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Germany news: Summer was 2nd hottest of the century
Germany's DWD weather service says the summer was second only to 2003 in terms of average temperatures. It was also unusually dry. In Cologne, police are seeking a man who fired shots at a cafe storefront.
https://p.dw.com/p/5JfNF Advertisement Skip next section What you need to know What you need to know Average summer temperature of 19.6 Celsius is second only to 2003 figures, Germany's DWD weather service says Cologne police investigate early-morning shooting of empty cafe in south of city center Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul is visiting Tunisia and Algeria Hamburg's new, larger Sternbrücke rail bridge opens for business, replacing a predecessor from 1926 Chancellor Merz warns an AfD government would damage Saxony-Anhalt, with vote on Sunday This blog is now closed.
Welcome to our roundup of news and analysis from and concerning Germany on Monday, August 31.
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09/01/2026 September 1, 2026 Thank you for reading Wesley Dockery Editor Thank you for reading. We'll be back with more German updates on Tuesday. Tschüss!
08/31/2026 August 31, 2026 G20: German finance minister 'irritated' by Russian invitation Wesley Dockery Editor German Finance Minister Lars Klingbeil said on Monday that he was "irritated" by the decision by the United States to invite his Russian counterpart Anton Siluanov to this week's G20 meeting in Asheville, North Carolina.
Klingbeil, who as leader of the center-left Social Democrats (SPD) is also Germany 's vice-chancellor, said he would have preferred the Americans "not to have welcomed [Siluanov] like a normal guest" given Russia's ongoing "brutal war" against Ukraine .
"There is no normal situation with Russia at the moment," he said, adding that he told Siluanov "directly to his face that the Russian government must end this war" and that Germany would continue to support Ukraine . "Receiving the Russian finance minister here sends a signal I find troubling."
Ahead of the meeting, Klingbeil said he made it clear to other European colleagues that he would not pose for a group photograph with the Russian minister and that he was "grateful" that they agreed.
At recent G20 meetings, which bring together 20 leading and developing industrial nations, the Russian finance minister has been represented by under-secretaries.
But this time, US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent sat down with Siluanov for bilateral talks during which Bessent advocated for President Donald Trump 's peace plan for Ukraine , according to a US official.
Asked about Siluanov's attendance, a White House spokesman told the AFP news agency that the Trump administration has been working with Moscow to push for a deal that "would stop the endless bloodshed that the president has really condemned."
"The president and the administration will never shy away from talking with the folks we need to talk to, to further that," he continued. "That's what we're working on here at the G20."
Klingbeil said he saw "no normalization or relaxation of the situation." He said Russia alone carries responsibility for ending the war, "not Russia and Ukraine."
08/31/2026 August 31, 2026 FDP leader: AfD in Saxony-Anhalt would not be 'collapse of democracy' The leader of Germany's Free Democrats (FDP) , the business-focused party which formed part of the previous federal government before falling short of the minimum 5% hurdle at the last federal election, has said he does not think an Alternative for Germany (AfD) state government in Saxony-Anhalt would be a threat to democracy.
"It would be bad but not a collapse of democracy were the AfD to govern in Saxony-Anhalt ," Wolfgang Kubicki told broadcaster ntv on Monday, insisting that even an AfD government would have to adhere to federal laws.
If necessary, he said, the federal government in Berlin could enforce this via " Bundeszwang" — or "federal obligation" — as stipulated by article 37 of the German constitution, or Basic Law .
Kubicki said this could be the case for certain aspects of the far-right AfD's election program, such as a promise to remove foreign doctors. "It's not as straightforward under the rule of law as the AfD thinks," he said. "Every court would block them immediately. Nothing to worry about."
Kubicki's FDP is currently the junior partner in the state government in Saxony-Anhalt, along with the conservative Christian Democrats (CDU) and the Social Democrats (SPD) , having won 6.4% of the votes at the last state election in 2021.
Ahead of Sunday's vote, however, the FDP is polling consistently below the minimum 5% hurdle and, as it stands, is unlikely to even make it into the state parliament ( Landtag ).
08/31/2026 August 31, 2026 Merz warns against anger experiments in Saxony-Anhalt German Chancellor Friedrich Merz has warned of the consequences of a far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) state government in Saxony-Anhalt, saying the eastern state "must not become an experiment for enraged citizens."
Merz was speaking in the town of Quedlinburg alongside current Saxony-Anhalt state premier Sven Schulze ahead of key state elections on Sunday. Schulze is also a member of Merz's conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU) but has tried to distance himself from the unpopular chancellor during the election campaign.
"Should a far-right populist party have an overall majority by Monday morning, international investors will think twice about investing in Saxony-Anhalt," Merz warned, repeating comments made in an interview on Sunday . "A lot rests on this election."
According to current polls, the AfD (40-42%) has a significant lead over the CDU in Saxony-Anhalt (22-23%), but Merz insisted that his conservative party would perform better than the surveys suggest.
"I am absolutely convinced that we will see a different result on Sunday than what we currently have in the polls," he said. "I want to win these voters for us. And if we've lost...
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