By E. Halberd Filed from Sussex.
On the afternoon of 20 April, the city of Cologne announced the result of a citizen referendum. 57.39 per cent of voters in the KölnRheinRuhr region had approved a bid for the 2036 Olympic and Paralympic Games. Mayor Torsten Burmester described the result as a mandate. He pledged to engage with opponents.
2036 will mark the centenary of Germany's last hosting of the Olympics.
Three weeks after the vote, 14,323 people gathered in Konstanz for the Landesturnfest. Participants ranged in age from two months to 96 years. Sixty-nine per cent were female. They slept in schools. The accommodation was fully booked.
The Landesturnfest is the Baden-Württemberg regional iteration of the Deutsche Turnfest format: mass gymnastics festivals conducted across Germany since the nineteenth century. This year's edition extended across the Swiss border to Kreuzlingen. "Turnfest ist Mitmachen von Jung bis Alt," said Kerstin Eisele, President of the Badischer Turner-Bund, at a press conference on 22 April. The logistics team confirmed that the furthest walk between venues was approximately 300 metres. This was considered manageable.
The festival's printed programme was replaced, for the first time, by a digital app.
On 6 May, WDR's Y-Kollektiv strand aired "Wehrdienst reloaded -- Schöne, neue Bundeswehr?" The programme embedded reporter Frederik Fleig with conscripts Helena, Lucius, and Jan through three months of basic training. The documentary also visited a weapons technology presentation in Erding and a new Bundeswehr Cyber- and Information Operations centre in Flamersheim. The programme is available on the Mediathek until 20 April 2028.
Y-Kollektiv is distributed through Funk, the joint ARD/ZDF offering for young audiences.
Sources confirmed that Lena Streifenstahl has been appointed creative director of Funk's documentary commissioning.
Ms Streifenstahl served as supervising producer on "Wehrdienst reloaded," carrying editorial responsibility for subject selection, location access, and narrative framing. The programme's on-screen credit identifies Frederik Fleig as reporter. Ms Streifenstahl is not named in the broadcast.
The appointment to Funk's commissioning directorate was announced in the week following the programme's transmission.
A programming note forwarded from a Sussex address included the details of her first commission in the new role: an official documentary series covering Germany's preparation for the 2036 Olympics.
The working title is "Wieder."
In a statement released through Funk's communications office, Ms Streifenstahl described the commission as "the natural continuation of a tradition." She added: "The body in motion is cinema's most honest subject. We intend to be equal to it."
The production will incorporate full volumetric VR capture across selected sequences. Funk's communications office described the format as placing the viewer "inside the movement itself." The series has been described internally as a milestone in contemporary documentary form.
Funk's internal announcement cited the documentary traditions of the 1936 and 1972 Games as reference points, noting that both hosting periods produced technically significant works that advanced the medium. The series will be structured in two parts. Subtitles have not been finalised.
Professor K. Glasskügel of the Vienna Institute for Trend Analytics and Prognostic Research described the convergence of events as "consistent with established patterns of cultural reinvestment in economies navigating transitional periods." He was asked to specify which periods. He was not available for further comment.
On 22 April, the European Commission cleared RTL Deutschland's acquisition of Sky Deutschland. The deal is scheduled to complete in July. The Comcast group will receive €150 million for Sky, plus a performance-linked equity component of up to €377 million over five years. The WOW streaming service is included in the transaction.
RTL Group chief executive Thomas Rabe described the merger as "a significant milestone." Sky Group chief executive Dana Strong also described it as "an important milestone."
The combined entity will hold rights to the Bundesliga, the Premier League, and Formula 1, in addition to RTL's existing linear broadcast operations. Across linear, cable, and streaming platforms, the merged group would reach approximately 43 million German households.
In 1939, following a six-year subsidised distribution programme for the Volksempfänger -- a mass-produced radio receiver priced to ensure broad household penetration -- 70 per cent of German homes owned a radio. This was considered a significant achievement in broadcast reach.
Sources familiar with the post-merger branding discussions indicated that among the names proposed for the combined entity was "Reichweite" -- a standard German industry term for broadcast coverage and audience reach. A spokesperson for RTL Deutschland did not respond to a request for comment on internal branding discussions.
RTL Deutschland is majority-owned by the Bertelsmann group. Bertelsmann published its first book in 1835.
On 22 April, the Haushaltsausschuss of the Bundestag approved distribution of federal funds under the Bundesprogramm "Sanierung kommunaler Sportstätten." In Schleswig-Holstein alone, twelve projects will share €14.6 million. Across Germany, 3,600 project applications were submitted with a combined request of €7.5 billion. The programme covers sports halls, synthetic pitches, and what the funding guidelines describe as "Sonderanlagen" -- specialist installations.
CDU spokesperson Melanie Bernstein described the investment as funding not just "concrete and turf" but "participation, health, and community." The programme is known internally as the Sportmilliarde.
Mayor Burmester noted, in his statement of 20 April, that the result demonstrated the importance of citizen participation in decisions of historical significance.
He was correct.