Germany has experienced a steep rise in knife violence in recent years, and the mass fatal stabbing in the western city of Solingen will compound the pressure on the government to crack down on the problem, officials and analysts said.
Security authorities say attacks with knives are particularly concentrated in city centres and at railway stations, leading the country’s interior minister, Nancy Faeser, this month to call for restrictions on the weapons in public spaces, days before the assault that claimed the lives of three people at a festival in Solingen.
Faeser has proposed only allowing the carrying of knives with blade lengths of 6cm, down from the 12cm currently allowed, with exceptions only for household knives in closed packaging that have just been bought.
She told public broadcaster ARD on 11 August: “We want a general ban on dangerous switchblades and will present the relevant amendments to weapons laws soon.”
She added that local governments should create more weapon-free and particularly knife-free zones in their communities.
“Brutal violent acts are being carried out with knives that lead to the worst injuries or can be deadly,” she said, outlining the need for action.
Police statistics show a nearly 10% year-on-year increase in serious bodily assaults using a knife, to 8,951 cases in 2023 compared with 2022. These included attacks in which victims were injured or threatened with a knife.
Federal police, who are also responsible for security at railway stations, said knife crimes there had soared last year to 777 attacks, with 430 cases recorded in the first half of this year.
Charité hospital in Berlin reported treating as many stab wounds in the first six months of 2024 as in the entirety of 2023, according to public broadcaster RBB – about 50 to 55 cases.
Germany’s 16 states have long been calling for tougher federal measures to address the rash of knife crimes. Faeser had called for better police enforcement of existing weapons laws after police shot and wounded a man in May who injured six people in a knife attack at a rightwing demonstration in the south-western city of Mannheim. Among the victims was a 29-year-old policeman who intervened and was fatally stabbed.
The country has already outlawed the purchase or possession of certain bladed weapons, including butterfly knives, which can carry a prison sentence of up to three years or a fine. So-called one-hand knives, which can be easily opened, and knives with 12cm blades or longer may not be carried outside one’s home or property.
On Saturday, in the aftermath of the deadly assault in Solingen, which also badly injured five people, Germany’s chancellor, Olaf Scholz, promised tough action against the assailant. “The perpetrator must be caught quickly and punished to the full extent of the law,” Scholz posted on X.
Meanwhile, MPs from the co-ruling Social Democrats (SPD), Scholz and Faeser’s party, stepped up their calls for stricter laws.
Dirk Wiese, the deputy head of the SPD parliamentary group, told the daily newspaper Rheinische Post: “It is clear to me that our security services must have more powers to recognise such perpetrators in time, particularly in the digital sphere.
“At the same time, we have got to finally make progress on knife bans in light of the probable terror attack on the city festival in Solingen.”
The far-right Alternative für Deutschland party has attempted to seize on street crime and knife violence as an issue, particularly in campaigning for three state elections next month in eastern Germany in which it is expected to perform well.
Party co-leader Alice Weidel last month claimed in a television interview that there had been “more than 15,000” knife crimes in 2023, calling it a “record” and accusing young immigrant men of being disproportionately responsible.
Weidel later corrected last year’s figure to 13,844, which included robberies in which a knife was used to threaten the victim.
Federal police have only been collecting specific statistics on knife crime since 2021, making annual comparisons difficult and reliant on data compiled from individual states.
Criminologist Dirk Baier warned that stricter laws were unlikely to root out knife assaults.
“That won’t scare off young perpetrators,” he told public broadcaster MDR. “And in weapons-ban zones you’ve got to have checks and the question is whether we have enough personnel.”
He called for youth education to address the surge in stabbings, “explaining for example that you’re most likely to hurt yourself if you carry a knife”.
“You can’t solve the problem with a law,” he said. “It’s a social problem and has to be addressed with social measures.”
• This article was amended on 26 August 2024. An earlier version said that police statistics show a nearly 6% year-on-year increase in serious bodily assaults using a knife, when in fact the increase is close to 10%.
