Major German beer brands announce price increases
Krombacher, the country's most popular brew, will raise prices on all its products on October 1st.
Those include the eponymous beer brand as well as Schweppes drinks, also owned by the company. In a statement, Krombacher cited rising production and logistics costs as being behind the decision.
Veltins, another popular brand, will follow suit two weeks later, having last raised prices in 2023.
Neither brewery has specified exact figures, but industry analysts suggest that the cost of a crate of 20 half-litre bottles could rise by about €1 (from around €14-18), which would push consumer prices noticeably higher.
Both bottled and draft beer are expected to be affected.
READ ALSO:
365 German beers - What I learned from drinking a different variety each day
But savvy shoppers can avoid the worst of the price rises by buying at promotional prices.
Two-thirds of all bottled Pilsner in Germany is sold during promotions. Many outlets offer deals like a crate for €9.99, deals which will become even more attractive as sticker prices rise.
Advertisement
The price increases won't displease everyone. Public health officials have long called for
higher taxes on alcohol
to discourage what they say are dangerous levels of consumption in Germany.
READ ALSO:
'Beer is cheap and everywhere' - How Germany's drinking culture surprises foreigners
Germany has some of the cheapest alcohol prices in Europe.
Useful vocabulary:
beer crate -
Bierkiste
discount -
Rabatt
pub -
Kneipe
three beers please -
drei Bier, bitte
With reporting by DPA.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Local Germany
2 hours ago
- Local Germany
Why house prices in Germany are rising
Residential property prices in Germany rose by 3.8 percent in the first quarter of 2025, compared with the same period in 2024. The National Association of German Cooperative Banks (BVR) is predicting that prices will rise by 3.2 percent this year and by 3.1 percent in 2026. Experts agree that the second consecutive quarterly increase in property prices signals an end to the downturn that began in late 2022. Persistent housing shortages, robust demand – especially in major cities – and the stabilization of mortgage rates are driving the latest surge, with forecasts pointing to further increases in the coming years. Where are prices rising fastest? In Germany's seven largest cities – Berlin, Hamburg, Munich, Cologne, Frankfurt am Main, Stuttgart, and Düsseldorf – the average price of an apartment has climbed by 3.8 percent year-on-year and 2.4 percent compared to the previous quarter. Large independent cities outside these metropolitan hubs saw even stronger growth, with apartment prices up 6.1 percent year-on-year. Densely populated rural districts also experienced increases, while sparsely populated rural areas reported slight declines What is fuelling the price increases? The upward trend is partly driven by a chronic housing shortage. 'The construction of new housing has slowed dramatically, while demand in cities like Berlin is higher than ever,' observed Dr. Michael Voigtländer, real estate expert at the German Economic Institute (IW). Government efforts to address the shortage include the so-called 'construction turbo' program , which aims to accelerate planning and approval procedures. However, the BVR warns that only 64% of housing demand will be met in 2025, with the figure expected to fall to 58 percent in 2026. Rising rents are also fuelling the demand for homeownership. READ ALSO: How you can challenge Germany's controversial property tax on your home But perhaps the most important driver behind the trend is the fall in interest rates. When interest rates rise, borrowing becomes more expensive, typically leading to lower demand for real estate and slower or negative price growth. On the other hand, falling interest rates make mortgages cheaper, stimulate demand, and support higher property prices. Recent history in Germany provides a perfect case study in how this works. Following the financial crisis in 2008, more than a decade of ultra-low interest rates fuelled a property boom in Germany, which only came to an end when the European Central Bank (ECB) raised rates in 2022–2023 to combat inflation. Advertisement The result was a sharp correction in the German property market, with nominal prices falling by nearly 7 percent in 2023. As the ECB reversed course and began cutting rates in mid-2024, mortgage rates dropped to their lowest levels in two years, and buyers and investors started returning to the market in increasing numbers. Outlook: What Comes Next? If you spend enough time in a city like Berlin, Hamburg or Munich, you will eventually hear someone say, 'I should have bought property ten years ago.' In truth, people would have been better off buying twenty years ago. According to the Deutsche Bundesbank, residential property prices in Germany only began to rise markedly after 2010, following nearly two decades of stagnation or decline. Since then, however, prices for residential property in Germany's largest cities has risen by over 33 percent, far outpacing income growth. Currently, the National Association of German Cooperative Banks (BVR) expects residential property to continue rising – by 3.2 percent in 2025 and 3.1 percent in 2026, reflecting both the rate environment and persistent supply shortages. REVEALED: Where buyers can find the most property for sale in Germany Rent controls and government incentives may moderate the pace of growth in some areas, but the underlying supply-demand imbalance remains unresolved. Meanwhile property prices have become increasingly disconnected from incomes, so the dream of owning a home has become next to impossible to realise for many people in the country. For anyone who can still afford to get on the property ladder, however, the chances are that the value of your home will continue to rise. Advertisement
