COPY LINK

POLITICS

Warntag: North Rhine-Westphalia to test emergency sirens for 10th time

All cell phone users in Germany's most populous state are set to receive a piercing alert on their phones Thursday at 11am during the 10th 'Warntag' (warning day). Why is the drill taking place?

Published: 12 March 2024 11:22 CET

A siren in Düsseldorf, set to go off Thursday at 11 am. Photo: picture alliance/dpa | Rolf Vennenbernd

There will be another statewide test alarm in North Rhine-Westphalia on Thursday. At 11am, the state’s 6,150 sirens will wail and millions of mobile phones – even those set to silent – will ring.

Warnings are also to be issued again via cell broadcast. That means that all mobile phone users who are in a certain area with a switched-on mobile phone receive a text message accompanied by a shrill noise.

The warning message from the state government’s situation centre will also be sent to the media, warning apps, and digital information boards.

“We learn something new every year and make adjustments in areas where we can improve,” Interior Minister Herbert Reul (CDU) told DPA.

This year, the warning will also be displayed on around 1,500 digital information boards in NRW’s cities including Cologne, Bonn, Düsseldorf and Münster.

Tenth warning day in NRW

For the tenth time, North Rhine-Westphalia is practising for emergencies through these piercing alerts. The first state-wide warning day took place in 2018.

According to the mobile phone operator Vodafone, the test alarm will sound on 15 million mobile phones at the same time. For the first time, older phone models are also able to receive the alerts.

cell broadcast

A cell broadcast alert in Heimersheim, Rhineland-Palatinate in December 2022. The alerts were issued there and in North Rhine-Westphalia before they were rolled out to the rest of Germany. Photo: picture alliance/dpa | Thomas Frey

Cell broadcast was first put into operation on February 23rd, 2023. Since then, residents in affected areas in NRW have been warned of dangers around 60 times – mostly due to major fires, bomb defusals and extreme stores.

The decision to introduce the mobile alert system throughout Germany was made after the devastating flood disaster in NRW and Rhineland-Palatinate in July 2021.

In the aftermath of the catastrophe, which saw 134 people lose their lives, authorities were accused of not giving residents adequate warning to evacuate the area.

Nationwide warning days

Germany has also issued a few nationwide warning days, with the last in September 2023 and the next scheduled for September 2024, by which point an up-to-date list of functioning sirens in Germany is to be released.

The number of sirens is higher today than it was a few years ago, even though there are still no sirens at all in some parts of Germany.

After the end of the Cold War, the devices were considered superfluous in many places and were no longer repaired – or completely dismantled.

In the meantime, however, efforts are being made to change this, with corresponding funding programmes devoted to building or repairing sirens.

The number of trial alerts in Germany also pales in comparison to many other countries. The Netherlands, for example, has a similar density of sirens in relation to the size of its national territory, where a test alarm is sounded on the first Monday of every month.

Member comments

Become a Member to leave a comment.

Output is expected to expand 0.3 percent this year, the economy ministry said, up from a prediction of 0.2 percent in February.

The slightly rosier picture comes after improvements in key indicators — from factory output to business activity — boosted hopes a recovery may be getting under way.

The German economy shrank slightly last year, hit by soaring inflation, a manufacturing slowdown and weakness in trading partners, and has acted as a major drag on the 20-nation eurozone.

But releasing its latest projections, the economy ministry said in a statement there were growing indications of a “turning point”.

“Signs of an economic upturn have increased significantly, especially in recent weeks,” Economy Minister Robert Habeck said at a press conference.

The ministry also cut its forecast for inflation this year to 2.4 percent, from a previous prediction of 2.8 percent, and sees the figure falling below two percent next year.

“The fall in inflation will lead to consumer demand — people have more money in their wallets again, and will spend this money,” said Habeck.

“So purchasing power is increasing, real wages are rising and this will contribute to a domestic economic recovery.”

Energy prices — which surged after Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine — had also fallen and supply chain woes had eased, he added.

Several months ago there had been expectations of a strong rebound in 2024, with forecasts of growth above one percent, but these were dialled back at the start of the year as the economy continued to languish.

‘Germany has fallen behind’

But improving signs have fuelled hopes the lumbering economy — while not about to break into a sprint — may at least be getting back on its feet.

On Wednesday a closely-watched survey from the Ifo institute showed business sentiment rising for a third consecutive month in April, and more strongly than expected.

A key purchasing managers’ index survey this week showed that business activity in Germany had picked up.

And last week the central bank, the Bundesbank, forecast the economy would expand slightly in the first quarter, dodging a recession, after earlier predicting a contraction.

German Economics Minister Robert Habeck

Economics Minister Robert Habeck (Greens) presents the latest economic forecasts at a press conference in Berlin on Wednesday, April 24th. Photo: picture alliance/dpa | Michael Kappeler

Despite the economy’s improving prospects, growth of 0.3 percent is still slower than other developed economies and below past rates, and officials fret it is unlikely to pick up fast in the years ahead.

Habeck has repeatedly stressed solutions are needed for deep-rooted problems facing Germany, from an ageing population to labour shortages and a transition towards greener industries that is moving too slowly.

“Germany has fallen behind other countries in terms of competitiveness,” he said. “We still have a lot to do — we have to roll up our sleeves.”

Already facing turbulence from pandemic-related supply chain woes, the German economy’s problems deepened dramatically when Russia invaded Ukraine and slashed supplies of gas, hitting the country’s crucial manufacturers hard.

While the energy shock has faded, continued weakness in trading partners such as China, widespread strikes in recent months and higher eurozone interest rates have all prolonged the pain.

The European Central Bank has signalled it could start cutting borrowing costs in June, which would boost the eurozone.

But Habeck stressed that care was still needed as, despite the expectations of imminent easing, “tight monetary policy has not yet been lifted.”

In addition, disagreements in Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s three-party ruling coalition are hindering efforts to reignite growth, critics say.

This week the pro-business FDP party, a coalition partner, faced an angry backlash from Scholz’s SPD when it presented a 12-point plan for an “economic turnaround”, including deep cuts to state benefits.

Christian Lindner, the fiscally hawkish FDP finance minister, welcomed signs of “stabilisation” in the economic forecasts but stressed that projected medium-term growth was “too low to sustainably finance our state”.

“There are no arguments for postponing the economic turnaround,” he added.