Germany news: Berlin officially withdraws Olympics bid

The withdrawal follows the victory of the socialist Left Party in Berlin's electionsImage: Fabrice Coffrini/AFP via Getty ImagesAdvertisementSkip next section What you need to knowWhat you need to know Berlin has confirmed reports that it is withdrawing its bid to host the Summer Olympics and Paralympics. Lawmakers debate whether to introduce an opt-out scheme for organ donation The Bundestag will also examine government proposals to grant intelligence agencies a wider scope to counter manifold security threats German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul has warned of Russia's growing aggression against Europe The first-ever Islamic theology faculty in Germany is to open in Münster Here is a roundup of the top news stories from and about Germany on Thursday, September 24, 2026:

The socialist Left Party won the Berlin election partly on the promise to implement the city's 2021 expropriation referendum to address the city's rent crisis. But can it really happen?

Find out in this article by DW's Ben Knight. 

The monthly business climate index put out by the Ifo economic research institute has risen 1.1 points to 89.9 points, the highest level in more than three years.

The index, Germany's most important economic barometer, has been rising constantly over the past five months, indicating that the country is slowly returning to economic health after years of struggle.

The business optimism comes despite an energy price ​shock that has pushed fuel costs to record highs.

"The German economy continues its recovery," said Ifo president Clemens Fuest.

The ​gauge of business expectations accompanying the index rose to 90.4 ​from 89.1 in August, while companies also gave a rosier assessment of their current situation than the month before, improving to 89.5 to 88.5 points.

Ifo said, however, that the automotive sector was still in "difficult terrain."  

The index is based on a monthly survey of 9,000 companies.

The news from Ifo comes as ​the country's five leading economic institutes presented a joint fall forecast raising 2026 GDP growth expectations to 1.3% from ⁠0.6%.

German prosecutors said on Thursday that they were investigating a 105-year-old man over crimes that might have been committed during his alleged time as a guard at a Nazi prisoner-of-war camp during World War II.

In a statement seen by the AFP news agency, they said the man was "thought to have been a guard at the prisoner-of-war camp Stalag 326 VI K" in the Senne region of western Germany.

 The man is "accused of being an accessory to multiple murders through his activities there," the statement said.

The Stalag 326 VI K camp held between 180,000 and 200,000 Soviet prisoners of war between 1941 and April 1945, when it was liberated by US troops, according to the memorial at the site.

Some 30,000 Soviet POWs are believed to have died at the camp.

The age of the suspect is a reminder that time is running out to prosecute people who committed crimes as part of Germany's Nazi regime.

In April 2025,  for example, an alleged former guard at the Sachsenhausen concentration camp near Berlin died before he could face trial on charges of complicity in the murder of more than 3,300 people.

Berlin has confirmed reports that it is withdrawing its bid to host the Summer Olympics and Paralympics.

The decision means that only Munich and the western Rhine/Ruhr region are still in the running as potential hosts, with Hamburg having pulled out in May after failing to win support at a referendum. 

The withdrawal comes after the socialist Left Party's victory in Berlin's elections on Sunday. The party's lead candidate and potential mayor, Elif Eralp, said she did not support Berlin's bid.

The current mayor, Kai Wegner of the conservative Christian Democrats (CDU), told reporters: "Today is a sad day for Berlin, because the Olympic and Paralympic Games would have been a tremendous opportunity."

"When Ms. Eralp stated that the bid was effectively off the table ... the leading sports associations made it clear: We cannot give you our approval under these circumstances," he said, adding:  "I deeply regret this."

Kaweh Niroomand, the volleyball manager who led the Berlin bid, said, "We simply could not offer the political stability required."

On Saturday, the German Olympic Committee (DOSB) is to choose a preferred region as part of a bid to the International Olympic Committee to host one of the 2036, 2040 and 2044 Summer Games. 

The Summer Olympics have been held twice on German soil.

Berlin hosted the Games in 1936 in then Nazi-ruled Germany and Munich, then as part of West Germany, was the site of the 1972 Games.

Economic experts predicted on Thursday that German GDP will double to 1.3% this year. They also warned of difficulties ahead. 

The German parliament has held its first debate on government plans to give intelligence agencies more power as national security is threatened by new dangers at home and from abroad.

Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt told parliamentarians that the planned reforms would turn Germany's intelligence agencies — the BND (Bundesnachrichtendienst), in charge of international intelligence, and the BfV (Bundesamt für Verfassungschutz), responsible for domestic intelligence — into "true secret services."

He said the agencies would no longer just gather information on threats but be equipped to provide "real defense against dangers, attacks and terror."

Under the plans, the agencies would receive more power to collect, save and automatically evaluate data, as well as permission to react to sabotage or hacking attacks with counterattacks.

Various parliamentarians voiced concerns about the reform's implications in what was sometimes a heated discussion.

Konstantin von Notz from the Green Party said he recognized the need to "update" the powers of the agencies in view of the growing threat from Russia.

But, he said, "the excessive plans for domestic intelligence activities" needed to be trimmed or the the reforms would not survive an appeal to the Constitutional Court.

He said the government needed to take the interests of people professionally entrusted with confidential information much more into consideration, especially psychotherapists.

Clara Bünger of the socialist Left Party accused the government of breaking down the distinction between intelligence agencies and the police that had been a lesson learned "from the crimes of the German fascists."

The far-right politician Gottfried Curio from the Alternative for Germany (AfD) party was strongest in his criticism, saying the government wanted to create a "Stasi 2.0," a reference to the secret service in former communist East Germany.   

The reforms would bring about "more than a total surveillance state," he said. 

The Bundestag will discuss two separate cross-party proposals on Thursday to increase the number of human organs donated for often life-saving transplant operations.

One proposal upholds Germany's current system, under which people who wish to donate organs must actively give permission.

Advocates of the proposal say that the shortfall of donated organs can be remedied by campaigns calling on adults to take part and making it easier to register the desire to donate.

The other proposal calls for an opt-out scheme under which organs can be removed postmortem from anyone who has not expressly rejected being an organ donor.

Backers of this proposal say that although surveys show that most people in Germany are willing to donate their organs, very few actually document this wish.

They also cite statistics showing that countries with opt-out schemes have more donations, with Germany lagging behind in international comparisons.

Altogether 254 of the 630 members of the Bundestag have signed on to the opt-out scheme, and 58 have backed the first proposal to maintain the current national system.

The Bundestag last voted on the issue in 2020, with a majority supporting the opt-in model, even though an opt-out proposal had more signees then, too.

France, Spain and the Netherlands are examples of European countries that have opt-out models in place.

The DW newsroom in Bonn says guten Tag and willkommen to its readers around the world!

You join our coverage as the German parliament is set to revisit a debate on organ donations: Should an opt-out scheme replace the current opt-in one in view of the dwindling supply?

Parliamentarians will also be looking at goverment proposals to give more powers to the country's intelligence agencies to enable them to cope with the current myriad of security threats.

And the university in Münster is to open a faculty of Islamic theology — the first in the country — that will have an equal status with the Catholic and Protestant faculties there. 

All this comes amid a bit of good news for the German economy, which experts say will grow twice as much this year as previously forecast.

Read on for more on these and other stories.