Security in Germany

Germany is one of the safest countries in the world. In the Global Peace Index, which uses a variety of indicators to assess the degree of freedom in 163 of the world’s countries, Germany is regularly among the highest-ranked countries. It ranked 15th in 2023, the leading group showing only marginal differences in scores in some cases. According to the Police Crime Statistics, 5.6 million criminal offences were recorded in Germany in 2022, with a clear-up rate of around 57 percent. 

As in all countries, the investigative authorities in Germany are also increasingly facing the risks posed by cybercrime. “Even after the end of the pandemic, we are seeing confirmation of our assessment that many criminal phenomena are continuing to shift into the digital domain,” explained Holger Münch, president of the Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA), in 2023. Especially cross-border crime in the virtual sphere requires international cooperation. Against this backdrop, Germany cooperates with the European Cybercrime Centre at Europol, among others.

As a matter of principle, given Germany’s federal structure the federal states are responsible for policing. The German Basic Law stipulates, however, that the Federal government Federal Government The Federal Government and cabinet is made up of the Federal Chancellor and the Federal Ministers. While the Chancellor holds the power to issue directives, the ministers have departmental powers, meaning that they independently run their respective ministries in the framework of those directives… Read more › shall discharge specific duties. The Federal government police authorities include the German Federal Police Force and the Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA). The Federal Police Force is responsible, above all, for protecting the country’s borders and is deployed, for example, at railway stations and airports. The BKA concerns itself, amongst other things, with politically motivated violence and terrorism. In these areas, Germany again works closely with the security services in other countries and with international organizations such as Interpol. Since 2014, German lawyer Jürgen Stock has been Interpol Secretary General.

German police staff are also deployed in countries in crisis or conflict, such as in Afghanistan and Mali. Usually as part of an EU or UN mission, they train local security personnel and/or strengthen the mechanisms underpinning the rule of law and human rights Human rights The respect and strengthening of human rights worldwide are a cornerstone of German Federal Government policy. Together with its EU partners it is committed to protecting and continually advancing human rights standards throughout the world. This occurs in close collaboration with the institutions… Read more › .