ban on far-right parties

Around 800 people demonstrated in Berlin, calling for the Federal Constitutional Court to review political parties suspected of right-wing extremism.

Eleven such demonstrations were planned across Germany on Saturday. The "Prüf," which translates to "check" or "examine," initiative, founded by activist Nico Semsrott, is behind the rallies.

Citing a legal opinion published in late June by the Society for Civil Rights that declared the Alternative for Germany (AfD) party unconstitutional, speakers called for a corresponding review by the Federal Constitutional Court in Karlsruhe.

Many of the demonstrators' posters bore the slogan, "Examine today — protect tomorrow."

However, the Bundestag, the Bundesrat, or the federal government must file a motion to ban the party in order to initiate such a review.

In early May 2025, the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution classified the AfD as a "confirmed far-right extremist movement," but suspended the designation after a legal challenge.

In February, a Cologne court said the agency can’t use the designation while the court evaluates the party’s lawsuit.

The AfD vehemently rejects accusations of extremism.

German tour bus overturns in Norway, injuring several passengers

Several people were injured after a German tour bus overturned in Norway, Norwegian public broadcaster NRK reported, citing police sources.

According to the report, some 34 German tourists were on board.

Several passengers sustained minor injuries in the incident, while four were taken to hospital.

The bus was traveling to the Trondelag region of central Norway.

The bus reportedly overturned on a bend of the E6 highway and ended up lying on its side in the grass beside the road.

The cause of the accident was initially unclear.

According to NRK, no other vehicle was involved.