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According to the association, the number of people in need in Bavaria has been increasing for years

Because online retail is preparing to dramatically change the world of Ikea, Höffner, XXXL-Lutz and Roller. According to a study by the Cologne trade research institute ECC, in the worst case one in three of the around 30,000 German furniture and furnishings stores is threatened with extinction by 2020.

According to the Bundesverband des Deutschen Möbelhandels (BVDM), only a good six percent of total sales in the industry have so far been placed on orders with a mouse click. But the signals that online retailing is about to mess up the furniture industry after the book trade and the textile industry are unmistakable.

Online furniture retailers are growing strongly

The furniture retailer Home24, which belongs to the start-up forge Rocket Internet, increased its sales in the first nine months of 2015 by over 63 percent to over 171 million euros. Mail order company Otto – by its own account number one in the online furnishing segment – even had sales of around 700 million in 2015 and is anticipating a further increase in the three-digit million range this year.

«At the moment, mainly smaller items of furniture are ordered on the Internet, but in the future consumers will increasingly dare to order larger items such as sofas or even entire kitchens on the Internet,» expects ECC industry expert Jens Rothenstein. «Many traders don’t seem to have recognized the threat yet.» That could take revenge.

Not everyone sees the situation as dire. But there is no doubt that the industry is facing major changes. «All the big furniture dealers have recognized that it is important to be part of the online trade. That alone is debatable,» says Sebastian Deppe from the management consultancy BBE.

Ikea strengthens its Internet pillar

The market leader in the German furniture trade Ikea, for example, has long been in the process of strengthening its Internet pillar. In the meantime, in addition to the classic furniture stores, he is also setting up additional pick-up stations, where items ordered online can be received. «The aim is that as many people in Germany as possible can shop at Ikea or pick up the goods they order online within a travel time of 20 to 45 minutes,» explains Ikea manager Klaus Cholewa.

However, according to industry experts, the Swedish giant is not in too much of a hurry to expand its Internet offering. After all, impulse purchases in the Ikea store are an essential part of the business model. And they are much more difficult to achieve on the Internet.

Try sitting not quite out yet

«The online share will grow continuously, but it’s an evolution, not a revolution,» believes Marco Atzberger from EHI. The future probably lies in the connection of both sales channels.123helpme.me Atzberger points out that not only is online trade growing, at the same time new giant furniture stores are still being built. «There is still a lot of need to see and try out a piece of furniture,» he emphasizes.

Germans buy significantly more: retail trade with the highest increase in sales for over 20 years

In his opinion, problems are threatening above all smaller, owner-managed shops, which are now being put under pressure at the same time by the large areas and by the online retailers. This could accelerate the market adjustment.

Commerzbank boss Martin Blessing calls for a law against the long-term use of overdraft facilities. The «Bild» said Blessing, nobody should be permanently in the dispo. «There are cheaper loans. That’s why I think a law against the permanent use of the overdraft facility makes sense, a kind of overdraft facility brake.»

The banks’ overdraft facilities have long been criticized. The direct bank ING-Diba recently abolished the higher overdraft interest on current accounts. On the Easter weekend, the Sparda Bank in Baden-Württemberg announced that it would abolish the interest for the overdraft of the overdraft facility in July. The federal government wants to introduce a warning for overdrawn accounts.

No longer up-to-date: the largest Sparda bank creates the overdraft interest from advisory customers: stocks are currently the most popular investment

Blessing told the «Bild» newspaper that the use brake he proposed could look like this: «After ten days in the overdraft facility, customers could receive an automatic notification from the bank via SMS or email. Then we could talk to them about cheaper loans . «

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Koblenz / Landau (dpa) – The songwriter and lyricist Wolf Biermann (83) receives an honorary doctorate from the University of Koblenz-Landau.

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The Department of Philology / Cultural Studies is honoring the artist’s special services to literature and science, the University of Rhineland-Palatinate announced on Tuesday. Biermann receives the certificate on October 28th at a celebration in the Koblenz Theater.

Biermann told the German Press Agency that he was delighted with the award. «As a poet, I can’t really afford to have a doctorate, but for your contemporaries in the struggle of the world, this honor is an encouragement.»

Biermann grew up in Hamburg and moved to the GDR in 1953. There he published his first songs and poems in the 1960s. Because of his engagement against the SED regime, the GDR refused to allow him to return to Germany in 1976 after concerts in the Federal Republic.

More than 200,000 people in Bavaria – including more and more senior citizens – are dependent on food donations in their everyday lives. The Ministry of Social Affairs announced this on Thursday at a hearing in the Social Committee of the Landtag in Munich. At the 169 food banks in the Free State, the needy are taken care of by volunteers, but the food banks are increasingly reaching their limits. Particularly annoying from the food banks’ point of view: so far, political aid has been in short supply. But that should change now.

According to the ministry, 100,000 euros per year are available in the Free State’s 2019/2020 budget to support the food banks. The money is to be used for training the helpers, for example. From a purely legal point of view, it is not the state but the municipalities that are responsible for the food banks in Bavaria.

«The food banks take on state tasks in a professional manner in the care of the needy,» said Kerstin Celina (Greens). State aid is urgently needed, but it is uncertain whether the budgeted funds will be sufficient.

Despite the announced financial aid – the state parliament still has to approve the budget draft of the state government – the conclusion of the boards about the new aid is likely to be mixed: There should still not be any special recognition of their volunteers. In May 2018, however, representatives of the food banks wanted exactly these in the form of tax breaks and pension subsidies for the around 7,000 helpers at a meeting with the state government.

