What you need to know
- DB's Evelyn Palla sets 2035 as goal for completing major reforms within railway company
- Pride events are taking place in several German cities a week after a deadly attack on a Pride march in Berlin
- Authorities warn of holiday traffic disruption in Germany amid the two-hour closure of a key pass road in Austria
- A forest fire is burning out of control in the Upper Palatinate region of Bavaria, with four firefighters so far injured in the blaze
Here is a round-up of some of the main stories from and about Germany hitting the headlines on the weekend of August 1-2.
Deutsche Bahn chief Evelyn Palla blasts 'organized irresponsibility' in the company
The culture inside Germany's Deutsche Bahn (DB) is already shifting but the current crisis will take years to overcome, the head of the national railway company told Germany's Welt am Sonntag.
CEO Evelyn Palla criticized the old decision-making process in DB, saying that the central management often made big decisions on the operative level.
"The people in the headquarters, who made those decisions, don't have any responsibility for implementing them in the field," Palla said. "They have to be implemented by colleagues who are out there. But they say 'I didn't make this call, and it also doesn't work for me.' Then the headquarters says 'I have no operational responsibility, those people in the field did not implement [the decision] properly.' In the end it was something like organized irresponsibility."
She told the paper that much has been "reformed" and "slimmed down" since she took the reins of the state-owned firm last October, and that multiple administration levels inside DB had been cut.
"But all of that does not make for a better (Deutsche) Bahn," she added. "Things will only change when the management changes, when decentralized units take responsibility and live with it."
In the interview published on Sunday, she also said that the German railway network was "run into the ground by 25 years of saving money" and that tangible improvements will take time.
She pointed to DB's 200-year anniversary coming in 2035, saying that "this should be the year when the worst is behind us."
We are resuming our coverage
Welcome back to our coverage of top news stories from Germany on this early August weekend.
On Sunday, Berlin is preparing for an anti-Islamist march in response to the deadly terror attack which shook Germany to the core a week ago.
In Bavaria, some 1,800 brass musicians are hoping to break the record for the world's longest concert as they near the end of the unprecedented 72-hour live performance.
And Evelyn Palla, the head of Germany Deutsche Bahn, is decrying "organized irresponsibility" inside the troubled railway company.
We will be bringing you more on these and other stories from Germany in this live blog.
We've paused coverage
Thank you for reading the weekend edition of our blog about Germany and be sure to check in on Sunday morning to stay up to date with the latest headlines out of the country.
WATCH — Hamburg Pride draws 300,000 after Berlin terror attack
Hamburg's Pride parade went ahead under heightened security, one week after a 21-year-old drove a van into crowds at Berlin Pride. The attack killed one person and injured 29 others.
IN DEPTH: Germany widens deportations to Afghanistan
Earlier this week, Germany for the first time deported a man with no criminal record to Kabul.
This set a precedent that sparked vociferous protests: 260 people heeded the call of an anti-racism alliance and came to demonstrate inside the airport's departure hall, accompanied by a police escort.
Klingbeil urges for solidarity with Spain over Ceuta border breach
German Vice Chancellor and Finance Minister Lars Klingbeil on Saturday called on Europeans to stand by Spain amid the debate over the surge of migrants into Ceuta.
Footage showing tens of thousands of migrants crossing into Spain's North African exclave of Ceuta raised concerns across the European Union.
"Migrants were used in an attempt to divide Europe," Klingbeil said.
He noted that Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez had restored control quickly and that most migrants who entered Ceuta had already returned to Morocco.
"Especially in situations like these, Europe must not allow itself to be divided," Klingbeil said.
Klingbeil's comments come after Italy officially suspended the Schengen agreement with Spain for one month in response to the mass crossing in Ceuta.
Popular German national park closed after storm leaves 1 dead
A popular park in eastern Germany was closed to visitors on Saturday after a storm caused damage and left one person dead overnight.
A 38-year-old man was killed on Friday evening near the Felsenbühne open-air theater in Rathen when he was struck by a falling tree.
Ten other people were injured, three of them seriously, while 40 people were evacuated.
Emergency crews resumed clean-up operations on Saturday.
Authorities closed the area between the Bastei rock formation, the villages of Rathen and Hohnstein, and the Polenztal valley, citing ongoing safety risks for visitors.
IN DEPTH: Germany weighs the future of minijobs
When Anahita Abdollahi starts her shift, she first checks her emails to make sure she's up to date on all the library requests.
The 26-year-old master's student from Iran describes her job as a "part-time librarian" — she helps people find books they need for their studies, answers phone calls, and waters the plants.
This type of employment is known in Germany as a "minijob," a system that allows millions of workers, including students, to avoid paying income tax or social security contributions.
WATCH: German development aid: Is soft power in decline?
German funding for projects abroad is falling. So is public support.
Nearly 8 in ten Germans say they are proud of supporting poorer countries. But only around 2 in ten say they understand what German development aid is actually trying to achieve.
In Argentina, young musicians show what that money can achieve.
