The breakdown below may include hate speech offences, which fall outside of the OSCE's hate crime definition. One criminal incident may be recorded with more than one bias motivation in the breakdown below.
In 2022, there were several ongoing projects to improve hate crime data, whereby police co-operated with victim associations and prevention institutions at the local level. For example, the Berlin Criminal Police Office co-operated with the Gay Anti-Violence Project "Maneo" and the Research and Information Centre for Antisemitism (RIAS). The Federal Ministry of the Interior and for Community started a research project on co-operation between civil society and the police in recording hate crime. The aim of the research project was to further improve co-operation between police forces and victim associations. The study is intended to identify best practices for such co-operation in Germany and abroad.
The Federal Ministry of Justice organizes a yearly conference on racism at the German Judicial Academy. In 2022, the conference addressed racism in connection with criminal law, and focused on prosecuting crimes involving racism, racist motives as aggravating circumstances, identifying racist motives, and protecting victims during criminal proceedings, among other topics.
In addition, the Federal Ministry of Justice provided financial support to projects run by civil society organizations (CSOs) relevant to addressing hate crimes. One such project, titled "Digital Violence in a Volatile Environment: New Phenomena, Forms of Violence and Groups of Victims" and run by the CSO HateAid, deals with new and virulent developments in the field of digital violence.
In November 2022, the German Federal Government's National Strategy against Antisemitism and for Jewish Life was adopted. Addressing anti-Semitic hate crime and tackling under-reporting are key issues featured in the document.
In 2022, a project of the German Institute for Human Rights (DIMR) on racism, anti-Semitism and right-wing extremism, funded by the Ministry of Justice was completed. The aim of the project was to make the prosecution of racist and anti-Semitic crimes more effective and, in particular, to increase the number of reported crimes. In particular, the project was designed to improve the structures of co-operation between various actors – including within the justice system, public prosecutor's office, police, and victim protection associations – as part of pilot projects in three Länder. In addition, action strategies were developed to establish or expand appropriate co-operation structures, such as the creation of round tables on relevant crimes, appointment of contact persons in the public prosecutor's office, the police and the courts for victims of such crimes, and further development of existing structures or those currently being set up in the area of victim protection (such as central contact points, victim advocates, psychosocial process support) with regard to the specific target group of victims of racist, anti-Semitic and right-wing extremist crimes.
This category includes 1,005 hate crimes committed with a bias based on sexual orientation, and 417 hate crimes committed with a bias based on gender identify.
ODIHR recognizes Germany's efforts to enhance hate crime data collection and recording, as well as efforts to ensure the provision of specialist hate crime victim support. However, based on the available information, it observes that Germany has not reported data on hate crimes recorded by the prosecution and judiciary to ODIHR. In addition, ODIHR observes that Germany would benefit from raising awareness among and building the capacity of criminal justice officials to combat hate crimes.
ODIHR recalls that in Ministerial Council Decision 9/09, OSCE participating States committed to collect reliable data and statistics in sufficient detail on hate crimes and to report such crimes periodically to ODIHR. Participating States also committed to introduce or further develop professional training and capacity-building activities for law enforcement, prosecution, and judicial officials dealing with hate crimes. ODIHR stands ready to support Germany in meeting its relevant commitments through the provision of comprehensive resources and tailored assistance in the area of hate crime recording and data collection, as well as by providing further resources and tailored capacity-building assistance for police, prosecution, and judiciary.
In addition to incidents submitted with detailed descriptions, this graph includes the following figures reported as statistics: 29 anti-Muslim incidents reported by FAIR International; 723 anti-Semitic incidents reported by the Federal Association of Departments for Research and Information on Antisemitism (RIAS); 888 racist and xenophobic, 116 anti-LGBTI and 9 disability hate incidents reported by the Association of Counseling Centers for Victims of Right-wing, Racist and Antisemitic Violence in Germany (VBRG); and 158 anti-LGBTI incidents reported by MANEO.
🛈 Please note that the total number of incidents may be lower than the sum of incidents presented in the breakdown chart above, as some incidents involve multiple bias motivations.
🛈 ODIHR no longer presents descriptions of property attacks in the incident tables below. Data on property attacks are presented in the breakdown charts above. One property attack may target multiple properties or involve multiple types of attack.