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PRACTICAL TIPS

Where to run a marathon in Germany in 2024

The Berlin Marathon is among the most popular in the world, but Germany is home to dozens of interesting marathon routes spread across the country. Here's a list of marathons you can still sign up for in 2024.

Published: 8 April 2024 14:41 CEST
Updated: 14 April 2024 07:55 CEST
Berlin marathon
Berlin's BMW Marathon is among the world's 'Big-5' and attracts tens of thousands of participants each year. Photo: picture alliance/dpa | Paul Zinken

Kenyan runner Daniel Ebenyo won first place in Berlin’s Half Marathon on Sunday with a finishing time of 59:30.

With the capital’s annual half marathon already concluded, the running season in Germany is well underway. But for anyone with a half or full marathon still on their 2024 to-do list, there are plenty more races to come. 

READ ALSO: How living in Germany turned me into an athlete

In fact, dozens of lesser known marathon races take place across Germany each year from March to October. Many of the smaller races can be significantly easier and cheaper to sign-up for than those in Berlin, and some of the routes offer runners picturesque views of the countryside along the way.

Here are some of Germany’s upcoming marathon races in 2024:

Germany’s biggest marathons

Included among the ‘Big-5 marathon series’, the Berlin Marathon is one of the most popular marathon races in the world. In 2023, nearly 48,000 runners from 156 countries took part in the event. This year’s race will take place on September 29th.

Part of the Berlin Marathon’s appeal, for professional athletes and record seekers, is that the relatively flat course with few turns is considered one of the world’s fastest – world records have been set here many times.

But the course’s popularity also means that it is the hardest race to register for in Germany.

According to the event website, starting places are allocated by lottery. Registrants for the 2024 marathon already applied in the autumn of last year. Berlin’s Half Marathon can also be quite competitive to register for.

READ ALSO: Runners brave 160km marathon to mark fall of Berlin Wall

Registering with a charity is one way that potential racers can more readily join the race, but even this requires planning well ahead. (When a reporter from The Local tried to register for the marathon in February, multiple charities replied that they could instead join the wait list for a 2025 spot.)

So if you haven’t already secured a spot, joining the 2024 Berlin Marathon is probably out of the question. But marathons elsewhere in Germany can be much easier (and cheaper) to register for.

The country’s next largest marathons, in terms of number of finishers, include the Haspa Marathon in Hamburg, the Munich Marathon, and the Cologne Marathon.

Spreewald marathon

The Spreewald Marathon is one of Brandenburg’s biggest sporting events. Photo: picture alliance/dpa | Frank Hammerschmidt

Spring marathons in April and May

Coming up immediately, the Deutsche-Post Marathon in Bonn and the ADAC Marathon in Hanover are both scheduled for Sunday, April 14th this year.

The following weekend will see the Leipzig Marathon on Sunday, April 21st. According to the event website, the Leipzig Marathon dates back to 1897.

One week after that, the Haspa Marathon in Hamburg is scheduled for April 28th.

A few of the bigger marathons in May include: the Gutenberg Marathon in Mainz on May 5th, the Regensburg Marathon on May 12th, and the i-Welt Marathon in Würzburg on May 26th.

Germany’s most beautiful races

For those willing to travel beyond the bigger cities for a foot race, Germany’s forests, mountains, rivers and castles make for some awe-inspiring scenery along some of the lesser-known race routes.

The Spreewald Marathon, for example, offers a number of race events on flat ground with beautiful views of the surrounding waterways and forests. This year’s marathon is scheduled for April 21st, with bike and skate marathons the day before.

The Royal Castles Marathon Füssen offers nearly continuous views of the Alps and runs along several lakes. The race is scheduled for the July 20th this year.

For runners seeking a challenge, the Black Forest Marathon is known to be one of the most challenging and beautiful natural routes in the world, according to Runner’s World. Interestingly, the Schwarzwald race also happens to be the world’s oldest women’s marathon. The majority of the course is on forest paths, and takes place on October 12th and 13th this year.

