Police statistics: massive increase in politically motivated crime

In Germany, more than 84,000 politically motivated crimes were committed last year, as many as in no other year since the introduction of nationwide statistics in 2001. Compared to 2023, the number of police -known crimes with a political motive increased by around 40 percent. The Federal Criminal Police Office sees, among other things, elections and the Middle East conflict as the causes of the increase in politically motivated crimes.

In addition to the European elections in June, there were 2024 state elections in Saxony, Thuringia and Brandenburg as well as the partial repetition of the Bundestag election in Berlin. In addition, the early Bundestag election threw its shadows ahead.

In 2024, the increase was the most powerful for the crimes that were presumably motivated on the right. According to the police statistics, their number rose to 42,788 offenses from 28,945 crimes from 28,945 crimes.

Also among the 4,107 acts of violence with a political motive last year, the proportion of those who, according to the police have a right background, is particularly high with around 36 percent. 975 acts of violence – just under 24 percent – accounted for the “foreign ideology” area. The police expected 762 acts of violence – almost 19 percent – to the left spectrum.

Increase in “hate crime”

If the circumstances of the crime or the attitude of the perpetrator provide clues that he acted due to prejudices – for example in terms of ethnic origin, religious affiliation or gender – the police speaks of so -called hate crime. In 19,481 cases, the police officers saw “xenophobia” as a motive.

Crimes in the context of war in Middle East

In 6,236 cases, a presumably anti -Semitic motif became a record of the police in the police’s initial statistics. In 2,832 cases, of the 7,328 politically motivated crimes that the police have assigned to the sub -topics “Israel” and “Palestine”, she saw an anti -Semitic motivation. A large part of the 793 politically motivated violent violations, which were known in the context of the Middle East conflict, were related to demonstrations and protest. This can be recognized by the type of offense – including 111 cases of breach of the peace and 385 resistance offenses.