According to a preliminary count, a record high of at least 41,406 right-wing extremist crimes was registered in Germany in 2024. This is the outcome of a response from the federal government to a question posed by Bundestag Vice President Petra Pau (Left) in the German newspaper taz. Among the crimes, there were also a record 1,443 acts of violence.
The numbers may still increase as the final annual statistics are to be presented by the Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA) in the spring. Even the current numbers, however, mark a new high since the introduction of the statistics at the BKA in 2001. By the end of November 2024, the numbers had already reached a negative record of nearly 34,000 crimes, a 23% increase from the previous year.
In 2023, the BKA had already noted a record high of right-wing extremist crimes, with 28,945 incidents, an 8.5% increase in violent crimes to 1,270 incidents. At the time, BKA President Holger Münch warned of a radicalization in parts of society.
Pau speaks of a “shocking upward trend” and a growing danger of right-wing extremism. In the past five years, nearly a doubling of registered crimes has been experienced. “Much too little has been done” Pau told the taz, criticizing the government’s inaction. The action plan against right-wing extremism presented by Federal Minister of the Interior Nancy Faeser (SPD) has remained “a toothless tiger.” Additionally, there is “propaganda” even from the government, targeting refugees and migrants, which “increasingly legitimizes the actions of right-wing violent perpetrators” Pau said. The development is “a warning and a clear to-do list for the 21st German Bundestag.”
Faeser had said in January, as the increase in numbers became apparent, that all instruments of the rule of law were being used to protect people in the country from right-wing, racist and anti-Semitic crimes. The increase was also due to more thorough investigations. What is decisive, according to Faeser, is to quickly bring perpetrators to justice and to deprive the right-wing extremist scene of weapons and funds.