Tag Archives: Germany

Germany Submits to Sharia Law, by Soeren Kern

Posted on December 2, 2016 | 1 comment

German Muslims are erecting a parallel legal system in Germany, based on Sharia law. From Soeren Kern at gatestoneinstitute.org:

• A German court has ruled that seven Islamists who formed a vigilante patrol to enforce Sharia law on the streets of Wuppertal did not break German law and were simply exercising their right to free speech. The “politically correct” decision, which may be appealed, effectively authorizes the Sharia Police to continue enforcing Islamic law in Wuppertal.

• The self-appointed “Sharia Police” distributed leaflets which established a “Sharia-controlled zone” in Wuppertal. The men urged both Muslim and non-Muslim passersby to attend mosques and to refrain from alcohol, cigarettes, drugs, gambling, music, pornography and prostitution.

• Critics say the cases — especially those in which German law has taken a back seat to Sharia law — reflect a dangerous encroachment of Islamic law into the German legal system.

• In June 2013, a court in Hamm ruled that anyone who contracts marriage according to Islamic law in a Muslim country and later seeks a divorce in Germany must abide by the original terms established by Sharia law. The landmark ruling effectively legalized the Sharia practice of “triple-talaq,” obtaining a divorce by reciting the phrase “I divorce you” three times.

• A growing number of Muslims in Germany are consciously bypassing German courts altogether and instead are adjudicating their disputes in informal Sharia courts, which are proliferating across the country.

• “If the rule of law fails to establish its authority and demand respect for itself, then it can immediately declare its bankruptcy.” — Franz Solms-Laubach, Bild’s parliamentary correspondent.

To continue reading: Germany Submits to Sharia Law

 

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Germans Are Leaving Germany ‘In Droves’, by Soeren Kern

Posted on October 21, 2016 | Leave a comment

Germans emigrating from their own country is a predictable but quite disturbing consequence of Angela Merkel’s open door policy. From Soeren Kern at gatestoneinstitute.org:

• More than 1.5 million Germans, many of them highly educated, left Germany during the past decade. — Die Welt.

• Germany is facing a spike in migrant crime, including an epidemic of rapes and sexual assaults. Mass migration is also accelerating the Islamization of Germany. Many Germans appear to be losing hope about the future direction of their country.

• “We refugees… do not want to live in the same country with you. You can, and I think you should, leave Germany. And please take Saxony and the Alternative for Germany (AfD) with you…. Why do you not go to another country? We are sick of you!” — Aras Bacho an 18-year-old Syrian migrant, in Der Freitag, October 2016.

• A real estate agent in a town near Lake Balaton, a popular tourist destination in western Hungary, said that 80% of the Germans relocating there cite the migration crisis as the main reason for their desire to leave Germany.

• “I believe that Islam does not belong to Germany. I regard it as a foreign entity which has brought the West more problems than benefits. In my opinion, many followers of this religion are rude, demanding and despise Germany.” — A German citizen who emigrated from Germany, in an “Open Letter to the German Government.”

• “I believe that immigration is producing major and irreversible changes in German society. I am angry that this is happening without the direct approval of German citizens. … I believe that it is a shame that in Germany Jews must again be afraid to be Jews.” — A German citizen who emigrated from Germany, in an “Open Letter to the German Government.”

• “My husband sometimes says he has the feeling that we are now the largest minority with no lobby. For each group there is an institution, a location, a public interest, but for us, a heterosexual married couple with two children, not unemployed, neither handicapped nor Islamic, for people like us there is no longer any interest.” — “Anna,” in a letter to the Mayor of Munich about her decision to move her family out of the city because migrants were making her life there impossible.

A growing number of Germans are abandoning neighborhoods in which they have lived all their lives, and others are leaving Germany for good, as mass immigration transforms parts of the country beyond recognition.

Data from the German statistics agency, Destatis, shows that 138,000 Germans left Germany in 2015. More are expected to emigrate in 2016. In a story on brain drain titled, “German talent is leaving the country in droves,” Die Welt reported that more than 1.5 million Germans, many of them highly educated, left Germany during the past decade.

The statistics do not give a reason why Germans are emigrating, but anecdotal evidence indicates that many are waking up to the true cost — financial, social and cultural — of Chancellor Angela Merkel’s decision to allow more than one million mostly Muslim migrants to enter the country in 2015. At least 300,000 more migrants are expected to arrive in Germany in 2016, according to Frank-Jürgen Weise, the head of the country’s migration office, BAMF.

