List of mass stabbings in Germany

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This is an incomplete list of mass stabbings in Germany. The casualty figures of mass stabbings below include violence-related deaths and injuries with a knife, hatchet and spear respectively, casualty inflicted by legal intervention (i.e., deaths caused by law enforcement and other persons with legal authority to use deadly force acting in the line of duty), as well as suicide.

Contents

Background on crime statistics

The list is incomplete, because no federal statistics on all stabbings in Germany are available (unlike in the United States, for example); the Bundeskriminalamt (Germany) started to track only knife attacks in 2020. [1] Knife attacks are defined as either mere threats with a knife or the actual attacks. [1] : 15 

Data from the police crime statistics of individual German states show, that in several states the number of stabbings increased from 2013 to 2018 by over 30%. [2] In 2020 alone, there were at least 100 deaths from nearly 20,000 knife attacks. A large proportion of the crimes are related to domestic violence. [3] The overall number of incidents of intentional simple bodily harm increased by 7.4% from 399,699 in 2022 to 429,157 in 2023. The number of non-German suspects increased more (13%) than the number of German suspects (4%). The highest increase of 20% was in immigrants in Germany, even though they perpetrated only 31.830 out of the 430,000 attacks. [1] : 15 

As far as knife attacks are concerned: In 2023, 8,951 cases or 5.8 percent of acts of serious bodily harm (assault) were recorded as "knife attack", a rise in absolute numbers but roughly the same proportion as in 2022 (5.6 percent, altogether 8,160 cases). In 2023, 4,893 cases or 10.9 percent of robberies/theft were knife attacks, an increase in absolute numbers, but an unchanged proportion compared to 2022, with 11.0 percent (4,195 cases). [1] : 15 

There is evidence that severe injuries have doubled from 2014 to 2023, per the statistics of the trauma registry of the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Unfallchirurgie: From 2014 to 2023, 4,917 people with severe knife stab injuries were admitted to German hospitals out of a total of 212,628 admissions to an ICU due to serious injuries. Here, the overall proportion of knife injuries increased sharply from 2014 to 2023, from just under 2 to over 3 %, even though since 2018, patients have to give their written consent in order to be included in the statistics (which caused a high number of unreported cases ). [4]

1920s and earlier

DateLocationDeadInjuredTotalDescription
4 September 1913 Degerloch and Mühlhausen an der Enz, German Reich 50539-year-old Ernst August Wagner killed his wife and 4 children by cutting their throat and chest with a blackjack and dagger. He was a teacher with severe endogenous depression and suicidal ideation, later diagnosed with paranoia. Hours later he shot 20 people, killing nine. [5]
6 June 1925 Hassenberg and Lindenberg, German Reich 911030-year-old Wilhelm Brückner killed 9 family members with an axe and a kitchen knife and afterwards himself. He suffered a lightning injury in childhood and was thought to have had mental retardation and mental illness given auditory hallucinations. [6]

1960s

DateLocationDeadInjuredTotalDescription
11 June 1964Volkhoven in Cologne, North Rhine-Westphalia 112233 57-year old Walter Seifert attacked a Catholic elementary school with a home-made flamethrower and a spear, killing eight pupils and two teachers, afterwards himself. Was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia in 1954. [7]
14 December 1968 Stuttgart, Baden-Württemberg 257A Yugoslav guest worker stabbed seven people, killing two, at his guest home. He was killed by police gunfire. [8]

1980s

DateLocationDeadInjuredTotalDescription
8 August 1989 Stuttgart, Baden-Württemberg 235A 48-year-old failed asylum seeker from Cameroon stabbed five police officers with a bayonet, killing two, before being shot dead by wounded officers. [9]

2000s

DateLocationDeadInjuredTotalDescription
16 September 2003 Pforzheim, Baden-Württemberg 134A 24-year-old man killed one person and wounded three others with a sword at a mail-order company. [10]
3 April 2005 Stuttgart, Baden-Württemberg 134A 25-year-old Tamil stabbed four people with a sword, killing one, during a church service. [11]

