Nancy Faeser, Germany's interior minister, chose a fitting setting to present the German Federal Police's annual report: Rostock in northeastern Germany, which she visited before the press conference to get a picture of organized crime in the Baltic port city.

She was sitting on a ship with a view of the port next to Dieter Romann, the head of the German Federal Police, or Bundespolizei, when she presented a sobering figure: Last year, German police recorded the highest number of crimes since 2012.

Almost 800,000 crimes were registered, 12.5% more than in 2022. This is likely a consequence of the ongoing wars in Ukraine and Gaza, as well as tremendous polarization within Germany itself.

Romann lamented the fact that there had been almost 3,000 attacks on police officers last year: "Almost 800 were........

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