751 Group Rape Cases Show Germany’s New Normal

Germany registered a total of 751 cases classified as group rape in 2025. This is according to a federal government response to a question from the AfD parliamentary group.

The figure is based on a special analysis of the Police Crime Statistics, because group rape is not a separate criminal offense. Germany therefore remains at a level that was not normal before 2016. In 2015, 400 cases were counted nationwide. One year later, there were 749. The jump came after then Chancellor Angela Merkel’s opening of the border and the Cologne New Year’s Eve attacks.

On the night of 1 January 2016, hundreds of women around Cologne’s main railway station and cathedral were sexually harassed, robbed or attacked. Police later described the suspects mainly as “appearing to be North African”. Cologne became the symbol of a loss of control that permanently changed Germany’s migration debate.

The number of group rape cases in the statistics also rose particularly dramatically: from 74 in 2015 to 321 in 2016. After that, the new level did not disappear. Since 2018, case numbers have remained almost continuously high. In 2018, 659 cases were registered, followed by 710 in 2019, 704 in 2020 and 677 in 2021. In 2022, the statistics reached their highest level so far, with 789 cases. In 2023, there were 761 cases and in 2024 a total of 788.

You might be interested The Missing Perpetrators in EU Violence Data

2017 Was No Normal Year

There is one conspicuous year in the series. In 2017, only 380 cases were counted. That decline is not evidence of any real easing, because the recording system was being changed at precisely that time. The federal government itself points to breaks in the data. From 2016 to 2017 and from 2017 to 2018, both the methodology and the legal basis changed. The years are therefore not exactly comparable.

Until 2016, the Police Crime Statistics used the former offense codes for “rape committed by groups in a sudden attack” and “rape by groups”. In 2017, new codes applied after the reform of sexual offense law. Since 2018, the offense code for rape under Section 177 paragraphs 6, 7 and 8 of the Criminal Code has been combined with the filter that suspects did not act alone.

The anomalous year of 2017 falls in the middle of this restructuring. After that, the statistics immediately jumped back up: 659 cases in 2018 and 710 in 2019. The central finding remains: before 2016, the numbers were significantly lower. After 2016, they stayed high.

Every Other Suspect Was a Foreign National

The suspect statistics make the picture even starker. In 2025, the report recorded 1,083 suspects. Of those, 509 had German citizenship, while 574 were foreign nationals. That corresponds to about 53%.

Among suspects by nationality, Germans were followed mainly by Syrians, Afghans, Iraqis and Turks. The federal government lists 110 Syrian, 64 Afghan, 46 Iraqi and 44 Turkish suspects.

The Police Crime Statistics do not record a possible migration background among German suspects. Naturalized offenders appear as Germans. The statistics show citizenship, not origin. The victim figures, by contrast, are unambiguous. In 2025, 772 victims were recorded. Of these, 619 had German citizenship.

AfD politician Stephan Brandner spoke of a failure by the justice system, security authorities and politicians. He called for consistent prosecution, faster proceedings, tougher penalties and, in the case of foreign offenders, deportation.

The federal government points out that the Police Crime Statistics reflect the status of cases at the conclusion of police investigations. Prosecutors and courts may later assess cases differently. That does little to change the scale of the matter.