In the past year, more crimes with a political background were committed in Germany than in the past 20 years. According to preliminary data from the Federal Criminal Police Office, the number of politically motivated crimes in 2021 rose by almost six percent compared to the previous year to a total of 47,303 crimes, as can be seen from a response from the federal government to a written question by AfD MP Martin Hess.
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 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 right-wing suspects. More than 17,000 criminal offenses could not be ideologically assigned to the police. In the case of around 9,000 criminal offenses in the past year, the police assume a left-wing political motivation.
Anti-corona protests lead to more crimes
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”. In doing so, the Cologne authority was primarily reacting to the spread of conspiracy myths and anti-Semitic resentment in connection with the anti-corona protests.