Germany news: Police investigate swastika vandalism

Bundestag President Julia Klöckner has restarted debate on Germany’s prostitution laws, which are seen as relatively lax. 

Klöckner and federal Health Minister Nina Warken both said that Germany has a reputation for being the “brothel of Europe,” something they both want to change. 

Both the buying and selling of sex are legal in Germany in regulated brothels.

Both women have suggested Germany instead follow the “Nordic model”, which criminalizes the buying of sex but not the selling, and of providing more support to sex workers who want to get out of the business.

Police in the central German city of Hanau are probing a streak of vandalism in which cars and houses have been smeared with swastikas that appear to have been made with animal blood.

Authorities said at least 50 cars as well as several mailboxes and sides of houses have been vandalized.

Drawing swastikas or other Nazi symbols in public is a crime in Germany, punishable with a hefty fine and up to three years jail time.

Hanau was the site of one of Germany’s deadliest mass shootings in recent history, when a far-right extremist opened fire on several bars known to be frequented by the immigrant community in February 2020.

Guten Tag on this sunny morning from DW’s Newsroom in Bonn.

Today, Chancellor Friedrich Merz is attending a “steel summit” for the country’s metal industry as economic woes continue, and President Frank-Walter Steinmeier concludes his Africa trip with a stop in Angola.

Follow here for the latest headlines from across Germany.