Overview
- At the Bundestag ceremony, Italy’s President Sergio Mattarella called for stronger multilateral cooperation and warned against forces seeking to fracture European unity.
- President Frank-Walter Steinmeier delivered the Totengedenken using a text expanded this year to include people persecuted for their gender or sexual identity and police officers killed in service.
- Bundestagspräsidentin Julia Klöckner appealed for active defense of peace and democracy, describing remembrance as a mandate to act rather than only to recall.
- The Volksbund reported a structural funding shortfall despite a one‑time €2.5 million federal increase, citing a €20 million‑plus investment backlog, falling donations and rising operating costs.
- Local organizers across Germany noted declining attendance at decentralized services, fueling debate about how to sustain relevant forms of community remembrance.