Deutschland auf der Suche nach Soldaten, Spione und Krankenschwestern

08/21/2025August 21, 2025

Cancelation of play portraying sexual abuse in Catholic Church sparks anger in Osnabrück

Mark Hallam

A former Bundestag parliamentarian was among the speakers at Thursday's demonstration outside Osnabrück's theaterImage: Detlef Heese/epd/IMAGO

Several dozen people protested outside Osnabrück Theater on Thursday, angered by the decision to cancel a play about sexual abuse in the Catholic Church. The play's title could translate as "Excellence Oedipus." 

Originally scheduled for the coming season, the play was canceled amid disagreements between the directors and theater officials. The two sides have offered conflicting narratives on the reasons for the play's removal.

A left-leaning former Bundestag lawmaker, Angela Marquardt, was among the speakers at Thursday's demonstration. She said that "societal discourse [about the responsibility for the abuse of children and young people] must not be impeded by limitations on artistic freedom." 

Actor Thomas Kienast said that "drama must be painful, when it's addressing important topics."

The play's director, Lorenz Nolting, also said that in his experience, Church officials had also been interested in assisting with the play and the performance, but added it was therefore regrettable that no Church representative attended Thursday's demonstration. 

Simon Kampe, the bishopric's ombudsman for those affected by sexual violence, said the diocese had started work on an accompanying program for the play and called the cancellation "regrettable." 

A former bishop of Osnabrück, Franz-Josef Bode, resigned over his handling of the fallout of the scandal in 2023.

08/21/2025August 21, 2025

German police record jump in child sexual abuse cases

Germany’s Federal Criminal Police (BKA) on Thursday released a new report documenting a spike in the number of child sexual abuse cases registered in 2024, recording more than 18,000. This statistic does not include unreported cases, meaning real numbers are likely far higher.

The BKA says the vast majority of those abused are girls (13,365 of 18,085).

BKA accounts show that most victims are familiar with their abusers, either through school, friends or family. Another statistic highlights the fact that abusers are often minors themselves, with roughly one-third of them under the age of 18. A shocking 12.1% were under the age of 14.

Youths were also involved in some 40% of all cases having to do with child pornography.

Most of the crimes recorded in the BKA report took place online, Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt said during the report’s presentation. Dobrindt alsopromised that Berlin would soon have a plan for tracking and archiving IP addresses tied to abuse.

Online sexual abuse often involves adults posing as peers to manipulate children or paying for livestreams of abuse.

08/21/2025August 21, 2025

Greenpeace says train travel more expensive than flying

The environmental organization Greenpeace released a report comparing the price of train and airplane travel across Europe and found that in 66 of 142 cases it looked at, environmentally friendly train travel was more expensive than flying.

Greenpeace found great discrepancies when it came to destination and distance; with train travel from Germany to Austria, Belgium, the Czech Republic and Poland being less expensive than air travel, but the opposite being true for France, Italy, Spain and the UK.

Greenpeace said that in 70% of the domestic routes it compared, train travel was cheaper, but that this was only the case in 39% of international routes.  

The study only compared prices and did not take into account extra fees charged by airlines for baggage, nor did it factor in early booking discounts afforded by train operators.

Although a majority of travelers cite easy accessibility and environmental friendliness as the reason they prefer train travel, poor punctuality and unreliable service have been a real Achilles' heel for German train operator Deutsche Bahn (DB).

Greenpeace transportation expert Lena Donat said Thursday, "Lots of people would prefer to head into vacation on a train, but lack of connections, complicated booking services and high prices keep them from doing so."

Greenpeace has called on European politicians to rectify the situation, which has slowly improved for train operators, by fostering more international train travel, easing the tax burden of train tickets and finally leveling "fair" taxes on flights.

Greenpeace claims that roughly 1% of the world's population is responsible for half of global plane exhaust emissions.

One bright spot in the report is the fact that trains have actually made up ground over the past couple of years. A 2023 study found that train travel was less expensive than plane travel only 27% of the time, whereas that number jumped to 41% in this most recent analysis.

08/21/2025August 21, 2025

German FM Wadephul recruiting nurses in Indonesia

German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul on Thursday was given a tour of a German language school in Indonesia as part of an effort to recruit specialized foreign workers from the southeast Asian archipelago.

Germany’s demographics are thus that its population is ageing, unlike Indonesia’s. The fourth most-populous nation in the world behind India, China and the US, Indonesia is also the world’s largest Muslim nation and half of its 284 million citizens are under the age of 30.

In the Indonesian capital Jakarta, Wadephul spoke with young Indonesians about their plans for the future while visiting a nursing school. Wadephul made the visit accompanied by Indonesian Health Minister Budi Gunadi Sadikin and Contanze Michel, director of the Goethe Institute Indonesia, which is responsible for coordinating language classes at the school.

Language hurdles have proven to be a significant barrier to would be immigrants from abroad. While in Indonesia, Wadephul signed contracts for the creation of four further language schools.

Germany is keenly interested in recruiting healthcare workers but Jakarta is pushing for recruits to other sectors, too, such as the hospitality sector.

Currently, however, only about 1,000 work visas are issued to Indonesians each year — Berlin says impediments to date have been lack of education, inadequate language skills and lack of German recognition of foreign training certificates and titles.

Wadephul will visit both Christian and Muslim houses of worship before concluding his trip, as well as touring a factory owned by German automobile and truck giant Daimler Truck AG.

08/21/2025August 21, 2025

BND, Bundeswehr recruiting gamers to fill ranks

Germany's Federal Intelligence Service (BND) and its military, the Bundeswehr, have both set up recruiting stands at the international gaming conference Gamescom, which opens to the general public Thursday in the western German city of Cologne.

BND spokeswoman Julia Linner says tech-savvy visitors are welcome to come to the agency's stand to play "BND Legends — Operation Blackbox," which sees players assume the identity of an undercover agent to foil a cyberattack. The game, which the BND plans to make available on a public platform, tests players' ability in a number of specific situations.

Spokeswoman Linner, who says "the agency itself is a blackbox to many, we wanted to open it a little," notes that gamers tend to have skill-sets conducive to spy agency effectiveness — including digital prowess, communications skills, a team attitude and stress resistance.

Germany's army is recruiting at Gamescom for similar reasons. Visitors to their stand can drive tanks or fly helicopters in simulators, or do an actual physical workout in bulletproof gear under a giant poster reading: "Are you ready for the next level?"  

Like the BND'S Linner, army spokesman Marco Mann says, "We're where our target group is." Mann says the Bundeswehr, which has been present at Gamescom since 2009, wants to let young people know what an attractive employer it is.

Critics, however, worry about the appropriateness of such a situation, with pacifists like Jürgen Grässlin of the German Peace Society (DFG) saying, "In killer games, players take on various roles in which they simulate murder, they are even given bonus points for killing an enemy."

"The Bundeswehr," he says, "has no reason to be at Gamescom."

08/21/2025August 21, 2025

Welcome to our coverage

Guten Tag from the Bonn online news team, and welcome to our coverage of Germany this Thursday.

Today, we are reporting on Germany's spy agency and army recruiting young computer gamers to catch bad guys and fly helicopters.

The country's foreign minister is also busy trying to convince young Indonesians to move west and care for ageing Germans as demographic changes point to a dwindling rather than a growing domestic population.