Violence on Public Spaces on the Rise in Multiple Cities
Police statistics from Cologne, Munich and Berlin, reported by the Sunday edition of the German newspaper “Welt am Sonntag”, show a significant increase in violent incidents on well-known public areas.
In Berlin, the Alexanderplatz has seen a near doubling of “dangerous and serious bodily harm on streets, ways, or squares” since 2019. In 2019, there were 112 such cases, while in 2024, the number had risen to 209. Notably, the cases involving at least one suspect, or crimes committed by a group, have increased by more than 100 percent. The suspects in these cases are predominantly German, Syrian and Afghan nationals, according to the police’s October 2024 data, which comes from the Berlin police’s intake statistics.
In the right-bank Cologne-Mülheim district, the number of violent incidents has risen by over 60 percent in the last four years, with simple bodily harm increasing by 15 percent. In response, the city of Cologne has declared the area around the city garden a permanent weapons-free zone, allowing the police to conduct random searches of individuals in the area.
In the old botanical garden near Munich’s King’s Square, the number of criminal incidents has also risen sharply, from 299 in 2019 to 936 in the 2023 reporting year. The Munich police do not provide more recent statistics. The number of drug-related crimes has tripled and dangerous bodily harm has increased by almost 600 percent. The tragic high point came in the autumn of 2023, when a group of men beat a 57-year-old man, who later died from his severe head injuries.