Summary
A woman is killed by a partner or ex-partner nearly every two days in Germany, with 155 such murders in 2023, according to the first-ever Federal Criminal Police Office report on gender-specific crimes.
Activists and officials are calling for stronger protections, but Germany’s anti-domestic violence law remains stalled in political negotiations.
Women’s shelters lack 14,000 spaces, forcing some victims to travel hundreds of kilometers for safety.
Funding gaps, insufficient legal protections, and high costs deter many from seeking help, perpetuating cycles of violence.
Fitting to the occasion a demonstration against violence against women was beaten up brutally be the police in Berlin yesterday evening. The demonstration was raising awareness to the violence against women in Gaza.
While the German foreign minister Baerbock claims to follow a “feminist” foreign policy, this only extends to white women.
The police yesterday were brutal. Germany is on its downward spiral into totalitarianism
(1) Whoever does not render assistance in the case of an accident or a common danger or emergency although it is necessary and can reasonably be expected under the circumstances, in particular if it is possible without substantial danger to that person and without breaching other important duties, incurs a penalty of imprisonment for a term not exceeding one year or a fine.
(2) Whoever obstructs a person who is rendering or wishes to render assistance to another person in such a situation incurs the same penalty.
Penalty would be bumped up because committed while in office. Additionally if there’s consequences they’d be looking at negligent bodily harm or even manslaughter (because Garantenstellung).
So, question: Did anyone actually file a criminal complaint or is this whole thing going to be limited to shaky tiktoks that don’t give nearly enough context to tell what’s actually going on?
And, lastly: Police actually have some medical training. They know how to handle unconscious people safely.
Police systematically obstructs and lies in investigations against police officers. Also when filing a complaint often an immediate charge comes back claiming you would have assaulted officers, for which half a dozen officers are eager to testify.
Not an issue with video evidence and evidently there was a camera present. Guy should’ve documented shit instead of filming himself.
I don’t even have words for how sus that is: “Look! A crime is being committed!” – stares into camera, refuses to show crime.
How is the rise in overall violence? Does the violence against women deviate from the overall trend.
Also escaping abusive relations for women has a financial hurdle is so incredibly depressing to read, as this would in my opinion be the easiest for a government to solve…
I believe this is also a reason why the right is so focussed on breaking down social security and hammering the “normal family”… to reduce options women have even more.
How is the rise in overall violence?
Similar. In 2023 violent crime was up 8.6% and had reached a 15 year high. If you read that article closely there are clues as to what’s going on. This isn’t unique to Germany either, other EU nations like France are experiencing the same trend.
More specifically the Domestic Violence rate in Germany has been ticking steadily upwards since at least 2013, that’s as far back as I pulled statistics, a trend that many other EU nations (Sweden, France, Lithuania, Ireland, etc) have also been experiencing.
I can link all the data if you want but it’s pretty overwhelming to wade through.
Thanks man… it’s a troubling trend indeed. And good that you refer to numbers instead of the feelz. And the media is not helping by amplifying the feelz and making stuff disproportionate to the issue we see…
54% of men in Germany are victims of intimate partner violence. Source (in German)
From your link (translated), the men in the survey didn’t seem to engage in whataboutism:
The participants most often experienced psychological violence (40 percent) [including] aggressive shouting, insults and humiliation in front of others. 39 percent suffered from the controlling behavior of the partner, isolation and permanent blame. 30 percent would also experience physical violence…
…
…With regard to their own perpetratorship, more than half of the men stated that they had used violence in a relationship themselves, about a quarter see themselves in both the victim and the perpetrator role.
I don’t think much changed in the overall pattern, in another (also German) study what five years ago I read an absolutely overwhelming number of domestic violence constellations is mutual, provided psychological violence is taken into account, bluntly said assholes hook up with assholes. And lesbian couples have a higher rate than heteros who have a higher rate than gay men.
I do think the whole current approach to addressing the issue is fundamentally flawed: Aggression is not particularly gendered, though expresses itself in gendered ways, we have to un-fuck the psychology of people overall. Long story short we need to eat the rich to take the pressure off, then, once people have a breather many will fix themselves, and the rest will be in a state where putting them on the couch actually has a chance of success. Hard to drain a swamp while you’re fighting off crocodiles.
aggressive shouting, insults and humiliation in front of others
It’s worth noting that these acts may be “violence” in someone’s estimation, but are not within the typical description of “violent crime” or “domestic violence” in a criminal sense.
Insults are a crime over here as-is, and generally speaking psychological violence can be prosecuted as assault as long as the impact reaches the level of bodily injury. E.g. driving someone into depression is assault.
But you’re right the laws are insufficient in this regard: While e.g. cutting off hair is considered a bodily injury, a thing which is neither crippling nor permanent nor painful, the standard applied to psychological violence requires lasting, grave, impact, and thus victims have a very hard time getting justice.
And, of course, all of this isn’t helped by psychological violence often simply not being considered violence by the median citizen. We need a culture shift in that regard.
aggressive shouting, insults and humiliation in front of others
It’s worth nothing that these acts may be “violence” in someone’s estimation, but are not within the typical description of “violent crime” or “domestic violence”.
