Official German statistics show that around 80 criminal offences involving the use of a knife are committed every day. According to the Bundeskriminalamt, 29,014 criminal offences involving attacks or threats with a knife were recorded in 2024. The figure includes completed attacks, serious threats and other criminal uses of knives. The illegal carrying of a knife is not included.

Of the nearly 30,000 offences, almost half were linked to violent bodily injury. Different sources provide different figures; one source links 922 knife attacks to attempted murder and reports 49 knife murders and around 9,000 injured persons during the year. What can be established is that the figures are alarmingly high and increasing.

An increase in knives entering bodies

Knife crime has recently become a much-debated issue in German domestic politics. Some media outlets have pointed out that a large proportion of the perpetrators have immigrant backgrounds from North Africa and the Middle East, as well as a connection with Merkel’s opening of immigration in 2015.

Knife crime in Germany increased significantly from around 2015–2016 in connection with violence, bodily injury and robbery, according to official figures from the Bundeskriminalamt. Prior to 2015, the figures were relatively stable or showed a slight decline.

In recent years, from 2023 to 2025, the figures have stabilised at a high level. Particularly concerning is the number of dangerous and serious bodily injuries resulting from knives entering bodies; this increased by approximately ten per cent from 2022 to 2023 alone, from 8,160 to 8,951, and approached 10,000 in 2025; most cases occurred in large cities and among young men.