Is Germany overrun with violent Right-wing extremists? A recent article in Politico covering a surge in “extreme-right crime” would suggest so. Germany’s interior ministry recently published a report on “Politically Motivated Crime” and, at first glance, the alarmism appears to be justified.

The number of politically motivated crimes did indeed increase sharply in 2024, rising by over 40% compared to 2023, where German authorities recorded more than 84,000 incidents. Most of these, however, are not crimes against a person or property. The majority of these cases are categorised as propaganda offences, meaning inciting, insulting or offensive messages that have been spread online or otherwise.

These incidents are predominantly motivated by Right-wing ideologies, but one would expect a higher number of Right-wing offences given that there are more laws criminalising Right-wing extremism and, in some cases, foreign propaganda offences. By extension, far-Left symbols and hate messages often remain legal. For understandable historical reasons, waving a Nazi flag is illegal, while praising Joseph Stalin and brandishing the hammer and sickle is not.

When it comes to the data on politically motivated crimes involving violence, the numbers show a different picture. To be clear, this data is not encouraging, but it is more complex than a simple surge accounted for solely by Right-wing extremism. Politically motivated violent crimes have increased since the previous high in 2016, totalling 4,107 offences.

But the Politico article concedes that “more than one out of every four violent crimes was attributed to actors with a right-wing ideology, according to the report”. This means that almost three out of four violent crimes were not attributed to Right-wing ideology, contradicting the claim that political violence is overwhelmingly a Right-wing phenomenon.

In a different report published shortly after the federal elections in February this year, the German authorities registered 192 violent incidents, out of which 118 were counted as Left-wing extremism, 19 as right-wing extremism, and 54 logged as “other”.

Regardless of where the violence is coming from, the potential for political aggression in Germany is increasing on both sides of the spectrum. In the last few days a Right-wing terror cell was uncovered and a police officer was seriously injured during an anti-Israel protest. None of this bodes well for the political stability of the country, as every incident polarises the antagonistic political factions even more.

The Left warns of the Right, the Right warns of the Left, and the centre, which through its shoddy governance has struggled to make life better for the average German, is eroding. It remains to be seen if the new minister of the interior Alexander Dobrindt will be able to get this worrisome trend under control.

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Ralph Schoellhammer is assistant professor of International Relations at Webster University, Vienna.

Raphfel

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