Stricter border enforcement coming into Germany?

I entered Germany two weeks ago. Nothing different. Fairly easy.

I then went to register for EasyPass and that was easy.

I think it's going to depend where you are coming from and what passport you hold. Americans and Canadians shouldn't have too many problems.

The newest controls haven't been put into effect yet but according to reports, they're not looking for Joe (or Jill) Tourist.
https://ca.news.yahoo.com/german-government-plans-boost-border-160940344.html

New minister of the Interior was talking about 3,000 additional people doing border protection - there was no main focus published in today's press conference. Enforcement of checks will start coming Wednesday.

My guess is that the focus will be street, train and nature border checks. Maybe the inner Schengen flight will be spot checked little more after arrival but the success factor of the other mentioned seems more promising to me.

Travelers by car and plane will recognize it.

When we trained from Salzburg to Munich a while back they held us at the border while police walked the train. I think they were only looking for a certain type of passenger, and they were walking pretty briskly.

Some of the driving border crossings have Polizei, others do not. The A6 autobahn from France to Germany has had a station for several months and they do stop people. But the secondary roads seem to be mostly open. There isn't a stop on the Wine Road where it crosses from Bad Bergzabern to Wissembourg for example. The only time I've seen them on the trains has been when I came back from Strasbourg a couple months ago, but I don't use cross-border trains that often.

The police checking on trains isnt unique to Germany. The train from Hungary to Austria is often borded by the police at the border. They walk down the asile looking for "a type" I presume, and get off at the next stop.

Info from this morning: Following the announcement of stricter controls at Germany's external borders, the federal police in North Rhine-Westphalia have already increased their forces, according to their own statements. “We have once again significantly increased the forces of the federal police at the German-Dutch and German-Belgian borders,” said a spokesperson.

During his visit to Poland yesterday, the new Chancellor said that border controls will be tightened, but in coordination with each neighboring country and in a way that is acceptable to each neighboring country. Whatever that means ...
I would and will prepare myself for the fact that crossing the border by car or train may take a little longer. I also have to say here – whatever a little longer means we will find out. But my personal opinion is that there will be hardly any changes at the airports.

Furthermore, it's quite possible that coordination with the neighbors won't go as planned. It's also possible that the EU wants to say some words here as well, since there's an EU law on the matter, after all.

It's border theatre. The equivalent of the security theatre we get at airports. It is mostly performative and only serves one purpose: Allowing politicians to claim they are doing something.

It has in fact already been tested in court, and found unlawful. So I wonder what will happen now.

Interesting perspective. I wonder what stopped the hijackings i remember as a young adult? https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aircraft_hijacking

I've experienced the border checks taking place on the Munich to Salzburg corridor, happened to me twice pre-pandemic, presumably more so now but not when you cross at Passau, which I did 3 times last summer. No check at all. "They" can ask to see my passport whenever they want, makes no difference .

No idea what stopped hijackings but it definitely didn’t have anything to do with a 1 litre ziploc bag. Security is good but let’s not confuse genuine security with the theatre of 125ml shampoo bottles being binned as a huge risk.

To a certain extent yes it's border theater, but it also gives pause to folks who don't have all their documents in order (they should see a guy named Rick at Cafe Americain). They must seek other ways into a country.

It is effective border protection and needed because too many countries ignore the Dublin Regulation.

The KPIs show the success of this measures:
"While the border police recorded a good 127,000 illegal entries in 2023 as a whole, the figure for 2024 was around 83,000 - a decrease of over a third. If you only compare the period when controls were expanded - from mid-September to the end of January - the decline is almost 60 percent compared to the same period in the previous year." (source)

Paid illegal smugglers were and still are a huge problem.
"According to the BKA (federal crime authority), in the known cases in 2023, smuggling operations increasingly took place via the Mediterranean and less via Balkan routes. Almost every second smuggled person came to Germany via the Polish border (41.9%), around one in three from Austria (29.4%) and around one in five from the Czech Republic (22.5%)." (source)

It is effective border protection and needed because too many countries ignore the Dublin Regulation

https://home-affairs.ec.europa.eu/policies/migration-and-asylum/asylum-eu/country-responsible-asylum-application-dublin-regulation_en

This regulation urgently needs to be revised. Yes, it exists, and yes, many countries don't comply with it. In short, it means that the country where those seeking refuge first entered the EU is responsible for that person. So, in the end, it's always the countries on the periphery of the EU that are responsible for them.
In this context, the so-called 'country distribution key' (all countries must accept a fair share of those seeking protection) is much more important. But that's becoming too political now. My opinion is simply that a fundamental reform must take place, that all countries must then stick to the rules and that we will, of course, continue to help people.

The point with the border checks is the same is a with airport security.

With airport security it is simple: Anything that just means that terrorists have to change their tactics (or targets) is useless, because that is just what they should do. Which is why airport security should return to where it was in the 90ies. None, not a single one, of the measures taken since 9/11 would have prevented 9/11 from happening if they had been around then.

The same with the border checks. The Swiss police also checks trains coming in at Chiasso. They sometimes apprehend the same person multiple times per day. The if one day they do not pick him up they know that he managed to slip through, and is now probably trying to cross in to Germany. Makes for impressive numbers. But does not do anything about the core issue.

That there is no Europe wide refugee policy, that the burden unfairly falls on the Southern countries, and that those refugees have no other options...