Germany updates: Population growth on the decline

German Economy Minister Katherina Reiche says the ongoing tariff dispute with the United States is costing Germany millions of euros per day.

"Over 6,000 German companies have production sites in the US, in all 50 states," Reiche said on a visit to Washington on Friday. She noted that those companies employ more than 900,000 people across Germany.

The minister's trip is intended to support the European Union's negotiations with the US over tariffs.

Reiche has already met with senior US officials, including Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer. Meetings with US business leaders are also planned.

The dispute began shortly after President Donald Trump took office and announced new tariffs affecting imports from several countries, including EU member states. In response to market volatility, the White House granted a 90-day reprieve on certain tariffs — effective until July 9  — to allow time for negotiations.

The German air force has evacuated several dozen German citizens from Israel as hostilities with Iran continue to escalate.

Two A400M military transport aircraft, carrying 64 people in total, are currently en route to Germany, the German government said on what it referred to as a "diplomatic evacuation."

"These flights were carried out at short notice in close coordination with the Israeli authorities and were primarily intended for families with children and other vulnerable persons," officials said.

Due to the armed conflict, airspace in both Israel and Iran remains closed to regular air traffic.

According to Der Spiegel, the two military planes departed from Wunstorf air base near Hanover on Friday morning and landed in Tel Aviv in the late afternoon under special clearance. They departed again shortly thereafter.

The German government did not publicly confirm these operational details.

The drop in Germany's producer prices in May was due to lower energy costs, with industrial products costing 1.2% less year-on-year, the Federal Statistical Office said in a report on Friday.

This is the third price reduction in a row, with the drop growing successively each month.

"In May 2025, lower energy prices were the main reason for the year-on-year decline in producer prices. Intermediate goods were also less expensive than a year earlier," determined Destatis.

Energy costs were down by 6.7% compared with a year ago, down 0.9% since April.

Destatis highlighted a 7.1% year-on-year drop in the price of natural gas, while electricity prices fell even more sharply.

"Across all customer groups, electricity prices declined by 8.1% compared with May 2024," the report said.

Deutsche Welle announced Friday that Barbara Massing will replace Peter Limbourg as the company's director general on October 1, 2025.

"I am thrilled to appoint Barbara Massing as the next director general," said Karl Jüsten, chair of the DW Broadcasting Council and its selection committee. "She brings not only top-tier leadership and journalistic expertise but also the strategic foresight needed to position Deutsche Welle for long-term success in a challenging global media environment."

Massing, who is DW's managing director for Business Administration, thanked the council for its trust in her leadership and for the opportunity to help shape DW's future.

"Fact-based, reliable journalism is our most valuable asset and it is more important now, in times of AI-manipulated content and disinformation, than it has ever been," said Massing on Friday.

The director general is responsible for steering and coordinating DW's strategic and operational activities in close collaboration with its governing bodies. 

Read the full report on Massing's appointment by clicking here. 

The German government wants to increase its involvement in space travel and is also focusing on close cooperation with Japan.

"We want to become more powerful, expand our leading role in Europe and internationally, with our great partners like Japan," said Space Minister Dorothee Bär (CSU) in Osaka.

Bär made the remarks while accompanying Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier on his three-day trip to Japan.

She spoke at an event on German-Japanese cooperation in the space sector at the German Nation Day at the Expo 2025 world exhibition in Osaka. 

Space exploration "drives innovation, it drives progress," Bär said.

German astronaut Matthias Maurer also emphasized the importance of international cooperation in space. "If we combine our experience and our knowledge, we can achieve much, much more," he said.

German Economy Minister Katherina Reiche is in the United States, holding talks with the US government and German companies, with a particular focus on President Donald Trump's tariffs proposals.

Reiche's visit to Washington comes quick on the heels of Chancellor Friedrich Merz's trip the the US capital, where he was received by Trump at the White House.

In 2024 Germany's population rose by 0.1% which is a drop from the 0.4% growth witnessed the year before, according to preliminary figures released by the Federal Statistical Office on Friday.

As a result, the population for the EU's largest economy now stands at 83.6 million.

The figures showed that, as in previous years, more people died than were born in Germany, but the population growth came about due to immigration.

Population growth concentrated in Germany's western states, which saw an increase of 0.2%, while the eastern states, excluding the city-state of Berlin, recorded a decline of 0.3%.

The largest increase for a state came in Bavaria, with population numbers up by 73,000. 

The biggest population losses occurred in the eastern states of Thuringia (down 15,000 or 0.7%), Saxony (down 12,000 or 0.3%), and Saxony-Anhalt (down 9,000 or 0.4%).

The number of people aged 60 to 79 rose by 2.2%, primarily due to the aging of the baby boomer generation. The 80-and-over population also grew slightly, by 0.2%.

As of the end of 2024, 30.5% of Germany's population was aged 60 or older.

The number of foreign nationals living in Germany rose by 2.3% to 12.4 million in 2024, with the largest diaspora being Turkish nationals (1.403 million). The next largest diaspora in Germany, according to the preliminary figures, is the Ukrainian diaspora (1.085 million), followed by nationals from Syria (889,000), Romania (771,000) and Poland (723,000).

Guten Morgen from Bonn. Welcome to DW's coverage of developments in Germany on Friday, June 20.

Economy Minister Katherina Reiche is in the United States, speaking to Washington officials, as well as German firms, with Donald Trump's tariffs looming large.

Elsewhere, Deutsche Welle is to reveal its new Director General on Friday.

Stay with us here to keep up with the latest news from Germany.