New Year's Eve sexual assaults in Germany

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Bahnhofsvorplatz, 50667 Köln, Germany

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N50° 56' 31.92" E6° 57' 28.08"   (50.9422, 6.9578) Start navigation »

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During the 2015/2016 New Year's Eve celebrations, there were mass sexual assaults, 24 rapes, and numerous thefts in Germany, mainly in the Cologne city center. There were similar incidents at the public celebrations in Hamburg, Dortmund, Düsseldorf, Stuttgart and Bielefeld. For all of Germany, police estimated in a document leaked in 2016 that 1,200 women were sexually assaulted and that at least 2,000 men were involved, often acting in groups.
Many of the incidents involved women being surrounded and assaulted by groups of men on the street. Cologne police chief Wolfgang Albers stated that the perpetrators in his city were reportedly men of "Arab or North African appearance" and said that Germany had never experienced such mass sexual assaults before. The German Federal Criminal Police Office said the incidents were, "A phenomenon known in some Arab countries as taharrush jamai" (translated as "group sexual harassment"). The attacks sparked an international outcry, a debate about women's rights, the sustainability of Germany's asylum policy, and perceived social differences between European societies and those of North Africa and the Middle East. Taking place during the European migrant crisis (see timeline), the attacks also led to a hardening of attitudes against immigration and attacks on immigrants.
Chief Prosecutor Ulrich Bremer stated at the time that "the overwhelming majority" of suspects were asylum seekers and illegal immigrants who had recently arrived in Germany. Only a small number of the alleged perpetrators have been identified. By 9 April, police in Cologne had identified 153 suspects, 24 of whom were in investigative custody. Almost all of the suspects of the Cologne crimes were non-Germans; two-thirds of them from Morocco or Algeria. 68 suspects were asylum seekers; 18 were residing in Germany illegally, and the legal status of 47 others was unclear. Four suspects were underage, unaccompanied refugees. By July, four perpetrators had been convicted, and it was reported that half of the 120 outstanding suspects had been in Germany for less than a year, most of them from North Africa.
It was speculated that the assaults in Cologne were organized. Police said that some perpetrators used social media to meet for New Year's Eve celebrations, but Ralf Jäger, Minister of the Interior of North Rhine-Westphalia, said there was "so far no evidence that the perpetrators had arranged the assaults before New Year's Eve". Jürgen Mathies, the new Cologne police chief, said many of the perpetrators were from countries where they might be familiar with "this behaviour, where women are hemmed in and then abused by a large number of men at once". According to both Jäger and Mathies, the suspects did not come from pickpocketing or organized crime gangs.
The Cologne assaults were not reported by the national media for days, and The Local says many news outlets started reporting it only after a wave of anger on social media made covering the story unavoidable. This led to claims that the media is forced into line and was attempting to cover up crimes by immigrants. Although Cologne Mayor Henriette Reker condemned the assaults, she was strongly criticized for some of her comments and was accused of blaming the victims. Cologne's police chief, Wolfgang Albers, was transferred to provisional retirement for his handling of the situation. The police response and delayed media reaction met strong criticism from German citizens, with some placing blame on the European migrant crisis. The governments of Slovakia and the Czech Republic called for an emergency EU meeting following the assaults and various other EU governments made statements concerning the attacks.
On 7 June, a Federal Criminal Police Office report confirmed that most of the perpetrators were of North African origin and had arrived in Germany during the European migrant crisis. Investigative results about the perpetrators were congruent with witnesses' statements. Perpetrators benefited from weak criminal prosecution and low police presence. Group dynamics and personal frustration among the offenders also fuelled the crimes. The report also linked the assaults to the purported phenomenon of taharrush jamai in some Arab countries.
Following the attacks, Germany updated its laws, making it easier to deport immigrants convicted of sex crimes and broadening the definition of sexual assault to include any sexual act that a victim declines through verbal or physical cues. Previously German law required a victim to physically resist their attacker (see rape in Germany).

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