Germany saw a 40 percent jump in politically motivated crime last year, official data showed Tuesday, with the federal police chief warning of a growing “radicalisation in society”.
The number of cases, which range from hate speech to physical violence, stood at 84,000. Almost half were motivated by far-right extremism, the report by federal police said.
Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt said the unprecedented increase was “a worrying development” which needed to be combatted.
Dobrindt said political tensions were heightened in 2024 amid European and regional elections, including one in which the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) topped a state vote for the first time.
He noted a rise in crimes directed against politicians, activists and party offices.
Speaking alongside Dobrindt was Holger Muench, chief of the federal police, who said the figures “reflect a polarisation and radicalisation in society” and showed that Germany’s “democracy is under pressure”.
Dobrindt noted a “fast-growing development… of extreme right-wing youth movements”, which were notably targeting events for the LGBTQ+ community.
Hate crimes – offences directed against people or groups based on characteristics such as nationality, skin colour or gender – increased by 28 percent to 21,773 cases in 2024.
Antisemitic crimes were up by a fifth, accounting for over 6,000 cases, largely because of the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza.
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Of the 6,236 anti-Semitic crimes recorded, 48 percent were ascribed to far-right actors while 31 percent were recorded as motivated by a “foreign ideology”.
The figures show that global conflicts have a direct impact on the social climate in Germany, the police report said.
Misogynistic crimes were up by nearly three quarters, possibly because of a rise in an anti-egalitarian ideology which seeks to preserve so-called traditional gender roles, the police said.
A bumper year for elections in Germany may have contributed to the rise in right-wing crimes.
READ ALSO: Which types of crimes are on the rise in Germany?
Several state elections, including one in which the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) came first, may have contributed to the rise in politically motivated crimes, with offences such as damage to election posters up, the report said.
Asked whether he thought the rise of the AfD had played a role in the growth of far-right crime, Dobrindt, of the right-wing Christian Social Union, said that “all who contribute towards polarisation are part of this development”.
The AfD built on its success in last year’s state elections by coming second in this year’s federal election, an unprecedented feat for a far-right party in postwar Germany.
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Earlier this month Germany’s domestic intelligence service classified the AfD as a “right-wing extremist” organisation, through this has been suspended pending an appeal by the party.
The designation reignited a long-standing debate about whether the party should be banned, but Chancellor Friedrich Merz has said he is sceptical about such a move, which would have to clear high legal hurdles.
Dobrindt echoed these concerns, saying the report presented by the BfV intelligence agency “isn’t sufficient to start the process of banning” the party.
But he said there was “no doubt that the biggest threat to democracy comes from right-wing extremism”.
Also on Tuesday, Germany’s association of support centres for victims of far-right and racist violence said it had recorded 3,453 “right-wing attacks” last year.
“This huge rise can only be understood in the context of a growing acceptance and propagation of far-right and anti-democratic opinions,” the association’s chairwoman Judith Porath said.
With reporting from AFP.