Germany's center-right bloc led by the Christian Democrats (CDU) is calling for stricter immigration law following a knife attack in the city of Aschaffenburg that left two people dead.

After it came to light that the assailant was an Afghan national who was slated for deportation, CDU leader Friedrich Merz has presented a five-point plan to curb irregular migration.

Merz has said that should the CDU bloc emerge victorious in Germany's federal election on February 23, he will work to implement his plan as quickly as possible. However, questions remain about whether his proposals are legal under German and European Union law.

'Last resort'

Germany is part of the Schengen free movement area, and thus, border checks are only allowed "in the event of a serious threat to public order or internal security." Border checks within Schengen have been put in place before, for example, during the COVID-19 pandemic and following terrorist attacks.

For the latter reason, border controls have been in place in Germany since a knife attack in the city of Solingen in August. There, too, the suspected perpetrator was a rejected asylum seeker who had been scheduled for deportation.  

Border controls are considered a "last resort" in EU law, and are only permissible for a limited period. With open borders at the heart of the EU's principles, constant patrols of Germany's 3,800-kilometer (2,630-mile) border are simply not allowed.

'Entry ban' could lead to conflict with neighbors

Another part of Merz's plan is a "de facto entry ban for all people who do not have valid documents," even for asylum seekers who may have had to flee conflict in a hurry.

EU law requires that asylum seekers must first have their cases processed in the first member country they arrive in. This law, the Dublin III Regulation, thus means that people coming as refugees who enter Germany by way of another EU country should, by law, be sent back to their port of entry.

However, "European law stipulates that people must first be allowed to enter the country," migration law expert Daniel Thym told German broadcaster ARD. Only after an initial intake is completed can it be determined if an asylum seeker needs to be sent back to another EU country.

Even then, there are cases in which refugees are allowed to stay in Germany. If, for example, a close relative is already in the process of applying for asylum there, they may be allowed to remain.

Trying to circumvent these standards would not only flout EU law but would inevitably lead to conflicts with neighboring countries. Austria has already declared that it would not "take back" any asylum seekers rejected by Germany. 

Bar is high for possible 'national emergency'

Germany could use a legal statute to declare a national emergency and thus be allowed to close its borders. Article 72 of the EU Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU) was already mentioned by Merz following the Solingen attack as potential grounds for long-lasting border checks. 

This, too, however, would face a significant legal hurdle. The government would first have to prove that the country was experiencing a national emergency, which would be difficult considering current border controls have significantly curbed irregular migration in recent years.

The current center-left Social Democrat (SPD)-led government has been quick to point this other, as well as the fact that most irregular migration could be ended by continuing to send refugees back to the first EU country they entered.

CDU plan could accelerate reform

Should Merz become chancellor — his bloc is leading in the polls — his proposals will run into most of these hurdles. His government would have to prove its claim that Germany is facing an overwhelming level of asylum applications or a wave of crime. Even then, allowing exceptions to open border rules is regulated by the European Court of Justice (ECJ). So far, every attempt by a member state to be granted an exception has failed.

There is one way it could work out for Merz, Daniel Thym told ARD, which is that Germany trying to forge ahead despite EU rules could spur other countries to do the same. This could accelerate an overhaul of the EU asylum system, which many member countries have criticized as highly inefficient.

"And then we will have to sit down in Brussels very quickly and ask ourselves how we can fundamentally reorganize European asylum law," he said.

This article was originally written in German.

It is they who deserve to be heard on such a day, those few who survived the former Auschwitz-Birkenau extermination and concentration camp, of whom 56 traveled back to the site of horror to attend the memorial ceremony.   

The Soviet Red Army liberated the camp on January 27, 1945, in what is today Poland, occupied at the time by Nazi Germany. Only just over 7,000 people survived, emaciated by imprisonment and torture. The date now serves as International Holocaust Remembrance Day.

An industrial murder factory

Between 1940 and 1945, the Nazis murdered over a million people in Auschwitz and the camp's horrific subcamps, the majority of them Jews. But Sinti and Roma, political prisoners, homosexuals, the disabled, and imprisoned people from Poland and other nations were also victims of the murderous regime.

Auschwitz has become synonymous with the Holocaust, its "capital," as historian Peter Hayes put it. It was an industrial murder factory, the full dimensions of which weren't fully grasped until decades later — if such a thing can ever truly be grasped. 

On Monday, 80 years to the day after the liberation of the camp, survivors, heads of state and government, and guests of honor gathered at the former Auschwitz-Birkenau extermination camp for a major memorial ceremony celebrating the anniversary. President Frank-Walter Steinmeier and Chancellor Olaf Scholz attended on behalf of Germany. 

Unlike previous anniversaries, there were no speeches by politicians — despite the delegations from 60 nations that traveled to the event. It was political all the same. Hamas' terrorist attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, was a recurring theme, with the president of the World Jewish Congress, Ronald S. Lauder, saying that Jewish students in many countries have been marginalized and that Israel has been singled out for scorn.   

But it was the survivors in particular who spoke: Marian Turski, Janina Iwańska, Tova Friedman, and Leon Weintraub. "I always thought that January 27 was my birthday. Even many of my friends don't know that it's not actually my birthday," said Friedman at the beginning of her speech. 

Survivor testifies of Mengele's regime of torture

Turski welcomed the survivors in the audience and commemorated all those who could not be there: "I believe our thoughts go towards the huge majority, those millions of victims who will never tell us what they experienced, what they felt, just because they were consumed by that mass destruction, the Shoah (Holocaust)." 

On this evening, the survivors spoke about their personal experiences and made the connection to today. Turski said the world is currently experiencing a "tsunami of antisemitism." She demanded that "an end be put to this!" and asked for a moment of silence. 

Many survivors have passed away. But it is their experiences that keep memory alive. In the days leading up to the memorial ceremony on the camp grounds, commemorative events were held in the nearby town of Oswiecim and Krakow. The Galicia Jewish Museum in Krakow hosted a conversation with Lidia Maksymowicz.  

She was sent to Auschwitz at the age of three. And became a victim of the notorious SS camp doctor Josef Mengele. He tortured her with saline solutions as part of medical experiments. After the war, Maksymowicz was separated from her mother and adopted. She had to relearn everything, she said. She felt like "a wild animal with only survival instincts.".

Trauma 'I will carry with me forever'

Stefania Wernik is one of the last surviving eyewitnesses, although she has no memory of Auschwitz. She was only a few months old when it was liberated. As Wernik puts it, she was born into "hell." In April 1944, her Polish mother was caught smuggling and sent to Auschwitz. She was two months pregnant and kept it a secret. When it was discovered, she was allowed to have her child — under extremely difficult circumstances. Stefania Wernik weighed only 2 kilograms (4.5 pounds) at birth.

The day before the memorial ceremony, Wernik spoke with at the International Meeting Center in Oswiecim near the extermination camp. "That which I have absorbed with my mother's milk into my soul, I will carry with me forever," said Wernik through a Polish interpreter. "It's not easy for me to just simply laugh." 

Even today, she is often ill and fatigued. As a small baby, the infamous SS camp doctor Josef Mengele presumably injected her with something. To this day, she often has eczema and rashes. Wernik hesitates during this story and has to collect herself for a moment. 

About 80 young adults between the ages of 17 and 25 and hailing from Germany, France and Poland filled the hall of the Meeting Center, listening to Wernik's words. They wore masks due to Wernik's poor health.

The German Bundestag’s Youth Exchange had organized the event. For some of the young visitors who visited Auschwitz-Birkenau the day before, it was their first time seeing an extermination camp in person.   

The young audience asked many questions about her trauma and about what had given her hope. Wernik replied patiently, not ignoring a single question. Her answers were both gentle and sad. For 21-year-old Peter Cellestino Kraus, it was an encounter that will resonate with him for a long time.