Mass migration has — among many other problems — contributed to a growing sense of insecurity in Germany, which is facing a spike in migrant crime, including an epidemic of rapes and sexual assaults. Mass migration is also accelerating the Islamization of Germany. Many Germans appear to be losing hope about the future direction of their country.

To continue reading: Germans Are Leaving Germany ‘In Droves’

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A World of Problems, by The ZMan

Posted on September 30, 2016 | Leave a comment

Europe is facing a banking crisis, a reappearance of Greece’s financial crisis, and a crisis in Syria. Hold on to your hats. From The Zman at theburningplatform.com:

Back when the Germans were threatening to shut down Greece and sell it off for parts, it was fairly obvious that there was no way to “fix” the Greek problem. Even it were possible to radically overhaul their public sector, the debt payments are too high to maintain the level of social services expected from a modern social democracy. Default was unthinkable because close to 80 percent of Greece’s public debt is owned by public institutions, primarily the EU governments and the ECB.

The “solution” was to kick the can down the road until a miracle happened, but now the problem is back.

ATHENS—Greece’s economic recovery is proving elusive, challenging the forecasts of the country’s government and foreign creditors still counting on growth reviving this year.

The International Monetary Fund said last week that the economy is stagnating, in the first admission from creditors that Greece’s recovery is off track again. Growth will only restart next year, the head of the IMF’s team in Greece said on a conference call with reporters, without offering details.

Of particular concern is that exports, which are supposed to lead Greece out of trouble, are on a slow downward trajectory, hampered by capital controls, taxes and a lack of credit.

“There is no chance we will see a rebound unless we see some bold political decisions that would introduce a more stable business environment,” said Dimitris Tsakonitis, general manager at mining company Grecian Magnesite.

The bailout agreement between Greece and its German-led creditors assumes rapid growth from late 2016 onward, including an official forecast of 2.7% growth in 2017. Private-sector economists believe next year’s growth could be closer to 0.6%.

Weaker growth would undermine the budget, likely leading to fresh arguments with lenders about extra austerity measures.

Greece is still grappling with the measures it has already agreed to. Late on Tuesday the country’s parliament approved pension overhauls and other policy changes that have been delayed for months, holding up bailout funding.

Greek government officials are sticking to their view that the economy is on the cusp of growth. “We are at the turning point at which we can we say with certainty that we are leaving the recession behind us,” Economy Minister George Stathakis told supporters of the ruling left-wing Syriza party Sunday.

The economy will get a push from investors as of the end of the year, when lenders are expected to provide some debt relief and the country qualifies for a European Central Bank bond buyback program, Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras said in an interview with The Wall Street Journal last week.

In other words, the miracle did not happen and the problem is now worse. This comes at a time when Europe’s biggest bank is in very serious trouble.

To continue reading: A World of Problems

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The Loophole for Deutsche Bank’s Bailout: Game almost Over? by Don Quijones

Posted on September 29, 2016 | Leave a comment

SLL agrees with the premise of this article: the powers that be in Germany and Europe are frantically looking for a legal loophole that will allow the German government to bail out Deutsche Bank and it’s almost a foregone conclusion that they’ll find one. From Don Quijones at wolfstreet.com:

Everyone is denying everything.

Judging by the slow-motion meltdown of a growing number of large banks in Europe, including Deutsche Bank (in the IMF’s words, the “world’s most important net contributor to systemic risks”), confidence in their solvency is evaporating. And the denial and blame games have begun.

Deutsche Bank CEO John Cryan denied any need to raise capital or ask for a bailout. That was followed by furious denials from Mario Draghi that the ECB’s low rates are partly responsible for Deutsche Bank’s current woes. Roughly half of all of Deutsche’s profits have traditionally come from loan interest; now, thanks to the madcap negative-interest-rate policies, that source of income is disappearing.

But the bank’s spectacular fall from grace — it has lost 90% of its market value since 2007 — is primarily owed to woeful, often criminal mismanagement. Hence, all the fines. As the WSJ’s Paul J Davies writes:

The bank faces all the problems that plague its peers, but it has most of them worse than rivals. Its costs are among the highest, its balance sheet among the most bloated and its longer-term profitability one of the least attractive.

Lies, Damned Lies and Contradictions

Things are so serious and the denials are flowing so thick and fast that many of the main players are contradicting each other — and sometimes even themselves — at just about every turn.

