Inside Germany is our weekly look at some of the news, talking points and gossip in Germany that you might've missed. It’s published each Saturday and members can receive it directly to their inbox by going to their newsletter preferences or adding their email to the sign-up box in this article.
Der Zug endet hier
I once heard a German describe hating Deutsche Bahn (DB) as “Germany’s unofficial pastime” and I have yet to find a better way to sum up the country’s fraught relationship with its national railway company.
This week it was announced that DB’s CEO has been kicked to the curb - or, for him 'dieser Zug endet hier', if you will.
Richard Lutz, who has been at the helm of DB since 2017, will leave his chief executive post two years before the end of his contract, Germany’s Transport Minister confirmed.
But while it’s largely true that under Lutz’s leadership DB has “slid from one negative headline to the next”, as a report in BR24 put it, it’s not clear that a new CEO would be able to do much about it - certainly not in the short term.
The first major challenge the next boss will face is improving DB’s overall punctuality, which has gotten notoriously bad in recent years. In long-distance traffic, less than two-thirds of stops are now reached on time, and this has resulted in increasingly low customer satisfaction.
But improving punctuality at DB will not be easy, because it’s inherently linked to the other major challenges that the company faces, namely; infrastructure, politics, lack of funding and just to top it all off, looming collective bargaining negotiations. (Yes, we can presumably look forward to more transport strikes next year.)
DB’s infrastructure issues are extensive - large parts of major connections need an extensive overhaul. And while DB has a long-term construction plan in place, funding from the government never quite seems to be adequate. Add to that a federal government that will soon be frantically trying to close a massive budget gap and a national economy that has been teetering on the edge of recession for years…
All of which is to say I don’t envy whoever it is that takes over at DB, but I do hope they can succeed to some degree despite all odds against them.
After all, the only thing worse than a delayed train, is having no train at all. As an American, I can fully attest to this.
Where is this?
This overhead view comes from a road in the eastern region of Germany, not too far from the border with the Czech Republic.
Here a two-lane road is suspended directly above the reservoir of the Zeulenroda dam.
Zeulenroda is a town in the Thuringian Slate Mountains, just south of Gera and west of the saxon cities of Zwickau and Chemnitz.
It's been hot
In last week’s Inside Germany update we suggested that a bout of high temperatures were on the way, and indeed, this week the weather delivered.
This week the German Weather Service (DWD) had heat warnings in place for most regions in the country. At time of writing (on Friday afternoon), heat warnings were still in place for most of the country and - as if the sheer heat wasn’t enough - severe storm warnings were also in place in parts of Baden-Wurttemberg and Bavaria.
The heatwave is expected to recede in most parts of the country just ahead of the weekend, but something tells me that Germany may not have seen its last heatwave of this summer. So in case you want to get ahead of the next one, here a few topical explainers we published this week to help you stay cool:
If you live in Germany, odds are you probably don’t have air conditioning - so here’s a few tips to help you keep the apartment cool without it. And if you’ve tried most of those and the heat in your home is still unbearable, you may be able to claim a reduction in your rent - here’s how.
Warm weather also tends to bring out the bugs: Rachel Loxton explained some tricks for dealing with those.
Lastly, hot - or even just fair weather - days in Germany are great for one thing in particular: trips to your local swimming hole. In case you’re interested in trying out a new one, you could check out guides to Berlin’s best lakes, Bavaria’s best swim spots, cities with swimmable rivers, or these reader tips for making the best of a lake day.
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