Germany upgrades security stance to 'high threat level', interior minister tells paper

Jul 18, 2026

FILE PHOTO: German Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt looks on during a press conference presenting the 'Constitution Protection Report 2025', in Berlin, Germany, June 30, 2026. REUTERS/Axel Schmidt/ File Photo — Axel Schmidt

FRANKFURT, July 18 (Reuters) - Germany is upgrading its security stance to a "high threat level" from a previous"abstract threat level" based on increasing reports and intelligence, the country's Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt said in a German newspaper interview published on Saturday.

• "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 last month for killing six people and injuring hundreds by ramminga rented BMW into crowdsat a historic market in the eastern city of Magdeburg days before Christmas in 2024.

• In another episode, a German court last year 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.

(Reporting by Tom Sims; Editing by Kirsten Donovan)