According to Draghi, Deutsche Bank is no longer “systemically important,” despite being assigned that exact same label by the BIS Financial Stability Board, the shadowy group of international financial bodies, finance ministries and central bankers that compiles the list of global systemically important financial institutions (G-SIFIs), in the process enshrining failure as the cornerstone of financial industry success. Its first ever list, which included Deutsche Bank, was published in November 2011, when the board’s chairman was… Mario Draghi.

As for the head of the IMF, Christine Lagarde, she proffered a wildly different take, telling CNBC that Deutsche Bank is a systemic important player in the global financial system, but “is on a solid base currently, and we are not at a stage in which I see the need for a government intervention.”

You can expect that opinion to change significantly in the coming days or weeks, as will Merkel’s dogged insistence that the EU’s Bank Recovery and Resolution Directive (BRRD) — which requires an 8% bail-in of a bank’s creditors, including very large foreign banks and hedge funds — be applied before taxpayers get put on the hook.

This was the line she held to steadfastly throughout the early months of Italy’s banking meltdown. In a recent interview she ruled out any state assistance for Deutsche Bank. A state-financed rescue could be a political liability for Ms. Merkel should she decide to run again in next year’s general election. But with Deutsche Bank’s assets amounting to 58% of Germany’s GDP, Merkel will not allow the bank to collapse. The damage to the German economy would be too enormous.

To continue reading: The Loophole for Deutsche Bank’s Bailout: Game almost Over?

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German Politicians Are Getting Nervous About Deutsche Bank, by Tyler Durden

Posted on September 23, 2016 | 3 comments

In the over-leveraged and interconnected global financial system, if German politicians are getting nervous about systemically important Deutsche Bank, the rest of us should be nervous about everything else. It may only take problems at one big bank to bring the whole thing down. From Tyler Durden at zerohedge.com:

Just a few short days after Germany’s premier financial publication Handelsblatt dared to utter the “n”-word, when it said that in the aftermath of last week’s striking $14 billion DOJ settlement proposal, “some have even raised the possibility of a government bailout of Germany’s largest bank, which would be a defining event and a symbolic blow to the image of Europe’s largest economy”, German lawmakers are finally starting to get nervous.

According to Bloomberg, Deutsche Bank’s suddenly troubling finances, impacted by the bank’s low profitability courtesy of the ECB’s NIRP policy as well as mounting legal costs courtesy of years of legal violations, “are raising concern among German politicians.” At a closed session of Social Democratic finance lawmakers on Tuesday, Deutsche Bank’s woes came up alongside a debate over Basel financial rules. Participants discussed the U.S. fine and the financial reserves at Deutsche Bank’s disposal if it had to cover the full amount.

While the participants in the meeting did not reach any conclusions on the likely outcome, the discussion signals that the risks facing Deutsche Bank have the attention of Germany’s political establishment. Which means it’s almost serious enough where the politicians, in the parlance of Jean-Claude Juncker, “have to lie” or in this case redirect attention, ideally abroad: the German Finance Ministry last week called on the U.S. to ensure a “fair outcome” for Deutsche Bank, citing cases against other banks where the government settled for reduced fines.

Actually lying also works: on February 9 German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble told Bloomberg Television that he has “no concerns about Deutsche Bank.” That has probably changed.

The solvency problems facing Germany’s biggest bank have been widely documented: it is already ranked among the worst-capitalized lenders in European stress tests before U.S. authorities demanded $14 billion as an RMBS settlement, more than twice the €5.5 billion the bank has set aside for litigation and almost 80% of the bank’s market cap. Also, as we pointed out first in 2013, and as Matteo Renzi takes every chance to remind Germany, Deutsche Bank has a gargantuan €42 trillion in gross notional derivatives on its balance sheet. Just this week, the Italian PM told Bundesbank chief Jens Weidmann not to worry so much about Italy’s massive debt load but instead to solve the problems of German banks which had “hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of billions of euros of derivatives” on their books.”

But what may be most troubling is not what German politicians are talking about behind closed door, but what they are not talking about in public. Bloomberg notes that Merkel’s government is now maintaining a public silence on Deutsche Bank’s woes. Then again, what is there to say: if DB is indeed approaching the cliff, any discussion of the bank would only lead to more concerns about the bank’s viability. There was some discussion of DB, however, during a September 16 meeting of Germany’s Financial Stability Committee, a group of German finance officials and regulators, whose members concluded that the fine demanded by the U.S. government would probably be lowered, Handelsblatt newspaper reported. In other words, hope is once again a strategy. Sadly, when it comes to banks with multi-trillion balance sheets, this may not be the best approach.

