Enlarge image
The police cannot clearly assign a growing proportion of politically motivated crimes to the left or right spectrum
Photo: Jan Woitas/ dpa
Germany's problem with politically motivated crime is growing.
More crimes with a political background were recorded last year than in the past 20 years.
This emerges from a response from the federal government to a written question from AfD MP Martin Hess.
According to preliminary data from the Federal Criminal Police Office, the number of politically motivated crimes in 2021 rose again by almost six percent compared to the previous year to a total of 47,303 crimes.
This means that politically motivated crime has reached its highest level since the annual statistics were introduced in 2001. Due to possible late reports - for the government's answer a query was made on January 5th - the number could end up being even higher.
The majority of crimes are right-wing
The reasons for this increase are politically motivated crimes that cannot be assigned to either the left or the right spectrum.
According to the security authorities, the heated social climate in the corona pandemic plays a key role here.
According to the information, the majority of crimes recorded in 2021, as in the previous year, were right-wing motivated.
The preliminary statistics show more than 19,000 crimes by suspects from the right spectrum.
More than 17,000 criminal offenses could not be assigned ideologically to the police.
In the case of around 9,000 criminal offenses in the past year, the police assume a left-wing political motivation.
More crimes but fewer violent attacks recorded
According to the provisional statistics, the police recorded a decline of around six percent overall in violent crimes with a political background.
However, here too the high number of violent crimes committed by suspects who do not belong to any particular political spectrum is striking.
According to the information, 1,047 violent crimes were committed last year by suspects who were not identified by the police as right-wing, left-wing or Islamists, nor as supporters of a foreign ideology - this includes, for example, the world view of the Kurdish PKK.
For comparison: in the previous year, politically motivated suspects who were not assigned to any of the known ideological categories by the police committed 591 violent crimes.
With 98 criminal offences, the majority of the 120 violent crimes against public officials and elected officials known to the police in 2021 can also be attributed to people whose political background lies beyond the known phenomena.
Last year, the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution set up a new phenomenon area »delegitimization of the state relevant to the protection of the constitution«.
The Cologne authority was primarily reacting to the spread of conspiracy myths and anti-Semitic resentment in connection with the protests against the corona measures.
fek/dpa