A year ago, the New Year’s Eve riots in Berlin-Neukölln made headlines. Three “summits against youth violence” later, it is still not clear whether and how the problem can be brought under control.
The year 2023 began with a crisis for Berlin state politics. Images of hooded young people shooting New Year’s Eve rockets at police officers and ambulances in the Neukölln district spread across the country. More than a hundred attacks on emergency services were counted and more than a hundred suspects were arrested.
Franziska Giffey, still the mayor at the time, was “shocked” and quickly called a “summit against youth violence”. Politicians, police officers, lawyers and social workers should provide solutions. The result: millions for more social work, more modern youth clubs and youth welfare offices. The SPD politician spoke of a “breaking point”. Time is running out. Work particularly needs to be done with young people of school age.
Worry about New Year’s Eve
Shortly before the next New Year, many people involved are looking at Neukölln with concern. Will the images repeat? Or have the three youth summits that have taken place since then changed anything?
In mid-December there was once again an extraordinary case of youth violence at a school in Neukölln. It started with five teenagers arguing and a can of pepper spray. In the end there was an injured teacher, a massive police operation and 49 children who had to be treated for irritation from the pepper spray. And Neukölln was once again in the headlines.
Youth violence is increasing
For Andreas Zick, this is no coincidence. Zick is head of the Institute for Interdisciplinary Conflict and Violence Research at Bielefeld University and has been working on the topic of youth violence for 15 years. He places the incident in a broader societal development: “Youth violence is increasing, especially among the group under 14 years of age. Also in the group from 14 to 18 years of age, not so much among older people.”
Nevertheless, the problem is not limited to schools, says Zick. There is an increasing lack of civil courage in many places, and violence can be seen more undisturbed, even in public spaces, “as an experience”.
But Zick also says there are ways to combat the problem. “Violence prevention programs work,” said Zick. “We have to invest in this. Studies show that things then go better and the willingness to use violence decreases.”
Social officials, projects and officials
In Neukölln, the entire spectrum of violence prevention has been used for years: social work, in schools and on the streets, is intended to convey to children and young people that society offers opportunities for them. Specially trained “district mothers” are supposed to “multiply” knowledge about education and upbringing and also have an integrative effect. There are mentoring programs, a youth democracy fund, and integrative theater projects.
And police contact area officers patrol the area to provide a link between citizens and law enforcement officers. There is security at many schools in Neukölln. This was introduced 15 years ago – after teachers at the Rütli School raised the alarm that the situation in their house had gotten out of control.
Nobody can answer what the situation in Neukölln would be like if none of this had happened. What all the projects achieved, but also little. For example, there was also security guards at the school where the recent incident involving irritant gas occurred.
Radical approach necessary?
Already in the run-up to the new year, Berlin politicians commented on what could come this time. Classics of the political debate on the subject of youth violence were heard. “On New Year’s Eve, law and order will apply on Berlin’s streets,” said Governing Mayor Kai Wegner.
Former mayor Giffey fears renewed riots, also because of the heated situation on Berlin’s streets due to the Middle East conflict: “It’s not getting any easier.”
Statements from the youth policy spokesman for the SPD parliamentary group in the Berlin House of Representatives, Alexander Freier-Wintwirtschaft, also burst into the expected statements: “In the debate it always goes like this: We have a problem – how many social workers do we need to handle it? We’ve been talking for a while so many years about it.”
Exploding costs
Freier-Winterkauf sat in the Treptow-Köpenick district parliament for 15 years and was a city councilor for two years. Youth policy is his topic. He doesn’t believe that youth violence can be combated through more government spending alone. For him, some particularly problematic young people are the lever to solve the problem. These relatively few cases caused the most trouble – and the most costs.
“When I started in my district, we spent 19 million euros on educational aid. Now it’s 55 million. Our municipal budgets are crashing because educational aid is developing like this,” says Freier-Wintwirtschaft.
First of all, parents have to be held accountable; the state cannot cover everything. But that often doesn’t work because the parents are often not the solution, but rather part of the problem. “In Germany we always have the idea: ‘If the parental home fails, the state has to step in with teachers and social workers.’ But we underestimate how strong family bonds are.” Then other means would be needed.
If you ask Freier-Winterkauf what could help, he says: “I want to write children’s rights into the Basic Law. Then we could look much more consistently: ‘What is good for the child?'” But what if it is the parents, that are not good for the child?
“Problem children” out “Problem Families”?
In practice, it often happens that children are temporarily removed from a problematic parental home and placed with a foster family. For Freier-Winterwirtschaft, the problem is “temporarily”: “So far, the goal of the youth welfare offices has always been to bring children back into their families. But it can simply be better if the children get out of their families permanently.”
The calculation: If children come into better family circumstances forever, they have better chances, do not become a problem themselves – and in the end are less likely to be violent. For Freier-Winterarbeit, standing up for the well-being of children, even against parents if necessary, also means ensuring social well-being.
He promotes his proposal with passion: “I was a child like that myself: right-wing extremist father, experiences of violence. I left home at 15.” His luck: He met a kind of father figure, a mentor, who “took him under his wing.” Social work alone wouldn’t have been able to do that, he says.
Point of contact for “all idiots”
If you ask him about his prospects for the coming New Year’s Eve, he answers that the police are on site. Social workers would hold events with young people on New Year’s Eve, everything was good, everything was right. “On the other hand, all the idiots in this Federal Republic now know that you can cause stress in Neukölln. And then they say: ‘Neukölln again!’ That’s just a shame.”