"What they tried to do in the Holocaust was to dehumanize people, to turn them into numbers," he said. "And we have to humanize them again, give people a face, in order to understand that there were millions of people who dreamed of a tomorrow and never experienced it."

Those survivors who spoke at the memorial ceremony also kept returning to these people. "We were born into a moral vacuum," said Tova Friedman. Millions did not survive. "But today, we have an obligation not only to remember but also to warn and to teach that hatred only begets more hatred, killing more killing."

In the same vein, Stefania Wernik told the students the day before: "Never again war, never again fascism. You must remain vigilant... so that nothing like this ever happens again. That's what I wrote. [I was] born in hell, in Auschwitz-Birkenau."

This article was originally written in German.

Oswiecim, a small Polish town of around 10,000 inhabitants, was occupied by the German Wehrmacht in 1939, annexed and renamed Auschwitz. In 1941, the Nazis established the largest German extermination camp in this area, the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp.

By the end of January 1945, the Nazis had murdered at least 1.1 million people at Auschwitz. Most of them were Jews, but countless thousands were Roma and Sinti, people with disabilities, homosexuals, political prisoners and members of other minority groups.

Why here? Why Auschwitz? "The site was chosen because of its central location in Europe, where it was easy to reach by train. There were also logistical considerations," Christoph Heubner, vice president of the International Auschwitz Committee, told DW.

Nazis planned logistics of industrial murder

The logistics were critical — the Nazis wanted it to be done quickly and kill as many people as possible. They were good at planning, at mass murder, at the bookkeeping of death.

But the German mass murder of various groups of people had begun much earlier. Soon after the German attack on Poland in early 1939, there were numerous mass shootings in Eastern Europe. These crimes are also well documented.

Once Hitler's Germany and its armies were in control of large parts of Europe, the plan was to completely eradicate the Jews. To make their plans, a meeting was held on January 20, 1942, at a villa on Lake Wannsee west of Berlin, then police and SS guesthouse.

Fifteen men from the Nazi regime met for an hour and a half to clarify and optimize the organization of the mass deportation and murder of European Jews. One of the participants, SS top officer Rudolf Lange, had ordered the shooting of over 900 Jews near Riga the day before traveling to Berlin.

Visitors to the House of the Wannsee Conference remembrance site who examine the facsimile of the only surviving transcript of the 90-minute meeting will not find the words "murder" or "killing" anywhere. There is only talk of the "final solution" — but everyone involved knew what that meant. Also planned that day was the establishment of further extermination camps. A short time later, in March 1942, deportation trains began leaving from all over Europe, bound for occupied Poland. The Jewish people were to "disappear." 

Trains to death departed from all over Europe

 For many railroad platforms in Germany and Europe, Auschwitz was the final stop. The Auschwitz-Birkenau extermination camp had its own railway line. After exiting the trains, the prisoners were forced to move toward what was called the ramp. Many were sent directly from the ramp into the gas chambers to be murdered, while others were first sent to the concentration camp as laborers.

Memorial sites have been established in many German cities, including Cologne, Stuttgart, Hamburg and Wiesbaden, to commemorate the deportations to the death camps. The Track 17 memorial at the Grunewald train station in Berlin is among the most well-known, frequently visited by politicians and other official delegations. Around 35 trains carrying 17,000 Jews to Auschwitz-Birkenau left from this station alone.

Trains were also used by the Nazis to transport Jews and other groups from many other European countries to Auschwitz and other camps, often in cattle cars. The trains came from Central and Eastern Europe, as well as from France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Italy, Hungary, Greece and some parts of the Balkans.  

Anita Lasker-Wallfisch from Wroclaw, who will celebrate her 100th birthday in July, came to Auschwitz by train as a girl and was lucky to survive the camp — in part because she could play the cello and was therefore needed in the "girls' orchestra."

From December 1943 to November 1944, she was in Auschwitz before being sent to Bergen-Belsen concentration camp. In 2018, she spoke at the German parliament's hour of remembrance for the victims of National Socialism.

"If you aren't sent straight to the gas chamber on arrival, you don't survive long in Auschwitz anyway — three months at most," she remembered. Her musical skills gave her the chance to survive.

"There were a great many transports, and it happened that Crematorium V could not fit all the people arriving on the transport," said Lasker-Wallfisch. "Those who didn't fit into the gas chambers were shot. In many cases, people were thrown into the burning pits while still alive. I saw that too."

Auschwitz-Birkenau was a killing machine, with industrial ovens.

Soviet liberators 'could not believe their eyes'

Visitors to Auschwitz today who spend time in the barracks are stunned by the horror. Meter-high piles of human hair, eyeglasses, large piles of prostheses and personal belongings are all on display, testimonies from before the killings.

On January 27, 1945, Soviet Army soldiers reached the camp. Heubner, who has spoken with many survivors as a longtime vice president of the Auschwitz Committee, summarized their accounts:

"It was a moment of absolute calm. The liberators, young soldiers from Ukraine, Russia and other former republics of the Soviet Union, stood at the gates of Auschwitz and could not believe their eyes. They had already seen some terrible things. But not what was standing there, death on two legs. It was only once they saw their faces and their eyes that they realized: These skeletons are alive."

'Extent of the catastrophe was incomprehensible'

Prisoners at Auschwitz were given a number that the Nazis had tattooed on their arms. And the sheer, unimaginable inhumanity of the place is something hard to forget.

"The most unimaginable crimes against innocent people slowly emerged into the open. The extent of the catastrophe was incomprehensible," Lasker-Wallfisch told the Bundestag in 2018.

"It was the scene of a state-organized crime," said Heubner. "And the crime was setting up an industrial apparatus to kill people."

It took decades before a wider process of confronting the horrors of Auschwitz began in Germany. Some of the last witnesses are still alive today.

This article was originally written in German.

Describing the International Kolkata Book Fair requires many superlatives. It is one of the largest book fairs in Asia and the most well-visited in the world, with a record 2.9 million literature fans attending it last year.

This year's fair, which takes place from January 28 to February 9, hopes to welcome even more visitors, who will attend the event to buy books, meet authors or attend outdoor book readings. Unlike its international equivalent in Germany, the Frankfurt Book Fair, which always has three days restricted to trade visitors, the Kolkata fair is a giant, public open-air bookstore with over 1,000 stands. 

The 2025 Kolkata fair's focal theme country is Germany, a first for the country in the Indian fair's 48-year history.

More than a dozen authors and book industry professionals have been invited to present German literature in all its diversity.

One of the guest authors is David Wagner, whose most recent novel, "Verkin," tells the life story of a Turkish woman with Armenian heritage. Another is Christian Kracht, whose upcoming novel, "Air," is about a journey through Europe that tests the hero's inner limits.

German-language guests with ties to India

Many of the invited authors have ties to India. Kracht served as a correspondent in New Delhi, India's capital, for many years.

Austrian Tonio Schachinger, who won the 2023 German Book Prize, was born in New Delhi.

And Christopher Kloeble lives between New Delhi and Berlin. His most recent novel, "The Museum of the World," describes a historic Indian expedition.

The Berlin-based poet and author Ulrike Almut Sandig has also visited India for extended periods of time on numerous occasions. In the 1990s, she studied Indian Studies and learned Hindi.

Shortly before her departure for Kolkata, she told DW that she has maintained a deep love for Indian culture and literature to this day. She is particularly looking forward to meeting and talking with her Indian colleagues.

Sandig's interest in India began during her childhood in East Germany (GDR). Her father was a pastor, and he and her mother idolized Mahatma Gandhi, the leader of the Indian independence movement who used nonviolent resistance in his fight for freedom from British rule.

Sandig describes herself as quite the idealist when she decided to study Indian Studies at university. Since then, she has visited India many times, attended literary festivals all over the country and worked with Indian musicians and poets, including in performance.

