Violent crime in Berlin is surging, and the numbers paint a troubling picture—one that mainstream narratives often shy away from addressing. A deep dive into police records by the German newspaper Junge Freiheit reveals a stark reality: a significant portion of violent offenders in the German capital are migrants.
In 2024, authorities charged 14,726 individuals with violent crimes in Berlin. Of those, 12,284—an overwhelming 83.4 percent—were men. More notably, 6,407, or 52.2 percent, were non-German citizens. This is highly disproportionate given that foreign nationals make up just 24.8 percent of the city’s residents.
This trend isn’t an isolated occurrence. In 2023, Berlin recorded 13,490 violent crime suspects, with 11,325 of them—84 percent—being male. That year, 50.5 percent of these accused individuals lacked German citizenship. The numbers don’t lie: violent crime among migrants isn’t just a temporary spike but a consistent and growing trend.
Complicating the issue further, Berlin’s crime data fails to distinguish between native Germans and naturalized citizens or dual nationals. Many suspects listed as “German” in official statistics were either born to foreign parents or recently acquired citizenship. According to Berlin’s chief prosecutor, three out of four members of organized crime clans hold German passports, despite their foreign origins. Every crime they commit is logged as a crime by a German citizen, distorting the true extent of migrant crime in official reports.
Gang violence among youths is another alarming issue. Last year, 3,454 young people were implicated in gang-related violent crimes. Of those, 1,323—38.3 percent—were non-Germans. Again, this figure underrepresents the broader issue, as many offenders automatically gained citizenship at birth due to their parents’ migration status. In Denmark, authorities track second-generation migrants separately, finding that their violent crime rates exceed even those of first-generation migrants.
The situation is worsening. In 2023, 2,602 youth gang members were arrested, with 916 (35.2 percent) being non-German citizens. By 2024, the number of migrant youth suspects had surged by 32.7 percent. Meanwhile, homicides in Berlin skyrocketed by 51.9 percent in a single year, from 77 cases in 2023 to 117 in 2024.
Politically motivated crimes have also seen a dramatic uptick, often correlating with growing unrest linked to international conflicts. In 2024, Berlin recorded 8,309 politically motivated crimes—an increase of 29.3 percent compared to the previous year. Crimes categorized under “foreign ideology,” which often includes Islamist-inspired violence, spiked by a staggering 169.3 percent. Similarly, crimes linked to “religious ideology” soared by 123.8 percent.
Interestingly, violent crimes attributed to left-wing extremists far outnumber those associated with the right. In 2024, leftist extremists were responsible for 133 violent offenses, compared to 89 linked to right-wing extremists. Despite this, overall crime accusations were disproportionately directed at right-wing individuals—2,782 cases in total, with 1,599 of those related to “propaganda” offenses. In contrast, left-wing extremists accounted for only 684 cases.
The data from Berlin underscores an undeniable reality: violent crime is not distributed evenly across demographics. The political establishment’s reluctance to address these patterns only fuels further distrust. With crime rates among migrants rising at an alarming pace, the question remains—will authorities confront these uncomfortable truths, or will they continue to obscure the statistics to maintain a politically convenient narrative?
