In the past two years, the number of anti-Christian offences in Germany has greatly risen from 135 cases in 2022 to 277 in 2023 and 228 last year.

That is the result of a report issued by the the German federal government, in response to an enquiry of the AfD parliamentary group, after an NIUS newspaper article on the increased number of attacks on churches in Germany published last November.

Among other things, the AfD party wanted to know how many and which criminal offences against Christians and their institutions have been registered or recorded by the police in Germany since 2019.

In its answer, the federal government only includes those offences that are classified as "politically motivated" by the Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA). Those directed against Christians and their institutions are recorded with the sub-topic “anti-Christian” and the sub-target “church”.

The offences against Christian institutions such as day-care centres are under the sub-target “Religious institution”, which also includes non-Christian institutions.

96 offences against churches

Among the 228 anti-Christian offences between 1 January and 10 December 2024, there are one homicide and 14 bodily injuries, as well as 52 cases of damage to property, 22 cases of threats or coercion, 57 propaganda offences, 29 cases of incitement of the people against Christians and 53 offences of a different nature.

The authorities recorded 96 offences under the “church” category. The majority of them were against property (47) and propaganda (22).

At the same time, there were 21 attacks on mosques in Germany in the first three quarters of 2024.

There were also 66 incidents against religious institutions, mainly damage to property (31), and propaganda offences (11), cases of incitement to hatred (9) and disturbance of the peace of the dead (4).

Of the 56 suspects identified who attacked churches or religious institutions, 50 were German nationals.

Federal government: “There is no increased threat to Christians”

When asked by the opposition party how the government assesses the security situation of Christians in Germany, the Ministry of the Interior replied that “from the point of view of the federal government there is no increased threat to Christians or Christian institutions in Germany”.