Germany, in all its literary diversity

In Kolkata, Ulrike Almut Sandig plans to meet with Naveen Kishore, the head of Seagull Books, which published two of her books in English translation. Seagull has published a series of German-language books in English, especially works by contemporary authors.

Such books still have it tough in India: German-language works in bookshops tend to be classics by authors Bertolt Brecht, Franz Kafka or Thomas Mann — if any can be found on the shelves at all.

But perhaps this could be starting to change.

Philipp Ackermann, the German ambassador to India, stressed that the opportunity is a chance to show "a very modern, reflective, diverse and colorful side of literary Germany."

Astrid Wege, head of the Goethe-Institut in Kolkata, which put together the program for Germany's appearance as the book fair's focal country, promised "unique insight into German literature, culture and contemporary topics."

"I am proud that DW is a partner of the Kolkata Book Fair," said Peter Limbourg, Deutsche Welle's director general, who will run a stand at the fair. "This year, the German pavilion highlights diversity and sustainability as its core topics, and they are core topics for DW, too."

This article was originally written in German.

He was no noble officer like Claus Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg, the ringleader of the most famous attempt to kill Adolf Hitler. He was no industry titan like Oskar Schindler, who sheltered Jews as essential workers in his factory. Otto Küsel was a convicted felon, a thief, who landed in the middle of the Nazi murder machine and managed to save hundreds of people from certain death. He was "Auschwitz Inmate No. 2."

In Germany, few have heard of him. But Küsel's story has now been immortalized in a book written by writer and journalist Sebastian Christ, who himself only heard of Küsel by accident while talking to the director of the Auschwitz-Birkenau museum in 2003. Kazimierz Smolen, who managed the museum at the time, met Küsel while they were both inmates in Auschwitz. Smolen told Christ that the story of this good man had to be told.

This was easier said than done, as records on Küsel proved scarce. Christ did nearly 22 years of research, and it was only by chance that, while browsing a flea market, he stumbled upon a book containing the only interview that Küsel ever gave — to a student organization.

Who was Otto Küsel?

Küsel was born outside Berlin in 1909. At the age of 14, he abandoned his electrician training because he preferred being his own master to following instructions. He started going from house to house selling shoelaces. He also sold fruit, advertising it with the risqué chant, "Bananas, bananas for the ladies without a man."

But surviving in Weimar Germany, with its tottering economy, was not easy — and it got much harder after 1929 ushered in the Great Depression. "Actually, it was more like begging than selling, you couldn't let the police catch you," Küsel said in the interview.

And yet, they caught him. As a young man, he had several run-ins with the law — most likely for theft and burglary, according to Christ — and was in and out of jail.

'Screw those guys'

Someone like Küsel did not exactly fit in the Nazi image of the ideal German.

"He definitely had issues with authority and was also maybe a bit of an anarchist," Christ told DW. "And someone who had a great sense of justice and felt very keenly when one group of people was putting themselves above others."

So when the Nazis took power in 1933, Küsel was not impressed. The following scene, which took place in a Berlin state office, shows his perspective on the new rulers of Germany.

"I went in and said, 'Good day!' The guy inside said, 'Go back outside!' I thought he still had work to do, so I went out. A few minutes later I went back in and said, 'Good day!' and he said, 'Go back outside!'" Küsel said in the interview.

"When I came in for the third time and said, 'Good day!' he told me, 'Don't you know that it's 'Heil Hitler' now? Go back outside!' So I went out, and I left and thought, 'Screw those guys.'"

Küsel dismissed the new system, but the system did not dismiss him. From the Nazis' perspective, Küsel was what they would label a "career criminal." According to the laws of the time, people convicted of at least three prison sentences for theft, who spent at least six months behind bars, could be shipped out to a concentration camp without a court order.

Special role of 'kapos'

In 1937, Küsel was summoned by the Gestapo. He was detained and sent to the concentration camp of Sachsenhausen, outside Berlin. Gestapo chief Heinrich Himmler dreamed of a "national community without criminals" or "asocial" elements, and people like Küsel had to be permanently locked up for the "good of society."

But Küsel was given a special role in the concentration camp. He became a prisoner functionary — a privileged inmate tasked with assisting the guards — also known as a kapo. The Nazis believed "career criminals" to be ideal kapos, because they had no ideology and formed no underground networks, unlike communists, social democrats and other political prisoners. Their job was to assign work to other prisoners. The kapos were meant to be small cogs in the murder machinery of the concentration camps, and make sure that inmates would die of exhaustion.

Most kapos did exactly what the Nazis wanted. Some would entertain themselves by drowning Polish prisoners in feces or beating them to death. One of the most infamous kapos was Bruno Brodniewicz, known as Inmate Nr. 1.

"Brodniewicz was an animal, he was called 'The Black Death,'" one Holocaust survivor later recounted.

Resisting in secret

Otto Küsel was different. He was sent to Auschwitz in May 1940, when the camp was still new and managed by the infamous warden Rudolf Höss. During the first two years, the Nazi death camp mostly contained non-Jewish Polish inmates.

The SS troops — the most important tool of terror and oppression used by the Nazi regime — primarily targeted Polish elites, a fact Küsel had learned during his time in Sachsenhausen. He would warn new inmates against identifying themselves as academics or military officers, as this could quickly equate to a death sentence. He would also assign the most exhausted inmates to work in the kitchens, where they could access more food. The newcomers, who were still strong, would be assigned to an outside posting, and Küsel would promise to redeploy them somewhere else once their strength failed. His small office became a place of hope, where he would provide comfort and help those trying to escape.

"The camp museum holds hundreds of stories that were passed down and that showed Küsel giving a new perspective to people in the hell that was life in a concentration camp," said Christ, adding that Küsel even learned Polish to understand his fellow inmates.

Speaking Polish helped Küsel to communicate without alerting the SS guards or other kapos, both of whom didn't speak the language. Inmate Boleslaw Grzyb remembers Küsel looking at guard officer Gerhard Palitzsch and telling Grzyb in fluent Polish: "Look and remember the face of this criminal."

Palitzsch, a farmer in civilian life, was known for his cruelty. His duties included providing daily reports on the number of inmates and overseeing punishments. His usual greeting to new inmates would be, "Forget your wives, your children and your families. Here you'll die like dogs."

How did Küsel manage to keep his resistance secret from the Nazis? From the outside, he appeared very hardworking, and he tried to remain inconspicuous around the other kapos, said Christ.

"Despite all obstacles, he preserved his humanity during his time in the camp, when there were so many opportunities to give it up," Christ added.

Spectacular flight from Auschwitz

In December 1942, Küsel got wind of a plan to break out of Auschwitz and faced a choice — report it or join the conspirators. He decided to join the group of Polish inmates and procured a horse cart under the excuse of getting cabinets for an SS guard. Two of the conspirators were meant to go with him to help him carry the furniture. The fourth person in the group, Boleslaw Kuczbara, had stolen an SS uniform, which he used to pose as a supervisor.

The escape was a resounding success. The four fugitives made contact with resistance fighters outside the camp and went into hiding.

But the story did not end there — Küsel was apparently betrayed by a jealous woman. She had fallen in love with him, but then saw him with the daughter of the family that was sheltering him and suspected Küsel was involved with her.

So, nine months later, Küsel was back in Auschwitz. This time, in Block 11 — the death row. Every day, he waited to be shot. Fate, however, had other plans.

Camp director Höss was relieved of command and his successor ordered amnesty for certain prisoners, including Küsel.

"I came back to the camp but had no function anymore," Küsel said. "Many assumed at the time that I betrayed them, because I was still alive. But I would never do that, I'd sooner let them beat me to death."

However, Küsel's impressions do not match with the testimonies of other Auschwitz survivors, said Christ — none of them believed he was a traitor.

With Soviet soldiers drawing near in 1944, Küsel was transferred to a camp in Flossenbürg, Bavaria. He survived the death march ordered by the Nazis in a last-ditch effort to keep the prisoners from being freed by the incoming allied forces. In 1945, his time of suffering was finally over.

