Winter Assistance 2026/27: Phone numbers & Cold Weather 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 and cold weather bus numbers in many German cities.
Contents
- When should you call a cold aid phone number?
- Phone numbers & 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 a cold aid phone number?
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 a cold aid or cold weather bus phone number. You can find an overview of all numbers below.
- In case of acute danger, call the emergency services: If a person is unconscious, injured or severely hypothermic, call 112 directly.
Contacts & cold weather buses in your city
Throughout Germany
| Organization | Accessibility |
|---|---|
| One Warm Winter Cold Weather Assistance Hotline connects to the following cities: Berlin, Düsseldorf, Essen, Frankfurt am Main, Hamburg, Hanover, Karlsruhe, Cologne, Leipzig, Mainz, Munich, Stuttgart | 0800 800 1019 (November 1 – March 31) Donations for One Warm Winter Cold Weather Assistance Hotline |
Augsburg
| Organization | Accessibility |
|---|---|
| Cold weather bus (SKM) | By phone: 0821 50 80 80 30 (5:00 p.m. – 8:00 a.m.) or 0821 15 51 52 (8:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m.) (Tours when temperatures drop below 0°C, 8:00 p.m. – 10:00 p.m.) Donations for SKM |
Berlin
| Organization | Accessibility |
|---|---|
| Berlin Cold Aid (Kältehilfe app in the Google Play Store or iOS App Store shows free sleeping places, night cafés & food offers) | Karuna hotline and SUB for the Homeless: 0157 805 978 70 (Monday–Friday, 9:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m.) By phone: 0157 580 949 52 (Daily 11:00 a.m. – 10:00 p.m.; Steglitz-Zehlendorf only) Donations for Berlin Cold Aid |
| Cold weather bus (DRK) | By phone: 030 600 300 1010 (Daily 6:00 p.m. – 12:00 a.m.) Donations for DRK Berlin |
| KARUNA Sub | By phone: 0157 866 050 80 (Monday – Friday 9:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m.) Donations for the KARUNA Sub |
Bergisch Gladbach / Refrath / Bensberg
| Organization | Accessibility |
|---|---|
| Cold weather bus (Die Platte) | Not reachable by phone directly (Tours Monday & Wednesday, 7:00 – 8:30 p.m.) Donations for Die Platte |
Bochum
| Organization | Accessibility |
|---|---|
| Cold weather bus (DRK) | By phone: 0163 925 2973 (Tours when temperatures drop below 0°C, after 6:00 p.m.) Donations for DRK Wattenscheid |
| “Cold Angel” cold weather bus (Johanniter) | By phone: 0800 881 1220 (Thursday 7:00 p.m. – 10:00 p.m.) Service area at the main train station; extra tours during extreme weather conditions Donations for Johanniter Bochum |
Brandenburg an der Havel
| Organization | Accessibility |
|---|---|
| Cold weather bus (DRK) | By phone: 03381 630 621 (Daily) Donations for DRK Brandenburg |
Braunschweig
| Organization | Accessibility |
|---|---|
| Cold weather bus (Malteser) | By phone: 0531 237 9790 (Office, available during regular business hours) (Wednesday & Friday, 6:30 – 7:30 p.m.) Donations for Malteser Braunschweig |
Chemnitz
| Organization | Accessibility |
|---|---|
| Cold weather bus (Hilfebus) | By phone: 0155 657 559 31 (Tuesday & Friday, 6:00 p.m. – 9:00 p.m.) Donations for Hilfebus Chemnitz |
Detmold Lage/Lippe
| Organization | Accessibility |
|---|---|
| Cold weather bus (Malteser) | By phone: 0151 272 813 54 (Tours Nov. – March, every Saturday from 3:00 p.m.) Donations for Malteser Paderborn |
Dortmund
| Organization | Accessibility |
|---|---|
| Cold weather bus (Malteser) | By phone: 0160 947 918 66 (for interested volunteers; no on-call duty outside of scheduled routes) (Tours Monday & Thursday 7:00 p.m. – 9:00 p.m.) Donations for Malteser Dortmund |
Düsseldorf
| Organization | Accessibility |
|---|---|
| Gutenachtbus cold weather bus (vision:teilen) | By phone: 01578 350 5152 (Daily 10:00 p.m. – 12:15 a.m.) Donations for vision:teilen |
Essen
| Organization | Accessibility |
|---|---|
| Kältehilfemobil cold weather bus (DRK) | By phone: 0201 22 22 22 (24h hotline) Donations for DRK Essen |
Frankfurt am Main
| Organization | Accessibility |
|---|---|
| Cold weather bus (Frankfurter Verein) | By phone: 069 431 414 (Daily 9:30 p.m. – 5:00 a.m.) |
