Germany | Right-wing extremist crimes rose to record high in 2024

The number of right-wing extremist crimes in Germany reached a new high last year. This emerges from the response of the Federal Ministry of the Interior to a small request from the Left group in the Bundestag, reported the newspapers of the editorial network Germany (RND, Monday editions).

Accordingly, the police nationwide recorded 33,963 offenses in the area of ​​“politically motivated crime – right-wing” by November 30, 2024 alone. The final number in the BKA statistics, which are expected to be presented in May, is likely to be even higher due to crimes committed in December and late reports.

In 2023, the Federal Criminal Police Office recorded a total of 28,945 right-wing political crimes in its statistics, according to the Interior Ministry’s response. In 2024, the number of crimes will have increased by at least 17.34 percent.

Of the almost 34,000 registered crimes, 1,136 were violent crimes – in the whole of 2023 there were 1,270. The largest proportion of crimes in 2024 were propaganda offenses (21,311) and sedition (5097), and the police also recorded 1942 cases of damage to property.

The left-wing member of the Bundestag and right-wing extremism expert Martina Renner spoke of an alarming development. “The numbers have risen continuously by 20 to 25 percent in recent years. There are no drastic domestic measures in sight to stop this dangerous development.”said Renner to the RND.

The majority of violent perpetrators are adults, although the proportion of young violent perpetrators has recently increased. “If we don’t want to get used to more than 3,000 crimes committed by neo-Nazis every month, fundamental consequences must be drawn.”continued Renner.