Criminals recognized as victims — in 2020

After the war,  Küsel stayed in Bavaria. He married, had two daughters and once again made his living selling fruits and vegetables. In 1964, he testified in the first Auschwitz trial in Frankfurt as one of 211 camp survivors. According to Christ, the judges hinted at Küsel being an informant.

"It was probably an immediate reaction along the lines of, 'This man survived so much and emerged unscathed from such unlikely conflicts, so he was probably dirty somehow — naturally this was completely unjustified," the writer said.

Küsel himself almost never spoke about his time in the concentration camp. Christ believes he was probably ashamed and preferred that his Bavarian neighbors didn't know he used to be a thief.

"This 'career criminal' label — of course, the stigma persisted in his biography after the war as well," said Christ. For many decades, criminals were not recognized as a special group of Holocaust victims, unlike Jewish people and political prisoners. German lawmakers only passed the appropriate motion in 2020.

Hero in Poland

Küsel stayed in touch with his fellow survivors in Poland until his death in 1984. There, he was regarded as a hero, and Polish authorities even granted him honorary citizenship. Christ said it was time for Küsel to be recognized in Germany, as well.

"I believe that Otto's story shows, firstly, that we have the chance to preserve our humanity even in the worst of circumstances," he said. Furthermore, he added, Küsel's experience is a warning about how radicalization spreads through society.

"We are also not living in the simplest of times," Christ told DW. "And history shows how quickly one can get caught up in such a whirlwind, but also how much good a man can do if he believes in himself and his humanity."

This article was originally written in German.

Five years after the COVID-19 pandemic provoked whole countries into lockdown, scientists are still trying to find conclusive evidence to pinpoint where the virus first infected humans.

But now that life's back to a kind of normal, does it really matter where SARS-CoV-2, the virus that caused COVID, originated? What's the difference between a virus that leaked from a lab and one that developed in nature? 

Well, researchers say it does matter. They say it's one of the most important questions for understanding how pandemics start and how we can prevent them in the future.

They say the answer would have a lasting effect on health policy, scientific funding, public opinion on science and diplomatic relations.

Not to mention the fact we're still living with COVID: The World Health Organization (WHO) COVID-19 Dashboard continues to report hundreds of thousands of cases every month worldwide.

But from lab leak theory to zoonotic theory, and conspiracy theories in between, there's no consensus on COVID's origin.

With new investigations and analyses emerging on this fourth anniversary, we take a look at the current thinking.

Did SARS-CoV-2 leak from a lab?

The CIA's new director John Ratcliffe released a new assessment on January 26, saying that COVID-19 is "more likely" to have leaked from a Chinese lab than to have come from animals.

Arguments for the lab leak theory center around the Wuhan Institute of Virology, an institute where scientists were researching coronaviruses at the time of the initial outbreak in China.

"The strongest evidence comes from the timeline of research [going back to] 2012. Published papers from the institute show scientists could construct modified coronaviruses," said Richard H. Ebright, a professor of chemical biology at Rutgers University in the US.

Research included genetically altering coronaviruses to make them stronger — such as adding spike proteins and testing the viruses' ability to spread. Their stated aim was to help prevent coronavirus outbreaks. 

But we don't know how many coronaviruses the institute studied. "They refused to collaborate from the start," opined Ebright.

Some experts say it's possible that the Wuhan lab had progenitor strains — ancestors — of SARS-CoV-2, but China's alleged withholding information on the origin of COVID makes this impossible to prove or disprove.

Then there's the question of how the virus would have leaked. Some say it leaked by accident, due to weak security measures at the lab, while others suggest it was intentionally developed and released as a biological weapon. But there is no firm evidence for either theory.

"Every form of the lab leak theory involves some sort of cover up, which to me means that it's a conspiracy theory," said Edward Holmes, a professor of virology at the University of Sydney in Australia.

Did COVID-19 come from nature?

Some scientists prefer the zoonotic theory: The theory that the virus evolved in nature from an existing coronavirus and spread from wild animals to humans at the Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market, also in Wuhan, China.

Researchers said they had analyzed statistical data to locate — what they said — were the first human cases and that those cases were among market vendors who sold live animals.

"The evidence supports a zoonotic origin," said Angie Rasmussen, a virologist at the University of Saskatchewan in Canada. "It includes detailed studies of SARS-CoV-2 [...] and its evolutionary trajectory once [it was in] the human population."

Scientists have studied samples from wild animals in Wuhan for signs of the original SARS-CoV-2 virus. But they have failed to find it. And they have also failed to trace how the virus spread from the market to the outside environment.

"The key step of tracing and testing the animals at the Huanan market was not done [at the time], and it's too late now. For this reason, we have been unable to identify the exact animal ancestry," said Holmes.

But given that the Huanan market is 16 kilometers (10 miles) from the Wuhan Institute of Virology, some people continue to suggest that the lab and/or the market were COVID's epicenter.

COVID's origin: Tending toward nature?

An expert survey in February 2024 found that most scientists believe COVID emerged from nature.

The expert respondents gave the natural, zoonotic (or zoonosis) theory an average likelihood of 77% — four out of five experts said it was more than 50% likely. But the experts said there was a 21% likelihood that COVID started due to a "research-related accident" — one out of five experts said there was a 50% or greater chance of that.

"When you take other intelligence into account, the lab leak theory starts to seem more plausible," said Seth Baum of the Global Catastrophic Risk Institute, which co-published the survey with Nemesys Insights.

When Baum refers to "other intelligence," he's talking about non-scientific factors, such as proximity of the market to the lab. However, much evidence that might provide a conclusive answer has been lost or remains unavailable for public scrutiny.

"Whether we'll get an evidence-based conclusion depends on countries like China collaborating and being forthcoming with data," said Baum.

The one thing experts do agree on is that we need to keep trying to solve the mystery of COVID's origin as it may determine how we respond to next pandemic.

Edited by: Zulfikar Abbany

This article was originally written in March 2024 and was updated on January 27, 2025 with new information from the CIA.

The global energy supply is radically changing. 

Solar and wind power's share in the global electricity mix has almost quadrupled in a decade, from 5% in 2015 to about 19% today. Together with hydropower, biomass and geothermal energy, renewables now supply around 35% of the world's electricity.

Most energy globally is consumed for heating and transportation, and the proportion of renewable energy in these sectors is still low.

Renewables make up only 15% of the world's total energy consumption, an increase of only 2% since 2015. So where is clean energy making big strides and where does it need to go next? 

Solar power is expanding the fastest 

Solar power is the fastest growing energy sector worldwide and is expected to continue booming for decades to come. 

This growth has been driven by plummeting costs in recent years and the fact that solar modules can be quickly installed almost anywhere.

Operating solar modules around the world now have a total output of around 2,200 gigawatts (GW) — covering 9% of global energy demand compared with only 1% in 2015. Last year alone modules with an output of 553 GW were installed, according to calculations by industry association Solarpower Europe. This alone is more capacity than all the world's 411 nuclear reactors, which can supply an estimated 371 GW.

Solar has the potential to cover 73% of the world's energy needs for electricity, heat, transportation and industry at an affordable cost, according to a 2021 study. The rest could be covered primarily by a mixture of wind power, biomass, hydropower and geothermal energy.

China remains frontrunner

China has long led the pack when it comes to solar expansion. 

It increased its solar capacity by 300 GW in 2024, according to forecasts by SolarPower Europe, which they expect should be able to generate more than 10% of its electricity. With a total output of around 955 GW, China now accounts for some 44% of all modules installed worldwide.

The total installed capacity of photovoltaics at the end of 2024 was 419 GW in the rest of Asia, 399 GW in Europe and 329 GW in the US.

China also significantly dominates the market for making solar modules, with 86% of them produced in its factories. 

