2015–16 New Year's Eve sexual assaults in Germany

New Year's Eve sexual assaults in Germany
Cologne Hamburg Stuttgart Düsseldorf Bielefeld Frankfurt Cities where incidents were reported
Location	Germany
Date	31 December 2015 (2015-12-31)–1 January 2016 (2016-01-01) (CET)
Target	Women were the primary targets of groping and other sexual assaults, including at least two alleged rapes. Both women and men were victims of physical assault and theft.
Attack type	alleged sexual assault, rape and robbery
Victims	At least 2 alleged rapes and more than 850 sexual assaults and robberies reported: 652 in Cologne, 195 in Hamburg, and more in other cities.
No. of participants	Possibly 1000+ men of Arab and North African appearance

During the 2015 New Year's Eve celebrations, widespread theft, sexual assaults including groping, and at least two instances of rape were reported across Germany, primarily within Cologne. There were also several incidents in Hamburg, several in Frankfurt, one in Stuttgart, theft in Bielefeld, and sexual assault in Düsseldorf. The German Federal Criminal Police Office stated on 9 January that the incidents were a phenomenon known in the Arab World as taharrush gamea.

Former Cologne police chief Wolfgang Albers, who was subsequently transferred to provisional retirement for his handling of the situation, told the BBC that the sexual assault perpetrators were of "Arab or North African appearance" and called the incident "a completely new dimension of crime". It was later revealed by police that 18 of the 31 suspects checked by the Federal Police on New Year's Eve were asylum seekers, who were suspected of grievous bodily harm, robbery and theft. The 19 suspects identified by the Cologne police include 10 asylum seekers, 7 people who are supposed to have entered Germany illegally, and two who are underage unaccompanied refugees. Five of these people have been detained. 14 of these 19 are from Algeria and Morocco. Meanwhile the number of suspects known by the Cologne Police increased to 23.

The assaults were unreported by the national media for days and many outlets only started reporting on the incidents on January 5, after a wave of anger on social media made covering the story unavoidable.

The attacks were condemned by Cologne Mayor Henriette Reker. The police response and delayed media reaction were met with criticism from German citizens, with some placing blame on the European migrant crisis.

The governments of Slovakia and the Czech Republic have called for an emergency EU meeting following these events and various other EU governments made statements concerning the attacks.

Background

In 2015 the German government had allowed hundreds of thousands of asylum seekers into the country as a response to the European migrant crisis. The government's decision was controversial and right-wing, Neo-Nazi, and Islamaphobic organizations began publishing reports of mass rapes carried out by Muslim refugees (e.g. Breitbart News Network, The Daily Stormer, Gates of Vienna, Asia Times). 2015 saw a rise in racism in Germany (as well as across Europe more generally) and the Council of Europe expressed its concerns about the issue to the German Government in early October, 2015.

Allegations of sexual assaults (especially rape) by minorities against non-minority women was a common feature of racism in the United States for decades and historians like Estelle Freedman, Ida B. Wells, and Philip Dray have conducted studies describing the connection between rape claims by non-minorities and justifications for racist violence, segregation and lynching.

Events

Cologne

Cologne main square between the central railway station and the city's cathedral was the main site of the alleged robberies and assaults.

On New Years Eve witnesses reported that firecrackers were thrown into a crowd from a group of people of around 500, later in the evening more than 1000, at the square in front of Cologne's Central Station. Following this event, alleged perpetrators exploited the confusion to rob and sexually assault persons in the area and within the station. According to witnesses the alleged attackers surrounded women in groups of 30–40. According to the Cologne police report on 2 January, the suspects mostly used sexual assault (including groping) to distract victims while they robbed them of items such as mobile phones and wallets. The Police indicated that the sizes of the groups ranged from 2 to 20 people.

While Cologne mayor Henriette Reker said in a press conference on January 5, there was "no evidence, that people who are residing in Cologne as refugees are amongst the perpetrators", police president Wolfgang Albers said: "the police has no knowledge about the offenders". To some including the German Minister of justice Heiko Maas, the assaults appeared to be coordinated, the perpetrators having arrived in large groups.

