The deaths have intensified pressure on Germany’s government to strengthen heat protection as drought, wildfires and crop damage spread across Europe.
Germany recorded a record 15,800 heat-related deaths this summer as Europe endured a succession of punishing heatwaves, the country’s national public health institute said Thursday.
People aged over 75 accounted for the largest share of the deaths, according to the Robert Koch Institute (RKI).
Around 9,600 heat-related deaths were recorded during a single week in late June as temperatures in Germany climbed above 40C, the institute said.
A further 4,000 heat-related deaths occurred between late July and mid-August, according to its latest update.
Across much of Europe, extreme heat and drought have driven up heat-related mortality, fuelled wildfires, devastated many crops and lowered water levels in major rivers. France, Britain and Spain have each reported thousands of excess deaths this summer.
In a forest near Gladbeck in western Germany, many beech trees turned yellow and brown following soaring summer temperatures and low rainfall.
The RKI, which has collected heat mortality data for the past decade, said the previous record was 8,900 deaths in 2018. A separate report by a medical publication had estimated 10,000 heat-related deaths in 1994.
Extreme heat can cause death directly through heatstroke, but it is most often fatal when combined with existing conditions such as cardiovascular, lung or kidney diseases.
The RKI estimates heat-related mortality through statistical modelling that compares deaths during summer weeks with and without heatwaves.
Climate change and measures to adapt to extreme heat were discussed at a two-day cabinet retreat this week led by conservative Chancellor Friedrich Merz, although no new measures were announced.
Merz said Germany’s 16 states bear primary responsibility for heat protection and are already due to receive 100 billion euros ($116 billion) over the next 12 years from a special infrastructure and climate protection fund.
A police helicopter loaded water to fight a forest fire in Huertgenwald, western Germany, on August 14, 2026.
“There is no shortage of programmes or of funds,” Merz said Wednesday, adding that the government would examine possible aid for the agricultural and forestry sectors following drought and forest fires.
Thorsten Frei, parliamentary chief of Merz’s CDU party, meanwhile rejected a proposal by centre-left SPD ministers to make climate protection a joint responsibility of national, state and local governments under the German constitution.
Such a model would create the risk “that one level of government points the finger at another, and ultimately little gets done,” Frei told Deutschlandfunk radio.
Environmental Action Germany accused the government of acting “irresponsible” because it had “failed to adopt a single effective measure for heat protection following an extreme summer that saw thousands of heat-related deaths”.
The group called for legal changes and funding to help municipalities and cities remove paved surfaces that retain heat and plant vastly more trees.
“Future summers will be even hotter,” said the group’s director Barbara Metz. “Yet instead of finally ensuring our cities remain livable and people stay healthy, the government is merely tinkering with the symptoms.”
Source: France 24
