Political crimes surge in Germany amid spike in far-right offences
Germany recorded an unprecedented 84,000 politically motivated crimes in 2024, amid a surge in offences linked to the far right.
The figure, released on Tuesday, represented the largest number since the statistic was first collected in 2001.
The Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA) said offences soared by around 40% compared to the previous year, due to a bumper election year and the highly charged conflict in the Middle East.
Germany held a number of important votes last year, including the election to the European Parliament, regional polls in the eastern states of Saxony, Thuringia and Brandenburg, and a re-run of a parliamentary election in Berlin.
Some offences late last year may also have been linked to the election campaign for national elections in February 2025.
According to the statistics, some 42,788 crimes were linked to the far right, forming more than half of the total offences and representing a large rise from the 28,945 seen in 2023.
Among the 4,107 instances of violent crime motivated by politics, police said 36% had far-right backgrounds.
The “foreign ideology” category was responsible for 24% of violent crimes, while 19% were classified as far left.
Xenophobia was identified as a motive in 19,481 cases, while 6,236 anti-Semitic crimes were recorded.
A total of 7,238 politically motivated crimes were linked by police to the Israel-Palestine conflict, of which 2,832 were identified as anti-Semitic and 793 as violent.
Many of the latter are believed to have occurred during demonstrations and protests over the Middle East conflict, with many offences for breaching the peace and resisting arrest.
