Germany news: Explosive devices found near power plant

Police say they found unconventional explosive and incendiary devices near the Jänschwalde power plant in Brandenburg. Meanwhile, Germany's top diplomat says Algeria could become an important supplier of gas.

Police say they have found explosive devices near a power plant in Brandenburg

Germany's Foreign Minister Wadephul in Algeria for talks on renewable energy and gas

Wadephul stressed the need to "diversify" energy sources, describing Algeria as a "reliable partner"

The top diplomat also vowed a measured response to an attempted drone attack at Leipzig airport last month

IG Metall union chief says Volkswagen is making a "big mistake" by mulling further job cuts and plant closures

Welcome to our roundup of news and analysis from and concerning Germany on Tuesday, September 1.

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Officials: 'attempted attack' on power grid outside of Berlin

German authorities have released more details about a suspected attack on an electric power station in the eastern German state of Brandenburg.

Police found several homemade explosive devices near the electrical substation in Turnow-Preilack, southeast of Berlin. Local network operator 50Hertz described the devices as small rockets resembling New Year’s Eve fireworks.

Some of the devices had been launched while others were found unexploded, the operator said. There was a brief power cut, but all power ‌lines are back in operation

The Turnow-Preilack substation is where the electricity from the Jänschwalde power plant is distributed across the region.

Brandenburg State Premier Dietmar Woidke called it an "attempted attack" and condemned the act. "The worryingly high frequency of such incidents shows that we must decisively protect our infrastructure," he said.

The suspected sabotage follows a series of recent strikes on the power grid around Berlin.

In January, an arson attack by suspected far-left extremists on power lines in left 45,000 households in the German capital without electricity for days.

In March 2024, another group targeted an electricity pylon, cutting power to a Tesla factory outside of Berlin.

Germany's Antonio Rüdiger retires from international football

German central defender Antonio Rüdiger has announced his retirement from international football, saying he wanted to "clear the path for the younger generation" after the 2026 World Cup exit.

"When I first wore the German jersey in 2014, even in my dreams I couldn't have pictured going on to play 86 national team games," Rüdiger said in a post on Instagram.

"Even though the big prizes eluded us in recent competitions and we had to stomach some painful defeats, this was still an extremely special chapter for me that will have a lasting impact," Rüdiger said.

The 33-year-old Real Madrid defender, who rose the ranks with Stuttgart and also had spells with Roma and Chelsea, was extremely unfortunate with the timing of his Germany career.

He made his debut in May 2014 in the preparations for what would become Germany's fourth World Cup win, but narrowly missed the cut for the tournament proper that summer.

Over the next 12 years he established himself as a regular in the squad and then in the starting 11. But this coincided with a dry spell where the German team only won the 2017 Confederations Cup and endured three consecutive early World Cup exits — twice in the group stages and most recently in the first knockout round against Paraguay this summer.

Berlin Pride memorial bench destroyed

A bench meant to commemorate the deadly Berlin Pride attack has been destroyed, authorities said.

The rainbow bench at the site of the July 25 attack has been vandalized "with considerable physical force," local police said.

Berlin's queer commissioner, Alfonso Pantisano, said he was shocked after seeing photos of the damage.

The original attack occurred when a 21-year-old Islamist extremist drove a van into a crowd at the Berlin Pride event and then attacked people with a machete.

One woman from Poland was killed, and 31 others were injured, some seriously, before police fatally shot the attacker the following day.

The bench was placed next to a newly planted tree that replaced one destroyed during the attack.

Local authorities have said it will be rebuilt and have filed a criminal complaint against unknown perpetrators.

Germany reviews Berlin Pride attack security failures

Prosecutors charge 2 suspected members of German right-wing terror group

The Federal Public Prosecutor's Office has brought charges against two suspected members of the violent far-right Last Wave of Defence group for planning to set fire to an asylum seekers' facility.

The pair are accused of traveling to the accommodation center in Schmölln in central Germany in January 2025 with the intention of setting it on fire. They allegedly smashed windows but failed to set the building alight.

The two suspects, aged 16 and 17 at the time of the incident, were arrested at the end of June.

They have been charged with aiding and abetting attempted murder, attempted arson resulting in death, and attempted aggravated arson.

The Thuringia Higher Regional Court in Jena must now decide whether they will stand trial.

According to the prosecutor's office, one of the two is currently being held in pre-trial detention.

Last month, a court in Hamburg sentenced seven young members of the terror group to prison terms ranging from one and a half to five years.

Merz: No coalition, but some kind of interplay with Left Party possible in Saxony-Anhalt

Chancellor Friedrich Merz has expanded on how he hopes a CDU-led coalition — presumably without a clear majority — could still govern in Saxony-Anhalt after Sunday's elections.

Polls suggest the right-wing populist Alternative for Germany (AfD) will be by far the largest party, with the CDU a distant second, and the socialist Left Party (die Linke) next in line.

Given that the CDU refuses to join a coalition or formally "work together" with either the AfD on the right or the Left Party, this could make establishing a functioning government extremely challenging.

"With both the AfD and the Left there are such fundamental differences to the [Christian Democratic] Union, that direct cooperation is out of the question," Merz told the local Mitteldeutsche Zeitung and Magdeburger Volksstimme newspapers on Tuesday.

But Merz said that some kind of CDU-led minority government operating with support from individuals in the Left Party on a policy-by-policy basis had proven viable in other states.

