Germany has been plagued by knife attacks for years, and new data is shining a light on just how bad the situation has become, with both injuries requiring hospitalization and deaths on a sharp rise.
Although not yet published, data from the German Society for Trauma Surgery, which handles a database of treated cases of serious injuries, the number of people requiring emergency room treatment for violently inflicted stab wounds increased by 50 percent over just four years.
This is the first time data from this registry has been filtered solely for cases where someone had intentionally stabbed another person, writes Welt, based on a report out of Der Spiegel.
“According to the report, 3,325 stab wounds related to violent crimes were recorded over the past ten years. The number of people seriously injured by violent stab wounds has risen steadily: from approximately 250 in 2019 to approximately 375 in 2023, the most recent data available. This represents an increase of 50 percent.”
Out of all the victims in this cohort, 86 percent were men and, on average, 31.3 years old. Upon arrival at a hospital, approximately 70 percent of them required emergency treatment. Another 8 percent of arrivals were so severely injured from their stab wounds that they died in the hospital.
“It’s alarming to see that knives are being used as weapons with increasing frequency in Germany,” Andreas Seekamp, who has worked for 20 years as a senior trauma surgeon at the University Hospital Schleswig-Holstein, Kiel Campus, told Der Spiegel.
German doctors have also noted that, besides a higher number of reported knife attacks, their brutality is also increasing. “We have the impression that the attacks are being carried out more deliberately,” said Dietmar Pennig, Secretary General of the German Society for Orthopedics and Trauma Surgery.
“We are definitely seeing an increase in stab wounds to the neck or chest, precisely where it is particularly dangerous.”
As Remix News previously reported, migrants are particularly overrepresented in violent crimes, including knife attacks.
“We have imported knife violence. In other cultures, the knife is a kind of status symbol. This is changing the social climate here in the country,” stated criminal attorney Udo Vetter earlier this year. He further noted that “knives have become an everyday companion for many people. And the barrier to using them is low.”
Notably, he warns that due to the rise of knives and knife crimes, it is creating a problem that is expected to only grow exponentially, with more and more people arming themselves with knives out of fear.
“Because if some people deliberately pack a knife as a murder weapon, more and more people will also resort to knives, supposedly to defend themselves,” stated Vetter. “Young people in particular have knives in their pockets just like their cell phones.”
The head of the German Police Union, Rainer Wendt, also spoke out about the knife crime problem, saying: “The threshold for violence is getting lower and lower. And the fuse is getting shorter. Knives are being drawn even for trivial reasons and seemingly harmless disputes.”
As Remix News previously reported, violent crime reached a record high in Germany last year, with foreigners responsible for nearly half of crimes. There were 29,014 cases in total involving a crime where a knife was used, of which, 15,741 were knife attacks. Serious and dangerous bodily harm with a knife increased by 10.8 percent in 2024 compared to 2023.
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