2010s

DateLocationDeadInjuredTotalDescription
17 October 2015 Cologne, North Rhine-Westphalia 055A 44-year-old man stabbed mayoral candidate Henriette Reker into the neck at a political information stand in the city, injuring four others. The motive was thought in protest of the CDU's pro immigration policies on refugees. [12]
10 May 2016 Grafing station, near Munich, Bavaria 134 A 27-year-old mentally disturbed man stabbed four men, one of them fatally at Grafing station, some 32 kilometres (20 mi) from Munich. As he reportedly shouted " Allahu Akbar " while stabbing the random victims, first reactions of the German and international media as well as the general public suspected an Islamist attack. On his arrest shortly after the attack, he proved to be a mentally disturbed, unemployed carpenter with drug problems and no known ties to Islamist organizations. [13]
24 July 2016 Reutlingen, Baden-Württemberg 134 A 21-year-old refugee of the Syrian civil war attacked his girlfriend and co-worker at his Doner kebab workplace with a knife killing her, wounding two other people, before being struck accidentally by a car and arrested by police. An asylum seeker who had arrived in 2015, he had been previously arrested for causing bodily harm. [14]
18 July 2016between Treuchtlingen and Würzburg, Bavaria 1 (perpetrator)56 A 17-year-old former unaccompanied child refugee from Afghanistan wanted to avenge the death of a friend in Afghanistan. He had been in contact with the Islamic State. [15]
9 March 2017 Düsseldorf, North Rhine-Westphalia 01010A 36-year-old asylum seeker from Kosovo, who had arrived in Germany in 2009 and was considered mentally ill attacked nine fellow passengers with an axe aboard a train. He jumped from a nearby bridge while attempting to escape capture, injuring himself severely. He was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia. [16]
28 July 2017 Barmbek area of Hamburg 16726-year-old Ahmad Alhaw, a Palestinian failed asylum seeker took a 20 cm-long kitchen knife from a supermarket shelf to attack several people, killing one. He was known to have had contacts with Salafists, and had psychological and drug problems. [17]
21 October 2017 Münich, Bavaria 08834-year-old Patrick H., asked random passers-by if they are clairvoyant and then attacked with a 9 cm-long knife. He was labeled as schizophrenic and was placed in a closed psychiatric clinic. [18]
20 July 2018 Lübeck, Schleswig-Holstein 01010A 34-year old German from Iran attacked 10 people in a bus in Lübeck with a kitchen knife; he was suffering from paranoid schizophrenia. [19]
26 August 2018 Chemnitz, Saxonia 13322-year old Iraki Jussif A. and 23-year old Syrian Alaa S. were taken into custody after a stabbing in Chemnitz, after which 35 year old Daniel H. died. A third suspect, an Iraki asylum seeker was fugitive. [20] This led to days long 2018 Chemnitz protests.
28 September 2018 Ravensburg, Baden-Württemberg 033A 19-year old asylum seeker from Afghanistan attacked a 19 and 20 year old asylum seekers from Syria and a 52-year old German. [21]
19 September 2019 Monheim am Rhein, Baden-Württemberg 033A 20-year old under the influence of drugs injured 3 people with a knife and then threatened to jump out of the window of the 13 th floor. [22]

