Federal Minister of the Interior Horst Seehofer, together with President of the Federal Criminal Police Office Holger Münch, today presented the statistics for politically motivated crime in 2020.

The number of politically motivated criminal offences increased by 8.5 per cent in 2020 to a total of 44,692 offences. This puts politically motivated crime at its highest level since Germany began collecting this information in 2001. The number of politically motivated acts of violence increased to 3,365 offences, which makes it 18.8 per cent higher than the previous year. 

At around 24,000 incidents, the number of criminal offences motivated by right-wing extremism reached a record high.  Every second politically motivated crime in Germany in 2020 fell into the category of right-wing politically motivated crime. The number of right-wing extremist acts of violence increased by 10.8 per cent to 1,092 offences.

In 2020, the term "coronavirus" was recorded a total of 3,569 times in the description included in politically motivated crime reports. Of these, 478 were violent crimes. Events organised to protest against coronavirus restrictions in particular were characterised by a low level of acceptance of police measures. Considerable numbers of breaches of hygiene and distancing rules were recorded, together with sometimes heavy rioting. Assaults on and threats to police officers and members of the media were also recorded at these events. Of the 260 crimes against journalists that were reported, 112 were linked to the term "coronavirus", while this applied to almost half of violent crimes against this group (14 of 32).

Federal Interior Minister Horst Seehofer: "Extremism in all its forms remains a threat to our society. There are clear signs that German society is becoming inured to aggressive behaviour. We will therefore continue to use every means provided by law to combat all forms of politically motivated crime. The rule of law is, and will remain, effective. It is therefore appropriate for the intelligence services to scrutinise the new protest groups particularly closely. Right-wing extremism remains the biggest threat to security in Germany."

Holger Münch, President of the Federal Criminal Police Office: "The number of politically motivated offences reached a record high in 2020. The figures reflect the extent of tensions within society and the increasingly radical attitudes of certain groups among the population. We do not expect this tension to ease in 2021. We are therefore expanding the measures and capacities available to us to respond to right-wing politically motivated crime and to fight hate crime. The intensive pilot phase of the new central reporting office to combat unlawful content online (ZMI), which will begin shortly, is an important part of our arsenal. But at the same time, we will not lose sight of the other areas of criminal activity."

Sixteen politically motivated cases of attempted homicide were recorded last year, of which 13 were unsuccessful and three resulted in deaths. These figures include the racist terrorist attack in Hanau on 19 February 2020. A total of 11 people died as a result of politically motivated homicide in 2020.

As regards left-wing politically motivated crime, the number of offences increased by 11.4 per cent to around 11,000. Of particular note here are left-wing politically motivated acts of violence, with police authorities recording an increase of 45.1 per cent to 1,500 criminal offences.

Attacks on public officials almost doubled in 2020, with 2,200 offences recorded. There was an 87.9 per cent increase in attacks on elected office-holders. Attacks on political parties, in contrast, fell by 72.6 per cent.

There was a considerable increase in hate crimes, with the figure of 10,240 representing a rise of 19.2 per cent. Some nine out of ten hate crimes came under the category of right-wing politically motivated crime. 1,014 hate crimes were associated with violence, a similar level to the previous year. The number of antisemitic offences increased by 15.7 per cent to 2,351 offences. Of these, 94.6 per cent were classed as right-wing politically motivated offences. Violent antisemitic offences, in contrast, fell by 21.9 per cent. There was a 19.1 per cent increase in xenophobic crimes.  A total of 772 politically motivated offences were committed by Reichsbürger/Selbstverwalter. This is an increase of 15 per cent. Violent offences in this category numbered 125, roughly the same as in the previous year.

There were 204 offences, of which 40 were violent, recorded in the category of "Gender/sexual identity", a new category introduced in 2020. Around half of these were classed as right-wing politically motivated crimes. Politically motivated crimes against sexual orientation numbered 578, which is around the same as the previous year. There was a reduction of around 24 per cent in violent crimes of this type, bringing the number to 114.

The number of offences recorded in the category of "Politically motivated crime – foreign ideology" was around half that of the previous year, with violent crimes in this category numbering 113, a reduction of more than two-thirds. The number of offences in the category "Politically motivated crime – religious ideology", in contrast, increased by 12.2 per cent to 477. Of these, violent crimes fell by some 10 per cent to 43 cases. As at 1 April 2021, the police forces of the federal states categorised 579 people as "Gefährder" (persons considered a potential terrorist or extremist threat) and 533 as "Relevante Personen" (persons of interest). In addition, more than 1,200 criminal investigations were carried out into 1,300 suspects in relation to Islamist terrorism.

The statistics for politically motivated crime in 2020 are available in German at www.bmi.bund.de/pmk-2020