The Federal Office of Civil Protection, the BBK, advises people to have cash on hand: Denken Sie daran, Bargeld zur Verfügung zu haben, remember to have cash available. The reason it gives is that cash machines also stop working in a power cut. It names no amount. In July 2025, Bundesbank board member Burkhard Balz said in an interview that cash can be decisive in a crisis, so that people can keep paying. Cash is independent of electricity, networks and digital interfaces. Bargeld lässt sich nicht hacken, he said, cash cannot be hacked.
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Minimum Numbers for Hospitals
For certain difficult operations, a German hospital must prove its experience in numbers. The Federal Joint Committee, the G-BA, sets Mindestmengen, minimum numbers. A hospital may perform such an operation in the next calendar year only if its case numbers make it likely that it will reach the minimum. In December 2020 the G-BA raised two of them, with effect from 1 January 2021. For operations on the esophagus, the minimum rose from 10 to 26 a year at each hospital site, after a transition period. Hospitals caring for premature and newborn babies under 1,250 grams must now care for at least 25 such children a year instead of 14. For kidney transplants, the minimum of 25 a year stayed in place. The G-BA cited the scientifically demonstrable link between the number of operations and their quality. Particularly difficult planned operations should take place only in hospitals that have enough experience with them. The expected gain was fewer complications and deaths.
A Pandemic Rehearsed in 2007
LÜKEX is short for Länder- und Ressortübergreifende Krisenmanagementübung, a crisis management exercise across federal states and ministries. The exercises run in a two-year cycle. On Wednesday, 7 November 2007, one of them played through a pandemic. In the scenario, 27 million people in Germany fell ill within eight weeks. 307,000 were treated in hospital, and 102,000 died. Seven federal states and about 3,000 people took part. Afterward, it was said internally that the crisis staff led by the interior and health ministries hat sich strukturell und organisatorisch uneingeschränkt bewährt, had proven itself fully in structure and organization. In fact, the exercise saw severe shortages of medicines, a breakdown of medical care in some districts, staff absences in hospitals and the police, and stalled communication between decision makers.
Thirteen years later, the real pandemic arrived.
Who Leads at a Fire
At a fire in Bavaria, the law names the person in charge before anyone arrives. Under Article 18 of the Bavarian Fire Brigade Act, the Einsatzleiter, the incident commander, is the commander of the local fire brigade. When the town’s professional fire brigade arrives, its leader takes over. When senior fire officers responsible for the area arrive, the highest-ranking of them may take over. The law also settles a tie. Bei gleichem Rang entscheidet die Zuständigkeit für den Schadensort. With equal rank, responsibility for the place of the incident decides. In a company with its own fire brigade, the head of that brigade leads. The incident commander’s power reaches beyond the fire brigade. He may call on people to help for up to three days, when this is absolutely necessary to avert a present danger to the public. He may also require owners to provide vehicles, water and other things needed to fight the fire.
The First Steps at a Dangerous Scene
German fire brigades and rescue services use the GAMS-Regel, a memory aid for the first measures at a dangerous incident.
Gefahr erkennen — recognize the hazard.
Absperren — cordon off the area.
Menschenrettung durchführen — rescue people.
Spezialkräfte nachfordern — call in specialist units.
The aim, says the medical encyclopedia DocCheck Flexikon, is not to endanger oneself, the team or others. To recognize the hazard, crews use a second scheme, called 4A-1C-4E. Its letters stand for Atemgifte (toxic gases), Angstreaktion (panic), Ausbreitung (spread), Atomare Strahlung (radiation), Chemische Stoffe (chemicals), Elektrizität, Explosion, Einsturz (collapse) and Erkrankung/Verletzung (illness or injury). In June 2025 a Cologne fire officer wrote a paper on water rescue. He noted that drowning and being swept away cannot be captured by the classic scheme. He cited a proposal to extend it with one more E, for Ertrinken/Wassergefahren, drowning and water hazards.
Three Letters Against a Virus
During the coronavirus pandemic, German public health advice was condensed into three letters, AHA: Abstand, Hygiene, Alltagsmaske, distance, hygiene, everyday mask. Indoors an L was added, for Lüften, airing the room. After the meeting of the chancellor and the state premiers in October 2020, the federal government’s website showed the AHA+A+L-Formel. The second A stood for the Corona warning app. The Society for the German Language placed AHA fifth among its Words of the Year 2020.
Risks Into the Budget
In June 2015, the federal reform commission on the construction of large projects presented its final report. It explained why such projects so often cost more than planned. Cost estimates neglect existing risks and are often well below the costs that can really be expected. The regular underestimation of costs and time is often politically motivated. Even where risks were assessed, they usually did not enter the budget approved for the project. A study it cited of 170 large projects found an average cost increase of 73 percent, although the report noted that the study was not representative. Its third recommendation is titled Risikomanagement und Erfassung von Risiken im Haushalt, risk management and recording risks in the budget. Risks should be named when funds are requested. Identifying and assessing them, and planning countermeasures, should be a condition for receiving money. Transport Minister Alexander Dobrindt summed it up: risk buffers and professional risk management make cost and time plans more reliable.
The Pension Fund’s Floor
The German statutory pension insurance must keep a reserve, the Nachhaltigkeitsrücklage, sustainability reserve. Until 2004, it was called the Schwankungsreserve, the fluctuation reserve. The law ties the contribution rate to it. If the reserve falls below its floor, the contribution must rise. If it holds more than 1.5 months of spending, the contribution must fall. For years the floor was 0.2 months of spending. In 2022, the pension insurer told the Bundestag that this was not enough. Within a single year, it wrote, the money on hand at the end of October was already 0.2 to 0.3 months of spending below the level at year’s end. The pension package of 2025 raised the floor to 0.3 months. It expected the reserve to stand at 41.5 billion euros at the end of 2025, or 1.39 months of spending.
Power Plants That May Not Close
Some German power plants no longer produce electricity for the market, but they are not allowed to shut down for good. They are system-relevant and form the Netzreserve, the grid reserve. They run only when the operators of the transmission grid call for them. The cost of keeping them ready, and of using them, is paid through grid fees. In May 2026, the Federal Network Agency confirmed a need of 7,407 megawatts of reserve plants for the winter of 2026 to 2027. German plants cover 4,742 megawatts. The remaining 2,665 megawatts are to come from plants in neighboring countries. The agency’s president, Klaus Müller, said that the reserve is needed until the grids are better expanded.
The Shelters That Were Given Up
Germany originally had 2,000 public air-raid shelters. In 2007, the federal government decided, in agreement with the states, to give up the shelter concept and stop maintaining the shelters. In January 2025, the government told the Bundestag that 579 shelters with about 478,000 places were still formally dedicated to civil protection. None of them was functional or ready for use. The head of the Federal Office of Civil Protection, Ralph Tiesler, said there had never been shelters for more than three percent of the population. The process of giving them up was stopped in March 2022, after the Russian invasion of Ukraine began. Planning for a national shelter concept is under way.
The shelters were given up in calm times. Planning began again only when the worst case looked realistic.