German government response to the COVID-19 pandemic

[30] The publication of internal RKI documents in March 2024, after a court ruling in favour of a smaller media organization which had sought to obtain them under freedom of information legislation, stoked renewed debate about the assessment of the government response to the pandemic.

[57] From August until November 2021, most of Germany was operating under the "3G" rule, which limited access to hospitals and nursing homes, as well as restaurants, bars and cinemas to those who were fully vaccinated, the recovered, and those who had recently tested negative for the coronavirus.

[58][59] As the fourth wave of the pandemic gained momentum towards the end of 2021, particularly in view of the growing pressure on intensive care units, there were increased calls to adopt the "2G" rule, under which access to the aforementioned venues was limited to the vaccinated and the recovered.

[60] At a meeting of Lauterbach with the state health ministers on 14 December 2021, it was agreed that the testing requirement of the "2G+" rule would be dropped for those having received a vaccine booster shot at least 15 days earlier, except for nursing homes and hospitals.

[61] In December 2021, virologist Christian Drosten suggested that Germany should, in case that the measures already taken against the new Omicron variant should not work, consider a "1G" rule, meaning that only people who had received a booster shot would be allowed access to venues of concern.

[100] On 12 June, the federal government adopted a €130 billion stimulus package which included a temporary reduction in VAT until the end of 2020, and a bonus for families with children amounting to €300 per child, to be paid in two instalments of €150 in September and October 2020.

Head of the Bavarian State Chancellery Florian Herrmann and former Federal Minister of Transport and Digital Infrastructure Andreas Scheuer defended the purchase which they had pushed together with Söder, citing the crisis situation at that time and pointing to no provisions having been paid; the latter claim appeared to be corroborated by a team of investigative journalists, and contrasted with the "mask scandal" over which two other MPs had previously resigned.

Most of those gathered appeared to keep a safe distance from each other;[146] however, from the early evening onwards, many hundreds were observed not to do so, leading Berlin's Senator for the Interior Andreas Geisel to sharply condemn the protesters for their "geballte Unvernunft" ("bunched-up lack of common sense").

[151] Lauterbach repeated his criticism of the closures on 9 February, on which occasion he also said that a "twisting of facts" by some media outlets, parties, Querdenker and scientists had prevented a higher vaccination rate in the older age groups, leading to avoidable deaths.

[157] In a January 2025 interview with German weekly Stern, president Steinmeier called for a review of Germany's pandemic response to be carried out after the 2025 federal election, saying that this was "urgent", and that it would "create the chance to win back people who had lost their trust in democracy or at least doubted it".

[214][215] The Interior Minister of Lower Saxony warned that untrue news could trigger panic buying and conflicts, and demanded laws to punish publishing wrong information regarding the supply situation, including the medical one, or aspects of the virus.

Saxony joined Bavaria and the Saarland in prohibiting residents from leaving their dwellings except for good reasons, which are similar to the ones in the other two states; outdoor exercise is permitted under the new rules only alone or in groups of maximal five members of the same household.

A project to find out the exact percentage of free intensive care beds in Germany had been started by Deutsche Interdisziplinäre Vereinigung für Intensiv- und Notfallmedizin (DIVI) and half of all hospitals joined it.

[239] At night, it was reported the Interior Minister, Horst Seehofer, had decided to widen the scope of the entry restrictions, which had previously covered other EU- and non-EU citizens, to also prohibit asylum seekers from entering.

[241] In late March, Adidas, Deichmann, H&M and many other retail companies which had their shops closed as part of the government restrictions announced that they planned to suspend rent payment according to the new law granting temporary relief during the corona crisis.

[252] On 7 April, the Robert Koch Institute, in partnership with healthtech startup Thryve, launched the app Corona-Datenspende (Corona Data Donation) for voluntary consensual use by the German public to help monitor the spread of COVID-19 and analyse the effectiveness of measures taken against the pandemic.

[261] After a summit between Angela Merkel and state leaders on 30 April, the federal government allowed opening of museums, monuments, botanical gardens and zoos, and religious services under strict social distancing conditions.

[271] On 15 May, it was reported that Labour Minister Hubertus Heil was to present a government proposal on 18 May to Germany's "corona cabinet", aimed at improving hygiene standards in meat processing plants through measures including prohibition of subcontractors.

In response to the development, Bavaria issued a temporary ban for hotels to accommodate guests coming from any district which exceeded the threshold of 50 infections per 100,000 residents in the past seven days, unless travellers could produce an up-to-date negative coronavirus test.

[288] On 21 September, a report from the Detmold regional government from mid May surfaced, which stated that violations of hygiene rules had been found by inspectors already before the outbreak, with no workers in the slaughter areas having worn masks at an inspection on 15 May, and canteens and toilets not being up to standards.

[299] On 28 October, as the number of new reported infections continued to rise and the established system of tracing of contacts of confirmed positive cases was no longer possible to maintain in Berlin,[300] Chancellor Merkel and the leaders of the 16 German states convened for an emergency video conference, after which they announced a partial lockdown, promoted by the government as "wave break", effective from 2–30 November.

[303] Ahead of a meeting of chancellor Merkel with the state ministers-presidents on 16 November, a draft proposal by the federal government surfaced which called for a universal mask requirement in schools including during breaks, as well as other measures.

[312] The latter measure ended the operations of pop-up Glühwein (mulled wine) shops, which had previously acted as a substitute for the cancelled Christmas markets in Cologne but had also drawn sharp criticism for undermining social distancing restrictions.

[50] On 5 July, in response to the spread of the more transmissible Delta variant, the Robert Koch Institute revised upwards the recommended level of vaccination necessary to prevent a fourth wave of the pandemic in autumn, to 85 per cent of those in the age range 12–59.

[337] On 1 August, new rules came in force that required all unvaccinated travelers coming to Germany to present a negative test result prior to entering the country, with exceptions including transit passengers and cross-border commuters.

In North Rhine-Westphalia, the mask requirement in public outdoor spaces was changed to a formal recommendation, and football matches and concerts could now accommodate spectators according to full seating capacity, rather than half as had been the case before.

[363] In the early morning of 6 April, health minister Lauterbach wrote on Twitter that the decision to make five-day isolation for those testing positive for the coronavirus non-obligatory from 1 May would be reversed as it would send a "wrong and damaging" signal.

[374] On 28 August 2022, the Federal Minister of Justice Marco Buschmann proclaimed that his party (FDP) will not agree to the reintroduction of the legal instrument of the "epidemic situation of national relevance", for such a step "müsste sich schon regelrecht die Hölle unter uns auftun" ("would have to open downright hell among us").

[376] On 14 October, during the eighth wave of the pandemic in Germany, health minister Lauterbach called on states to tighten existing anti-pandemic rules, saying that the country was heading down "the wrong path", but that it was "not too late to act".

As reason for the decision, he cited that the population had "built up high immunity", that experts were now considering a big pandemic wave during winter unlikely, and that no particularly dangerous variants of the virus were expected to appear in Germany in the nearer future.