In the July 2021 flood, twelve residents of a home for people with disabilities died in Sinzig, in the Ahr valley. The district administrator of Ahrweiler, Jürgen Pföhler, was accused of raising the alarm far too late and ordering only a partial evacuation. He rejected the responsibility. The technical operations command, he said, had been responsible for alerting the population. Prosecutors opened an investigation on August 6, 2021. In April 2024, the prosecutors in Koblenz announced that he would not be charged.
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Public Office by Merit
Article 33(2) of the German Basic Law reads: Jeder Deutsche hat nach seiner Eignung, Befähigung und fachlichen Leistung gleichen Zugang zu jedem öffentlichen Amte. Every German has equal access to every public office according to aptitude, qualification and professional performance. The constitution names three criteria for a public appointment. Who the candidate knows is not one of them.
The Debt Brake Ruling
On November 15, 2023, the Federal Constitutional Court ruled on the Second Supplementary Budget Act 2021. The act had moved 60 billion euros of unused borrowing authority into a climate fund. The court declared the act unvereinbar und nichtig, incompatible with the Basic Law and void. The court measured the act against the Schuldenbremse, the debt brake written into the constitution.
The Federal Court of Audit’s annual remarks
The Bundesrechnungshof, the Federal Court of Audit, checks whether the federal government spends its money properly and economically. It collects its findings in a volume called the Bemerkungen, the remarks. The findings are specific. The Bemerkungen 2025 stated that the expansion of the locks on the Mosel River, at 855 million euros, was neither necessary nor economical. It also reported that the Finance Ministry had spent 35 million euros on more than 17,000 smartphones for the customs service.
The Black Book of public waste
Every autumn since 1973, the Bund der Steuerzahler, the Taxpayers’ Association, has published its Schwarzbuch, its black book of public waste. The 2026/27 edition lists 100 cases. The city of Stuttgart put up sails and parasols for 350,000 euros, some of them under a huge plane tree. The town of Hadamar in Hesse built a toilet block on a fairground for 355,700 euros. In Schleswig-Holstein, 6.7 million euros of public money went into technology that is not used.
The soldiers’ commissioner
Any German soldier may write directly to the Wehrbeauftragte, the Parliamentary Commissioner for the Armed Forces, without going through the chain of command. The office was created in 1956 under Article 45b of the Basic Law. Every year the commissioner writes a full report for the Bundestag. In March 2024, Eva Högl presented the report for 2023. She said that the armed forces were shrinking and aging, and that recruitment was not satisfactory. Many barracks, she said, were in a state she called erbärmlich, miserable.
Care Before Speed
In December 2020, Klaus Reinhardt, president of the German Medical Association, said that a review period of four weeks for a Covid vaccine was too long. A spokesperson for the Federal Ministry of Health answered that the care and reliability of the vaccine had oberste Priorität, top priority. The headline in the Deutsches Ärzteblatt on 4 December 2020 was Bei Impfstoffzulassung gilt Sorgfalt vor Schnelligkeit. In vaccine approval, care comes before speed.
The Airport Opening That Was Called Off
Berlin’s new airport, BER, was due to open on 3 June 2012. On 8 May 2012, four weeks before that date, the opening was called off because of problems with the fire protection system. Terminal 1 finally opened on 31 October 2020.
Files examined by the Berlin parliament’s inquiry show that it had been clear inside the airport company since the end of 2011 at the latest that the date was in danger. In March 2012, McKinsey wrote to the management that a delay of almost four months ist bis zur Inbetriebnahme nicht aufzuholen, could not be made up before opening. According to an internal email, the managing director Manfred Körtgen wanted the word äußerst, extremely, removed from the critical paths in a controlling report. Körtgen later told the committee that he did not remember giving that instruction. A member of the supervisory board later said: Auf jeden Fall wurden wir falsch informiert. (In any case, we were given false information.)
Seiters Resigns
On 27 June 1993, a police operation at the railway station of Bad Kleinen went wrong. A GSG 9 officer and a terrorist of the Red Army Faction died. Federal Interior Minister Rudolf Seiters took political responsibility and resigned on 4 July 1993.
The Car Toll
Under Andreas Scheuer, the Federal Transport Ministry awarded the contracts for a German car toll in October and December 2018. On 18 June 2019, the European Court of Justice ruled that the toll broke EU law. After a settlement with the operator, the failed toll cost taxpayers 243 million euros. In December 2023, an expert opinion found that a damages claim against Scheuer had only small chances of success, and the ministry did not sue. In the same decision the ministry called his political responsibility undisputed.