According to Cologne police chief Wolfgang Albers, who was subsequently transferred to provisional retirement for his handling of the situation, the alleged perpetrators were all men "of Arab or North African appearance" between the ages of 15 and 35, who could not speak German. The perpetrators were reported to be several groups of heavily intoxicated men of Arab or North African appearance, who emerged out of a gathering of up to 1,000 men.

On January 7, several anonymous police officers from Cologne denied statements that the police did not know the nationality of the perpetrators; they told the press that "most of them" would have been freshly immigrated asylum seekers. Contradicting statements from Cologne police leaders, these officers said that the identities of many people, including arrestees, had been thoroughly checked, so that police knew which groups of people were involved. Around 70 people had been checked, and several brought to police stations or taken into custody. The majority of those in detention were Syrians. Also, they denied information that the sexual harassments were only incidental, saying that the truth was "exactly the opposite": Most Arab perpetrators sought primarily to commit sexual offenses, or in their words "sexual amusement". Arnold Plickert, North Rhine Westphalia's representative of German police union Gewerkschaft der Polizei confirmed that asylum seekers were "definitely" involved.

The Federal Ministry of the Interior acknowledged on January 8, that two-thirds of the suspects checked by the Federal Police—who are responsible for the railways and railway stations in Germany—in Cologne were asylum seekers. The same report stated that 31 suspects were identified by name including 18 asylum seekers. In total among the suspects were nine Algerians, eight Moroccans, four Syrians, five Iranians, two Germans, an Iraqi, a Serb, and an American. Another report from the same day stated that stolen mobile phones were located by the police within or in the vicinity of refugees' residences.

By 8 January, 170 women including a police officer had made complaints to the police, including two rapes, with the events taking place in the main square between the station and Cologne Cathedral and within and outside the central railway station. This number increased to 379 on the following day, while in 40 percent of these cases sexual offences were included. Mostly persons from North African countries were suspected. The increase was explained by the fact that more personnel is in the investigation group right now, so complaints from other police stations can be evaluated. Many of the attacked women were non-residents, visitors or other travellers in the main station. By January 11, the number of complaints was 553 with nearly half of the cases including sexual offences. The next day it was reported that the number had risen to 653, but this was corrected later that day to 561. According to the department of public prosecution a submission error occurred. By January 14 the number rose again to 652.

Hamburg

Similar events took place in Hamburg—specifically Reeperbahn, St. Pauli—, where 53 women reported being sexually assaulted or robbed. By January 7 the number of complaints to the police in Hamburg increased to 70, by January 8 to 108, by January 12 to 153, and to 195 by January 14. 306 people where reported to be victim of the alleged crimes. 8 people were identified as suspects, with all of them being migrants, some recently arrived refugees. No arrests have been made yet. The number of suspects is likely to rise according to the police. Some incidents happened also at the shopping street Jungfernstieg, where "several hundred" "highly aggressive and intoxicated" migrants threw fire crackers into the crowd. The police described the situation there as "borderline", the number of only 20 policemen available after midnight being too small. Mayor Olaf Scholz demanded quicker deportation of criminal migrants in reaction to the events. On the Reeperbahn, bouncers are now acting as safety guards to accompany and protect women, while sales of some clubs and bars are declining. On New Year's Eve the doormen were in some cases the only people who could help the victims.

Other cities

Crime was also reported in Düsseldorf and Frankfurt (40 complaints), as well as one crime in Stuttgart. In Düsseldorf 41 complaints of sexual assaults and theft were made to the police, after 15 were reported earlier. In Bielefeld several young women were reported to be robbed by men of North African origin in and around a discotheque.

In addition, similar assaults in Austria, Finland, Switzerland, and Sweden were reported.

Police response

Cologne police Twitter post describing atmosphere as "playful" on New Year's morning

In Cologne, police dispatched 143 local officers and 70 federal officers to restore order. However, due to darkness and the number of people involved, police chief Wolfgang Albers conceded that their efforts were not effective.