Increased efficiency is making renewables even cheaper

Today, electricity from new solar modules costs only one-fifth of what it did in 2010, and wind prices have dropped by 50%. This is due to mass production and advances in efficiency. Solar modules have roughly doubled their electricity output compared to 15 years ago, while modern wind turbines have tripled theirs.

Compared with new fossil fuel power plants, generating electricity from wind and solar power is now significantly cheaper almost everywhere, costing under 50% less. 

Electricity from solar parks and onshore wind turbines is now being generated in the US and EU for €0.03 to €0.09 per kilowatt hour (kWh). In Europe, electricity from a new coal or gas power plant costs between €0.11 to €0.33 per kWh and from a new nuclear power plant €0.14 to €0.49 per kWh. 

Wind power expansion breaks records 

Last year saw more wind capacity installed worldwide than ever before, according to the World Wind Energy Association (WWEA), an international association representing the sector. Wind energy now has a total capacity of around 1,200 GW, covering roughly 10% of global electricity demand. 

China is also a global leader when it comes to the expansion of wind power. According to estimates from the WWEA, new plants with a capacity of 100 GW were added last year, increasing overall output to around 475 GW. 

China is followed by the US (153 GW), Germany (71 GW), India (47 GW), and Spain and Brazil with 31 GW each. 

Falling battery prices also boosting climate protection

Storing electricity is also becoming cheaper than ever, falling 90% between 2010 and 2025, according to energy research organization BloombergNEF.

China is also driving this battery boom and has built large factories to produce them in recent years. Their falling prices has helped make electric cars sold in China cheaper than those with a combustion engine. In the second half of 2024, e-car sales in China — the world's largest car market — outnumbered those with combustion engines.

And these falling battery prices are also having a positive impact on renewable expansion — enabling solar power generated during the day to be stored cheaply overnight and weather-dependent wind power to be used when it is needed.

The United Arab Emirates is one example of many countries that are expanding their battery storage systems. The country is currently building a battery storage facility with a capacity of 19 GW hours alongside a large 5.2 GW solar park.

Germany is also aiming to increase its battery storage to secure its power supply from wind and solar. Renewable energy currently makes up 63% of the country's electricity mix and is set to rise to 80% by 2030. Energy suppliers are planning to expand their storage capacity from 15 GW hours now to over 200 GW hours.

Is this momentum enough to protect the climate?

The expansion of solar, wind and battery technology are playing a key role in enabling the world to transition away from the fossil fuels that are driving planetary heating. In Europe, for example, the share of renewables in the electricity mix reached 47% in 2024 and fossil fuels fell to an historic low of 29%. 

However, the current momentum is not enough to limit global heating to 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial levels, as agreed in the Paris climate agreement.  

To reach these targets, scientists say this already booming expansion of renewables must be accelerated significantly and CO2 must also be removed from the atmosphere on a large scale. 

Edited: Anke Rasper

This article was adapted from German. 

Germany's leading source of electric power generation got a big boost in 2024, according to latest industry figures.

Regulators approved more than 2,400 new onshore wind turbines with a total output of around 14 gigawatts, a record high, said a new report from the German Wind Energy Association and VDMA Power Systems, the association for power plant engineering.

"This is a significant step in the right direction," said Dennis Rendschmidt, VDMA's managing director. He said the government must "maintain this momentum," no matter the outcome of the February 23 federal election.

But despite the positive figures, the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) has made vehement opposition to Germany's energy policies — and wind in particular — a key part of its election campaign. At the AfD's recent party congress, chancellor candidate Alice Weidel railed against "fluctuating" renewable energy, which she told German broadcaster ZDF didn't work "when the wind doesn't blow and the sun doesn't shine."

Wind has also come under fire from Friedrich Merz, chairman of the center-right Christian Democratic Union (CDU). At the end of last year, Merz publicly described wind power as an "ugly" "transition energy" that might someday be dismantled. But the party's election manifesto — compiled together with its Bavarian sister party the CSU — talks about making use of all renewable energy sources, including both on and offshore wind. 

Speaking at the AfD congress, Weidel vowed to tear down all of Germany's "windmills of shame." She called for Germany to boost the use of fossil fuels, including Russian gas, and bring back nuclear power as part of a "sustainable, serious energy mix" — a plan which most experts have said is unrealistic.

Return to nuclear 'not plausible'

"A return to nuclear power in Germany is not plausible or helpful, in terms of climate protection — nor would it be economical," said Wolf-Peter Schill, an energy expert at the German Institute for Economic Research in Berlin, pointing out that Germany shut down its last three reactors nearly two years ago.

"[The reactors] have already been dismantled to such an extent that they cannot simply be put back into operation." Building new nuclear plants, he added, would take far too long to be any help in achieving climate goals.

Actually doing away with all of Germany's wind turbines, which today number more than 30,000, would, according to experts, cost the country dearly in decommissioning fees, expropriation and compensation payments. And that's without factoring in the costs related to making up the energy shortfall, as Germany would be forced to increase its electricity imports, driving up the price of electricity for consumers and businesses.

While Schill said a huge increase in solar energy could help to replace wind to some extent, he stressed that photovoltaic panels were not always the best option to replace wind turbines in Germany, especially in the dark winter months.

"If you don't want wind power or solar energy, then the only option is fossil fuels," he told DW. "I don't see any other realistic option for power generation in Germany." Burning fossil fuels for such things as heating and industry is the main driver of the rising global temperatures linked to extreme weather events around the world.

Renewables supply nearly two-thirds of Germany's electricity

Despite Weidel's claim that renewable energy was holding Germany back, the latest government figures appear to prove otherwise. Data released by the Bundesnetzagentur, the federal energy regulator, in early January showed that 59% of Germany's electricity in 2024 came from renewable sources, up from 56% in 2023. Slightly more than half of that came from wind.

Robert Habeck, Germany's climate and economic affairs minister, credited the growth to the moves made by the center-left SPD/Greens/FDP coalition government to "simplify and accelerate" the permitting process for wind and solar installations over the last two years.

Schill said the decisions made by the outgoing government have set the stage for "much stronger growth" for wind energy, potentially putting Germany on track to hit its target of 115 gigawatts of installed capacity for onshore wind power by 2030. Larger, more advanced wind turbines are now being built to replace older power stations, and could help bring renewables up to around 80% of the country's total energy supply.

Schill said it would be "absurd" for the next government not to capitalize on the boost given to the renewables sector. "This AfD take, to not only put the brakes on wind power but even to dismantle it, goes completely in the wrong direction."

Other parties like Germany's new populist Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance (BSW) says in its manifesto that it wants to replace old wind turbines with new ones so Germany can "increase the electricity increase the electricity yield at existing sites without interfering with nature." The country's post-communist Left Party wants to continue to develop renewables, including wind, but to ensure public ownership.

Wind power has an edge in Germany

Increasing the share of renewable energy in electricity generation could help to bring down energy prices in Germany, which are among the highest in the world. Schill pointed out that wind power plays such a significant role in climate neutrality plans, "precisely because it is cheap."

A July 2024 study by the Fraunhofer Institute which calculated the average cost of electricity generation over a power plant's lifetime showed a marked difference between renewables and conventional power plants in Germany.

The costs for varying kinds of solar and wind power were at the lower end of the scale, ranging from €0.041 to €0.225 ($0.04 to $0.23) per kilowatt hour. Gas, coal and nuclear power tended to be higher, costing anywhere from €0.109 to €0.49 per kilowatt hour — with nuclear being the most expensive.

Energy costs were also a key point in Weidel's opposition to renewable energy. In her interview with ZDF, she emphasized the burden that wind was placing on the German economy, saying "our companies are no longer competitive due to high energy prices."

"There is no relevant future energy scenario that I know of that would not rely on a mix of [solar] and wind power," said Schill. And the renewables sector is itself a boost to the economy, as Kerstin Andreae, a former Greens lawmaker and chair of the German Association of Energy and Water Industries, said earlier this week.

