The victim counseling centers in the VBRG have published their balance sheets on the extent of right-wing, racist and antisemitic violence in 2022. A total of 2,093 right-wing, racist and antisemitic attacks were registered in ten out of 16 federal states. More than half of all attacks are racially motivated. Anti-trans and queer attacks are on the rise, resulting in one fatality. At least five people are victims of right-wing, racist or antisemitic violence every day. The counseling centers are also once again finding that law enforcement agencies are seriously under-reporting right-wing violence, even in the case of serious acts of violence. All information can be found here.
“The rise in right-wing, racist and antisemitic violence in 2022 is particularly serious against the background of the pandemic-related exit restrictions in spring 2022. Racist mobilizations against refugees in East Germany, arson attacks on accommodation and an intolerable normalization of antisemitism and racism in many places are a burden on the everyday life of many people,” says Robert Kusche from the board of VBRG eV ++ The reactions of the law enforcement authorities must be given greater focus. “All too often, racist motives in particular are not recognized as such or not taken into account by investigating authorities and also by courts,” criticizes Dr. Doris Liebscher, lawyer and head of the ombudsman for the Berlin Anti-Discrimination Act. “There is a nationwide lack of racism officers in the police and judiciary.” ++ “Racially motivated attacks against children and young people have doubled within a year and have a massive impact on the everyday lives of the families affected,” says Sultana Sediqi from “Youth Without Borders”. Thuringia. “All too often, families feel abandoned by the institutions of the rule of law.”
The counseling centers affiliated to the VBRG e.V. have documented an increase in right-wing, racist and antisemitic acts of violence in the eastern German states of Baden-Württemberg, Berlin, Hamburg, North Rhine-Westphalia and Schleswig-Holstein for the year 2022. Despite exit restrictions due to the pandemic until spring 2022, 2,093 right-wing, racist and antisemitic attacks with 2,871 victims were registered. The number of children and young people affected almost doubled compared to the previous year to 520 (2021: 288). The increase of more than 15 percent in right-wing violent crimes (2022: 1340; 2021: 1151) – especially bodily harm offenses – as well as a threefold increase in coercion and threats, in particular from racist and antisemitic motives (2022: 653; 2021: 197), are worrying.
This means that in more than half of all federal states in 2022 at least five people were victims of right-wing attacks every day. As in previous years, racism was the most common motive for crimes in 2022. More than half of all attacks (1088 cases) were racially motivated and were mainly aimed at people with migration or flight experience and Black Germans. Investigating authorities repeatedly concealed racism as a motive, for example in the case of a serious arson in the basement of an apartment building on the night of 9/10. October 2022 in Berlin-Lichtenberg. Racism as a motive for the crime only became known weeks later when the federal government responded to a small inquiry about attacks against refugees (Drs. 20/5773) and when the residents of the house contacted the Berlin victim counseling center ReachOut.
Huge increase in antisemitic attacks and doubling in trans and queer-motivated violence
It is particularly worrying that the number of antisemitic attacks has increased fourfold compared to the previous year (2022: 204; 2021: 54) and that threats are followed very quickly by serious acts of violence, such as in Brachwitz (Saalekreis/Saxony-Anhalt ). In the summer of 2022, a 52-year-old man in the village received massive antisemitic threats from his neighbor for weeks. Shortly thereafter, two antisemitic motivated arson attacks on the car and an outbuilding of the home of the attacked by the neighbors, who have since been convicted in the first instance, followed.
The number of trans and queer hostile attacks registered by the victim advice centers has doubled to 174 compared to the previous year and claimed one fatality. Malte C. died on September 2nd, 2022 when he intervened in a queer-motivated attack at the CSD-Münster and suffered fatal injuries. The number of attacks against so-called political opponents has also increased compared to previous years (387 cases). Among those affected are 84 journalists (2021: 51) who were defamed, threatened and attacked by supporters of the corona denier and other conspiracy ideologies as the “lying press”.
Experts criticize gaps in competence in the prosecution of racist violent crimes by the police and judiciary – these led to “fear, perpetrator-victim reversal and powerlessness”.
“All too often, victims of right-wing, racist and antisemitic violence are blamed or shared responsibility for an attack,” notes Dr. Doris Liebscher, lawyer and head of the ombudsman for the Berlin Anti-Discrimination Act. “In addition, racist motives in particular are not recognized as such or are not taken into account by the investigating authorities and also by the courts.” While in Berlin and other federal states the police and public prosecutor’s offices now have officers for antisemitism and in Berlin also for hate crime against LGBTI people to raise awareness in the authorities have contributed and progress has been made in law enforcement and detection, “there is a big gap on the issue of racism,” emphasizes Dr. Doris Liebscher.