To continue reading: German Politicians Are Getting Nervous About Deutsche Bank

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A note on Deutsche Bank, by Golem XIV

Posted on September 21, 2016 | Leave a comment

Deutsche Bank is the most important bank in Germany, and between bad loans and derivatives exposures, it is not in good shape. It has lost 90 percent of it share value since 2007. If it goes down, will the German government bail it out and stand exposed as a complete hypocrite, having insisted that other European governments couldn’t bail out their banks? Or will it let Deutsche Bank fail, and take Germany’s, and perhaps Europe’s, economy and financial markets with it? From Golem XIV at golemxiv.co.uk:

Deutsche Bank, one of Europe’s behemoths, is in very deep trouble having lost 90% 0f its share price value since 2007, has been falling sharply all this last year (48% loss this year) and, with its $42 Trillion in Derivatives exposure was singled out by the IMF, as the bank which ,

“appears to be the most important net contributor to systemic risks…”

Of course Deutsche agues the standard ‘derivatives-aren’t-a-problem’ line, that this 42 trillion all nets out and their real exposure is a fraction of that vast figure. Which is fine as long as you think that in the event of Deutsche coming unstuck, 42 trillions-worth of derivatives contracts can be held in abeyance for the time it would take for all those contracts to be netted out. As I’ve said before netting out is akin to getting a rowing boat full of people to all change places without the boat overturning.

And now Deutsche has been threatened by the US DoJ with a $14 billion fine for its crimes for selling knowingly over-valued RMBS (Residential Mortgage Backed Securities) in the build up to the financial crash of 2007.

Deutsche cannot pay $14 billion without raising a great deal of cash. Deutsche has put aside $5.5 billion for paying fines. A mere 9 billion short. So could Deutsche go down? Financially yes it could. But politically, I doubt it. And it’s the tension between these two answers, between the parlous financial state and the huge political significance of Deutsche, that I find interesting.

Deutsche is Germany’s only G-SIB (Global Systemically Important Bank). Deutsche is Germany’s financial flag carrier. It stands at the centre of Germany’s long held desire to have Frankfurt eclipse London as Europe’s financial centre. Although Germany also has Allianz as a G-SII (Global systemically Important Insurer), without Deutsche Bank Germany ceases to be a globally significant financial nation (G-SFN – OK I made that one up). Without Deutsche Germany would not sit at the top table of global finance. France would. France has three G-SIBs. The balance between France and Germany within Europe would shift. Maintaining that balance between France and Germany, at the heart of Europe, has been critical in European affairs since WWI.

Could Germany ever allow Deutsche Bank to go under?

Officially the global framework for G-SIFI resolution in bankruptcy has been laid down by the FSB and agreed by all. And interestingly, though they are touted as the result of new thinking since the financial crisis, they are not. I recently received an EU document marked ‘Secret’, entitled “Overview of Financial Stability Resolution Issues” and dated Feb 2008 which describes pretty much what the FSB has now settled upon now. I mention this because almost every word in it was completely ignored once the crisis hit and each country viewed the imminent demise of their major, flag-carrying banks. Which leads me to wonder why I should believe it would be any different next time? I think this question is particularly critical to Germany because Deutsche is its only G-SIB. In the next massive implosion of debts, France could afford to let one of its G-SIBs go down and still have two seats at the top table. England could do the same.

To continue reading: A note on Deutsche Bank

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Why the EU Is Doomed, by Alasdair Macleod

Posted on September 19, 2016 | Leave a comment

The Europeans are having a tough time making the economics and finance of union work, but it will probably be noneconomic and financial factors that cause the EU’s downfall. From Alasdair Macleod at mises.org:

We are accustomed to looking at Europe’s woes in a purely financial context. This is a mistake, because it misses the real reasons why the EU will fail and not survive the next financial crisis. We normally survive financial crises, thanks to the successful actions of central banks as lenders of last resort. However, the origins and construction of both the the euro and the EU itself could ensure the next financial crisis commences in the coming months, and will exceed the capabilities of the ECB to save the system.

