Overview

• Deutscher Wetterdienst data show Germany has already warmed by approximately 2.6 °C since the pre-industrial era, exceeding the global average.
• dpa’s systematic August photography at fixed sites from 2023 to 2025 provides before-and-after images that make glacier retreat, forest dieback and lake depletion visually evident.
• Researchers warn that Watzmann, Blaueis and Nördliche Schneeferner glaciers are acutely threatened and could lose their glacier status by the end of the decade, with Höllentalferner surviving only until around 2035.
• The Bundeswaldinventur reports that widespread tree mortality and stress have reversed forests from carbon sinks to net sources, jeopardizing Germany’s net-zero-by-2045 strategy.
• Observations, especially in eastern Germany, indicate lake levels falling faster than expected, posing risks to aquatic ecosystems, breeding habitats and local water uses.