For many of those attacked, the perpetrator-victim reversal and “the lack of racism competence among the police and the judiciary led to their trust in the German constitutional state being fundamentally shaken,” emphasizes the lawyer. This is shown, for example, in the case of the racist attack on the student Dilan S. in Berlin in February 2022. The young woman had shown civil courage on a Berlin tram and asked a group of adults from the right-wing hooligan spectrum to wear a mask. As a result, the then 17-year-old was racially and misogynist insulted, attacked and injured. The racist perpetrator-victim reversal of the attackers was adopted in the first police press releases; the student portrayed as a mask refuser who would be responsible for the attack herself. Only her correction from the hospital, published on Instagram, led to the perpetrators being investigated. The young woman is still waiting in vain for an apology from the police. “The relativization of the crime was then repeated in the criminal proceedings against the attackers at the Tiergarten District Court,” criticizes Dr. Doris Liebscher. “The judge did not adequately address the right-wing environment and relevant criminal records of the accused, she presented the attack by six adults on a 17-year-old woman as a ‘Berlin-typical’ confrontation and did not assess the psychological consequences of the racist attack as increasing the sentence.” “The relativization of the crime was then repeated in the criminal proceedings against the attackers at the Tiergarten District Court,” criticizes Dr. Doris Liebscher. “The judge did not adequately address the right-wing environment and relevant criminal records of the accused, she presented the attack by six adults on a 17-year-old woman as a ‘Berlin-typical’ confrontation and did not assess the psychological consequences of the racist attack as increasing the sentence.” “The relativization of the crime was then repeated in the criminal proceedings against the attackers at the Tiergarten District Court,” criticizes Dr. Doris Liebscher. “The judge did not adequately address the right-wing environment and relevant criminal records of the accused, she presented the attack by six adults on a 17-year-old woman as a ‘Berlin-typical’ confrontation and did not assess the psychological consequences of the racist attack as increasing the sentence.”
“Racially motivated attacks against children and young people have doubled within a year and have a massive impact on the everyday lives of the families affected,” says Sultana Sediqi from “Young People Without Borders” in Thuringia. “All too often families feel abandoned by the institutions of the rule of law.” In particular, racist threats, discrimination and violence in the residential environment and at schools lead to massive restrictions and stress in the everyday lives of the families concerned. “The attacks registered by the victim counseling centers represent only the tip of the iceberg,” emphasizes Sultana Sediqi. “In addition, there is racist discrimination by authorities, on the housing and job market – this leads to a constantly present fear and powerlessness.”
Danger of depoliticization and underreporting of right-wing politically motivated violence
The threatening increase in attacks against journalists and political opponents, the effects of right-wing attacks by AfD local politicians and the increasing spread of weapons and Tag X terror plans in the right-wing movements of Reich citizens, corona deniers and Supporters of conspiracy ideologies have further intensified. The normalization of antisemitism and racism and conspiracy narratives is also reflected in the tripling of the number of threats and coercion registered by the victim counseling centers (2022: 653; 2021: 197). In Cottbus (Brandenburg), for example, on November 22, 2022, two men armed with knives ambushed a Cottbus student late in the evening in the parking lot of a supermarket and threatened and pursued him.
Increase in right-wing violence in Thuringia and Mecklenburg-West Pomerania
The development is inconsistent in the federal states. In two eastern German states – Thuringia and Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania – right-wing and racist acts of violence have increased significantly compared to the previous year. Based on the number of inhabitants, most right-wing acts of violence [1]in Berlin (7.9 per 100,000 inhabitants), Saxony-Anhalt (6.3 per 100,000 inhabitants), Thuringia (5.9 per 100,000 inhabitants), Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania (5.5 attacks per 100,000 inhabitants *inside) and Hamburg (5.4 per 100,000 inhabitants). In Brandenburg (4.5 attacks per 100,000 inhabitants) and Saxony (3.8 per 100,000 inhabitants), the number of violent crimes remained at the same high level. As in previous years, the number of right-wing violent crimes recorded in western German states such as Schleswig-Holstein (2.3 attacks per 100,000 inhabitants) and in the most populous federal states of North Rhine-Westphalia (1.3 per 100,000 inhabitants) and Baden-Württemberg (0.4 per 100,000 inhabitants) lower compared to East Germany and Berlin.
Underreporting of right-wing violence by law enforcement agencies is growing and hinders effective countermeasures
For 2022, the victim counseling centers assume that there will be a high number of unregistered right-wing, racist and antisemitic acts of violence as well as a blatant under-recording of racist, antisemitic and right-wing motivations by the police and judiciary. “We see with concern that underreporting of right-wing violence is increasing. This is particularly evident in the location of acts of violence by supporters of conspiracy ideologies and the corona denial movement in the police category ‘PMK cannot be assigned/delegitimization of the state relevant to the protection of the constitution’,” says Robert Kusche. The still inadequate and incomplete recording and recognition of racism,
Annual balance sheets of the victim counseling centers in the federal states:
Bavaria: Annual report of the BUD counseling center of 09/08/2023
Berlin: ReachOut Berlin press release of 05/04/2023
Brandenburg: Victim Perspective eV press release of 03/15/2023 / annual statistics 2002 – 2022
Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania: LOBBI press release of 04/13/2023
Lower Saxony: Lower Saxony counseling center of 28.03 .2023
North Rhine-Westphalia: Press release victim counseling Rhineland [OBR] and BackUp from 08.05.2023
Saxony-Anhalt: Press release mobile victim counseling Saxony-Anhalt from 04.04.2023 / annual statistics
Saxony:Press release support of the RAA Sachsen eV from 30.03.2023 / annual statistics 2006 – 2022
Schleswig-Holstein: Press release zebra eV
Thuringia: Press release victim advice center ezra from 05.04.2023