It should be remembered that the European Union was originally a creation of US post-war foreign policy. The priority was to ensure there was a buffer against the march of Soviet communism, and to that end three elements of the policy towards Europe were established. First, there was the Marshall Plan, which from 1948 provided funds to help rebuild Europe’s infrastructure. This was followed by the establishment of NATO in 1949, which ensured American and British troops had permanent bases in Germany. And lastly, a CIA sponsored organisation, the American Committee on United Europe was established to covertly promote European political union.

It was therefore in no way a natural European development. But in the post-war years the concept of political union, initially the European Coal and Steel Community, became fact in the Treaty of Paris in 1951 with six founding members: France, West Germany, Belgium, Luxembourg and Italy. The ECSC evolved into the EU of today, with an additional twenty-one member states, not including the UK which has now decided to leave.

With the original founders retaining their national characteristics, the EU resembles a political portmanteau, a piece of assembled furniture, each component retaining its original characteristics. After sixty-five years, a Frenchman is still a staunch French nationalist. Germans are characteristically German, and the Italians remain delightfully Italian. Belgium is often referred to as a non-country, and is still riven between Walloons and the Flemish. As an organisation, the EU lacks national identity and therefore political cohesion.

This is why the European Commission in Brussels has to go to great lengths to assert itself. But it has an insurmountable problem, and that is it has no democratic authority. The EU parliament was set up to be toothless, which is why it fools only the ignorant. With power still residing in a small cabal of nation states, national powerbrokers pay little more than lip-service to the Brussels bureaucracy.

The relationship between national leaders and the European Commission has been deliberately long-term, in the sense that loss of sovereignty is used to gradually subordinate other EU members into the Franco-German line. The driving logic has been to make the European region a protected trade area in Franco-German joint interests, and to protect them from free markets.

It was not easy to find the necessary compromise. Since the Second World War, France has been strongly protectionist over her own culture, insisting that the French only buy French goods. Germany’s success was rooted in savings, which encouraged industrial investment, leading to strong exports. These two nations with a common border had, and still have, very different values, but they managed to conceive and set up the European Central Bank and the euro.

To continue reading: Why the EU Is Doomed

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He Said That? 9/4/16

Posted on September 4, 2016 | Leave a comment

Angela Merckel’s CDU party just finished third in a CDU stronghold and her home state, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania. It finished behind the Alternative fuer Deutschland party, which takes a strong anti-immigrant and anti-Islamic stance. The party was founded in 2013. From CDU secretary general Peter Tauber:

The strong performance of AfD is bitter for many, for everyone in our party. A sizeable number of people wanted to voice their displeasure and to protest. And we saw that particularly in discussions about refugees.

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-37271971

Anti-establishment, anti-immigration parties are on a roll in Europe. Don’t expect Merckel to change her tune, but it’s not hard to imagine those sentiments jumping the Atlantic to the US this November.

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Germany Debates Putting “Troops On Streets” To Protect Against Terrorism, by Tyler Durden

Posted on August 25, 2016 | 1 comment

Germany is headed in the same repressive direction as France and the US, and ostensibly for the same purpose: to battle terrorism. Unfortunately, the terrorism that’s the biggest concern is the kind in which governments engage. From Tyler Durden at zerohedge.com:

The quiet German militarization continues to escalate.

One day after Germany’s DPA broke the news that the Merkel government is considering “bringing back nationwide conscription in times of crisis”, such as situations in which the country needs to “defend NATO’s external borders”, strongly hinting at the possibility of a future war, which in turn followed this weekend’s shocking announcement that Germans should prepare to stockpile several days of food and water “in case of an attack of catastrophe” as part of the country’s revised “Civil Defense Concept, today NBC reports that “Germany Debates Putting Troops on Streets to Protect Against ISIS.”

To be sure, plans to involve soldiers in counterterrorism operations. and the suggestion troops could also be used to beef up security in public places, have proved controversial in a country only seven decades “removed from totalitarian rule that’s still grappling with guilt from the Nazi era.” However, Wolfgang Bosbach, a lawmaker from Merkel’s CDU party, dismissed an such concerns.

“During the recent terror threat in Munich the German armed forces, and also the military police, were put on alert,” he told NBC News. “They have been deployed in other crises, so why should the military not help with domestic security as well?”

German soldiers after taking part in a drill on June 29

A court decision in 2012 allowed Germany’s armed forces to be deployed at home for peacetime missions under an “extraordinary emergency situation of catastrophic dimension.”