Hamburg Pride returns with increased security a week after Berlin attack
Hundreds of thousands of people on Saturday gathered in the northern German port city of Hamburg for its annual Pride parade, one of Germany's biggest, one week after a deadly Islamist terrorist attack on Berlin Pride.
Among dozens of trucks marching through the center of Germany's second-biggest city was one representing Berlin's Pride event — known in Germany as Christopher Street Day or CSD for short.
Participants on the truck were asked to wear dark clothing in tribute to the victims of last week's attack.
"After the brutal attack on the CSD in Berlin, many are unsure in the queer community but also in society whether here and today is the right place," Hamburg's deputy mayor, Katharina Fegebank, told RTL television. "I say, now more than ever."
Both police and march organizers said the turnout was about 300,000 people.
Pride events also took place in Bonn and other cities across Germany.
Rhine River hits record low in North Rhine-Westphalia
The river Rhine, one of the most important waterways in Germany, reached a historic low in the western state of North Rhine-Westphalia on Saturday, authorities said.
Just 68 cm (26.77 inches) were measured at the gauge point in the city of Cologne, one centimeter below the previous record low of October 23, 2018.
The mean level at the gauge point ranges from 297 cm to 348 cm.
Gauge readings do not give the river's actual depth but rather the height of water above a given baseline. The shipping industry uses them to calculate what weights vessels using the waterway can carry.
The sinking water level comes as Germany, along with other parts of Europe, experiences low rainfall coupled with bouts of high summer temperatures that scientists say are a result of human-induced climate change.
The Rhine is an important route for commercial shipping and is used to transport commodities such as grains, minerals, ores, coal and oil products.
A drought in 2022 that reduced water levels in the river caused supply bottlenecks and production problems affecting several companies.
Forest fire breaks out in Bavaria
Some 330 emergency personnel have been deployed to fight a forest fire that broke out on Friday near Freudenberg in the Upper Palatinate region of Bavaria.
The fire is burning out of control in difficult terrain amid strong winds, local authorities said, with a thunderstorm hampering firefighting operations.
Four firefighters have been injured while battling the flames, local authorities said on Saturday.
People have been warned to avoid the area, while authorities have advised residents to keep windows and doors closed, turn off air conditioning and ventilation systems and follow local radio for further information.
Europe as a whole has seen several major blazes so far this seasonas human-induced climate change increasingly produces conditions conducive to their ignition.
Train punctuality still 'not good' in first half of 2026 — DB head
Just 58.7% of Germany's long-distance trains arrived on time at their destination in the first half of the year, with the head of national rail operator Deutsche Bahn (DB) conceding that there was much room for improvement.
"That is not a good figure. There's no point trying to gloss over it," Evelyn Palla told the Sunday edition of the Welt newspaper.
However, Palla, who took over as head of DB in October 2025, said the delay was less than 15 minutes in three-quarters of the cases.
"Even though we are not yet satisfied overall, we should not make Deutsche Bahn out to be worse than it is," she said.
DB considers a long-distance train delayed if it arrives at least six minutes late, with canceled trains included in the company's operational punctuality statistics.
Palla had set a punctuality target of at least 60% for this year and has worked to streamline the company by cutting several management positions, among other things.
DB has also begun to overhaul key lines as it seeks to improve its services, which have long been the object of criticism from those who rely on them.
Storms leave 1 dead in Saxony, cause disruption in Hamburg
A severe storm has hit the Saxon Switzerland region in the eastern state of Saxony, with a 28-year-old man killed by a falling tree, police said on Friday.
A number of other people were also injured, some seriously, amid the bad weather, they said.
The fatality occurred near the Felsenbühne open-air theater in the town of Rathen on Friday evening.
A performance of the musical "Little Shop of Horrors" at the theater, one of the largest open-air theaters in Saxony, was cancelled.
Parts of the Saxon Switzerland national park was closed to visitors on Saturday, with authorities saying there was still a risk from falling trees.
Germany's national meteorological service, the DWD, had issued warnings about severe thunderstorms for large parts of Saxony, saying there could be possible lightning strikes, falling trees and flying debris.
Meanwhile, a severe storm also swept the northern port city of Hamburg on Friday evening, with the fire brigade responding to almost 100 call-outs.
Most were water-related incidents.
No injuries were reported amid the storm, which was reported to have particularly affected the southern and northern outskirts of the city.
Traffic disruption expected as Austrian pass road blocked
Austria's Fern Pass road is to be closed for some two hours on Saturday morning amid a demonstration, with authorities warning of delays to holiday traffic as vacations get underway in Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg.
The road is a key north-south transit route linking Germany, Austria and Italy.
Protesters are demonstrating not only at the volume of traffic on the route but also against a planned tunnel intended to replace the most difficult section of the road.
They say the project will only attract more traffic.
The nearby Hahntennjoch Pass will also be temporarily closed amid the protest, which is expected to be attended by hundreds of people.
The Fern Pass, which reaches an elevation of 1,212 meters (almost 4,000 feet), carries more traffic than almost any other pass in the eastern Alps, second only to the Brenner Pass.