For more extensive lists of Germany’s marathons check MarathonGuide.com or WorldsMarathons.com.

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HEALTH

How much more residents in Germany might have to pay for health insurance

People in Germany saw an increase in health insurance costs at the start of the year. It's now expected that they will be hiked up again next year.

Published: 20 June 2024 13:49 CEST
How much more residents in Germany might have to pay for health insurance

Health insurance organisations are warning that costs will be hiked up again soon due to concerns over funding. 

Doris Pfeiffer, CEO of the National Association of Statutory Health Insurance Funds (GKV-Spitzenverband), told Germany’s Tagesschau that insurance funds are expecting a billion-euro deficit.

She said it was a tough year “because we don’t have particularly good prospects”.

For people paying statutory health insurance, things could become more expensive next year. Around 90 percent of people in Germany are covered by statutory health insurance.

The contribution rate is fixed by law and stands at 14.6 percent. The additional contribution that the health insurance funds set for their members was raised to 1.7 at the start of this year. 

The latest increase gave statutory insurance funds the ability to charge up to 1.7 percent on top of the standard 14.6 precent contrinution, though not all insurance funds chose to do so.

The costs are split between the employer and employee, so workers in Germany would pay half of any increase. 

READ ALSO: Reader question: How can I change my German health insurance provider?

How much could additional costs rise next year?

Due to the funding issues, health insurers expect an increase of up to 0.6 percentage points to the additional contribution threshold. What this would mean for the insured depends on a few variables such as their income and their insurer.

Someone earning €2,000 gross per month, for example, would have to pay €6 extra per month if their insurer opted to increase additional contributions by this amount. Meanwhile, a gross income of €4,000 would mean €12 extra per month. The employer’s share would be added to this. 

health insurance cards

Many health insurance cards in Germany double as a European Health Insurance Card (EHIC), meaning that they can be used across Europe. Photo: picture alliance/dpa | Jens Kalaene

“That may not sound like much at first glance,” said Pfeiffer. “But there are people who earn very little for whom this is a lot – supermarket cashiers, lorry drivers.”

It comes following a rise in fees at the start of the year. From the start of 2024, additional contributions for statutory health insurance rose by around 0.1 percent in Germany.

Why are costs increasing?

The German healthcare system is one of the most expensive in the world.

As German society ages more, costs continue to rise – and the Covid pandemic didn’t help matters. The National Association of Statutory Health Insurance Funds estimates that this year alone it will cost around €314 billion to provide care for everyone who is insured. 

The money is mainly spent on hospitalisation costs and medical treatment.

READ ALSO: Why long-term care insurance fees are likely to rise in Germany next year

Health Minister Karl Lauterbach (SPD) has so far not presented any concrete proposals on how he intends to relieve the burden on health insurance funds in future.

Instead, the system is likely to face further expenditure. Lauterbach’s hospital reform is expected to drive up costs, while proposals to pay GPs more in order to combat the shortage of doctors would also push up expenses. 

READ ALSO: German ministers greenlight plan to improve healthcare at GPs

Pfeiffer called for a plan to tackle the rising costs.

“We now finally need an approach that puts this healthcare system on a new footing,” she said.

In the coalition government’s initial agreement back in 2021, the parties vowed to support health insurance funds with more tax revenue.

But as difficult budget negotiations take place, it doesn’t look like this will happen. 

This is causing friction among the coalition made up of the Social Democrats (SPD), Greens and Free Democrats (FDP). 

Green budget politician Paula Piechotta, for instance, is unhappy about this.

The opposition CDU/CSU also taken the opportunity to swipe at the government.

“This is not acceptable,” said CDU health politician Sepp Müller. “The tense situation in the social security system cannot continue to be ignored.”

However, it should be noted that there was no plan to help provide more money to statutory health insurance under the previous Health Ministry headed by the CDU’s Jens Spahn. 

When the SPD’s Lauterbach took over in 2021, there was already a funding gap of billions of euros. 

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