German surfers rally to get their wave back

By Rob Schmitz

Published November 19, 2025 at 5:02 PM EST

German surfers are "bummed" they have lost one of the world's largest inland waves. A city dredging project in Munich made the wave disappear.

Rob Schmitz

Rob Schmitz is NPR's international correspondent based in Berlin, where he covers the human stories of a vast region reckoning with its past while it tries to guide the world toward a brighter future. From his base in the heart of Europe, Schmitz has covered Germany's levelheaded management of the COVID-19 pandemic, the rise of right-wing nationalist politics in Poland and creeping Chinese government influence inside the Czech Republic.

See stories by Rob Schmitz

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