DW
a day ago
- DW
ChatEurope: First chatbot dedicated to European news
Launched today by 15 partners including a dozen leading European media organizations, this unique news platform integrates a chatbot able to answer your questions about European news in all EU languages. Where have rents increased the most in Europe? Who won the presidential election in Poland? What does the European rearmament plan entail? ... Everything you want to know about Europe, ask #ChatEurope and get the facts! The chatbot operates in all EU languages. Its purpose is very simple: to help you better understand Europe, the way it works, how decisions are made and how these decisions impact your life. Led by Agence France-Presse, the media consortium behind this platform brings together prominent names in European journalism: the German and French broadcasters Deutsche Welle and France Médias Monde; the Romanian radio RFI Romania; the German and Italian news agencies dpa and Ansa; the Polish press group Agora; the Spanish non-profit foundation fighting against disinformation the Spanish daily El Pais, and the online media outlet specialized in Southeast Europe OBCT. At the heart of this innovative project, the ChatEurope chatbot was developed by the Romanian company DRUID AI and operates using the language model of the French company Mistral. As the technical partner of the project, Xwiki developed the news platform. Dpa and AFP subsidiaries, news aktuell and MediaConnect, are in charge of the communication. ChatEurope formulates its answers solely based on the thousands of articles provided by consortium members and always cites its sources, offering its users a guarantee of reliability amid widespread disinformation on social media. In a rapidly evolving media landscape, it also promises users a fully personalized experience, navigating the content offering based on their questions. Breaking news, analyses, explanatory formats to better understand Europe, articles on the national implications of European policies, vertical videos on social media and even documentaries, ChatEurope is aimed at all European citizens, regardless of their origin or age. The platform was launched in seven languages: French, English, Spanish, Italian, German, Romanian, and Polish, but its chatbot is able to answer in all EU languages. ChatEurope is co-funded by the European Commission and enjoys complete editorial independence, a key to its credibility. Guido Baumhauer, DW Managing Director Distribution, Marketing and Technology: "Our involvement in ChatEurope allows us to explore the potential of AI to transform news consumption while maintaining journalistic integrity. We are contributing Deutsche Welle's Plain X technology for seamless video translation and transcription, and we play a key role in evaluating the chatbot developed by DRUID to ensure it provides trustworthy, well-founded answers to users' questions. This project is an important experiment in creating interactive, reliable digital reporting on EU affairs." ChatEurope partners: Agence France Press (AFP) / France Agenzia Nazionale Stampa Associata (ANSA) / Italy Agora Mediengruppe / Poland Deutsche Presse-Agentur (dpa) / Germany Deutsche Welle (DW) / Germany DRUID AI / Romania El Pais / Spain France Médias Monde / France / Spain MediaConnect (AFP) / France news aktuell (dpa) / Germany Osservatorio Balcani e Caucaso Transeuropa (OBCT) / Italy RFI Romania / Romania XWIKI SAS / France XWIKI SOFTWARE / Romania ChatEurope on Instagram ChatEurope on LinkedIn
DW
2 days ago
- DW
Germany: 1 in 4 immigrants doesn't want to stay – DW – 06/17/2025
Why are immigrants leaving Germany? A new study shows that other countries are more attractive to economically successful foreigners. Discrimination also plays a major role. The German economy is weakening — and yet many sectors desperately need skilled workers, including the medical professions, especially nursing, as well as IT, and construction. Germany also has a shortage of educators, cooks and people who can drive trucks and buses. At the end of 2024, there were around 1.4 million unfilled positions in German companies nationwide. At the same time, more and more immigrants are coming to Germany to work. In 2024, the proportion of foreign employees was just over 16%. It has more than doubled since 2010. Employment in medical professions is disproportionately high. More than one in six doctors is a foreign citizen. In nursing, employment growth since 2022 has been exclusively attributable to foreign personnel. Currently, one in five workers in this sector is an immigrant. But do these people actually want to stay in Germany in the long term? The Institute for Employment Research (IAB) at the Federal Employment Agency has now presented a study on this issue, based on a representative online survey of 50,000 people born abroad who immigrated to Germany between the ages of 18 and 65. The survey excludes asylum seekers who do not yet have recognized residence status in Germany. The survey period ran from December 2024 to April 2025. "Twenty-six percent, or around 2.6 million people, say that they actually considered leaving Germany last year, i.e., they thought about leaving the country," said