ByKirsten Ripper&Euronews
Published on •Updated
At Frankfurt am Main central station, Deutsche Bahn also warns passengers on board trains about pickpockets. Travelers leaving the station are confronted with the misery of drug addicts who linger in Kaiserstrasse and the surrounding streets – whether they like it or not. Police are usually on the scene, but from the outside not much seems to have changed in recent years.
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And the figures on violence at Germany’s railway stations are causing many officials serious concern. Since this weekend, the federal police have increased their presence at stations in ten major German cities. When it comes to crime at stations, however, Frankfurt is not at the top of the list.
In 2025 the stations were particularly affected by crime Leipzig central station with 859 violent offenses, Dortmund central station with 735 and Berlin central station with 654.
Most recently, there was widespread shock over the fatal attack on a train conductor on a regional service in Rhineland-Palatinate last February. This was followed by a debate about the scale of attacks on Deutsche Bahn employees.
Expert: “No station in Germany is a no-go area”
According to police statistics, a total of 27,800 violent offenses were committed at railway stations last year. These included 980 recorded knife attacks and more than 2,200 registered sexual offenses. Some 5,660 acts of violence were directed against federal police officers. According to the police, there were significantly more non-German nationals among the suspected perpetrators than Germans.
Criminologist Dirk Baier describes stations as “hot spots of crime”. But in Die Welt the expert also explains that violence at stations is particularly visible precisely because the police presence there is greater and because it is reported on more. “In my view there is no major station in Germany that would be a no-go area.”
In fact, right opposite Frankfurt central station many people – including families and women – shop quite normally in the chemists and the supermarket.
Police officers at stations instead of on border controls
Günter Krings, deputy chair of the CDU parliamentary group in the Bundestag, wants to improve public safety at stations through technical measures such as more cameras, while at the same time easing the burden on police officers. Talks on this are currently taking place within the coalition parties.
The AfD describes German railway stations as “places of fear” and is calling for tougher sentences, more consistent deportations and a stronger police presence.
However, the Greens’ domestic policy spokesman Marcel Emmerich argues that video surveillance may be useful but cannot replace officers on the ground. He says the government is deploying thousands of federal police officers for “expensive, useless and unlawful border controls” instead of strengthening their presence at stations.
Weapons and alcohol bans at stations
According to the Süddeutsche Zeitung, weapons bans now apply from Friday to Sunday at Munich central station and at the Ostbahnhof in the Bavarian capital, as well as at the main stations in Nuremberg, Regensburg and Rosenheim. This means that at weekends people are not allowed to carry knives or dangerous tools there. According to the SZ, officers can stop, question and search individuals even without a specific cause.
A ban on drinking alcohol has been in force at Cologne central station (Hbf) since April; it now also applies to the stations in Bonn, Düsseldorf, Duisburg, Essen, Dortmund and Münster.
Deutsche Bahn has authority over its premises at stations and can therefore enforce its own rules there, such as bans on alcohol.
Violence at railway stations is by no means a purely German phenomenon, as the recent knife attack in Winterthur in Switzerland also shows.