"Wind power is not only a means of climate protection, but also contributes to economic stability by creating jobs and promoting investment," she said in a statement on January 13, adding that wind energy had also helped to ensure supply in times of energy shortages brought on by Russia's invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

According to Schill, the fact that many wind turbine manufacturers are based in Germany and Europe also gave the industry an edge. "Unlike other energy technologies, for example photovoltaics, where we are extremely dependent on imports from China, this is not the case with wind power," he said. "From a resilience perspective, wind power has many advantages."

This article was originally published on 17.01.2025 but was updated on 21.01.2025 to include an earlier statement from Friedrich Merz, the conservative CDU party's candidate for chancellor on wind energy, as well as the CDU, BSW, and Left Party positions on renewables and wind energy.  

Update 23.01.2025: A previous version of this article stated that the cost for solar and wind power was €0.41. It is €0.041. This has now been corrected. The department apologizes for the error.

Edited by: Tamsin Walker

Who is the new Borussia Dortmund coach?

Though he may not have the same connection to BVB as his predecessors Nuri Sahin and Edin Terzic, Niko Kovac is a familiar face in the Bundesliga. When he officially takes over on February 3, Kovac will be coaching a fourth Bundesliga club, having also played for four between 1992 and 2006. His first coaching spell in Germany, at Eintracht Frankfurt, remains his most impressive and was capped with a memorable German Cup win in 2018.

His reward for beating Bayern Munich in that final was a job with the serial German champions, and he promptly added another German Cup and the Bundesliga the following season, matching the double he won as a player with Bayern in 2002-03. He was out of a job just a few months later, with the demands of Bayern taking their toll after a rocky start to the 2019-20 campaign.

His stock has fallen since, with decent but unremarkable stints with Monaco (2020-22) and Wolfsburg (2022-24). He also coached the Croatian national team at the 2014 World Cup. Croatia is the country of his heritage, though he was born and raised in Berlin, and he also won 83 caps for the country as a player.

What will Kovac bring to Borussia Dortmund?

Unlike Sahin and Terzic, Kovac arrives with both experience and trophies. He appears a safe pair of hands to steady a season that had threatened to derail. Dortmund are 11th in the Bundesliga but still just six points off the Champions League spots, and have also qualified for the playoff round of that competition. The top brass at BVB are banking on him to hit the ground running.

"Niko's teams have always been characterized by energy, determination and a sense of the importance of team spirit. We want to feel and see all of this both on and off the pitch," said Borussia Dortmund's managing director of sport Lars Ricken. "We find ourselves in a challenging situation and are certain that in Niko we have found a coach who is capable of overcoming it."

What will Kovac need to do at Borussia Dortmund?

The new man has a big job on his hands. Dortmund's reputation as a launchpad for the best young players in the world has faltered in recent years, and they now have a core of experienced German players such as Julian Brandt (28), Waldemar Anton (28), Niklas Süle (29), Pascal Gross (33) and Emre Can (31) along with young English prospect Jamie Bynoe-Gittens and big-money striker Serhou Guirassy. All have proved to be effective top-level players at Dortmund or elsewhere in the past, so Kovac must find a way to get them all back to their best.

Dortmund have been shaky at the back all season, conceding more than twice as many as leaders Bayern Munich in the Bundesliga. Kovac has something as a reputation for defensive organization and may seek to prioritize that.

 He has been handed a short-term contract of 18 months, suggesting he will have little say in the club's overall strategy. But it looks clear that Dortmund need to find an identity once more.

What has Kovac said?

The new coach will not be unveiled until next week, but Kovac has spelled out what he wants to see in the short term.

"The most important thing for all of us now is to have absolute determination, a big heart and the willingness to work hard to represent Borussia Dortmund in the best possible way in the Bundesliga, the Champions League and at the Club World Cup in the summer," he said in a club statement.

"We are taking on this challenge with determination and focus."

Who will Dortmund play in Kovac's first match?

Youth coach Mike Tullberg will take charge of Sunday's match against Heidenheim after overseeing Dortmund's first win of 2025 against Shakhtar Donetsk on Thursday. Kovac's first game will be at home against fourth-placed Stuttgart on February 8.

Dortmund will find out on Friday whether they will face Sporting CP or Club Brugge in the playoff round of the Champions League, with those fixtures taking place on February 11/12 and 18/19.

For the first time in Germany's top-flight, referees are set to broadcast their decisions to the crowds in the stands via loudspeakers. This will happen at four Bundesliga matches this upcoming weekend (January 31 to February 2, 2025), including Bayern Munich's home game against Kiel. The referee for the second-division match between Düsseldorf and Ulm will do the same. This will only apply to decisions made after the Video Assistant Referee (VAR) has intervened.

The stadiums of the nine clubs that are members of the German Football League (DFL) Football Commission were selected for the test phase, which runs until the end of the season: Bayern Munich, Bayer Leverkusen, Borussia Dortmund, RB Leipzig, Eintracht Frankfurt, SC Freiburg, St. Pauli, Fortuna Düsseldorf, and Greuther Fürth.

DW answers the key questions.

Since when has VAR been in use in football?

In 2016, the International Football Association Board (IFAB), the highest regulatory authority in the sport, approved the use of video assistant referees (VAR). The Netherlands had been experimenting for years with the use of additional referees in controversial situations, who watch video replays to check if the official on the pitch made the right decision and intervening when necessary.

A referee's decision was overturned due to VAR for the first time in a Dutch cup match in the fall of 2016.

VAR was introduced to the Bundesliga for the 2017-18 season. According to the IFAB, video assistant referees were already being used in 15 countries at that time, including France, Italy, Brazil, Australia, the United States, Saudi Arabia and Qatar. In 2018, the IFAB included VAR in the international rulebook, the 'Laws of the Game.' However, in view of the high technical costs involved, it is up to the national associations to decide whether or not to implement VAR.

When should VAR come into play?

According to the IFAB, VAR should only be used in cases of "clear and obvious error" or a "serious missed incident" in four situations: Goal or no goal; penalty kick or not; red card (not two yellow cards); if the referee has mistakenly cautioned or sent off the wrong player.

However, the rules are not quite as clear as they appear at first glance. There is certainly room for interpretation: for example, when is an incident before a successful shot on goal serious enough to be considered? When is a decision clearly wrong, and when is it a matter of opinion?

Why is the DFL launching its pilot project?

Some VAR decisions are difficult to understand for fans, whether they are watching in person or tuning in on TV. This is why the IFAB decided at the start of 2023 to experiment with referees broadcasting their decisions. This has long been common practice in American football, ice hockey and rugby.

In March 2024, the IFAB gave the green light for stadium announcements at international tournaments or leagues, after it had been well received at the 2023 Women's World Cup in Australia and New Zealand.

In which cases should the referee address the public?

A referee is to make an announcement if they have reversed a decision on the basis of information provided by the VAR. They should also broadcast their final decision after looking at a replay on a sideline monitor following advice of the VAR. 

What do referees think about their new task?

"Not everyone will feel comfortable having their voices heard in a stadium," said former referee Jochen Drees, who is responsible for the use of VAR at the German Football Association (DFB). "This is why we had to do a bit of convincing."

The referees have been coached for their new task at several training camps, most recently at a course in Portugal during the winter break, Drees said. "It's now part of a referee's repertoire."

What happens after the testing phase is over?

The testing phase is to include 67 matches in Germany's top two divisions over the rest of this season. After that, the DFB and DFL will decide whether to make referees announcements a regular feature — starting in the 2025-26 campaign.

It's hard to imagine that the criticism will stop completely. Fans may be even more annoyed, because the referees' announcements are bound to make the interruptions in football matches even longer than they already are. And there are the football rules that are difficult to grasp, such as handball, ensuring that there is still room for interpretation with or without VAR.

