Berlin has reported a record number of gang rapes in one year, with 111 committed in Germany’s capital in 2023 alone. Over half of those rapes were committed by non-German citizens.
The information was made public after an information request was submitted by member of the Berlin House of Representatives Marc Vallendar of the populist AfD. The Berlin Minister for the Interior, Christian Hochgrebe of the ruling SPD center-left party, provided the shocking figures. As the police do not specifically note down “gang rapes,” the data has been provided for cases of rape where the perpetrator was not acting alone.
In total, the number of gang rapes has increased in recent years dramatically. In 2020, there were 98 cases, 106 in 2021, 89 in 2022, and then 111 in 2023. To compare with previous nationwide statistics, in 2016, just 69 such assaults were committed.
Berlin Minister for the Interior Hochgrebe attributed the data fluctuations to the willingness of victims to report their assaults, which can be variable.
Across Germany, 1 in 10 gang rapes reported took place in Berlin, despite the capital only making up 4% of the country’s total population.
The gang rapes primarily took place in shared residential buildings, with 41 of the 111 recorded to have taken place in apartment complexes. Public parks were also a major site of gang rapes, with others even reported to have taken place in schools, prisons, hospitals, and accommodations for asylum seekers.
While the average age of the gang rape victims was 27, the youngest reported case involved a 6-year-old child. The most common age for one of the victims was between 14 and 16. All but 33 of the 111 total victims were under 30.
For the suspects, their ages varied more wildly, but still skewed younger. The youngest gang rapist was between 10 and 12, with the majority of the suspected perpetrators being below the age of 25.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, the majority (54%) of the suspects did not have German citizenship.
At the end of 2023, non-citizens only made up 24.4% of the population of Berlin (a 2% increase from the previous year), making them over-represented in the gang rape statistics by a factor of two. While the AfD asked about “sociocultural backgrounds,” the SPD claimed that there was no “increase” to mention. There were no statistics provided on the ethnic background of any of the suspected perpetrators, which would include second or third generation migrants.
In a statement to X, the AfD blamed the “unimaginable suffering” of the victims of the gang rapists on an “irresponsible federal government” that let in so many migrants over the past decade and beyond. The AfD also claimed that the national government was “turning a blind eye” to the fact that the majority of rapists were foreigners.
“The CDU-governed Berlin is also not taking action. Instead, the Senate, led by the CDU mayor Wegner decides to stop deportations. At the same time, with the support of the CDU finance senator, police spending is being cut, while 16 new asylum centres with up to 6,130 places are to be built in the capital alone,” the AfD wrote. “With uncontrolled mass migration, the horror that is already part of everyday life is being imported further. The established parties are sacrificing women and girls on the altar of their ideological delusion.”
Gang rapes, usually by foreign gangs, often make headlines in Germany. In Hamburg in 2020, a 15-year-old girl was raped by multiple men in a park under the influence of alcohol. 12 men were investigated, with 9 being sentenced to prison, although some have since appealed.
In June 2023, a 27-year-old Georgian woman was allegedly raped at Görlitzer Park in front of her husband by three African migrants, all whom had previous convictions. However, the trial collapsed in February after the victim only agreed to be questioned via video link from Tbilisi rather than return to Germany to appear in court and face her assailants in person.
