The Berlin Fire Department has confirmed a disastrous trend – in the first half of 2024 alone, more stab wounds were registered in the capital than in the whole of 2022. The number of unreported cases is probably much higher.
At the request of the daily, the Berliner Zeitung, the city’s fire brigade revealed current figures. In 2022, a total of 230 knife crimes were registered. This number grew to a total of 294 cases in 2023. But from January to July 2024 alone, the Berlin fire brigade recorded 234 cases of stab wounds. That is already more cases than for the whole of 2022.
The fire department’s statistics also show that there has been an enormous increase, especially during the spring and summer months of 2024, compared to the peaks in 2022 and 2023. While an annual peak was recorded in 2022 in August with around 32 cases and in 2023 in November with around 33 cases, the fire department already recorded 44 cases of stab wounds in April of this year and another 43 cases in July.
During his election campaign, Berlin Mayor Kai Wegner (CDU) announced an “equipment offensive” and more powers for the police. He promised more police presence and increased controls in hotspot areas. So far, these have not led to fewer knife crimes.
The issue of knife crime committed by immigrants is particularly sensitive after the citizens’ movement Pax Europa had organised a rally in Mannheim on May 31, 2024, to “educate people about political Islam”. Rouven Laur, a German police chief inspector, died as a result of a knife attack while on duty at this very rally.
The stabbing was caught live and caused a world-wide stir on social media since Laur was part of the police force that was present to protect the event. A 25-year-old Afghan man, presumably motivated by Islamism, began stabbing participants in the event with a knife, and Laur intervened. After admonishing one of the participants instead of stopping the assaillant, the migrant stabbed Laur several times in the head and neck from behind.
A total of six people were seriously injured in the knife attack. Laur was placed in an artificial coma due to his serious injuries and died some days later. If the attacker had been deported after his asylum application was rejected, Laur would still be alive.
Data from the police crime statistics of individual German states show that in several states the number of stabbings increased from 2013 to 2018 by over 30 percent. In 2020 alone, there were at least 100 deaths from nearly 20 000 knife attacks.