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The most serious incident of the past week in Germany was the shooting near Hamburg's Elbphilharmonie, in which a 68-year-old suspect shot his daughter-in-law, 39, and a 40-year-old security guard, having already killed his wife, 65, and father-in-law, 90, at his home near Stuttgart, before being found dead in the venue's hotel. Police said on 10 November that the daughter-in-law was no longer in a life-threatening condition, and a letter believed to be from the suspect cited a dispute over his company.
On 11 November, a car was driven into a group of three men in Ronnenberg's Empelde district, near Hanover, seriously injuring one before the driver fled, the second such car-ramming in the region in two weeks. The same day, pepper spray used against a man at Gelsenkirchen's main station spread through the hall, injuring four bystanders, including a pregnant woman and a baby. Other incidents this week included two apparently linked stabbings at the same Kreuzberg street corner in Berlin, a light aircraft crash that killed both occupants on the A2 near Magdeburg, and a nitric acid tanker spill that shut a motorway and schools in Krefeld.
Updated by the ECTV Crisis Desk, based on 11 verified stories from the past seven days.
ECTV has published 12 verified stories on Germany in the past seven days. The most recent, updated 12 November 2026: Batteries found in muffins trigger school rescue operation in Germany.
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Sixteen children were taken to hospital as a precaution after small batteries were found in muffins at a primary school in Coswig, Germany; police say no one was hurt.
4 independent sources · 98% confidenceA dispute in a Mannheim city-centre café left 1 person dead and another wounded late on Wednesday, before police shot and arrested the suspect nearby.
5 independent sources · 98% confidenceA man suspected of deliberately driving into three men near Hanover on Wednesday night handed himself in to police on Thursday, as a 20-year-old victim remained in mortal danger.
Updated : Suspect who drove into three men near Hanover has surrendered to police and is being investigated for attempted killing.
6 independent sources · 98% confidenceA shop worker's pepper spray spread through Gelsenkirchen's main station after a suspected theft, hurting 4 bystanders, police said.
4 independent sources · 97% confidenceThe 39-year-old daughter-in-law of the Hamburg Elbphilharmonie gunman is no longer in a life-threatening condition, police said, as a letter citing a dispute over his firm emerges.
18 independent sources · 98% confidenceFlames spread from a barn to a home in the Primsweiler district of Schmelz, in Germany's Saarland, late on Monday, but residents escaped unhurt, police said.
3 independent sources · 83% confidenceA lorry carrying straw caught fire on the A2 near Helmstedt; resurfacing about 250 square metres of burnt road is expected to cost up to €80,000.
3 independent sources · 88% confidenceA fire at a meat-processing plant in Rheda-Wiedenbrück, Germany, caused damage estimated in the millions of euros, German media reported.
3 independent sources · 88% confidencePolice are investigating whether two stabbings hours apart in Berlin's Kreuzberg district, which left two men seriously injured, are linked.
6 independent sources · 98% confidenceFederal police published a computer-generated image as they investigated an August attempt to strike a Ukrainian transport aircraft.
7 independent sources · 98% confidenceFirefighters contained a nitric acid leak after a tanker overturned near the A57, disrupting road and rail travel on Friday.
10 independent sources · 98% confidenceA light aircraft from Schleswig-Holstein caught fire after crashing on the A2 near Burg on Friday; the cause remained unknown as investigators examined the wreckage.
13 independent sources · 98% confidenceGerman reports say stones thrown from a motorway bridge struck eight vehicles; police are investigating those involved.
3 independent sources · 88% confidenceGerman police arrested a Turkish national accused of ordering the September arson attack on a Starlink ground station in Poland, prosecutors say.
2 independent sources · 59% confidenceA group of pupils threw a firecracker into a changing room at a secondary school in Oberhausen, Germany, injuring 10 children, police say.
3 independent sources · 88% confidenceGermany's chancellor called plans to invite Putin to December's G20 summit "unacceptable" without Ukraine, as Zelensky visited Berlin for air-defence and energy talks.
8 independent sources · 98% confidenceA fire in the basement of a residential building in Berlin's Marienfelde district on Monday evening filled the building with smoke, forcing firefighters to evacuate 30 residents unharmed.
2 independent sources · 69% confidenceAn angle grinder cut an ammonia pipe during dismantling work in Bremervörde, seriously injuring one worker and triggering a 250-strong emergency response.
4 independent sources · 97% confidenceThe attack killed 2 people and injured 6 in Leipzig in May; the trial of the driver accused of carrying it out opened on Monday.
3 independent sources · 83% confidence2 people were lightly hurt when a patient room caught fire at a hospital in Potsdam's Stern district on Monday; police suspect arson.
3 independent sources · 83% confidenceA blaze in a flat inside a business building in Bremen's Kreuz industrial area left one person seriously hurt late on Sunday, the fire service said.
4 independent sources · 97% confidenceMore than 60 firefighters tackled a blaze in a cluttered flat on Baerwaldstrasse on Saturday night and rescued one seriously injured resident.
3 independent sources · 83% confidenceRiots broke out in Hamburg's St Georg district after a Gen Z protest on Saturday, with 120 arrests and a child and a policewoman hurt by a firework.
4 independent sources · 98% confidencePolice ended a Gen Z protest early in Berlin on Saturday after stone-throwing and fireworks left 27 officers hurt, with further clashes reported in Cologne.
6 independent sources · 88% confidenceRioters looted shops and threw Molotov cocktails at police in Frankfurt on Saturday night, with police also attacked in Berlin, Hamburg, Cologne and Bremen.
39 independent sources · 98% confidenceThree vehicles were destroyed in a fire at a Rheinmetall construction site near Kassel airport, with police suspecting a political motive.
3 independent sources · 88% confidenceThe attackers accessed names and organisational details of employees, students and external contacts, not patient data, the hospital says.
3 independent sources · 88% confidencePrefabricated concrete stairway sections crashed down onto workers assembling them at a school extension in Gronau, Germany, killing two and injuring two more, police said.
3 independent sources · 93% confidenceGerman police say the bus crossed a roundabout for reasons still unclear before hitting a house in Schleswig-Holstein on Friday; reports on how many were hurt range from about 12 to at least 20.
3 independent sources · 88% confidenceAll internet-connected servers at Germany's University of Leipzig have stayed offline since a hacker attack on Wednesday, affecting 30,000 students.
2 independent sources · 74% confidence