Security debate in the capital
New Year’s Eve, outdoor pools, Görlitzer Park – does Berlin have a problem with violence?
Police officers are standing in front of the entrance to the summer swimming pool in Neukölln, Berlin
© Caroline Bock / DPA
Newspaper reports about violence in Berlin can be found almost every day. However, the city is large and mostly harmless. In some places, at some times and for certain groups, however, it shows its ugly side.
Does the capital have a violence problem? In the current year, the metropolis of millions Berlin has already made the nationwide headlines with three major security debates, each linked to the issue of migration. At the beginning of the year it was about the New Year’s Eve riots by young people and young men in some parts of the city who threw firecrackers at police officers and the fire brigade. The summer started with outrage over fights and riots in outdoor pools. Now it’s Görlitzer Park in Berlin-Kreuzberg again. The reason is a rape by several men that recently became known.
But the park’s ongoing problem and part of the security debate are the drug dealers. The men stand in front of the entrances, on the paths, between trees or in the surrounding streets. On a Monday evening in August, more than 100 men who obviously belong to the dealer scene can be counted throughout the area, almost all refugees from Africa, often without work permits. Some address pedestrians or cyclists: “Hey, how are you?” or “Would you like something?”. The tone is friendly, marijuana and harder drugs are offered. Most passers-by walk on, sometimes sellers and buyers withdraw to hand over.
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For almost 20 years, Görlitzer Park on the former border with East Berlin has been known and notorious for offensive drug trafficking. Neighbors are annoyed, travel guides point this out. The topic boils up every few years, usually when there are outbreaks of violence in addition to the everyday drug trade, like this summer when a young woman was raped by several men according to the police. Three suspects were arrested, all 22 years old and from different African countries.
Is visiting Berlin dangerous? is a question that tourists often ask. This is discussed on various Internet portals, and the official visitor portal Visit Berlin also emphasizes that the city is “fundamentally safe”, but crime cannot be ruled out and certain security aspects should be considered. This also includes “avoiding dark parks and corners at night”.
Berlin’s Governing Mayor Kai Wegner (CDU) announced a “security summit” at the beginning of September, at which the park would also be an issue. “The situation in Görlitzer Park is unacceptable, the situation there shouldn’t stay the way it is.” At the same time, the security situation throughout Berlin should be improved through measures.
It is undisputed that in absolute numbers far more crimes are committed in Berlin – by far the largest German city with almost four million inhabitants – than in Hamburg or Munich, for example. In the comparative crime statistics of German cities by population, however, Berlin is in second place, just behind Frankfurt am Main, with 14,135 registered crimes per 100,000 residents. Hanover, Cologne and Bremen follow in very similar proportions. In contrast, Munich is the safest city with only around 5,800 crimes per 100,000 inhabitants.
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The numbers say little about the danger of a city. In fact, most of the time it’s not about violent crime, but about theft and fraud. As a capital with many tourists and due to its location, Berlin attracts many pickpockets and organized car thieves from Eastern Europe, as the police emphasize. That drives the numbers up.
Who the city is actually dangerous for depends on places, times and group affiliation. Problematic for security in the city center, for example, are the extensive nightlife without curfew for pubs and clubs, the many kiosks (late shops) selling alcohol around the clock and a very tolerant attitude towards drugs. Aggressive encounters between drunk and drugged people at night in the large underground and suburban train stations are a frequent occurrence in the police reports. The many street dealers in Kreuzberg and the pub areas of Friedrichshain as well as the drug addict scene in parts of Neukölln also make many visitors feel insecure.
Women, on the other hand, report that harassment, insults, sexual assaults and assaults by no means only occur in the crowded inner city. “You only go to your destination quickly with blinders on,” say two young women who live in Weißensee in the north and go out in Mitte, in a recent report by the RBB broadcaster. “It’s not a problem with parks, it’s a problem everywhere: at every stop I get off, on every street I walk.”
The police count more assaults against women in public. From 2019 to 2022, the number of female victims of physical injuries, threats, sexual offenses and robberies on streets and in parks at night rose from around 3000 to 4210. Most happened in the Mitte and Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg pub districts.
Hape Kerkeling: “The atmosphere has become significantly more homophobic”
Travel portals have long been advising gay and lesbian couples or Jews not to walk through certain parts of the city at night without clearly recognizable behavior or signs, because insults or attacks occur again and again. The comedian and actor Hape Kerkeling recently reported on the show “Maybrit Illner” that he and his husband had moved from Berlin to Cologne. “The atmosphere has become significantly more homophobic, and accordingly we decided to leave Berlin with a heavy heart and go back to Cologne, which we have not regretted so far.”
After the New Year’s Eve riots, the Senate held a youth summit and promised more millions for social work. The outdoor pools are to be calmed down with ID checks and video cameras, the problem was initially solved by the bad weather. Drug trafficking in Görlitzer Park has been fought and accompanied for almost 20 years by police raids and arrests, appeals by the district governed by the Greens, park managers and social workers. Little has changed.
Now the CDU and the police are demanding entrance gates to close the park at night. The drug trade is then likely to shift completely to the surrounding residential areas. In addition, parts of the wall around the park are easy to climb over. What then happens inside at night could no longer be controlled from the outside.