This article was originally published in German.

The Six Nations tournament in February will have many rugby union fans excited about watching some of the best European players in action. But beyond the headline competition lies an historic European championship, a tournament for the continent's second-tier nations who in 2025 have a sports-changing chance on the line.

This year's championship will act as the qualifier for the men's rugby World Cup in Australia in 2027, and for the first time there are four spots up for grabs. In the year Germany's rugby union will celebrate its 100-year anniversary, the men's team has a chance to make history.

"I know Germany isn't waiting on it [whether they qualify or not], but it is a great moment for German rugby," head coach Mark Kuhlmann told DW.

"In Germany, I think we need success or a hero. How much tennis interest was there in the country before Boris Becker or in cycling before Jan Ullrich? I think we need a hero that grabs people's attention and we need success as a team, and a World Cup spot would certainly do that."

This new qualification format offers more teams the chance to be involved, as the 2027 World Cup will have 24 teams rather than 20 (the case since 1999). The European championship offers four direct qualification spots for the final tournament in Australia, and one further spot, won through the worldwide repechage. Germany are in a group with Romania, Belgium and Portugal, the latter having qualified for the last World Cup and excited fans with its team's adventurous displays. With points awarded for a loss within seven points, as well as for scoring at least three more tries than your opponent, every result is decisive.

Just make rugby visible

Sevens rugby — a faster, more simplified version of the game — is very popular, and Germany's team has made some splashes recently, but Kuhlmann believes German rugby can capture the imagination of the public, if given the chance.

"Sevens is easier to understand. 15s is like a chess board and with lots of tactics. The rules are not as well known, but if it's on TV regularly then you get used to it. I like to watch sport in my own time, and I'm not a basketball expert but the more I watch it, the more I understand," he said.

"But the sport has to be on. You don't need to be an expert to appreciate performance."

The same could be said of Germany's team after all it has gone through in recent years. After the arrival and departure of a billionaire benefactor, three different coaches and three years out of the European championship, Germany have certainly taken the long way around to arrive at this moment. But, with six players now playing in the top two divisions in France, improved fitness levels and more experience, Kuhlmann believes this team is ready.

"As a former player, I know what it's like. It's part of a life in sport," Kuhlmann said of the challenges the team has faced in recent years.

"Rugby is a team sport. You need three to four years to get a team to the top level. We were at the bottom with our backs against the wall, but we have consistently developed and worked and now we need to take the next step," he said.

German rugby ready for a boom

The concept of relegation from and promotion to the Six Nations has long been discussed. With Portugal and Georgia establishing themselves as leading contenders in Europe's second tier, it's clear the market for rugby is expanding. Germany look to be a few years away from leading that charge, but Kuhlmann believes if they can reach a higher standard in the years ahead, they might have the chance.

"There are other markets beyond the Six Nations," Kuhlmann said. "The idea of Georgia being promoted has been talked about before. It's a country that produces fantastic rugby players, but it's also clear that there are economic questions at play. If Germany were there, I think the door would have been opened."

Before then, though, Germany has to establish a stronger rugby base at home. While Kuhlmann is delighted that he has more players of a higher quality to call upon, as a sport, rugby is still trying to develop a stronger base.

"It would be good if the Bundesliga level could be a bit higher. The competition is not good enough. There are two to three games a year that are good, but many games are decided by 50 points," Kuhlmann said. "And children must have fun with it. Rugby is perfect for that. At that age, it's not about whether you're a second row or a fly-half, it's about enthusiasm and enjoyment."

Time to make history

Kuhlmann is aiming for a surprise upset in the first game in Romania to set up a likely decisive finale at home against Belgium, a nation in a similar stage of development to Germany. 

"I'm super proud of the work the lads have put in. Now, maybe we need just that little but of luck but most of all I'd like to see 18,000 fans out in Kassel for the home game. We shouldn't be satisfied with 5,000, and maybe that can be the difference too."

In the same way there is more to rugby in Africa than world champions South Africa, there is more to rugby in Europe than France and Ireland. Anyone who saw Portugal and Georgia at the last World Cup knows that. Now it's time to find out whether Germany's moment has come.

Edited by: Chuck Penfold

Tobias Eder's ice hockey club, Eisbären Berlin, announced the player's death in a statement citing his family on Wednesday.

"We are shocked, deeply saddened and stunned," the club wrote on its Instagram account.

"Unfortunately, Tobi has not won his most difficult fight … Dear Tobi, we will miss you. You always put a smile on everyone's face. That's exactly how we will always remember you!"

Eder had been diagnosed with cancer in the summer of last year, just a few weeks after representing Germany at the World Championship in the Czech Republic. The diagnosis came during a routine preseason examination conducted by the Eisbären's medical staff.

The DEL, Germany's top-flight ice hockey league, announced on Tuesday that Berlin's next game, scheduled for this Wednesday, had already been postponed as members of the team felt unable to play in light of Eder's "critically deteriorating state of health."

Eder played 296 games in the DEL, scoring 73 goals for Red Bull Munich, Düsseldorf and Berlin. He made 3 appearances for the national team, scoring 1 goal.

Edited by: Davis VanOpdorp

Police in Germany on Wednesday arrested 59 Paris Saint-Germain fans ahead of an evening Champions League match scheduled against VfB Stuttgart.

Police said there was evidence that fans of both teams were planning to clash against each other outside of the stadium.

What Stuttgart police have said

"On Tuesday before the match #VfBPSG, 59 French hooligans were taken into custody in the city area. The measure was taken after consultation with a judge to prevent serious riots," Stuttgart police said in a statement posted on social media platform X.

Police said that "hooligans from Paris — including ringleaders — traveled to Stuttgart together without tickets" and that some of those taken into custody had, among other items, objects to cover their faces with.

Police said they would remain in custody until Thursday morning

"Anyone who travels to Stuttgart to commit violent crimes off the pitch will be taken out of the game," police vice-president Carsten Höfler said.

'High-risk' Stuttgart fans banned from city center

Forty-seven "high-risk" Stuttgart fans who allegedly tried to clash against the visiting fans were banned from the city center and the Bad Cannstatt neighborhood, where Stuttgart's stadium is situated.

Police said that some of these fans had been trying to spy on the opposition team supporters and that some of them were carrying weapons.

On Tuesday, Stuttgart and Saint-Etienne fans already tried to clash with PSG hooligans, but they were intercepted by the police at train stations and hotels.

kb/rc (dpa, DW sources)

 

Were there really regular sports activities in concentration camps?

The Nazi concentration camps were places of horror and death, of torture and humiliation. The guards used sporting activities on a regular basis to achieve this end.

"The guards ordered prisoners to do push-ups or leapfrogs, or to run until they collapsed from exhaustion," sports historian Veronika Springmann, the author of the book "Gunst und Gewalt – Sport in nationalsozialistischen Konzentrationslagern" (Favor and Violence – Sport in National Socialist Concentration Camps) told DW.

Those who were lying on the ground were usually kicked and insulted by the guards, she says.

"This was repeated day after day. It really was like an everyday ritual."

In addition to this forcibly enforced sport, there were also sporting activities that some of the prisoners carried out more or less independently.

Which prisoners took part in these self-determined sports activities?

Due to the inhumane conditions, most of the prisoners were unable to engage in sport as a leisure activity. The daily camp routine would have allowed no time for this. The inmates were generally malnourished and often afflicted by fleas, lice and scabies or more serious diseases such as tuberculosis or typhus due to a lack of hygiene.

The camps were organized hierarchically and the prisoners divided into different groups. Membership of a particular group also largely determined the conditions of imprisonment and the chances of survival. As a general rule, political prisoners or professional criminals were better off than Jewish inmates, homosexuals or so-called "antisocials."

