Frequently asked questions
Who can I contact if I have lost contact with family members in Ukraine?
If you are in Germany and you were separated from your family or lost contact due to the current war in Ukraine, please contact the German Red Cross Tracing Service.
Tracing Service of the German Red Cross
Phone: 089 680 773 111
Where do refugees from Ukraine find useful information?
The Federal Office for Migration and Refugees and Deutsche Bahn AG have put together information that can help refugees from Ukraine to take the first steps of their stay in Germany.
Where do I find shelters?
Review
As a result of the peace dividends in the 1990s, after the end of the Cold War, the public protective building concept was not continued.
The functional preservation of shelters was discontinued in 2007 following a decision that was made by consensus between the federal and state governments. The reversal then began.
Current
The originally public shelters are mostly privately owned and owned by municipalities. Most of these shelters have already been reversed.
As part of the current inventory of the remaining federal and state shelters, the status of their protective effect will be checked, among other things.
Irrespective of the question of the current availability and usability of public shelters, the Federal Republic of Germany today has a thoroughly solid building structure across the board.
Protection from war weapons
Under certain conditions, this structure can provide basic protection against the use of weapons of war.
This is mainly about:
- metro stations,
- underground car parks, especially in urban areas,
- basement rooms in solid construction.
This structure is completely below ground level. It therefore offers good basic protection against:
- a blast wave,
- very dangerous flight of debris and fragments,
- falling debris, as well
- limited protection against radioactive environmental radiation. This protection is all the better
- the heavier and thicker the building material is,
- the more massive and thicker the soil is surrounding the building material.
Staircases or interior rooms
In an emergency, stairwells or interior rooms that are above ground but have no openings to the outside (e.g. no windows or glass fronts) can still offer significant protection against the effects of weapons.
Protection against chemical and radioactive substances
Further information on protection against chemical or radioactive substances can be found here:
In general, the following always applies to all dangerous situations:
- Help children and others in need, but without endangering yourself.
- Follow the instructions of the official bodies and the emergency services.
- If possible, get information from radio, television or the Internet, from reliable sources such as all authorities.
Please contact your municipality for local shelters.
Has Germany a stock of iodine pills? Does it make sense to take iodine pills as a precaution?
All 16 federal states in Germany stockpile potassium iodide pills (iodine pills). The 16 disaster management authorities are in charge of stockpiling iodine pills.
What to do in an emergency?
Should a corresponding emergency occur - i.e. an event in which an entry of radioactive iodine into the air is to be expected - pills will be distributed in the potentially affected areas. This does not always mean that the iodine pills have to be taken immediately:
The right time for taking iodine pills is crucial because taking them too early or too late ensures that the desired protective effect is not achieved.
The corresponding groups of people are explicitly asked to take iodine pills by the disaster management authorities.
No use on your own!
It is essential to refrain from taking iodine pills independently!
Who is in charge of organizing and distributing?
The disaster management authorities in the federal states are in charge of organizing stocks and distributing iodine pills.
How should I behave if it were war?
In the brochure Disasters Alarm, the BBK (Federal Office of Civil Protection an Disaster Assistance) gives recommendations how to prepare for emergency situations, including stocking up on food and drinks, what medicine cabinets should contain or how to pack for emergencies.
Basically, all of these precautionary measures are helpful in the event of a disaster as well as in war situations.
In an explicit threat situation, instructions and recommendations for behavior are published by the responsible authorities.
This can happen in different ways - on the municipality's website, through a regional radio station or even through loudspeaker vans.
Find out how your community informs people in the event of a threat. In the event of a crisis, the instructions of the authorities must be followed.
In general, we recommend that you prepare for emergency situations. These often come as a surprise. Our Disasters Alarm contains many tips on how to prepare for various emergency situations.