It is difficult to determine for which voluntary work there should be special recognition, it said on Thursday in the report by the Ministry of Social Affairs. The request for discounts for table helpers in local public transport was also rejected – there was no money for that.

The Bavarian State Association of Tafeln cannot understand the lack of political support. After initial talks with the state government in 2018, reactions would have been a long time coming. «Apart from a pat on the back for our commitment, nothing has come from politics so far,» said association chief Rainer Haupka of the German press agency. Support cannot be demanded, «but if we have to take on the work of politics, then it should actually be an act of taking for granted.»

According to the association, the number of people in need in Bavaria has been increasing for years. The trend is – according to Haupka – not entirely due to government failure, but almost a quarter of the people who regularly come to the table are retired – and the trend is rising sharply. «We are sliding with our eyes to the great poverty of old age and politicians are watching inactive,» said Haupka.

Thomas Huber (CSU) took up the association’s criticism on Thursday. The social development in Bavaria makes him very worried. It is important to help the food banks, «but we must not just fight the symptoms, we must do something about the causes,» emphasized Doris Rauscher (SPD). The state government must take the issue of basic security more seriously: «Our goal must be that no Bavarians are dependent on food donations any more.»

According to the association, the main problem in the daily work of the food banks is the storage and distribution of the donated food. «We are currently able to save around 40,000 tons of food every year,» said Haupka. The donations offered went beyond that. The association now wants to create space for a further 35,000 tons of food per year in three new logistics centers. The state government had already promised a subsidy of 30 percent of the costs for setting up the centers in the past. Huber also spoke out in favor of supporting the food banks in purchasing new refrigerated vehicles.

The answer of the state government to the question of the employment and promotion practice in ministries and the state chancellery is far from sufficient in the view of the CDU parliamentary group. «This answer smells of concealment and of the fact that you do not want to guarantee transparency,» said the CDU state parliamentary group leader and top candidate for the state elections, Christian Baldauf, on Friday in Mainz. His parliamentary group will commission the Würzburg professor of public law, Ralf Brinktrine, with a legal opinion on the (without appendix) 66-page long answer from the Ministry of the Interior and give detailed comments.

The constitutional and constitutional lawyer Ulrich Battis stated on the paper: «In the last 10, 15 years the performance principle has been strengthened, also with regard to the obligation to tender.» During the last major reform in 2009, the federal government tightened the requirement to tender. «The case law has also changed,» said the professor emeritus from Berlin’s Humboldt University of the German Press Agency.

However, this trend towards the upgrading of tenders for promotions in the federal and state levels has apparently largely bypassed the Rhineland-Palatinate state government. One could ask why the government had not given the impetus to put tenders and promotions on more performance-oriented feet. According to Battis, who is also an administrative lawyer, the Basic Law provides in Article 33 (2) the performance principle as the basis for all professional behavior in the public service.

Political scientist Uwe Jun from Trier considers it difficult to make a clear political assessment of the state government’s response. «There is a lack of explanations and often the exact context,» said the political scientist. «A statement by the state government could shed light on the context and make the figures easier to understand.» In his opinion, one thing is certain: «Attention will continue to be drawn to the topic. This is in the interests of the CDU in the election campaign.»

«It is noticeable that promotions are often faster in the ministries than in universities, schools or subordinate authorities,» said Jun. «In three ministries, the promotion and recruitment practice in this legislative period is more noticeable than in others: In addition to the Ministry of the Environment, the Ministry of Economic Affairs and the Ministry of Family.

In addition to the Ministry of the Environment, the Deputy Prime Minister Volker Wissing’s Ministry of Economics and Transport was «very negative,» said Baldauf, calling on the FDP politician to make a «comprehensive statement». According to the answer from the Ministry of the Interior, 94 employees in the Ministry of the Environment and 38 in the Ministry of Economic Affairs were promoted without assessment in the current legislative period.

The State Secretary and FDP top candidate for the state elections, Daniela Schmitt, said: «In all cases we are dealing with civil servants who have not changed jobs, but have proven themselves in their posts.» The selection decision was made exclusively according to the civil service criteria of suitability, qualifications and performance and the staff council was fully involved. There were also no complaints or complaints. No one was ever suggested who was not named by the specialist department.

The Berlin police searched the rooms of an Islamic cultural association in Neukölln and an apartment on Wednesday. A spokeswoman said that a 35-year-old is being investigated on suspicion of subsidy fraud. Previously, the «B.Z.» reported about it.

The man is said to have applied for 5,000 euros for immediate corona aid without authorization in April. Doors were broken into during the operation on Wednesday. The officials confiscated evidence, a spokesman said without going into details. You would now be evaluated.

At the beginning of the Corona crisis, Berlin tried to help small businesses and self-employed people as quickly as possible and to secure their existence – with a total of 1.8 billion euros from federal and state funds.

Applicants only had to upload their name, company address, ID, tax number and bank details. The claims should only be checked after they have been paid out. This also called for fraudsters, including right-wing extremists and Islamists.

A separate investigation team in the State Criminal Police Office investigates suspected cases in extremist milieu, the number of proceedings is, according to the police, «in the upper double-digit range». In total there are more than 2100 investigations into possible fraud with emergency aid.

Berlin is not alone in this: The Federal Criminal Police Office is assuming tens of thousands of cases of fraud in Germany.