Beatings, kicks, sexual assaults: more cases of violence are being reported in schools in Germany. Thousands of such incidents were reported to the state criminal investigation offices and education ministries, as a survey by the German Press Agency showed. In the most populous federal state of North Rhine-Westphalia alone, there were around 5,400 violent crimes in 2022. Most of the countries do not yet have more recent figures. In recent weeks there have been repeated major police operations at schools.
A recent incident was at a school near Berlin. A 22-year-old broke into the building in Petershagen with a knife and a blank gun before class began. An employee raises the alarm and the man is arrested. In February, four students were attacked with a knife at a high school in Wuppertal. A 17-year-old is therefore in custody on suspicion of attempted murder.
In several federal states, the number of recorded violent crimes has increased compared to the period before the corona pandemic – sometimes significantly. For example, if you compare the statistics from the State Ministry of the Interior in North Rhine-Westphalia for the years 2019 and 2022, there is an increase in cases by more than half, even if the number of students at general education and vocational schools as well as at health care schools only increased by around one percent increased (between school years 2019/20 and 2022/23).
Five police operations every school day in Berlin
This is what it looks like in other federal states for 2022, a selection: According to the state Ministry of the Interior, there were 2,243 cases of violence in Baden-Württemberg, 1976 in Saxony, and 1,674 cases of intentional minor bodily harm in Bavaria. In Brandenburg, the police spoke of 910 so-called brutality crimes. The number increased in all four countries.
In Berlin there are on average at least five police operations every school day. According to the police, there were 2,344 cases of bodily harm in 2022. There will be “another significant increase in the number of cases” for 2023. What’s interesting is that such incidents are almost never reported to the public and the media by schools or the police.
In Thuringia, the Ministry of Education in Erfurt spoke of 561 physical injuries last year (2022: 321). In Lower Saxony, the number of brutal crimes and crimes against personal freedom rose by around 520 cases from 2022 to 2,680 in 2023. This category includes acts such as robbery, threats and bodily harm.
Only a few cases of murder and manslaughter
Despite many police operations, cases such as the fatal knife attack on a student near Heidelberg rarely appear in the statistics. An 18-year-old is accused of stabbing his peers at a high school in St. Leon-Rot in January.
Injured numbers vary depending on the size of the federal states. In Lower Saxony, the total number of victims in the school context climbed from around 2,630 in 2022 to around 3,270 in 2023. In Schleswig-Holstein, 255 students were reported as victims of incidents two years ago – more than in 2019. In the years 2020 and In 2021, schools were closed for a long time due to the corona pandemic.
The state statistics provide little information as to whether police officers have confiscated weapons, for example. In Saxony in 2022 there were a total of 15 weapons, 42 knives, 43 stones and 19 pyrotechnics. In many cases, lighters were also used. According to the Ministry of Education, a weapon was used five times in Thuringia last year – airsoft weapons or weapon-like objects were used just as often – more than in 2022.
Ministry sees various reasons for violence
According to the Brandenburg Ministry of Education, the reasons why students committed or threatened violence are complex. These included factors such as “deficits in self-control and low self-esteem, but also familial and social causes such as experiences of violence in the family or acceptance as well as social norms and values and the respective acceptance in the peer group.” Violent content in the media and on online platforms could also encourage aggressive behavior.
According to the General Association of School Management in Germany, many teachers have the feeling that the willingness to use violence has increased. “We have noticed that more weapons are being taken to school than before,” said association chairman Sven Winkler. These are primarily knives and so-called apparent weapons. These are weapons that look deceptively similar to real firearms. It is unclear whether children and young people carry weapons because they are prepared to use violence or because they are afraid and want to use them for self-defense.
According to him, in order to prevent violence, many schools are trying to expand social work. However, there is often a lack of staff, time and money. Or schools use security services, like a facility in Bremerhaven. The young people broke windows and threatened and insulted students and teachers. People from outside the school came onto the school grounds almost every day. They damaged doors, unlocked fire extinguishers and clogged toilets. “The situation last autumn was very turbulent,” reported a school spokeswoman. “I felt unsafe.” With the security guards, the situation calmed down again.