Cologne police came under criticism for their handling of the situation, as they initially described the New Year's Eve celebrations as "playful." One victim who was robbed and assaulted was told to report the incident elsewhere by the police. Interior Minister Thomas de Maizière also criticized the North Rhine-Westphalia police for describing the celebrations as "peaceful." Police chief Wolfgang Albers rejected the criticism, calling the assaults "a completely new dimension of crime." Düsseldorf police expressed concern that the attacks were linked to a known gang of roughly 2,000 North African men. On January 7 the police acknowledged an information blackout until the interior committee of the parliament of North Rhine-Westphalia discussed the events on Monday, 11 January 2016. On the same day, a report by a leading police officer in Cologne on New Years Eve was linked to several newspapers. It includes criticism that the number of police forces was too small to deal with the events. According to the report the perpetrators acted "with a disrespect I didn't see in 29 years of service." Some shouted: "I am Syrian! You have to treat me friendly. Mrs Merkel has invited me!" Others tore their immigration papers while saying: "You can't do me anything. Tomorrow I will go and get new papers." Because of the allegations of misinformation and the "loss of public trust" police chief Wolfgang Albers was transferred to provisional retirement for his handling of the situation on January 8.

The German Federal Criminal Police Office (Bundeskriminalamt, BKA) stated on January 9, the incidents of collective sexual harassment were a phenomenon known in Arab countries as "taharrush gamea" ("communal sexual harassment"). The BKA announced to investigate the facts about incidents of this kind in all German federal states and learn how to fight them.

Suspects and detainees

There were conflicting reports about the number of detainees. According to first reports by the BBC, eight suspects, all asylum seekers, were detained in Cologne though no official statement on their involvement was made. Further reports said that five men from ages 18 to 24 were arrested, though they were later found to have committed unrelated crimes. Reports on January 7 suggested that police officials detained more people, namely asylum seekers, on New Year's Eve than they admitted publicly. According to a police report leaked to the media, there were 71 people controlled, of whom 11 were arrested, and 4 taken into custody. As of January 7, the police of Cologne only officially confirmed that there are 16 suspects.

On January 8, Cologne Police announced the arrest of two suspects in connection with the attacks. They were identified—in keeping with German privacy law—as Issam D., 16, of Morocco, and Mohamed T., 23, of Tunisia. Both were said to be asylum seekers. The police said they found video footage of assaults on New Year's Eve on their mobile phones. Also found was a piece of paper with Arabic-German translations of derogatory sexual terms. Both of them were set free already shortly after their arrest.

As of January 8, Federal Police had identified 31 suspects, among whom were 18 identified asylum seekers. Of the 31 suspects, 17 were said by the Interior Ministry to be Algerian or Moroccan. There were 2 Germans and one U.S. citizen among the suspects identified. A further 19 suspects were later identified by the Police of Cologne, who were "almost exclusively" migrants. Of the 19 suspects identified on January 11, 14 were men from Morocco and Algeria. 10 were asylum seekers 9 of whom had arrived in Germany after September 2015. The other 9 suspects may be in the country illegally. The number of suspects rose to 23 by January 12. The department of public prosecution opened criminal proceedings against 13 people, 5 of these people are in detention.

No arrests were made in Hamburg yet, while 8 people are suspects, all of them being migrants, some refugees.

Reactions

Local government

Cologne mayor Henriette Reker (l.) and police chief Wolfgang Albers (c.) in a press conference on 5 January 2016.

The Mayor of Cologne Henriette Reker called for women to follow a "code of conduct," including staying at "arm's length" from strangers and later came under criticism. By the evening of 5 January, #einearmlänge ("an arm's length") became one of Germany's top-trending hashtags on Twitter. Reker called a crisis meeting with the police in response to the incidents. Reker called it "completely improper" to link the perpetrators to refugees.

State interior minister of North Rhine-Westphalia Ralf Jäger said, "We will not accept that groups of North African men gather expressly for the purpose of debasing women by sexually assaulting them." He said police had to "adjust" to the fact that groups of men had attacked women. He also spoke against anti-immigrant groups, saying: "What happens on the right-wing platforms and in chat rooms is at least as awful as the acts of those assaulting the women... This is poisoning the climate of our society."

