Cold Aid 2025/26: Hotlines & Cold Buses in Your City
In the winter months, the cold can be life-threatening for homeless people. With an attentive eye and a quick phone call, you can quickly organize help in an emergency. Here you can find the most important cold aid hotlines and cold bus numbers in many German cities.
Contents
- When should you call the cold aid hotline?
- Hotlines & cold buses in your city
- Volunteer in cold weather aid and find out about donation opportunities
- Find your commitment via vostel.de
When should you call the cold aid hotline?
Sometimes it’s difficult to know when help is really needed. We’ll show you how to proceed in three simple steps.
- Ask: If you spot a person who seems to need help, speak to them and ask how they are and whether they would like help.
- Contact cold aid if you need support: If a person needs support such as warm clothing, drinks or accommodation for the night and would like to accept support, you can contact the Kältehilfe hotline or the Kältebus. You can find the telephone numbers below.
- In case of acute danger, call the emergency services: If a person is unconscious, injured or severely hypothermic, call 112 directly.
Hotlines & cold buses in your city
Germany-wide
| Organization | Accessibility |
|---|---|
| One Warm Winter Kältehilfe Hotline connects you to the following cities: Berlin, Dusseldorf, Essen, Frankfurt am Main, Hamburg, Hanover, Karlsruhe, Cologne, Leipzig, Mainz, Munich, Stuttgart | 0800 800 1019 (1 November – 31 March) |
Berlin
| Organization | Accessibility |
|---|---|
| Berliner Kältehilfe (Kältehilfe app in the Google Play Store or iOS App Store shows free sleeping places, night cafés & food offers) | Kältehilfe hotline: 0157 80597870 (Mon-Fri 9 am – 5 pm) By phone: 030 343 971 40 (daily 7 pm – 11 pm) Donations for Berliner Kältehilfe |
| Kältebus of the city of Berlin | By telephone: 0178 523 5838 (daily 9 pm – 3 am) |
| DRK Wärmebus | By telephone: 030 600 300 1010 (daily 6 pm- 12 am) Donations for Wärmebus des DRK |
| Kältebus der Berliner Stadtmission | By telephone: 030 690 333 690 (daily 8 pm – 2 am) Donations for the cold bus, outpatient clinic & emergency shelters of Berliner Stadtmission |
Bergisch Gladbach / Refrath / Bensberg
| Organization | Accessibility |
|---|---|
| Kältebus des “Die Platte e.V.” | By telephone: 02202 272 6689 (tours Mon, Wed, Fri from 7 pm) Donations for Die Platte e.V. |
Bochum
| Organization | Accessibility |
|---|---|
| Kältebus des DRK Wattenscheid | By telephone: 0163 337 5402 (at temperatures below 0°C from 6 p.m.) Donations for Kältebus des DRK |
| Johanniter Kälteengel | By telephone: 0173 491 8356 (Thursdays 7:00 p.m. – 10:00 p.m.) Area of operation at the main station; special operations in case of extreme weather conditions Donations for Johanniter Kälteengel |
Brandenburg an der Havel
| Organization | Accessibility |
|---|---|
| DRK Brandenburg refrigeration bus | By telephone: 03381 630 621 (daily) |
Braunschweig
| Organization | Accessibility |
|---|---|
| Malteser Wärmebus | By telephone: 0531 237 9790 |
Detmold Lage/Lippe
| Organization | Accessibility |
|---|---|
| Malteser Wärmebus | By telephone: 0151 27281354 (Tours Nov to Mar, Saturdays 2 pm to 5 pm) |
Dortmund
| Organization | Accessibility |
|---|---|
| Malteser Wärmebus | By telephone: 0160 94791866 |
Düsseldorf
| Organization | Accessibility |
|---|---|
| Goodnight bus from vision:teilen & fiftyfifty | By telephone: 01578 350 5152 (daily tour 10 pm – 12:30 am) Donations for Gutenachtbus |
Essen
| Organization | Accessibility |
|---|---|
| DRK Essen | By telephone: 0201 22 22 22 (24h hotline) Donations for DRK Essen |
Frankfurt am Main
| Organization | Accessibility |
|---|---|
| Cold bus of the city of Frankfurt | By telephone: 069 431 414 (daily) |
Frankfurt Oder
| Organization | Accessibility |
|---|---|
