German states report rise in extremist offences at schools

A number of Germany's states are recording an increase in extremist offences at schools, according to the Welt am Sonntag newspaper, reported Xinhua.

Six of the 16 states confirmed an increase in such incidents to the paper, including a threefold jump to 180 offences in Brandenburg outside the capital Berlin, compared with the previous school year.

This is followed by Saxony, also in the country's east, where there were 150 cases in the past calendar year and 90 in the previous year.

The number of extremist incidents in the central state of Hesse tripled to 35 in 2023 compared with the previous year. In the first quarter of 2024, this figure had already risen to 39.

According to the article, the Hesse ministry attributes this to the increased display of the banned Hitler salute - often on social media.

There was also an increase in anti-Semitic or anti-Islamist incidents following the Hamas terrorist attack on Israel on October 7, 2023.

Other states including Saxony-Anhalt and Mecklenburg Vorpommern, also in the east, reported a rise in incidents compared with the previous school year.

In seven states (Bavaria, Berlin, North Rhine-Westphalia, Lower Saxony, Rhineland-Palatinate, Saarland and Schleswig-Holstein), extremist incidents are either not reported or not statistically analysed by the education ministries, according to the newspaper.