North Rhine-Westphalias head of state, Hannelore Kraft, stated that against this new dimension of violence and sexual assaults by men, police and courts should and will act consequently. She expressed her hope that as many offenders as possible are identified and punished, which had to happen regardless of background. If the requirements were met, perpetrators also should be deported. A week later she was sceptical about possible deportations. Even if the requirements were met, the already identified perpetrators from Algeria and Morocco could not be deported, because those countries would just not take those individuals back. Kraft as well as Jäger criticised the Cologne police leaders for not requesting police reinforcements, which were said to have been on standby on New Year's Eve. CDU Secretary General Peter Tauber, whose party is in opposition in North Rhine-Westphalia, urged Jäger to step down because of the events.

Local population

Protesters gather outside Cologne Cathedral with a sign reading ‘No to violence against women’

On January 5, about 200 to 300 women protested outside the Cologne Cathedral, demanding respect for women and action from Chancellor Angela Merkel. Many German people reacted with fear and concern. According to arms dealers and Amazon, the sales of pepper spray, which already increased since the beginning of the European migrant crisis, saw another increase. The sales of one German manufacturer rose by 700 percent in the last year. Pepper spray is the only legal weapon for self-defense in Germany, though it is meant to be sold only for defense against animals. In Düsseldorf, where 41 complaints to the police in connection with sexual assaults and theft were made, a vigilante group was founded as a reaction to the events. The related Facebook page of the "Düsseldorf passt auf" ("Düsseldorf watches out") group has managed to get more than 3.300 members within two days. The Düsseldorf police denounced their activities and referred to the monopoly on legitimate use of force of the German state.

Rapefugees not welcome

Rapefugees not welcome is a variation of the in Germany (as well as Europe in general) well known slogan 'Refugees welcome'. 'Rapefugees not welcome' as a slogan was established almost two weeks after the events in Cologne and serveral other German cities. Lutz Bachmann, who's involved with the production and reselling of shirts featuring the slogan has been accused of incitement of the people.

Attacks against immigrants

On January 10, 11 people were beaten in Cologne, in an area close to the sexual assaults. The victims included 6 Pakistanis, 3 Guineans and 2 Syrians. The victims were injured and hospitalized. These attacks were quickly reported by the media. Der Express described the attackers as "a group of thugs" who had planned a "manhunt" for asylum seekers. The attacks were condemned by Justice Minister Heiko Maas.

Federal politics

Merkel and Justice Minister Heiko Maas condemned the assaults. Maas described the assaults as a "completely new dimension of organized criminality." Merkel contacted Reker, calling for a tough response. She said everything must be done "to find the perpetrators as quickly and comprehensively as possible and punish them, regardless of their origin or background," and promised preventive measures for the carnival in February. Sigmar Gabriel (SPD), vice chancellor and Minister for Economics, demanded quicker deportations of sentenced criminal migrants. There should be "zero tolerance for criminality and sexual assaults". Claudia Roth (Green Party) stated that the attacks could not be exculpated, but that they were "not the first eruptions of sexual violence in our society". She accused an "organised mob" on the Internet of "calling for a hunt on non-white people and taking revenge".

According to Volker Bouffier, vice-president of Chancellor Angela Merkel's CDU party, the attacks have weakened the consensus in favour of Germany's accepting large numbers of refugees from Syria and the Middle East: "Cologne has changed everything. People are now doubting." On January 9 the CDU adopted the "Mainz declaration" ("Mainzer Erklärung"), in which the party toughens its acting against criminality by migrants. Random police checks are as well included as quicker deportations of criminal migrants, even if they are only sentenced to imprisonment on probation. To date acceptance for asylum seekers can only be denied if they are sentenced to a three year imprisonment at least, with a deportation below this degree of penalty possible but not mandatory.