2020s

DateLocationDeadInjuredTotalDescription
25 June 2021 Würzburg, Bavaria 3 women811 24-year-old homeless Abdirahman Jibril of Somalia killed three civilians with a kitchen knife in a Woolworth store and wounded seven others. The police shot him into his leg. He had arrived in 2015 as asylum seeker and had a history of violent altercations. He had lived in a homeless shelter since 2019. He admitted to Islamist motives. Another refugee accused him to be an al-Shabaab member. He had a questionable history of mental illness. [23]
4 November 2021 Neumarkt, Bavaria 03 seriously, possibly another non-seriously.326 or 27 year old Abdalrahman A. of Palestinian origin who arrived in Germany as a refugee in 2014 claiming on the basis of residency in Syria. Attacked 4 passengers on an ICE high speed passenger train with 200 passengers from Passau to Nuremberg with an 8 centimeter folding knife while the train was near the city of Neumarkt. 3 passengers were "seriously injured". [24] [25]
25 January 2023 Brokstedt, Schleswig-Holstein 21012 33-year-old Ibrahim A. of Palestinian origin stabbed nine people on a moving passenger train, killing two. He came to Germany in 2014 and by 2018 he had been convicted for dangerous bodily harm, two fines for theft and one drug offence. [26]
22 February 2024 Wuppertal, North Rhine-Westphalia 05 (Including the perpetrator)5 A 17-year-old male student at the Wilhelm-Dörpfeld secondary school went into the school armed with a knife and a pair of scissors and stabbed multiple pupils and one teacher. [27] He was suspected of suffering from mental illness.
31 May 2024 Mannheim 16 (including the perpetrator)7: A 25-year-old Afghan refugee is accused of fatally stabbing a police officer and wounding 5 other people at an anti-Islam rally. [28]
15 June 2024 Wolmirstedt, Saxony-Anhalt 2 (including the perpetrator)34An Afghan man stabbed a man to death, then ran into an UEFA Euro 2024 watch party and injured three people before being shot and killed by police. [29]
23 August 2024 Solingen, North Rhine-Westphalia 3811 A 26-year-old refugee from Syria confessed to stabbing 11 people (3 of whom died) during a festival. [30] The Islamic State claimed responsibility. [31]
31 August 2024 Siegen, North Rhine-Westphalia 066A 32-year-old German woman stabbed and injured six people on a bus. No clear motive was reported behind the crime. [32]

