Right-wing violence in Germany hits highest level since 2016
01.05.2026, dpa
German police recorded the highest number of right-wing motivated violent offences last year since 2016, according to a government response to a question from the opposition Left Party.
The response, seen by dpa, showed that Germany's federal states had reported a total of 1,598 such offences for 2025 to the Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA) by the cut-off date of January 31, 2026.
In most cases, investigations were launched on suspicion of bodily harm or grievous bodily harm.
The previous year, the states recorded 1,488 right-wing motivated violent offences, while in 2023 police registered 1,270 violent offences with a right-wing background.
The figures for the previous year can still change because of late reports. This is partly because reports first have to be passed from the states to the BKA, but also because the political motivation behind an offence sometimes only becomes clear later.
Looking at all right-wing motivated offences recorded in 2025, there was a slight decline, from 42,788 to 42,544 offences.
Typical politically motivated offences include denigrating the state and its symbols, incitement to hatred and insults.
Violent offences include homicides, bodily harm, breach of the peace, dangerous interference with road traffic, deprivation of liberty and offences involving resistance to law enforcement officers.
Following a series of suspected far-right crimes, several hundred people demonstrated against right-wing violence on Thursday in the German city of Cottbus, south-east of Berlin.
A procession marched through the city under the slogan "You attack us – we stand even closer together."
Everything proceeded peacefully, a police spokesperson said. An initiative "Safe spaces southern Brandenburg" organized the demonstration.
The initiative's spokesperson, former Green Party member of the state parliament Ricarda Budke, told regional public broadcaster RBB: "We are showing here and now that we will not let our city be taken from us."
The police's State Security Division is investigating several criminal offences in Cottbus. In recent days, anti-Semitic graffiti and a black swastika had been daubed on the city’s synagogue.
As yet unknown perpetrators also threw a flare into the hallway of an alternative housing project. There were also threats made against the home of a student chaplain who is actively involved in combating right-wing extremism.
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