On January 12 Hans-Jürgen Papier, former head of the German Federal Constitutional Court criticised the refugee policy of Angela Merkel. According to his statement, the public mood has shifted after the events of Cologne, which "manifested a partial failure of the state as a guarantor of freedom and safety of its citizens." He demanded an "altering of the course" by the government and added: "We have a legal vacuum regarding the protection of external [German] borders, which must not be." Illegal immigration had to be stopped. On January 14 criticism on Merkel grew as former chancellor Gerhard Schröder as well as Stephan Weil, Prime Minister of Lower Saxony (both SPD) questioned her policy. Weil stated, the events of Cologne were "a low blow in every sense", for the state, the refugees, the helpers. The decision of Merkel to open the borders "fatally permanently led to a special role of Germany in Europe", which had to be ended. The chancellor had to correct herself. After the numerous offenses of Cologne Schröder called for a crackdown of the state and a consistent deportation of offenders. "Such people, no matter of which cultural background, have no place in Germany", he said. He accused Merkel of not having a plan in the refugee crisis. Former foreign minister Joschka Fischer (Green Party) defended the chancellor and demanded restraint of the Constitutional Court judges Papier and Udo Di Fabio, who accused Merkel of breaking the law.

On January 15 German Minister of Finance, Wolfgang Schäuble (CDU), suggested to establish the possibility of a national deployment of the German Federal Armed Forces as "nearly all other countries" did. Schäuble insisted that only securing the EU external borders was the solution to the migrant crisis. On the same day opinion polls like Politbarometer showed declining approval for the migration policy of Angela Merkel and a significant rise of the right wing AfD party which would be third political force with 10 to 11 percent of votes, in some federal states up to 15 percent.

BBC correspondent Gavin Hewitt describes the attacks as having "a profound impact on the rest of Europe. Certainly the boldness of the assaults and the sense of a powerless state will haunt the victims, but what has also been lost is trust - the essential glue in any society."

Media

Several media outlets at first ignored the story and only started reporting on the incidents on 5 January, after a wave of anger on social media made covering them unavoidable. This delay was criticised by several politicians, including Hans-Peter Friedrich. The public television channel ZDF later acknowledged that they had failed to report on the incidents despite having sufficient knowledge to do so. ZDF later called this a "clear misjudgment", and said since then, it has been "over-whelmed with hate and anger". This has reinforced discontent previously held by the German public with news coverage relating to the European migrant crisis as well as a readiness to support the idea of the "Lügenpresse" (literally lying press).

The delay in reporting on the assaults in the media lead to accusations that the authorities and the media attempted to ignore or cover up the attacks to avoid criticism against the current asylum and migration policy of the government. The BBC's Gavin Hewitt wrote that "What has fuelled the sense of crisis is the suspicion - now widely held - that the German establishment is not telling the truth."

Independent writers wrote for Al Jazeera on 9 January that the response of German society had thus far had "little to do with protecting women and more to do with scapegoating the Middle Eastern or North African 'other' entering Germany."

The conservative The New York Times columnist Ross Douthat warned of the transformative consequences of rapid, unchecked, mass immigration, especially of young men. In his opinion not only Germany has to close the borders and to expel refugees who are in good health, but Angela Merkel also has to step down, "so that her country, and the continent it bestrides, can avoid paying too high a price for her high-minded folly."

Eric Gujer of the Swiss-based Neue Zürcher Zeitung wrote: "The terrible night of Cologne shows that the immigration runs out of control. This is also a consequence of a policy that promotes irresponsibility and despises security."

In Russia, the state-run Rossiyskaya Gazeta stated that after the "Night of the Long Fingers" (a play on words that compares the event to the Nazi's night of the long knives) German media refused "to illuminate the extent of raids, plundering and rapes committed by refugees". Turin based La Stampa wrote: "Angela Merkel now pays the price for the (Jacobin?) decision of this summer to accept all Syrian refugees. In the public opinion she becomes the person primarily responsible for the climate of fear and insecurity, which spreads in the country."