Membership was immediately recognizable to everyone by means of colored cloth markings (triangles) on their clothing. Those who were higher up in the hierarchy were less often harassed by the guards, got better work, better accommodation, warmer clothes, access to more food and were therefore in better physical condition and able to exercise. Overall, however, the proportion of prisoners to whom this applied was small.

The better-off inmates also included what became known as "functionary prisoners." They were used by the guards to supervise their fellow prisoners and keep order. Many of them became accomplices in their privileged role, but some also took advantage of it to protect other prisoners.

Which sports were practiced in the concentration camps?

Football and boxing matches were regularly held within the camp walls. As World War II dragged on, the number of football matches increased because conditions changed for some prisoners after 1942.

"The labor of the prisoners in the concentration camps was needed for the arms industry," Springmann explains.

"All the arms companies had production carried out in concentration camps or in the satellite camps. Incentives and offers were then created there. Prisoners who worked particularly well or were deployed as functionary prisoners were allowed to organize football matches."

The teams were usually formed by nation, but generally had fewer than the standard 11 players. The prisoners even tried to organize football jerseys for such matches. A wooden cup has been preserved in the Dachau concentration camp near Munich and is on display at the concentration camp memorial. For the prisoners, organizing the games also represented a measure of hope.

"Planning is always directed towards the future. That means I hope that I'll still be alive tomorrow, the day after tomorrow, next Sunday," Springmann says. "This strengthens and gives hope. And hope is an important resource for survival."

However, it should not be forgotten that only a very small proportion of the inmates were able or allowed to take part in the games. They also took place in an environment in which torture, murder and death were taking place.

Did female inmates organize and participate in sports activities?

While there are numerous sources from male concentration camp prisoners and survivors on sport, this is not the case for female inmates. Possibly because sport did not play such a big role in their lives at the time or because other things were more important to them in everyday camp life.

"Back then, women had far fewer opportunities to do sport than men," Springmann explains.

"Sport was not an everyday practice for women at that time. However, I would assume that female prisoners in the Ravensbrück women's concentration camp, for example, may have done gymnastics from time to time, but they didn't write about it."

Did famous athletes have advantages in concentration camps?

As media coverage of sports was not as widespread as it is now, athletes were not even recognized as famous athletes by concentration camp guards. Julius Hirsch was one of Germany's best footballers at the beginning of the 20th century, twice German champion and a member of the national team between 1911 and 1913. Because he was Jewish, he was deported to Auschwitzin March 1943 and died there. No one knows whether he was identified as a former football star or even played in the camp.

Boxing was an important and popular sport to the Nazis. It is known that some boxers were recognized in the camp or came forward when the guards were looking for talented fighters. Polish prisoner Antoni Czortek and Victor Perez of Tunisia had competed at the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin. Perez was world flyweight champion from 1931 to 1932.

Both were interred at Auschwitz in 1943 as Jewish prisoners and had to repeatedly compete in boxing matches against other prisoners. Sometimes it was literally a matter of life and death. While the winner received a loaf of bread or a piece of clothing as a prize, the loser was either shot on the spot or sent to the gas chamber.

In a macabre way, boxing saved the lives of Czortek, Perez and several others in the camp. Czortek died in 2003 at the age of 89. Perez survived Auschwitz, but not the Holocaust. He was shot in January 1945 on one of the death marches on which concentration camp prisoners were driven from camps close to the approaching front to other camps in the final months of the war.

This article was originally published in German.

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) plays a crucial role in global sports, aiming to balance equality and fair competition. 

As debates about athletes with differences in sexual development (DSD) and transgender athletes continue, the election of a new IOC president on March 20 could significantly influence policies on their participation at the Olympics. 

Lord Sebastian Coe, current President of World Athletics, is seen as the most likely of the seven candidates to succeed Thomas Bach as the head of the IOC.

Under his leadership, World Athletics has implemented some of the most stringent rules for DSD and transgender athletes to compete as women. In 2023, it extended the period during which an athlete needs to maintain testosterone levels at below 2.5 nanomoles per liter (2.5 nmol/L) from 12 to 24 months. Whereas this had previously applied only to middle-distance running events (400 meters-1,500 meters) World Athletics extended the rule to all distances.  

All transgender women who have been through male puberty were banned from female athletics world rankings competitions, but a planned working group to further discuss transgender policy failed to come to fruition, with Lord Coe stating in March 2024 that the policy excluding transgender women from female categories is "here to stay."

Coe has also previously expressed the belief that IOC lacked a clear policy on the matter. "If you are not prepared to do that, and that is where the international federations expect a lead to be taken, then you really will lose female sport and I'm not prepared to see that happen" he told the BBC last year.

Who are DSD athletes?

DSD athletes have natural variations in sex characteristics, like chromosomes, hormones or gonads (reproductive glands), that may not align with typical male or female categories. 

Elevated testosterone levels in some DSD athletes have led to debates about competitive advantages, particularly in women’s sports. 

 

While proponents argue that rules such as those enforced by World Athletics ensure fairness, critics highlight ethical concerns about forcing athletes to medically alter their natural physiology.

Caster Semenya, a South African Olympic champion with naturally high testosterone, refused to do so after the new rules were brought in. Semenya challenged the rules in court, arguing they are discriminatory and harmful.

What does it mean to be a transgender athlete?

Transgender athletes identify with a gender different from the one they were assigned at birth. Their inclusion in competitive sports often centers on transgender women, with concerns about whether they retain physical advantages after transitioning.

The IOC’s current framework suggests maintaining levels below 10 nmol/L for 12 months prior to competition. 

Some federations, such as the International Cycling Union (UCI) and World Aquatics, have also implemented stricter lower thresholds or additional requirements.

By contrast, transgender men generally face fewer restrictions as no competitive advantage is assumed. 

What are the current IOC rules on hormone levels?

The IOC’s most recent framework, introduced in 2021, marked a significant departure from its earlier "one-size-fits-all" policy. 

While no longer mandating uniform testosterone limits across all sports it instead empowers individual federations to create their own criteria based on the principles of fairness, inclusion, and evidence-based decision-making.

For DSD athletes, there are no universal rules, but many federations adopt similar testosterone-based eligibility standards to those for transgender athletes.

What are major governing bodies rules?

World Athletics is not the only governing body that has tightened its regulations. In 2022, World Aquatics introduced one of the strictest policies for transgender women, limiting participation to those who transitioned before the onset of puberty. 

DSD athletes face separate, event-specific thresholds, acknowledging the varying impact of testosterone across swimming disciplines. 

In 2020, World Rugby became the first major governing body to ban transgender women from women’s elite competitions outright, citing concerns over safety and fairness. 

And, in 2023 the UCI reduced its testosterone limit for transgender athletes to just 2.5 nmol/L aligning with other stricter federations. 

The lack of a unified approach across sports reflects the differing views on the role of testosterone in determining competitive advantage.

How do IOC policies differ from those of governing bodies?

The IOC’s approach emphasizes flexibility and case-by-case decision-making, while federations are enforcing specific thresholds and detailed eligibility criteria. 

The current decentralized nature of the IOC’s 2021 framework has been praised for encouraging inclusivity but criticized for creating confusion among athletes and stakeholders.

Without uniform rules, athletes have faced a patchwork of regulations depending on their sport, often requiring them to navigate complex and sometimes conflicting criteria. 

What changes could the new IOC president implement?

The election of a new IOC president may bring shifts in how the organization addresses key issues. 

Potential changes could include standardized rules across sports with a unified set of eligibility criteria to simplify policies for DSD and transgender athletes, reducing confusion across disciplines.

The debate over testosterone limits and their scientific validity may lead to policies that account for a broader range of factors influencing athletic performance, meaning a re-evaluation of testosterone thresholds. 

Finally, finding the right balance between safety and fairness will be important. In sports like rugby, where safety is critical, new strategies could seek to address inclusion and equitable participation without increasing risks to athlete well-being.

Edited by: Chuck Penfold

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