While “Bundeswehr” solders have since helped during flooding as well as providing logistical support during the migrant crisis, deploying troops in peacetime among the broader population is sure to lead to far broader populist concerns.

While some politicians suggested the influx of migrants and refugees had created security risks and called for tighter border controls, others warned against overreacting. Boris Pistorius, the justice minister in the state of Lower Saxony, told Die Welt newspaper that the three incidents in a week span “should clearly be distinguished” and that he would refrain from describing “the series of very different attacks as a wave of violence.”

He added: “We are not there yet.”

But Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere stated that Germans are “living in difficult times” and that police forces are already “overstretched.”

Defense Minister Ursula von der Leyen recently announced that the German military would conduct counterterrorism training with police later this year. “There are scenarios we couldn’t imagine before the attacks of Paris or Brussels but that we must address openly and for which we must prepare,” she said.

To continue reading: Germany Debates Putting “Troops On Streets” To Protect Against Terrorism

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Germany’s Migrant Rape Crisis Spirals out of Control, by Soeren Kern

Posted on August 9, 2016 | 2 comments

The suppression of news about migrants’ sex crimes in Germany is almost as bad as the crimes themselves. From Soeren Kern at thegatestoneinstitute.org:

Suppression of data about migrant rapes is “Germany-wide phenomenon.”

• Germany’s migrant rape crisis has now spread to cities and towns in all 16 of Germany’s federal states. Germany now finds itself in a vicious circle: most of the perpetrators are never found, and the few who are frequently receive lenient sentences. Only one in 10 rapes in Germany is reported and just 8% of rape trials result in convictions, according to Minister of Justice Heiko Maas.

• Up to 90% of the sex crimes committed in Germany in 2014 do not appear in the official statistics, according to André Schulz, the head of the Association of Criminal Police.

• “There are strict instructions from the top not to report offenses committed by refugees. It is extraordinary that certain offenders are deliberately NOT being reported about and the information is being classified as confidential.” — High-ranking police official in Frankfurt, quoted in Bild.

Sexual violence in Germany has reached epidemic proportions since Chancellor Angela Merkel allowed into the country more than one million mostly male migrants from Africa, Asia and the Middle East.

Gatestone Institute first reported Germany’s migrant rape crisis in September 2015, when Merkel opened up the German border to tens of thousands of migrants stranded in Hungary. A follow-up report was published in March 2016, in the aftermath of mass attacks against German women by mobs of migrants in Cologne, Hamburg and other German cities.

Germany’s migrant rape crisis has now spread to cities and towns in all 16 of Germany’s federal states. Germany is effectively under siege; public spaces are becoming increasingly perilous. Police have warned about a potential breakdown of public order this summer, when young male migrants are likely to see women lightly dressed.

During the month of July 2016, hundreds of German women and children were sexually assaulted by migrants (see Appendix below). The youngest victim was nine; the oldest, 79. Attacks occurred at beaches, bike trails, cemeteries, discotheques, grocery stores, music festivals, parking garages, playgrounds, schools, shopping malls, taxis, public transportation (buses, trams, intercity express trains and subways), public parks, public squares, public swimming pools and public restrooms. Predators are lurking everywhere; safety nowhere.

Dozens of women and children have been assaulted by migrants at summer festivals and public swimming pools — staples of ordinary German life.

In July, at least 24 women were sexually assaulted at the Breminale music festival in Bremen. Women were also assaulted at outdoor festivals in Aschheim, Balve, Gerolzhofen, Grenzach-Wyhlen Heide, Loßburg, Lütjenburg, Meschede, Poing, Reutlingen, Sinsheim, Wolfhagen and Wolfratshausen.

In July, women and children were also sexually assaulted at public swimming pools in Babenhausen, Dachau, Delbrück, Hamm, Hilchenbach, Kirchheim, Lörrach, Marklohe, Mönchengladbach, Mörfelden-Walldorf, Oberursel, Remagen, Rinteln, Schwetzingen and Stuttgart-Vaihingen.

Most of the crimes were downplayed by German authorities, apparently to avoid fueling anti-immigration sentiments. Almost invariably, the crimes are said to be isolated incidents (Einzelfälle), not part of a nationwide problem. Information about sexual assaults can usually be found only in local police reports. Rapes are sometimes treated as local interest stories and covered by local or regional newspapers. Only the most spectacular incidents of rape and sexual assault make it into the national press.

To continue reading: Germany’s Migrant Rape Crisis Spirals out of Control

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