The German Red Cross in the state of Brandenburg opened the largest and most advanced civil protection center in Germany to provide relief materials quickly, in preparation for natural disasters, power outages after sabotage attacks, or large waves of refugees. On Thursday (October 29, 2026) in the city of Luckenwalde, German Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt pointed to the increasing challenges in the field of civil protection and population protection with the increasing danger of hybrid war, stressing that the state cannot deal with it without the help of volunteers.
By storing large quantities of humanitarian aid, the German Red Cross Civil Protection Center is expected to play a pivotal role in national crisis preparedness, in addition to being able to quickly provide aid at the international level. The head of the German Red Cross, Hermann Grohe, told radio "rbb24": The civil and population protection capabilities in Germany are still "far below what is required," adding that the Red Cross therefore decided to take the initiative and prepare in advance.
Dobrindt said: "95 percent of the protection promise that the state offers to male and female citizens depends on the efforts of volunteer women and men who are committed to serving this country." He added, "The challenges are increasing, and we must support this politically by providing the necessary resources." He also pointed to the widespread power outage in southwest Berlin at the beginning of this year following an arson attack, as tens of thousands of families were forced to rely for days on backup electricity generators.
For his part, Brandenburg State Prime Minister Dietmar Woedke stressed during the opening ceremony that the center represents “a strong signal from the German Red Cross to proactive readiness and speed of response,” adding that “effective assistance begins with good preparation.”
The center was built on an area of 34,000 square meters in Luckenwalde, approximately the size of five football fields. Grohe said the site will include more than 120 vehicles and hundreds of tons of equipment, including large tents, blankets, field beds, medicines, first aid materials, supply equipment and emergency power generators. The aim is to enable the Red Cross, in crises such as the Ahr Valley floods, to provide support to up to five thousand people completely independently, as if it were a “small mobile town”.
This will be achieved through the “5000” mobile care unit, which includes hundreds of tents in addition to accompanying health and service facilities. The Red Cross explained that this unit can also be used "in cases of large population movements", such as refugee flows. It can also play the role of a "reception and reserve center" throughout Germany.
According to the Federal Office for Civil Protection and Disaster Assistance, the charitable organization "Union of Samaritan Workers/ASB" is also currently working on equipping a similar unit.
Grohe explained that the materials stored in the logistics center in Brandenburg can be transported inside containers “when needed, to airports or by trucks to disaster sites within the country,” noting that this also applies to international missions. He added: "We have a field hospital in Luckenwalde that should be able to reach any crisis area in the world within 72 hours if necessary." According to the Red Cross, this hospital can "provide medical care for about 250,000 people."
At the same time, the center in Luckenwalde will also be used as a training site for Red Cross personnel. This includes a training center with an area of 1,000 square meters, which includes a dedicated training kitchen, conference halls, and break rooms.
