Hate crimes have soared in Germany in the last few years, with an 87% increase in violent racist crimes between 2013 and 2015 and a sixteen-fold increase in the crimes targeting shelters for asylum-seekers. Long-standing shortcomings in the response to hate crimes have not been addressed by German authorities. This report analyses ongoing failures to record, investigate and prosecute hate crimes effectively, all of which point to the existence of a broader problem of institutional racism within German police and judicial authorities. The report also examines the police response to the rise of attacks on asylum seekers and shelters.