The attacks started a discussion in German and European societies about women's rights, cultural norms, multiculturalism, Islamophobia, and differences between European and Muslim countries and about links between Immigration and crime. After the assailants were described by police and victims as young foreign men who spoke neither German nor English, a debate ensued as to how to deal with a large influx of young, mostly Muslim men from cultures where women lack the freedoms and protections they enjoy in the West. Far-right and anti-immigrant groups cited the attacks as evidence of dangers related to accepting huge numbers of migrants, but similar concerns were also expressed by mainstream elements within German society.

A viral video was made, containing the personal details of one of the victims and accusing her of making a false allegation to spread anti-Muslim propaganda. The video circulated among German Islamic extremists, including Pierre Vogel. The victim, fearing reprisals, managed to get the video removed by telling its creator that she was prepared for legal action.

International reaction

There were reports of tourists cancelling trips to Cologne in the aftermath of the attacks, including one tour group calling off their entire summer schedule in the city.

Belgium’s immigration minister ordered migrants to participate in “respect for women” courses in order to calm public opinion over the sex attacks. On 8 January, Czech Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka issued a statement supporting Slovakia's proposal.

Pope Francis acknowledged that Europeans had the right to be concerned over terrorism and changes to "cultural and social structures" via immigration, and stated that the continent "has the means to defend the centrality of the human person and to find the right balance between its twofold moral responsibility to protect the rights of its citizens and to ensure assistance and acceptance to migrants".

Prime Minister of Hungary Viktor Orbán the issued a call for immediate halt of all immigration to Europe and establishment of "European defence line" on Greece's northern borders with Macedonia and Bulgaria.

The Deputy Prime Minister of the Netherlands and Minister for Social Affairs Lodewijk Asscher condemned Henriette Reker for implying that women could have prevented the attacks on themselves. Poland's Foreign Minister Witold Waszczykowski sent an official letter to Frank-Walter Steinmeier, the German Minister of Foreign Affairs, asking if there were any Polish citizens hurt during the events. Waszczykowski criticized the German authorities for their handling of the situation and stated that it is likely that German government tried to conceal the events and ban people from telling others about these events. Waszczykowski stated that in his view the migration wave to Europe (which he linked to the events) was used by the Islamic State or other terrorist organizations. Polish Minister of Justice on 9 January in letter to German EU commissioner Günther Oettinger stated that information about these events was concealed by German media and that there is censorship in Germany.

Prime Minister of Slovakia Robert Fico called for an emergency summit of EU in the wake of the attacks, and declared he will act to stop Muslim refugees from entering the country. Fico stated "We don't want something like what happened in Germany taking place in Slovakia".

Incidents in other countries

Similar attacks on New Year's Eve were reported outside of Germany by 7 January in Austria, Finland, and Switzerland. In Helsinki, "widespread sexual harassment" was reported, and three Iraqi asylum seekers were detained. The deputy police chief of Helsinki said: "There hasn't been this kind of harassment on previous New Year's Eves or other occasions for that matter... This is a completely new phenomenon in Helsinki." The Finnish National Bureau of Investigation denied initial suspicions that assaults similar to those in Cologne had been planned in Helsinki. The police department of Helsinki received information relating to three cases of sexual harassment, of which two have led to a report of an offence.

In Sweden, several cities reported similar events of immigrants sexually harassing girls and women. Among them were Malmö, Helsingborg, Karlstad, and Kalmar. Additionally in January, news emerged of an alleged police cover-up of sexual crimes at a Stockholm youth festival in the two previous summers, in which it was alleged that many perpetrators were of migrant background.

Analysis

The sexual assaults on women were compared by several newspapers and authorities like German Federal Criminal Police Office with multiple attacks on women which were reported after the Arab Spring in numerous public places in Cairo, especially the Tahrir Square. Egyptian women and in some cases foreign journalists were surrounded by groups of young men, often having been touched with sexual intent and partly undressed, or stripped naked and gang raped. The phenomenon is also known in Arab countries as Taharrush jamae (collective sexual harassment).

See also

• Crime in Germany
  • Immigrant crime in Germany
• Puerto Rican Day Parade attacks
• Sex gangs

External links

• Media related to Silvester 2015 sexual assaults in Germany at Wikimedia Commons