Germany today (Wed 11 Nov): A&E visits hit another record of 13.2 million, Siemens Energy posts record profit and more than triples its dividend, Mecklenburg's first 'red-red-green' coalition, women's ice hockey team beat Czechia in a shootout

Hello! Here's your German news for Wednesday, 11 November. At 11:11 today the carnival season starts in Cologne and Düsseldorf. And when the party starts, A&E departments get busy too. New figures show just how crowded Germany's hospital emergency departments were last year, so feel free to jump straight to item 3.

1. [Politics] Mecklenburg-Vorpommern agrees on its first 'red-red-green' coalition

• Coalition agreement presented on Tue 10 Nov — after about six weeks of talks, the SPD, the Left (Die Linke) and the Greens have finished their coalition agreement. Its title is 'Zusammenhalt, Zuversicht, Zukunft' (unity, confidence, future). It's the first time these three parties will govern the state together
• September's state election — the AfD came first with 38.2%, and the SPD second with 35.5%. Until now the SPD has governed with the Left; now the Greens join them
• Main plans — they want to move towards scrapping grid fees (Netzentgelt) for people living near wind and solar parks, and to set up a new state development bank (Landesförderbank) that brings support programmes together
• Money is the biggest challenge — the state audit office (Landesrechnungshof) has warned of a gap of more than €3 billion in 2028–2030
• What happens next — party conferences on Friday and Saturday this week will vote on the agreement, and next Monday the state parliament is expected to re-elect Manuela Schwesig (SPD) as minister-president. The first cabinet meeting is on Tuesday

Source: zdfheute.de · t-online.de (dpa)

2. [Economy] Siemens Energy makes a record profit — and more than triples its dividend

• Annual results on Wed 11 Nov — Siemens Energy, which makes equipment for generating and transmitting power, earned a net profit of about €4.1 billion in its 2026 financial year (to the end of September). That's about 145% more than a year earlier
• Revenue of €44.2 billion — up 15.5%. New orders came to about €68 billion, and the order backlog (Auftragsbestand) is €164 billion, almost four times its annual revenue
• Dividend up from €0.70 to €2.30 — the dividend per share more than triples, and the company plans to buy back up to €9 billion of its own shares by the 2030 financial year
• Wind business gets a breather — the wind subsidiary Siemens Gamesa, which made big losses for several years, has now been in profit for two quarters in a row. Gas turbines and the power grid business did most to push profits up
• What it means for you — demand from data centres and power grids has created jobs too: staff in Germany grew from 27,000 to 29,000. Worth keeping an eye on if you're looking for work in energy or electrical engineering

By financial year · 2026 is the proposed amount

Source: onvista.de (Reuters) · infranken.de (dpa) · ad-hoc-news.de

3. [Society] 13.2 million outpatient visits to A&E — the most since records began in 2018

• Federal Statistical Office, Tue 10 Nov — in 2025, hospital emergency departments (Notaufnahme) in Germany treated patients without admitting them about 13.2 million times. That's 1.3% more than a year earlier and the highest number since counting began in 2018
• About 36,100 a day — that's how many people went to A&E on an average day. The number has risen every year since 2020 (9.4 million), when it fell because of Covid
• Berlin comes top — with 221 cases per 1,000 residents, followed by Hamburg (212). Schleswig-Holstein has the fewest (117)
• More inpatient treatment too — there were about 17.7 million inpatient treatments, up 1.2%. If one person goes several times, each visit counts as a separate case
• What it means for you — if your symptoms aren't urgent, 116 117 (the on-call doctor service) is often quicker than A&E. Also have a look at yesterday's news on how the A&E reform could get stuck in the Bundesrat

Cases · Federal Statistical Office

Source: destatis.de · aerzteblatt.de · zdfheute.de (2024 figures)

4. [Culture] Düsseldorf's German Photography Institute plan is wobbling

• What is it? — the plan is to build the German Photography Institute (Deutsches Fotoinstitut) in Düsseldorf, a national body that will store, research and digitise photographic works and photographers' estates. Düsseldorf won the race for the location against Essen
• The problem is money — the federal government hasn't promised money for the national photography fund (Förderfonds Fotografie), which is meant to do the institute's actual work. North Rhine-Westphalia's culture minister, Ina Brandes, said: "Without the fund, there's no institute"
• The federal share is €43 million — the federal government agreed to pay half the building costs, but the running costs of €4–5 million a year are shared between the city and the state
• The founding committee's advice — it said the institute needs at least 37 staff
• What it means for you — it all depends on whether the Bundestag's budget committee releases the money on Thursday (12 Nov). It's worth watching whether the photography city of Düsseldorf gets to keep its long-held dream

Source: monopol-magazin.de (dpa) · t-online.de

5. [Arts] Korean-Dutch artist Sara Sejin Chang gets her first survey show in Germany — in Leipzig

