Germany upgrades security stance to ‘high threat level’, says interior minister

FRANKFURT – Germany is upgrading its security stance to a “high threat level” from a previous “abstract threat level”, based on increasing reports and intelligence, Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt said in a German newspaper interview published on July 18.

“This means that the risk of attacks must be reckoned with at all times in Germany,” he was quoted as telling Welt am Sonntag.

“Plans for attacks against our country are clearly discernible,” he added.

He cited risks to German infrastructure, individuals and institutions.

The Interior Ministry did not immediately respond to a request for more details.

Germany has seen a number of attacks in recent years.

In one prominent case, a Saudi doctor was sentenced to life in prison in June for killing six people and injuring hundreds by ramming a rented BMW into crowds at a historic market in the eastern city of Magdeburg days before Christmas in 2024.

In another episode, a German court in 2025 found a Syrian citizen guilty of an Islamic State-inspired 2024 stabbing attack at a festival in the western city of Solingen in which three people were killed and 10 others injured. REUTERS