Turns out the new setup of the docker container does not sync time with the host properly:
docker run --entrypoint=/bin/bash -it -v /etc/localtime:/etc/localtime:ro openhab/openhab:3.2.0-debian
root@72be1270a22b:/openhab# date
Thu 01 Jan 1970 01:00:00 AM CET
This eventually blocks the entire startup of the openhab environment.
I now quick fixed my setup with adding privileged mode:
docker run --entrypoint=/bin/bash -it -v /etc/localtime:/etc/localtime:ro --privileged openhab/openhab:3.2.0-debian
root@add3ff922fa2:/openhab# date
Sat 25 Dec 2021 01:13:38 PM CET
Did not do a further deep dive, but I think either docker container needs to be corrected, or the documentation for openhab with docker has to be adjusted.