Overview

• The federal coalition has committed to extend its €100 million immediate recovery programme for WWII munitions and to establish a federal competence centre in the eastern states
• Claus Ruhe Madsen invited Mecklenburg-Vorpommern’s Environment Minister Till Backhaus to form an inter-state working group to avoid creating duplicate structures
• Schleswig-Holstein set up regional marine munitions structures in 2024 and three firms began pilot recoveries in the Bay of Lübeck in September
• Some 1.6 million tonnes of wartime ordnance lie off Germany’s North and Baltic coasts, with corrosion releasing toxins that threaten marine ecosystems
• GEOMAR researchers continue to monitor the Kolberger Heide site where corroded torpedoes, mines and shells pose long-term environmental and safety risks