Germany rehearses drought crisis at up to 45 degrees
In LÜKEX 26, authorities and utilities test how they work together. In the fictional scenario, hospitals, water supply and supply chains come under pressure at the same time.
Since Wednesday, 4 November 2026, Germany has been testing how its crisis teams respond to a prolonged drought and the extreme heat that follows. In the LÜKEX 26 exercise, the federal government, ten states, aid organisations and operators of critical infrastructure work together. Almost 100 organisations take part actively; according to the Federal Office of Civil Protection and Disaster Assistance (BBK), around 180 are involved in total. Accompanying organisations use the preparation and observation programme without actively taking part in the full exercise and its joint evaluation.
The situation is fictional: after five dry years, a heatwave of up to 45 degrees hits supply structures that are already under strain. Participants have to decide how to protect the population and infrastructure. It is not a weather forecast for the current week.
The crisis lands on decision-makers' desks
LÜKEX stands for a crisis management exercise that spans both states and government departments. Unlike a deployment exercise, it is not primarily rescue workers training at an assumed accident site. What is tested is the strategic level: information has to be brought together, responsibilities clarified and decisions coordinated between authorities.
Lower Saxony describes the exercise scenario as a simultaneous strain on hospitals, care facilities, water supply, agriculture and transport routes. Five state ministries are directly involved. Their task includes setting priorities under time pressure and informing the public reliably.
That is essential in such a situation: a single ministry cannot decide alone on health protection, water distribution and interrupted supply chains. The exercise therefore starts at the point where specialist information held separately has to become a shared picture of the situation. Whether the intended information channels work is to become clear during the simulated crisis.
Hamburg plans for restrictions at the port
Hamburg shows how concrete the assumptions become. According to its interior authority, the city is taking part with around 200 employees from twelve authorities and offices. In the scenario, key transport arteries fail, the port is heavily restricted and supply chains break. Food and drinking water become scarce in the tabletop exercise.
On top of that, disinformation is circulating with the aim of stirring fears among the population. Communication is therefore not measured only by how quickly a warning is spread. It must also convey a comprehensible picture of the situation even amid contradictory information.
Participants include Hamburg Wasser and the Hamburg Port Authority as well as the police and fire service. Overall responsibility lies with the newly established crisis team of the interior authority. Its situation room on the Johanniswall is at the centre. The port restrictions and bottlenecks mentioned are exercise assumptions, not a report of a current outage in Hamburg.
Hesse rehearses decisions right up to leadership level
In Hesse, all ministries, the state command as well as selected authorities and infrastructure operators are involved. According to the interior ministry, State Secretary Isabelle Hemsley chairs the state crisis team. The leadership level discusses political decisions and coordinates with the federal government. The decisions are then fed back into the state's crisis management structures.
The state is thus testing not only the gathering of information but also the path from the situation picture to a binding decision. In the statement, Hemsley stresses that mistakes in the exercise are expressly welcome. They are meant to reveal weaknesses in procedures before the same structures are needed in a real emergency.
Results not expected until 2027
Preparations began back in 2024. According to the BBK, around 30 preparatory exercises by individual organisations took place at the end of 2025. The scenario was developed with the involvement of several federal ministries, the German Weather Service and the Federal Institute of Hydrology. One starting point was the BBK's drought risk analysis.
The two core exercise days are 4 and 5 November. On 6 November, a meeting of the federal government and the states at leadership level follows. The authorities are examining their cooperation, not the likelihood of a particular sequence of temperatures occurring. The tabletop exercise therefore cannot be used to show that Germany could already cope with a real five-year drought.
The BBK announces a first report with key findings and recommendations for action for the first quarter of 2027. The detailed evaluation report is to follow in the third quarter.
Sources
- BBK: start of LÜKEX 26 and announced evaluation, 2 November 2026
- BBK: scenario, preparation and participants of LÜKEX 26
- Lower Saxony: five drought years and strategic crisis management, 3 November 2026
- Hamburg interior authority: participants and concrete exercise situations, 4 November 2026
- Hessian interior ministry: state crisis team and exercise procedure, 3 November 2026
- Lead image: ThoBel-0043, Aufgerissene Erde, Wikimedia Commons
- Lead image licence: Creative Commons BY 4.0
- Article image: Raimond Spekking, Hamburger Containerterminal, Wikimedia Commons
- Article image licence: Creative Commons BY-SA 4.0
