Violence, property damage, sexual crimes, weapons and drugs – railway stations in Germany are highly dangerous and not only the biggest ones, according to the German broadcaster ZDF. According to the police, relatively small stations in Dortmund or Nuremberg also rank high in the crime statistics.
Train stations are some of the most dangerous places in Germany, and it is not always the biggest ones that are the most dangerous, German broadcaster ZDF points out. Relatively small main train stations in Dortmund or Nuremberg also rank high in crime statistics.
The crime rate was high last year even at train stations, which are not among the most frequented in Germany, ZDF reports. According to the federal government’s response to a question from the AdG parliamentary group, Nuremberg’s main train station, for example, was among the three train stations where the federal police recorded the most sexual crimes, violent crimes and property damage crimes in 2022.
Hanover Central Station ranked second after Hamburg for violent crime last year – ahead of Nuremberg – and third for gun crime.
Dortmund’s main railway station recorded more gun and drug crimes over the same period than any other German long-distance railway station.
According to the German government, Düsseldorf’s main train station is also among the most dangerous train stations for these two groups of crimes.
German police said the largest number of property and sex crimes were reported at Cologne’s main train station.
German railway company Deutsche Bahn reports that Hamburg Central Station is the most visited train station nationwide, followed by Frankfurt am Main and Munich Central Stations. Nuremberg is not among the top ten train stations with the highest number of travelers and visitors, which, however, does not save it from a significant number of crimes.
The crime figures are taken from German police intake statistics, so they differ from police crime statistics, where data is collected after an investigation has been completed, the German TV station explains. The number of detected offences is also influenced by the density of checks in the respective area.
According to ZDF, comparing the data with the previous year does not make much sense, as the 2021 coronavirus protection measures still have a significant impact on the mobility of citizens – and thus on the number of people in public places.
At the moment, the German federal government is voting on reform of the police law. A contentious point in the process is the question of what facilities police can use in railway stations, German television channel ZDF notes.
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