Attack figures doubled compared to the previous year

217 politically right-wing motivated acts of violence with 316 people directly affected by the attacks were documented by the Mobile Victim Counseling Service for 2015 in Saxony-Anhalt. Of these, almost two-thirds were racially motivated. This means that the number of known politically right-wing and racially motivated attacks has doubled compared to the previous year. For example, by the beginning of March 2015, the Mobile Victim Counseling Service had registered 103 attacks for 2014, which has since increased to 120 due to subsequent reports. "We have never registered so many cases of right-wing and racist violence as last year since the independent monitoring began in 2003," said a spokeswoman for the Mobile Victim Counseling Service.

In concrete terms, this means for the lives of social minorities that in 2015 in Saxony-Anhalt, people were attacked every second day of the year because of their skin color, their (supposed) origin, their sexual identity, their political orientation or their social status. This includes arson attacks on houses inhabited by migrants - such as the one in Merseburg on August 14, 2015, in which the residents had to take refuge on a canopy because of the heavy smoke - but also rapidly spreading racist violence and right-wing dominance in everyday life: For example, refugees are attacked while shopping in supermarkets, on their way home by streetcar or on the open street.

Affected people let down by politics

There has also been a massive increase in attacks on people who are committed to a democratic society and against racist agitation, such as on March 23, 2015 in Magdeburg or on October 21 in Halle (Saale) in connection with protests against Magida or AfD marches. "We are confronted with a dramatic spread of right-wing and racist violence," says a spokeswoman for the Mobile Victim Advisory Service. "But the political responses to this have been completely inadequate so far."

"Due to the high volume of cases, we are now far from being able to offer quick and adequate support to all those affected," criticizes the spokeswoman. The doubling of the number of attacks and cases must finally be reflected in an appropriate increase in funding. So far, for example, almost nothing has changed in the grants from the state and federal governments. "Instead of lip service, the victims of right-wing and racist violence and the counseling centers finally need practical solidarity."

Alarming perception deficit of law enforcement agencies

Although 189 of the 217 attacks were violent crimes that could also be classified as such by the police, of which at least 157 are known to the investigating authorities, the Saxony-Anhalt State Criminal Police Office has so far only registered just over half (56 percent) as also being politically motivated by the right. "We see a frightening perception deficit on the part of the law enforcement authorities when it comes to recognizing right-wing motives for crimes," emphasizes the spokeswoman for the Mobile Victim Counseling Service.

This is accompanied by a lack of investigative successes, such as in Gräfenhainichen, where so far unknown persons have carried out several attacks on a planned refugee shelter and most recently in February 2016 even shot at the building guarded by a security service. "If right-wing and racist violence is not recognized and prosecuted as such by the authorities, this sends a message to the perpetrators to carry on as before," the spokeswoman continues.

Offenses and focus regions

More than 80 percent of the documented cases were attempted or completed assaults (179). In addition, ten cases of arson, 21 cases of coercion or threats and seven cases of damage to property were included in the statistics because of the serious consequences for the victims.

The focal points of politically right-wing motivated violence in 2015 were the city of Halle (Saale) with 68 attacks (2014: 19), followed by the state capital Magdeburg with 42 attacks (2014: 11). These were followed by the districts of Anhalt-Bitterfeld (20; 2014: 3), Börde (17; 2014: 4) and Saalekreis with 14 acts of violence (2014: 21).

A continuous chronology of politically right-wing and racially motivated attacks and the statistics since 2003, broken down by districts / independent cities, criminal offenses and crime motivations, can be found on the homepage of our Victim counseling.