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Berlin’s busiest square is hunting ground for criminals

For years, crooks and criminals have tormented tourists and travellers at Berlin Alexanderplatz. Police efforts to fight the scourge have so far failed.

Published: 21 March 2016 12:32 CET

Berlin's busiest square is hunting ground for criminals

Photo: DPA

Crime has been rife for years at Alexanderplatz, Berlin's busiest public space and home to the German capital's world-famous TV tower. And despite increased police presence, officers have been unable to get a grip on the situation.

Figures released to Berlin city representative Tom Schreiber of the centre-left Social Democratic Party (SPD) show that the number of violent offences at Alex – as it's fondly known to Berliners – remained stuck at around 600 per year between 2011 and 2015.

“Although there are more officers and they are probably working overtime, I think the staff are overwhelmed with the situation,” Schreiber told The Local.

Ever since 20-year-old Johnny K. was beaten to death by 6 men in October 2012, an extra police team has been in place to watch over the tourist, shopping and travel nexus in the former East of the city.

But the report from the city government's Interior department shows that while crime was relatively low in early 2015, there were a total of 597 acts of violence by the end of the year.

The offences include criminal assault, armed robbery, threats and unlawful detention.

The department registered 481 cases of assault, 62 instances of coercion and threats, 51 cases of robbery and three counts of the most serious crimes: rape, murder and homicide, some of them attempted.

Cases of pick-pocketing also increased by 54% between 2014 and 2015.

“We need combined supervision at Alexanderplatz; a joint effort of the public order office [Ordnungsamt], federal police [responsible for policing transport infrastructure], and city police,” city representative Schreiber said.

“We don't want tourists to arrive in this city and then be welcomed by crime.”

The police department did not give a statement on why they haven't been able to curtail crime at the plaza when contacted by The Local.

by Max Bringmann

SEE ALSO: Germany's safest and most dangerous cities

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Suspect held in latest attack on German politicians

The German government condemned the “growing despicable attacks”, stressing that the “climate of intimidation, of violence” was something that could not be accepted.

Chancellor Olaf Scholz blasted the attacks against politicians as “outrageous and cowardly”, stressing that violence did not belong in a democratic debate.

Franziska Giffey was at a library on Tuesday afternoon when the suspect came up from behind her to slug her in the head and neck with a bag containing hard objects, police said.

Giffey, who is now Berlin state’s economy minister and a member of Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s Social Democratic Party (SPD), was treated in hospital for light injuries.

The detained suspect was previously known to investigators over “state security and hate crimes”, said police, adding that they were investigating the motive of the attack.

Prosecutors were also considering if the man should be sent to psychiatric care because of indications that he might be mentally ill.

Giffey said she was “feeling well after the initial scare”. But she was “concerned and shaken about a growing ‘free wild culture’ in which people who are engaging politically in our country are increasingly exposed to attacks that are supposedly justified and acceptable.

“We live in a free and democratic country, in which everyone can be free to express his or her opinions,” she wrote on X, formerly Twitter.

“But there is a clear line — and that is violence against people,” she added.

Berlin’s current mayor Kai Wegner said anyone who attacked politicians was “attacking our democracy.

“We will not tolerate this,” he added, vowing to examine “tougher sentences for attacks against politicians”.

Nazi salutes

A European member of parliament, also from the SPD, had to be hospitalised last week after four people attacked him as he put up EU election posters in the eastern city of Dresden.

Matthias Ecke, 41, needed an operation for serious injuries suffered in the attack, which Scholz denounced as a threat to democracy. Four suspects, aged between 17 and 18, are being investigated over the incident.

READ ALSO: Teenager turns self in after attack on German politician

All four are believed to have links to the far-right group known as “Elblandrevolte”, according to German media.

Dresden has been a hotspot for assaults against politicians, with another case reported on Tuesday.

S-Bahn in Dresden

An S-Bahn train drives through Dresden. Photo: picture alliance/dpa | Robert Michael

A politician, identified by police only as a 47-year-old from the Green party, was threatened and spat on. She was putting up campaign posters for the European elections when a man came up, pushed her to the side and tore down two posters.

READ ALSO: Germany unveils new plan to fight far-right extremism

He insulted and threatened the politician, while a woman joined in and spat on the victim, police said. Officers arrested both suspects, police added, identifying them as a 34-year-old German man and a 24-year-old woman.

Both were in a group standing at the area and who had begun making the banned Hitler salute when the politician began putting up the posters.

According to provisional police figures, 2,790 crimes were committed against politicians in Germany in 2023, up from 1,806 the previous year. Nevertheless, that was down from the 2,840 recorded in 2021, when the last general elections were held.

By Hui Min Neo

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