More than 980 knife-related offenses and some 2,200 sex crimes were registered at train stations and in trains across Germany in 2025, according to a report from the weekly Bild am Sonntag newspaper that cites federal police figures.
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Compared to the many millions of passengers these are tiny numbers. Disappointing lapse of journalistic standards by DW.
It’s a bit disappointing to see DW report that “violence is rife” without putting those numbers into any kind of context, like how they compare to previous years etc. I also assume that the vast majority of knife-related offenses will be things like bringing a Swiss army knife on the train.
You have to remember that DW is government owned. Yes, DW is formally independend but read up on Wolfram Weimers political stance, who is the current commissioner overseeing DW and it’s clear context is not wanted.
That’s the same government who’s minister of interior demonstrably received a briefing on right wing extremism being the biggest threat to German internal security and then showed up with misleading statistics supposedly proving an equal amount of left wing violence.
The “usual” problem with throwing statistics out there without a trustworthy expert putting them into context. And of course it was Bild that published it.
Besides the historical context you already mentioned, there is also going to be a bias in the statistics. The laws have been tightened with regards to knifes, and there is a higher focus on prosecuting related crimes.At the end of the day, if it is a problem, it has to be tackled. The question is: What do these numbers actually tell us?
I thought the same. Also how many of these offences are connected to drugs, since in most cities the area in and around a central station is where the hotspots for homeless people and drug markets are. And let’s not forget that the police has massively increased their presence in train stations in major cities. A couple of years ago they maybe had a police station nearby where you could go to, nowadays you see them patrolling major train stations regularly. No wonder they catch more crime if they patrol more instead of sitting in the station until someone comes to them.
I read a month ago that Nuremberg is apparently the German train station with the highest crime rate.
I traveled through there twice a month last year and never ever felt unsafe or uncomfortable.
The only slightly disturbing things I witnessed was some guy smoking weed at the platform and a seriously drunk guy offering a lady to help her carry her stroller up the stairs even though he could barely walk.
Also: I wonder how many of the sex crimes were OnlyFans or myDirtyHobby models filming public masturbation videos and shit like that.