"We see how it's possible to govern in Thuringia and Saxony," he said of two other eastern states where the AfD is either the strongest single party, or a close and influential second.

"But it needs to be clear that there are limits," Merz added, saying he felt these limits lay in holding Cabinet positions and formulating government policy.

Can this also work in Saxony-Anhalt?

Numerically, the parliamentary arithmetic could be more problematic in Saxony-Anhalt than any other state to date, at least based on the opinion polls prior to Sunday's vote.

In Thuringia the CDU-led government only needs to convince one opposition politician of a policy to command a majority. In Saxony, that figure rises to 10 but there are more oppositon parties to try to woo.

Depending on Sunday's results, it's conceivable that a CDU-led minority government without the AfD or the Left Party could command fewer than 40% of the seats, or fewer still if the Greens fail to clear the 5% hurdle and enter parliament. And it would likely only have one party, the Left, to try to win over, assuming it planned to continue to exclude the AfD.

Prior to the vote, the Left in Saxony-Anhalt have said their condition would be having a more direct say on policy plans. How both sides might define this, and what compromises they might be willing to entertain once the results are in on Sunday night, remains unclear for now.

Explosive devices discovered at substation in eastern Germany

Police have found several explosive devices near the Jänschwalde power station in the eastern German state of Brandenburg, according to media reports on Tuesday.

The devices were discovered at an electrical substation in Turnow-Preilack, southeast of Berlin, after potential damage to a power line was detected at around 8 a.m. on Tuesday, police said.

"Evidence is being secured," a police spokeswoman said. "Bomb disposal experts are on site."

Police added that there was no immediate danger to the public and that no one was hurt.

The Brandenburg state criminal ⁠police office ​has taken over the investigation of the incident.

Grid operator 50Hertz said "as yet unidentified perpetrators are believed to ​have caused damage to several power ​lines" in the transmission grid.

It added that there was a brief ‌power ​cut but all power lines were back in operation and the general electricity supply ​was never affected.

Further details were not immediately available.

The apparent attempted attack comes after several incidents targeting power supply in the greater Berlin area.

In January, suspected far-left extremists set fire to high-voltage power lines near a power station in southwest Berlin, causing power cuts to 45,000 homes.

In March 2024, a group set fire to a large electricity pylon needed to supply the Tesla factory in Grünheide near Berlin. That caused a halt in production for several days.

German part-time jobs reach record high

The share of part-time workers in Germany reached a new high of 40.3% in the second quarter, according to analysis by the Institute for Employment Research (IAB).

The number of part-time workers increased 0.5% compared to the same period last year, to 16.936 million. At the same time, the number of full-time workers fell by 0.9% to 25.138 million.

The IAB named two reasons for the trend.

It said there had been employment growth in sectors with a high proportion of part-time work, such as health care and teaching. It also cited job cuts in sectors dominated by full-time work, such as manufacturing.

"The economy has recently stabilized, so the working hours of employees are rising slightly again," said the IAB's Enzo Weber. "But the crisis-hit manufacturing sector is losing many full-time jobs, meaning that overall fewer hours were worked."

The average weekly working hours for full-time employees remained constant at 38.32 hours in the second quarter. For part-time workers, it rose slightly to 18.88 hours.

Labor shortage: The coming push for Europeans to work more

Germany to officially blame Russia for attempted drone attack: media reports

The German government reportedly believes a Russian intelligence service was behind an attempted drone attack at Leipzig airport last month.

Various German media reports citing unnamed sources said Berlin would announce the details of its investigation into the incident, including the finding that Moscow was responsible, later on Tuesday.

The government has not commented on the reports, but Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul and Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt are scheduled to give a press conference on the matter in the German capital later this afternoon.

Following the discovery of an explosives-laden drone near a Ukrainian cargo plane at Leipzig airport on August 4, Berlin referred to a "hybrid attack" and said only that "foreign powers" could be involved. Some lawmakers pointed the finger at Russia, but the government stopped short of identifying a culprit.

Media outlets also reported on Tuesday that the German government was preparing countermeasures against Moscow as part of its response. According to Spiegel, those measures could include the expulsion of Russian diplomats and the closure of Russia's consulate in Bonn.

German union slams Volkswagen CEO over potential plant closures

The head of the IG Metall union has warned Volkswagen's management it is making a "big mistake" by considering further layoffs and possible plant closures.

Volkswagen is already planning to cut 50,000 jobs by 2030, but the management has said more savings are needed, with the future of several factories uncertain.

In comments published in the Augsburger Allgemeine newspaper on Tuesday, union chief Christiane Benner said she would oppose any closure of the carmaker's plants in Emden, Zwickau, Hanover or Audi's Neckarsulm site at an upcoming supervisory board meeting on the cost-cutting plans.

"It is a big mistake by Volkswagen management to put the plants in Emden, Zwickau, Hanover and Neckarsulm at risk of closure, seek to cut another 50,000 jobs and at the same time announce that the operating margin must rise from 3.8% most recently to 8%-10% by 2030," Benner said.

She added that the company was required to honor commitments made to workers under an agreement reached in 2024.

Around 30,000 jobs depend on the Emden plant in northern Germany, Benner said, while the Zwickau site is particularly important for eastern Germany.

She argued there was "plenty of time to develop prospects for both sites" and said announcements about further potential cost-cutting measures had only created confusion and u