Ubuntu 20.04 Desktop Disappeared

I had the same issue, too. Suddenly all my icons on the desktop were gone. After a long search I found that for me the reason was a change in the file: ~/.config/user-dirs.dirs

XDG_DESKTOP_DIR="$HOME/Schreibtisch"
#XDG_DESKTOP_DIR="$HOME/"
XDG_DOWNLOAD_DIR="$HOME/Downloads"
XDG_TEMPLATES_DIR="$HOME/Vorlagen"
XDG_PUBLICSHARE_DIR="$HOME/Öffentlich"
XDG_DOCUMENTS_DIR="$HOME/Dokumente"
XDG_MUSIC_DIR="$HOME/Musik"
XDG_PICTURES_DIR="$HOME/Bilder"
XDG_VIDEOS_DIR="$HOME/Videos"

In the line #XDG_DESKTOP_DIR="$HOME/" the word Schreibtisch (Desktop in German) was missing.

Hope that this will help someone.