Five years after Ahr Valley flood, new Rhineland-Palatinate leader prepares apology his SPD predecessors withheld
Five years after the deadly Ahr Valley flood, Rhineland-Palatinate’s first CDU Minister-President Gordon Schnieder is expected to keep a campaign promise and formally apologize around the 14 July anniversary, a step his SPD predecessors Malu Dreyer and Alexander Schweitzer never took.
The promise
Gordon Schnieder, who became minister-president after ousting the SPD-led government, campaigned on delivering an apology for what he calls state failure. In May 2025, while still opposition leader, he said a formal apology was urgently needed for the “state failure before, during and after the flood.” Now in office, he is likely to act around the fifth anniversary on 14 July 2026.
A apology would also have been urgently necessary for what we experienced as state failure before, during and after the flood.
What his predecessors said
Malu Dreyer, minister-president at the time of the July 2021 disaster, repeatedly expressed regret but refused to apologize for a natural catastrophe of that scale, noting that civil protection was locally managed. Her successor Alexander Schweitzer, who was labour minister in 2021, admitted mistakes at all levels, including the state, but stopped short of a formal apology. He said he had discussed the matter intensively with those affected before deciding not to do so.
I cannot apologize for a natural disaster of this dimension.
I have dealt with this question very intensively and, after many conversations with those affected and actors from the Ahr valley, I have formulated it for myself in this way.
Local sentiment
Ahr district councillor Cornelia Weigand told lawmakers in September 2024 that an apology would matter deeply to residents. But five years on, many in the valley feel the moment has passed, especially since none of the politically responsible officials remain in office.
An apology is, I believe, very important to the people.
A historical parallel
The delayed repentance echoes the 1988 Ramstein airshow disaster, where it took 30 years for then state parliament president Hendrik Hering (SPD) to formally apologize for how politics handled responsibility. That crash killed 70 and seriously injured about 350.
- Flash flood kills scores in Ahr valley.
- State parliamentary committee issues final report; district councillor calls apology important.
- CDU’s Schnieder pledges apology if he wins state election.
- Fifth anniversary; apology expected from Minister-President Schnieder.
Schneider’s apology would break with a state tradition of reluctance, drawing a line under a disaster that claimed scores of lives and reshaped disaster-response politics in Rhineland-Palatinate.
