The President of the Federal Office for Civil Protection and Disaster Assistance (BBK), Ralph Tiesler, believes that certain areas in Germany can no longer be settled due to extreme weather events.

“As a civil protection advocate, I say that some areas should not be resettled due to climate change and the acute threat of storms and floods.

This question also arises on the coasts,” Tiesler told the newspapers of the Funke media group before the anniversary of the flood disaster in Rhineland-Palatinate and North Rhine-Westphalia.

"And there is no place or region in Germany where we don't have to take a close look," said Tiesler.

“What is certain is that we live in uncertain times.

Crises are becoming more frequent.

Corona has fascinated us for several years now, climate change will pose even more challenges for us in the future and there is a war in Ukraine,” said the top civil protection officer.

Tiesler called for a new awareness of the crisis among the population.

"The crisis mode must now be part of general awareness, we must learn that the crisis is part of everyday life," said Tiesler.

In the flood disaster a year ago, at least 135 people died in Rhineland-Palatinate and 49 in North Rhine-Westphalia.

Federal Interior Minister Nancy Faeser (SPD) wants to comment on civil protection on Wednesday in Berlin on the occasion of the anniversary together with Tiesler and the President of the Federal Agency for Technical Relief, Gerd Friedsam.

The cabinet is discussing a so-called resilience strategy this Wednesday.

The aim of the guidelines laid down therein is "to protect people and their livelihoods and to strengthen the community's resilience and adaptability to disasters".

The paper, which is available to the German Press Agency, states that existing structures and systems should be supplemented or linked with new or improved disaster risk management measures.

Non-governmental actors should also be involved, such as the aid organizations, which are primarily based on volunteer commitments.

The strategy also looks at Germany's development policy contributions to resilience in other parts of the world.

The paper defines resilience as a cross-sectional task for all departments of the federal government.

In addition to issues such as warning the population or considering capacities for reconstruction after natural disasters, it also deals with the protection of cultural assets, food security and civil defence.

In Germany, civil protection is the responsibility of the federal states.

The federal government takes care of precautions for civil protection in the event of war.

He can support the federal states and municipalities in the event of a disaster on request.

Despite recognized shortcomings in dealing with several crises in recent years, there has so far been little willingness on the part of the federal states to question this distribution of responsibilities.

The interior ministers of the federal and state governments have only agreed on the creation of a joint competence center at the Federal Office for Civil Protection and Disaster Assistance (BBK).

Here, nationwide situation reports are to be created and support services are to be organized in an emergency.