Murder, rape, and knife crime all increased in Germany in 2025, official figures show, despite an overall drop in crime largely driven by changes to drug laws.
Police recorded around 5.5 million crimes last year, a fall of 5.6% compared to 2024. Officials say the decline is mainly due to the partial legalisation of cannabis in April 2024, which reduced the number of drug-related offences. They caution that this makes direct comparisons with previous years less reliable.
Behind the overall drop, however, more serious offences moved in the opposite direction. Cases of murder and manslaughter rose by 6.5%, while rape and other serious sexual offences increased by 8.5%. Reports of child sexual abuse also continued to climb.
Knife crime remains a major concern. Police recorded around 29,000 knife-related offences in 2025—equivalent to roughly 80 incidents a day. In about half of these cases, knives were used in acts of violence, while the rest involved threats or intimidation. Many incidents took place in public spaces, including streets and transport hubs.
The figures also highlight differences in suspect profiles. Non-German nationals are significantly overrepresented among suspects, particularly in violent crime. Adjusted for their share of the population, foreign nationals were recorded as suspects at a rate around 2.6 times higher than German citizens, rising to roughly four times higher in violent offences. According to Welt, this gap cannot be explained by differences in age or gender and remains consistent across demographic groups.
Among foreign suspects, the most commonly recorded nationalities include Turkey, Syria, Romania, Ukraine, Poland, and Afghanistan.
Alice Weidel, co-leader of the Alternative für Deutschland, pointed to the figures as evidence of failed migration policy, writing on X: “Murder and manslaughter +6.5%, rapes +8.5%, over 29,000 knife offenses—a new record. Foreigners are four times as often suspects in violent crimes as Germans.”
Overall, police solved 57.9% of recorded crimes.
