Germany has seen a political row erupt over claims Berlin was covering up the scale of offending by dual nationals by recording suspects as German only in police crime statistics despite some also holding passports from countries like Turkey or Syria.
The dispute centers on whether police should log a suspect’s second nationality where they have dual citizenship, rather than listing them solely as German.
In North Rhine-Westphalia, Interior Minister Herbert Reul ordered state police in August to record the second nationality of German suspects who also hold another passport, arguing that without it “we are operating in the dark” and that “anyone who wants to see reality must also measure it”.
Reul said crime data was incomplete if suspects were recorded only as German despite also holding another nationality, giving examples such as Turkish or Syrian.
Several other German states backed Reul’s approach, including Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt, Schleswig-Holstein and Hesse. Hesse’s Interior Minister Roman Poseck said the focus should be on transparency, adding: “We have nothing to hide,” and arguing that openness “strengthens trust in the rule of law”.
But Berlin has refused to follow the same route. Berlin’s Interior Senator Iris Spranger rejected naming second nationalities in crime data, saying that if someone holds multiple nationalities alongside German, then German “takes precedence”, claiming this delivers the greatest possible transparency and comparability in the statistics.
Critics say the position turns the concept of transparency on its head, arguing that omitting the second nationality can make it impossible for the public to understand how many suspects recorded as “German” are also citizens of other states, and has been portrayed by opponents as a political attempt to soften the picture around crime involving dual nationals.
The argument also taps into earlier tensions after Berlin’s New Year’s Eve riots in 2022 and 2023, when the CDU asked what first names were held by German suspects involved in the violence, a question condemned by the SPD, the Left Party and the Greens as right-wing populism. The CDU countered that citizenship alone did not necessarily show who the suspects “actually were”, while critics now say second nationality is a legitimate data point the public is entitled to see.
To find out more about the author, editor or agency that supplied this story – please click below. Story By: Michael Leidig, Sub-Editor: Joseph Golder, Agency: Newsflash
The Ananova page is created by and dedicated to professional, independent freelance journalists. It is a place for us to showcase our work. When our news is sold to our media partners, we will include the link here.