• Sat 14 Nov to 28 Feb 2027 — Leipzig's contemporary art museum GfZK (Galerie für Zeitgenössische Kunst) shows 'Dismemberment', an exhibition by Sara Sejin Chang (Sara van der Heide). The opening is on Friday at 7 p.m.
• Her first survey show in Germany — it brings together film, installation and painting from the last 15 years
• The history of overseas adoption — her work deals with children adopted from Korea to other countries (up to 200,000 of them), Eurocentric thinking and colonial structures. One work brings back to life the Goethe-Institut library that used to be in Pyongyang
• The title work — the 2024 video installation 'Dismemberment' starts from shamanic knowledge and shows identity being taken apart and put back together
• What it means for you — Chang has taken part in the Berlin Biennale and the Busan Biennale. If you're heading to Leipzig, go and see these stories that link Korea and Germany for yourself

Source: monopol-magazin.de · prinz.de

6. [Entertainment] 'Identitti', based on the bestselling novel, opens in cinemas on Thursday

• In cinemas from Thu 12 Nov — the German film 'Identitti', based on Mithu Sanyal's 2021 debut novel, comes out. It's directed by Randa Chahoud
• The story — Saraswati, a professor of postcolonial studies at a Düsseldorf university, turns out to be white. Her student Nivedita, who runs the podcast 'Identitti', finds out from old photos, and the story grows bigger and bigger in the media and online
• The cast — Amanda Babaei Vieira (Nivedita), Stephanie Eidt (the professor), and rapper Sabrina Setlur as Kali, Nivedita's 'inner voice'
• First shown in Munich — it premiered this year at the Munich Film Festival (Filmfest München) in the 'New German Cinema' section. It runs 103 minutes and is rated 12 (FSK 12)
• What it means for you — it's a story that asks "Who am I?", so if you live in Germany as an immigrant, there's plenty to think about. There are lots of lecture-room scenes too, good for hearing how people argue a point in German

Source: kino.de · filmstarts.de · razor-film.de

7. [Sports] Women's ice hockey world championship: Germany beat Czechia in a shootout — Switzerland today

• Tue 10 Nov, Germany 2–1 Czechia — at the women's ice hockey world championship in Esbjerg, Denmark, Germany beat Czechia after a shootout (Penaltyschießen). Lilli Welcke opened the scoring just two minutes into the game
• The goalie is the hero — goaltender Sandra Abstreiter saved six of Czechia's seven shots in the shootout
• Results so far — a 2–0 win over Austria and a 0–5 defeat to favourites USA. The win over Czechia means a place in the quarter-finals is safe
• Switzerland today at 3 p.m. — the last game in Group A, with second place in the group at stake
• What it means for you — the winter sports season has begun. You can follow the women's team directly on the website of the German Ice Hockey Federation (DEB)

Source: deb-online.de · zdfheute.de · sportschau.de

Weather

City	Thu 12 Nov	Fri 13 Nov	Sat 14 Nov
Berlin	⛅ 6° / 3° cloudy, a little sun	🌬️ 8° / 3° mostly cloudy, windy	⛅ 7° / 3° cloudy, a little sun
Hamburg	🌦️ 9° / 1° light rain at times, windy	🌦️ 9° / 4° light rain at times, windy	⛅ 7° / 3° cloudy, a little sun
Munich	🌧️ 12° / 7° light rain at times	☁️ 5° / 2° mostly cloudy	☀️ 6° / -1° sunny
Cologne	🌦️ 8° / 3° light rain at times	☁️ 9° / 2° mostly cloudy	⛅ 8° / 1° sunny spells
Frankfurt	🌧️ 10° / 4° cloudy, rain at times	⛅ 8° / 1° sunny spells	⛅ 7° / 0° sunny spells

Tip: Thursday is the wettest day. On Friday the temperature in Munich drops by 7 degrees in a single day, and on Saturday morning it falls below zero. Watch out for frost on bikes and car windscreens on weekend mornings. (Forecast: wetter.com)

German from today's news

Word	Meaning	Example from the news
der Koalitionsvertrag	coalition agreement	Der Koalitionsvertrag ist fertig.
der Rekordgewinn	record profit	Siemens Energy meldet einen Rekordgewinn.
die Dividende	dividend	Die Dividende steigt auf 2,30 Euro.
die Notaufnahme	emergency department, A&E	Die Notaufnahmen sind so voll wie nie.
der Kinostart	(film) release in cinemas	Der Kinostart ist am Donnerstag.
das Penaltyschießen	(ice hockey) shootout	Deutschland gewinnt im Penaltyschießen.

It's 11:11, the day carnival begins. Einen schönen Mittwoch und Kölle Alaaf! 🇩🇪