The attack on Iran sent crude prices sharply higher, driven largely by fear around the Strait of Hormuz, through which roughly a fifth of the world's oil moves. German fuel prices followed. The government tried four separate interventions, in sequence, over four months. It is worth listing them in order, because none of them produced a lower price than the one that started the sequence.
In March, the International Energy Agency's thirty-two members released 400 million barrels of strategic reserves -- the largest coordinated release in the organisation's history. The stated purpose was partly physical supply, partly a signal to calm the market. The oil price kept rising. Continued attacks on tankers and energy infrastructure in the Gulf are the cited reason.
From 1 April, German filling stations were restricted to one price increase a day, at noon; price cuts remained unrestricted. Within two weeks, economic institutes found premium petrol margins had risen by roughly six cents a litre. Within three weeks, a data analysis found around 3,800 stations -- close to one in four -- had broken the rule at least once. Prices continued to set records.
From 1 May, a two-month cut to the fuel tax took effect: about 17 cents a litre between the tax reduction and its knock-on VAT effect, at a cost to the treasury of up to 1.6 billion euros. The Bundeskartellamt's own tracking showed prices fell close to 13 cents nationally on the day it began -- and rose again the next day. Monika Schnitzer, a member of the government's own council of economic advisers, called the measure socially regressive, since it benefits the heaviest fuel users most, and counterproductive, since it blunts the incentive to use less fuel during an actual shortage.
The rebate expired at midnight on 30 June, exactly as legislated. No extension was proposed. Prices had already been rising daily through its final week, and the increase after expiry was larger than the rebate had been worth in the first place.
As of 30 July, the national average stood at 2.18 euros for premium petrol, 2.12 for E10, and 2.19 for diesel, with some regions more than 20 cents above that. These are, at or above, the prices that were treated as a crisis in March.
Road fuel was not the only relief on offer this summer, and the flight version is worth being precise about, because it is not new relief at all. The Luftverkehrsteuer, introduced in 2011 as a pure revenue measure with no environmental earmarking, was raised at some point before 1 May 2024. On 1 July 2026, the Bundestag lowered it back to exactly where it stood before that rise -- short-haul tickets from 15.53 to 13.03 euros, medium-haul from 39.34 to 33.01, long-haul from 70.83 to 59.43. The government's own announcement describes this as strengthening the industry. The treasury expects to give up roughly 350 million euros a year of the 2.1 billion the tax raised on 84 million tickets in 2025. Airlines are under no obligation to pass any of it to passengers, and the same coverage that reported the cut noted that Iran-war fuel surcharges were already erasing it before it took effect.
Even after the cut, Germany remains one of Europe's more expensive places to depart from -- cheaper only than the Netherlands among major markets, and far above its neighbours: taxes and fees on a Frankfurt departure still run to roughly 4,300 euros per mid-haul flight by Lufthansa's own accounting, against 2,900 in Zurich and 690 in Madrid. Sweden abolished its equivalent tax outright in 2025 and saw traffic rise. The German airline industry's own association called the cut "a necessary first step" and said it was not enough; the airport association went further, saying it does not provide the signal needed for a lasting reversal. Neither is describing a solved problem. The month driving got more expensive again, flying got, on paper, marginally less expensive than it had briefly, avoidably, become.
The launch of each measure produced weeks of coverage, expert criticism, and political argument. The expiry of the rebate -- the most expensive of the four, and the one whose own regulator had already shown it wasn't reaching consumers -- produced one day of coverage and no follow-up proposal. Economics Minister Katherina Reiche had argued in April that a speed limit or car-free Sundays would achieve little, since fuel prices are set on the world market regardless of domestic policy. Measured against what four domestic interventions achieved, she has not, on the numbers, been contradicted.