False: “Germany’s natural gas reserves will last for well over 60 years”

In an interview with the the newspaper “Frankfurter Allgemeine” on April 27, 2026, German entrepreneur Wolfgang Reitzle takes stock of Germany as a business location. To meet Germany’s electricity needs more affordably, Reitzle proposes a 50:50 mix of renewables and nuclear power. Until new nuclear power plants are built, natural gas power plants should be…

Mostly false: “A significant part of violence against women comes from immigrant communities”

“And then we must also acknowledge that a significant proportion of this violence originates from immigrant communities in the Federal Republic of Germany.” On 25 March 2026, the German Bundestag debated the issue of violence against women in the wake of a high-profile case of sexual violence against the actress Collien Fernandes. Chancellor Friedrich Merz…

Mostly true: “If Germany became climate-neutral tomorrow, no natural disaster would occur less frequently”

During the plenary session of the German Bundestag on 9 July 2025, Federal Chancellor Friedrich Merz (CDU) stated: “Germany accounts for approximately 1 percent of the world’s population. We account for roughly 2 percent of the problem in terms of CO₂ emissions. Even if we were all climate-neutral in Germany tomorrow, not a single natural…

Mostly False: “A ban on new internal combustion engine cars achieves nothing for the climate”

Does a ban on new internal combustion engine cars achieve nothing for the climate? This statement was made by German CDU politician Manuel Hagel in the context of the debate over the planned EU-wide ban on new registrations of internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles starting in 2035. Hagel argued that the EU-wide ban on new…

Mostly True: “Every two minutes, a person in Germany becomes a victim of domestic violence”

On September 18th 2025, Svenja Schulze, a member of the German Bundestag for the Social Democratic Party (SPD), made the following statement during the second reading of the 2025 federal budget: “Every two minutes, a person in Germany becomes a victim of domestic violence. Last year alone, there were more than 265,000 affected individuals.” This…

Mostly False: “More than 270,000 Germans emigrated last year because they are dissatisfied”

Dominik Kettner, entrepreneur and precious metals expert, and Dieter Bohlen claim in an interview published on 15 November 2025: “Over 270.000 Germans emigrated last year. And we know that these are high achievers: engineers, entrepreneurs, doctors.” (time stamp: 28:05) According to Bohlen, the reason for the emigration is the dissatisfaction of Germans due to the…

False: “The reason why health insurance contributions keep rising are the parties sitting here”

On February 20, 2025, three days before the federal election in Germany, Alice Weidel, party leader of the AfD, claimed during the “Wahl 2025 Schlussrunde” on ARD and ZDF that the reason for the steadily rising health insurance contributions are the millions of people who were allowed into the statutory health insurance system by political…

mostly false

Mostly False: “Dual citizenship will become the rule in our citizenship law”

On January 8, 2025, Friedrich Merz, the Federal Chancellor of Germany, stated in an interview with the newspaper Welt that “Dual citizenship will thus become the rule in our citizenship law” and that “it will bring additional problems into the country.” To assess this statement, we first examine whether dual citizenship has indeed become the…