See also

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References

  1. 1 2 3 4 Bundesministerium des Innern und für Heimat (2024). "Polizeiliche Kriminalstatistik 2023. Ausgewählte Zahlen im Überblick" (PDF). Bundesministerium des Innern und für Heimat.
  2. ↑ Schmid, Anna (12 December 2019). "Anstieg um 32 Prozent: Statistiken verraten, wo es am meisten Messerangriffe gibt". Focus. Retrieved 24 August 2024.
  3. ↑ "Fast 20.000 Messerangriffe in einem Jahr in Deutschland". Die Welt (in German). 21 November 2021. Retrieved 24 May 2023.
  4. ↑ Giwerzew, Nathan (20 August 2024). "NZZ-Recherche: Zahl schwerer Stichverletzungen in Deutschland stark gestiegen". Neue Zürcher Zeitung (in Swiss High German). ISSN   0376-6829 . Retrieved 20 November 2024.
  5. ↑ Katja Wagner Vom grausamen Mörder zum Dichter Archived 2009-09-15 at the Wayback Machine , 30. April 2005 in der Ludwigsburger KreiszeitungLandesarchiv Baden-Württemberg (May 2, 2005)
  6. ↑ Times, Wireless To the New York (9 June 1925). "German Kills 9 and Hangs Himself". The New York Times. ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved 23 May 2023.
  7. ↑ "Bruno Kassel: Der Mann, der den ersten Schulamoklauf überlebte". DIE WELT (in German). 9 March 2012. Retrieved 23 May 2023.
  8. ↑ "Amoklauf eines Geistesgestörten". Neue Zürcher Zeitung (in German). 16 December 1968. Retrieved 13 May 2024.
  9. ↑ Obst, Wolf-Dieter (8 August 2014). "25 Jahre Polizistenmord: Das sinnlose Blutbad auf der Brücke [The senseless bloodbath on the bridge]". Stuttgarter Nachrichten (in German). Retrieved 13 May 2024.
  10. ↑ "German man kills woman with samurai sword". Irish Times. 16 September 2003. Retrieved 29 August 2024.
  11. ↑ Diver, Krysia (3 April 2005). "Woman killed in church sword attack". The Guardian. ISSN   0261-3077 . Retrieved 29 August 2024.
  12. ↑ "Cologne mayoral candidate hurt in knife attack". 17 October 2015. Retrieved 24 May 2023.
  13. ↑ Eisenberger, Korbinian (17 August 2017). "Messerattacke von Grafing: Angreifer muss in geschlossene Psychiatrie". Süddeutsche Zeitung (in German). Retrieved 24 May 2023.
  14. ↑ "Man with machete kills woman in southern Germany". The Guardian . 24 July 2016. Retrieved 25 July 2016.
  15. ↑ Hack, Jens (19 July 2016). "German train ax attack puts Merkel migrant policy back in spotlight". Reuters. Retrieved 20 July 2016.
  16. ↑ Kannegießer, Wulf (5 October 2017). "Axt-Angreifer kommt dauerhaft in geschlossene Psychiatrie" [axe attacker to be permanently housed in lock-ward psychiatry]. Rheinische Post Online (in German). Retrieved 6 December 2017.
  17. ↑ "1 dead, 6 injured after knife attack at supermarket". abcnews.com. Archived from the original on 28 July 2017. Retrieved 29 July 2017.
  18. ↑ Salch, Andreas (30 August 2018). "Prozess um Messerangriff : "Hau' ab, sonst stech' ich dein Kind ab"". Süddeutsche Zeitung (in German). Retrieved 25 August 2024.
  19. ↑ "Lübeck: Angriff in Linienbus - 34-Jähriger muss in die Psychiatrie". Der Spiegel (in German). 8 March 2019. ISSN   2195-1349 . Retrieved 20 November 2024.
  20. ↑ Klormann, Sybille (18 September 2018). "Chemnitz: Was über die Tat in Chemnitz bekannt ist". Die Zeit (in German). ISSN   0044-2070 . Retrieved 20 November 2024.
  21. ↑ "Messerattacke mitten in Ravensburg" (in German). 29 September 2018. Retrieved 20 November 2024.
  22. ↑ "Monheim am Rhein: Drei Verletzte nach Messerangriff" (in German). 19 September 2019. Retrieved 20 November 2024.
  23. ↑ "Somali man goes on trial in Germany over fatal stabbings". Reuters. 22 April 2022. Retrieved 23 April 2022.
  24. ↑ "Germany: Bavaria train attacker handed 14-year jail sentence". Deutsche Welle. 23 December 2022. Retrieved 4 September 2024.
  25. ↑ "Several injured in knife attack on German train". Deutsche Welle. 6 November 2021. Retrieved 4 September 2024.
  26. ↑ tagesschau.de (27 April 2023). "Staatsanwaltschaft erhebt Anklage nach tödlicher Messerattacke in Zug" (in German). Retrieved 23 May 2023.
  27. ↑ "Wuppertal suspect held after students wounded at German school". BBC News . 22 February 2024. Retrieved 22 February 2024.
  28. ↑ Fowler, Sarah (31 May 2024). "Mannheim knife attack: Anti-Islam activist injured in stabbing". BBC News. Retrieved 29 August 2024.
  29. ↑ "Germany: Police shoot man dead after Euro 2024 party attack". Deutsche Welle. 15 June 2024. Retrieved 29 August 2024.
  30. ↑ "Solingen: Großalarm ausgelöst – Todesopfer bei Attacke auf Stadtfest". WELT (in German). Retrieved 23 August 2024.
  31. ↑ Inverardi, Matthias; Sims, Tom; Wagner, Rene (24 August 2024). "Islamic State claims responsibility for knife attack in Germany". Reuters . Retrieved 24 August 2024.
  32. ↑ "Germany: Knife attack on bus injures 6 – DW – 08/31/2024". dw.com. 31 August 2024. Retrieved 10 September 2024.
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