Germany news: State premier visits VW for crisis talks

This blog is now closed. Here is a roundup of top stories from and about Germany on Monday, August 24, 2026:

We will launch a fresh Germany news blog on Tuesday morning. Bis später, See you later!

Lower Saxony state premier Olaf Lies called on Volkswagen (VW) shareholders to work together to avert plant closures.

Volkswagen is headquartered in the northwestern German state.

"Lower Saxony is automotive country ... and this must remain so," Lies, who is also on the company's supervisory board, said at the VW factory in Hanover on Monday.

The Hanover site is one ​of five VW group plants facing possible closure.

Lies was visiting the factory ahead of a series of workers' assemblies taking place this week.

During those assemblies, VW staff will have their first opportunity to question VW CEO Oliver Blume on restructuring plans.

Some 50,000 jobs could be cut to make Germany's biggest car manufacturer competitive, Blume has warned, in addition to the 50,000 cuts that have already been agreed.

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VW has been struggling amid rising competition from China and billions in US tariff costs.

VW's supervisory board has blocked some key parts of Blume's restructuring plans.

"Now it is important to me that we find joint ​solutions," Lies said.

Works council chief ‌Daniela Cavallo, speaking on behalf of Volkswagen's German workforce and who also sits on the supervisory board, reiterated her opposition to plant closures or compulsory ⁠redundancies, while also acknowledging the scale of the challenge of making VW competitive again.

"A programme for ​the future can't be created or sustained simply by talking about reducing labour costs, cutting staff, and questioning the viability of locations," Cavallo said in Hanover.

Two siblings have been convicted of money laundering, but not more serious criminal conspiracy charges, in a long-running case in connection with the illegal sale of ancient Egyptian artefacts.

The Hamburg State Court ( Landgericht Hamburg ) fined the brother €90,000 (roughly $105,000) and the sister €30,000 for their alleged role in trading the artefacts that were illegally taken from Egypt, restored in Germany, and then sold to museums in the United Arab Emirates.

Ít also ordered the confiscation of €32 million, the funds from the illegal sales, some of which went through the defendants' bank accounts.

Monday's verdict is part of a much larger case that's years in the making, reportedly with the brother and sister's father, an archaeologist, among the main defendants.

The items included a bust of Cleopatra , a stone slab associated with King Tutankhamun , and items from a princess' grave.

The brother was cleared of the most serious charge of working with a gang to arrange the illegal sales because of a lack of evidence. The main suspects including his father are being tried separately.

Prosecutors allege that the illegal sales took place between 2013 and 2018. Investigators found valuable artefacts in the siblings' basements in searches in 2020, according to regional broadcaster NDR.

Retired German F1 world champion Sebastian Vettel wants to try out his sea legs, inspired by being the co-owner of Team Germany in the Sail GP series since 2023.

"I don't have a sailing license yet, but I'm going to start now," Vettel told German news agency dpa.

He said he'd start with a regular motorboat license, "because I don't know anything about it yet, I can't jump right into the Champions League."

He said he'd long had a fascination for the sea, like many other people, saying: "we're not made for the water. Still, it stirs something in us."

Four-time driver's champion Vettel has tried an array of new activities since, and before, retiring from Formula 1, very often with an outdoor or environmental theme.

During the COVID lockdown he undertook a compressed and organic farming apprenticeship in Switzerland, where he and his family reside.

The 39-year-old also launched a project called "Buzzin' Corner" creating bee sanctuaries near race circuits.

And he runs an environment awareness project sponsored by F1 called "Forest, Drawn Together" which encourages people around the world to draw trees to raise awareness for the Amazon rainforest.

German public broadcaster MDR put out five seconds of dead air on Monday to protest the right-wing populist Alternative for Germany (AfD) plans to cut the state-level public fees if it's involved in the Saxony-Anhalt regional government.

At the end of MDR Sachsen-Anhalt's radio news on Monday, the newsreader handed over to a colleague, only for five seconds of silence to follow.

"As you can hear, you can't hear anything. No more MDR in Saxony-Anhalt? And with that no MDR Saxony-Anhalt, My Radio, or My Home? That could happen," the reporter said, referring to the program names.

The station made a similar protest on its website . Several of its regional items specific to Saxony-Anhalt did not carry a top photo on Monday, but rather a black tile.

Regional public broadcaster MDR services three states from former East Germany: Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt and Thuringia. They're three of the strongest states nationwide for the AfD.

MDR's director general Ralf Ludwig recently said he would challenge the move in court if the AfD went through with its threat to terminate the state broadcasting agreements.

Poll suggest the AfD is likely to be the strongest single party in the state in next month's election , but also to fall short of an outright majority.

Whether it can govern is likely to depend on whether or not smaller parties clear the 5% hurdle and enter parliament. If several parties were to fail to do so, meaning their votes are discounted, then the AfD could conceivably win a majority in parliament even with a vote share nearer 40% than 50%.

A court in Hanover has jailed a 28-year-old homeless man for an unusual and ineffective robbery that defense attorneys said was an act of desperation.

The man entered a cashless bank branch on July 2, took out a large knife and demanded money from an employee.