Yuliya Kosyakova, head of the Migration, Integration, and International Labor Market Research Division at the IAB, as she summarized the figures at the presentation of the study in Berlin. "Around 3%, or 300,000 people, already have concrete plans to leave." To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video About half of those who do not want to stay would like to return to their country of origin, while the other half want to move to another country. Poland and Romania are the most popular destinations among those who want to return. And for those immigrants who wish to move on to a third country, people expressed Switzerland, the US, or Spain as top envisaged destinations. "A key finding of our survey is that it is precisely those who moved to Germany to work or study, who are better educated or more economically successful and who have a better command of the German language, who are more likely than average to consider leaving or express concrete plans to emigrate," said IAB researcher Katia Gallegos Torres. Immigrants with a master's degree or doctorate and higher earners in particular have considered leaving Germany in the last twelve months. "In knowledge-intensive service sectors such as IT, finance, and business-related services, between 30% and 39% of those surveyed are considering emigrating," said Gallegos Torres. There are also "significant" emigration trends in healthcare, manufacturing, and logistics. "In summary, these are precisely the people that Germany urgently needs to secure its skilled labor force. This selective emigration poses considerable risks for Germany's economic future." But what are the reasons? Family reasons play a major role for those returning home, while immigrants who want to move to another country are primarily looking for better career opportunities and higher earnings. Taxes and social security contributions and too much bureaucracy in Germany are frequently cited reasons for leaving. Added to this are experiences of discrimination. "Almost two-thirds of immigrants report perceived discrimination, for example at work, on the housing market, in public spaces or in contact with the police," says Gallegos Torres. "A third of immigrants also feel either not at all or only slightly welcome. These are factors that significantly increase the tendency to emigrate." The study shows that the political atmosphere in Germany has also played a role. "In 2024, the debate was very much dominated by the issue of migration, and social acceptance was not particularly high," noted Kosyakova. Just over a quarter of people in Germany have some kind of a migration background. Some 21 million people have either come to Germany themselves since 1950 or have parents who did. Some 6.5 million people have come to Germany since 2015 alone. The largest groups among them are Syrians and Ukrainians. In the federal elections in February, the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD), which advocates for the deportation of millions of people with non-German roots, became the second-strongest political force in the country. Meanwhile, the conservative CDU won the election after promising a tougher immigration policy. Now in coalition with the center-left Social Democrats (SPD), the CDU's first migration policy measure was to extend border controls. Similarly, a plan to allow well-integrated immigrants to obtain citizenship more quickly, established by the last government, was immediately abolished. "These big debates about migration and migration policy have a negative impact on people, on the feeling of welcome, on experiences of discrimination," said Kosyakova. "These are reasons why people report thinking more often about emigrating or actually planning to leave Germany." Experts consistently calculate that Germany needs around 400,000 additional immigrants per year who will stay permanently in order to maintain its labor force. This, they argue, is also the only way to balance demographic trends. Germany is an aging country. There are more and more pensioners and fewer and fewer people in work. This not only leads to a labor shortage, but also to a lack of government revenue to finance pensions. Against this backdrop, the IAB study shows that "not only immigration, but also the long-term retention of immigrants is a key challenge," according to Kosyakova. Overall, there are many indications that government measures such as reducing bureaucracy, simplifying the recognition of qualifications, increasing digitalization, and providing tax breaks could reduce the tendency to emigrate, especially among professionally successful immigrants, say the IAB researchers. However, they add that "broad and honest" social acceptance is also needed. Meanwhile, the CDU is now calling for foreign medical students not to be allowed to leave so easily after graduating. Anyone who studies in Germany should follow their studies by working as a doctor for at least five years — preferably in rural areas of Germany, where there is a growing shortage of medical professionals. "Those who do not want to do so must repay the costs of this first-class education," said Sepp Müller, deputy chairman of the CDU group in parliament. The Health Ministry, also run by the CDU, has welcomed the proposal. "We must attract young doctors to work in Germany instead of watching them leave," explained Tino Sorge, state secretary in the you're here: Every Tuesday, DW editors round up what is happening in German politics and society. You can sign up here for the weekly email newsletter Berlin Briefing.