Frankfurt Oder
| Organization | Accessibility |
|---|---|
| Cold weather bus (DRK) | By phone: 0162 314 2308 (no emergency assistance) (Tours when temperatures drop below 0°C, daily 6:00 p.m. – 10:00 p.m.) Donations for DRK MOHS |
Freiburg
| Organization | Accessibility |
|---|---|
| Cold weather bus (DRK) | By phone: 0761 885 089 88 (Tours when temperatures drop below 0°C, 8:00 p.m. – 12:00 a.m.) Donations for DRK Freiburg |
Halle (Saale)
| Organization | Accessibility |
|---|---|
| Vierjahreszeiten cold weather bus | By phone: 0176 705 544 07 (3 times a week) Donations for Four Seasons cold weather bus |
Hamburg
| Organization | Accessibility |
|---|---|
| Hotline (City of Hamburg) | By phone: 040 428 285 000 (Monday – Friday, 8:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m.) |
| CaFée mit Herz cold weather bus | By phone: 0151 656 833 68 (Daily 7:00 p.m. – 12:00 a.m.) Donations for CaFée mit Herz |
| Mitternachtsbus cold weather bus (Diakonie) | Not reachable by phone directly (Tours every evening) Donations for Diakonie Hamburg |
Hanover
| Organization | Accessibility |
|---|---|
| Cold weather bus (Johanniter) | By phone: 0800 084 8488 (Monday, Wednesday and Friday 6:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m.) Donations for Johanniter Hanover |
| Cold weather bus (Malteser) | By phone: 0511 959 8636 (Tours Thursday starting at 6:00 p.m.) Donations for Malteser Hanover |
Heidelberg
| Organization | Accessibility |
|---|---|
| Cold weather bus (Malteser) | By phone: 06221 160 864 (Tours Monday & Saturday) Donations for Malteser Heidelberg |
Karlsruhe
| Organization | Accessibility |
|---|---|
| Cold weather bus (DRK) | By phone: 07251 922 999 Donations for DRK Karlsruhe |
Kiel
| Organization | Accessibility |
|---|---|
| Cold weather bus (Malteser) | By phone: 0170 140 9210 (Tours Tuesday, Friday and Sunday 5:30 p.m. – 9:15 p.m.) Donations for Malteser Kiel |
Cologne
| Organization | Accessibility |
|---|---|
| Cold weather bus (FDKS) | By phone: 0162 460 8745 (Daily 6:00 p.m. – 11:00 p.m.) Donations for FDKS |
Leipzig
| Organization | Accessibility |
|---|---|
| Cold weather bus (Suchtzentrum Leipzig) | By phone: 0152 336 610 87 (Daily 6:00 p.m. – 11:00 p.m.) |
Mainz
| Organization | Accessibility |
|---|---|
| Cold weather bus (Rheinhessen Hilft) | By phone: 0163 686 7137 Donations for Rheinhessen Hilft |
Mannheim
| Organization | Accessibility |
|---|---|
| Cold weather bus (City of Mannheim) | By phone: 0621 324 7327 (Daily 5:00 p.m. – 9:00 p.m.) |
Munich
| Organization | Accessibility |
|---|---|
| Cold weather bus | By phone: 089 200 045 930 / By email: info@kaeltebus-muenchen.de Donations for Kältebus Munich |
| Cold weather bus (Hilfswerk) | By phone: 089 77 10 84 (Three to four times a week in the evening) Donations for Hilfswerk München |
Münster
| Organization | Accessibility |
|---|---|
| Cold weather bus (Malteser) | By phone: 0151 122 648 36 (Tours always on weekends) Donations for Malteser Münster |
Oldenburg
| Organization | Accessibility |
|---|---|
| Cold weather bus (Johanniter) | By phone: 0152 395 502 86 (no emergency assistance) (Tours Tuesday & Friday, 6:00 p.m. – 7:30 p.m.; Sunday, 5:00 p.m. – 6:30 p.m.) Donations for Johanniter Oldenburg |
Stuttgart
| Organization | Accessibility |
|---|---|
| Cold weather bus (DRK) | By phone: 0711 219 547 76 (Tours 10:00 p.m. – 2:00 a.m.) Donations for DRK Stuttgart |
Trier
| Organization | Accessibility |
|---|---|
| Cold weather bus (Caritas) | By phone: 0651 88130 (Tours Monday, Wednesday, and Friday 7:00 p.m. – 10:00 p.m.; additional routes during periods of very cold weather) Donations for Caritas Trier |
Ulm
| Organization | Accessibility |
|---|---|
| Cold weather bus (DRK) | By phone: 0171 299 1898 (Daily 6:30 p.m. – 10:30 p.m.) Donations for DRK Ulm |
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).
For more information on other cities, check out the cold map.
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 ways to donate and get involved in cold-weather relief efforts
Phone numbers 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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