Daily Germany

Germany sees lowest wine production since 2017 as rain hits harvest

German wine production slumped to the lowest level since 2017 last year as heavy rain in September affected the harvest, reported dpa.

Some 7.55 million hectolitres of wine were produced in 2025, a 2.6% drop from the previous year, the Federal Statistical Office said on Monday.

Compared to the average between 2019 and 2024, production was down 10%, the Wiesbaden-based agency said.

Germany has a proud history of viticulture, with its 13 officially recognized wine-growing regions primarily located in the south-west.

However, the increasing variability of the weather in recent years has presented winemakers with major challenges. In 2025, smaller grape harvests in particular were responsible for the lower yields.

"The last time we had a similarly small harvest of 7.5 million hectolitres was in 2017," said Ernst Büscher, spokesman for the German Wine Institute.

The decline was primarily due to the grapes being more susceptible to rot as a result of heavy rain, and consequently a shorter harvest period.

This was particularly problematic in the two largest wine-growing regions in Germany, Rheinhessen and the Palatinate, which produce 48.1% of the country's volume.

The total area under cultivation in Germany shrank by 1.1% or 1,100 hectares.

More than two-thirds of the wines produced in 2025 were white wines (69.6%), while 29.3% were high-quality Prädikat wines.

Germany sees lowest wine production since 2017 as rain hits harvest
A winemaker examines a glass of Mosel Riesling at the Selbach wine shop in Zeltingen-Rachtig. File Photo: Harald Tittel/dpa. News source: Daily Finland

France withdraws invitation to South Africa for G7 summit

France has withdrawn its invitation to South Africa to attend the upcoming Group of Seven (G7) summit due to continued pressure from the United States, an official of the South African presidency said Thursday, reported Xinhua.

"We've learnt that due to sustained pressure, France has had to withdraw its invitation to South Africa to attend the G7 meeting," Vincent Magwenya, spokesperson for South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, told media.

Magwenya said South Africa had been informed that the United States threatened to boycott the summit if South Africa were invited, adding that South Africa would therefore not attend the meeting.

In response, French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot said France had "not yielded to any pressure" but had opted for a "streamlined G7."

Since U.S. President Donald Trump began his second term in 2025, relations between Washington and Pretoria have deteriorated sharply.

The next G7 summit is scheduled to take place in June in the French city of Evian.

According to media reports, French President Emmanuel Macron extended an invitation to Ramaphosa to attend the meeting when the two leaders met on the sidelines of the Group of Twenty (G20) summit held in Johannesburg last November.

Ramaphosa says no surprise at SA not attending G7 summit in France

It was "not a surprise" that South Africa would not attend the upcoming Group of Seven (G7) summit in France, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa said, downplaying suggestions of a diplomatic snub following reports that an earlier invitation had been withdrawn.

"My information is that there has been no pressure from any country, the United States or any other country," Ramaphosa told local media on Thursday.

South Africa is not a member of the G7 and has not participated in every G7 meeting, he said, adding: "If we don't go to this one, it should never be a surprise to anyone."
Source: Daily Finland

Germany paves the way for tighter EU asylum rules

The rules for implementing a stricter European Union asylum law in Germany cleared the final hurdle in the upper house of parliament or Bundesrat on Friday, reported dpa.

Key points of the reform, which will apply across the EU starting June 12, are mandatory identity checks for people arriving at the EU's external borders.

For people from countries of origin with a low recognition rate, asylum examinations are to take place as part of the border control procedures. If an application is rejected, asylum seekers may be deported directly from there.

Since Germany is in the middle of Europe, it is affected by the external border procedures only with at its international airports and seaports.

Measures against moving on within the EU

Procedures for people seeking protection who have already filed an asylum application in another member state will be shortened. The transfer of asylum seekers to the state responsible for their procedure will be extended, for example if someone goes into hiding in the meantime.

The states can set up so-called secondary migration centres with a residency requirement. These are to house people who have to leave Germany because another EU country is responsible for their procedure.

Solidarity mechanism to help external border states

Heavily burdened states at the EU's external borders are in future to have some asylum seekers taken off their hands. The fact that Germany does not have to take in anyone this year under this solidarity mechanism is partly due to the fact that many asylum seekers and war refugees from Ukraine have come to the Federal Republic in recent years.

The Greens criticized the new rules as the biggest tightening of asylum law since 1993. While European rules had to be implemented, the centre-left coalition had acted with excessive harshness, it said. In the Bundesrat there were discussions, among other things, about provisions affecting minors.
Source: dailyfinland

German philosopher Jürgen Habermas dies

Jürgen Habermas, one of Germany's most influential modern philosophers, has died at the age of 96, reported dpa.

Habermas died on Saturday in the Bavarian town of Starnberg, his publisher Suhrkamp Verlag said.

Widely regarded as a towering European public intellectual of the 20th century, his major works were developed in Frankfurt, where his career began in the 1950s at the Institute for Social Research under philosopher Theodor W. Adorno.

Habermas was born in Dusseldorf on June 18, 1929, and studied philosophy, psychology, German literature and economics in Göttingen, Zurich and Bonn.

His political analysis helped shape Germany's post-war intellectual climate beginning with the publication of "The Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere" in 1962.

His "The Theory of Communicative Action," published in 1981, is also considered a seminal work of philosophy.

Habermas' studies frequently examined the concept of the public sphere and explored the forms of discourse best suited to organizing democratic societies.