The nationwide warning day is coming up again. On December 8, 2022 at 11 a.m., all German citizens will receive a test warning, the Federal Office for Civil Protection and Disaster Assistance (BBK) announced. There will be cell phone news, radio announcements and a notification from the NINA app. In addition, sirens and loudspeaker trucks will sound in participating countries, districts and municipalities. At around 11:45 a.m., this test warning was lifted, giving the all-clear.
The nationwide campaign aims to test how well people in Germany can be warned. The warning day is intended to reveal weak points in order to make improvements so that even more people can be warned in good time and effectively in the future. In a federal state like Germany, warning the population is “a complex system,” it said.
“Cell broadcast” is the first technology to be used that enables warning messages to be distributed to mobile phones in mobile phone cells. This has been used in Japan and the USA for some time and has proven itself. “Cell broadcast” is also to be introduced in Germany and tested for its effectiveness on the nationwide warning day in 2022. However, older mobile phone models often cannot receive it.
The new system is also a reaction to the warning problems with the 2021 flood disaster in North Rhine-Westphalia and Rhineland-Palatinate.
The first nationwide warning day on September 10, 2020 did not work at all. The warnings either did not reach the citizens at all or were delayed by around half an hour. The Federal Ministry of the Interior rated the measure as a “failure”. A “technical problem” was identified as the cause. At that time it was said that the knowledge gained would be “considered in the further development of the warning system”. A little later, the then BBK President Christoph Unger (64) left the Bonn authority.
The warning day 2021 had been canceled due to the preparation of this year’s. On the warning day 2022, citizens should now also have a feedback option. In cooperation with the Criminological Research Institute of Lower Saxony (KFN), a survey will be carried out from December 8th to 15th, 2022. All people who are in Germany on the nationwide warning day 2022 can take part.