| DRK refrigeration bus | By telephone: 0162 314 2308 (in sub-zero temperatures, daily 6 pm -10 pm) |
Freiburg
| Organization | Accessibility |
|---|---|
| DRK refrigeration bus | By telephone: 0761 885 089 88 (8 pm – 12 am) |
Halle (Saale)
| Organization | Accessibility |
|---|---|
| Four seasons bus | By telephone: 0176 705 544 07 (3x per week) |
Hamburg
| Organization | Accessibility |
|---|---|
| Cold bus from CaFée with a heart | By phone: 0151 656 833 68 (daily 7 pm – 12 am) Donations for Kältebus CaFeée mit Herz |
| Midnight bus from Diakonie | By telephone: 040 401 782 15 (tours every evening) Donations for Mitternachtbus |
Hannover
| Organization | Accessibility |
|---|---|
| St. John’s cold bus | By telephone: 0800 084 8488 (Mon, Wed, Fri 3:30 pm – 9 pm) Donations for Kältebus der Johanniter |
| Heat bus from Malteser | By telephone: 0511 959 8636 (tours Thursday & weekend) Donations for Malteser Wärmebus |
Heidelberg
| Organization | Accessibility |
|---|---|
| Malteser Wärmebus | By telephone: 06221 160 864 |
Karlsruhe
| Organization | Accessibility |
|---|---|
| DRK refrigeration bus | By telephone: 07251 922 999 Donations for DRK Kältebus |
Kiel
| Organization | Accessibility |
|---|---|
| Kältebus von Malteser | By telephone: 0170 140 9210 (tours 6 pm – 10 pm) Donations for Malteser Kältebus |
Köln
| Organization | Accessibility |
|---|---|
| Kältebus vom FDKS | By telephone: 0162 460 87 45 (daily 6pm – 11 pm) Donations for Kältebus der FDKS |
Leipzig
| Organization | Accessibility |
|---|---|
| Hilfebus der Stadt | By telephone: 01523 366 1087 (daily 6 pm – 11 pm) |
Mainz
| Organization | Accessibility |
|---|---|
| Cold bus of Rheinhessen Hilft e.V. | By telephone: 0163 686 7137 |
Mannheim
| Organization | Accessibility |
|---|---|
| City cold bus | By telephone: 0621 293 3425 (daily from 9 pm) |
München
| Organization | Accessibility |
|---|---|
| Kältebus München e.V. | Telephone information: 089 200 045 930 / By email: info@kaeltebus-muenchen.de Donations for Kältebus Munich |
Münster
| Organization | Accessibility |
|---|---|
| Malteser Wärmebus | Phone info: 0151 122 648 36 (tours always at the weekend) |
Nuremberg
| Organization | Accessibility |
|---|---|
| Streetwork-Team der Wärmestube und Straßenambulanz | By telephone: 0911 443 962 or By telephone: 0911 474 948 Donations for Wärmestube und Straßenambulanz in Nuremberg |
Stuttgart
| Organization | Accessibility |
|---|---|
| Malteser Wärmebus | By telephone: 0711 219 547 76 (tours 10 pm – 2 am) Donations for Malteser Wärmebus |
Ulm
| Organization | Accessibility |
|---|---|
| DRK Kältebus | By telephone: 0171 299 1898 (daily from 6:30 p.m. to 10:30 p.m.) |
Wiesbaden
| Organization | Accessibility |
|---|---|
| Cold bus of Rheinhessen Hilft e.V. | By telephone: 0163 686 7137 |
If your city is not listed, you can easily find more offers via a search engine by searching for “cold aid”, “Kältehilfe” or “Kältebus” + your city (e.g. via ecosia.de).
A quick call can save lives. It’s best to save the numbers of the cold help in your city in your cell phone so that you can react quickly in an emergency.
Discover cold aid volunteering and donation opportunities
Hotlines and cold buses are the first port of call in emergencies. But you can also support homeless people in other ways, e.g. through donations, material goods or your own involvement in helping the homeless. You can find out how to do this in our special article on getting involved in helping the homeless.
Find your commitment via vostel.de
In addition to various projects to help the cold and homeless, you will also find countless volunteering opportunities in areas such as education, nature conservation and equal opportunities on vostel.de. Find out now which volunteering opportunity suits you best.
Thank you for your commitment to cold aid!
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