When the cameras aren’t rolling German police officers, on the front line of the migrant crisis, give their unvarnished account of the state of the nation, finding “the Germany we know is disappearing”.
A German investigative journalist has urged her fellow countrymen to “listen to police officers” and their experiences and “act accordingly”. German broadsheet newspaper Die Welt reports the words of Liv von Boetticher who said she had spoken to police officers across Germany, “from all departments, of all ages, and from all federal states”.
The journalist said she was prompted to come forwards with what she’d learnt after noticing speaking to her officers told a very different and unvarnished account of Germany after official interviews had finished and the cameras stopped rolling. Having given the official line their jobs may depend on to be taped, afterward they related what she called “stories of fear and anger, violence, loss of control, and failed migration policies, and the feeling among law enforcement officers of often being abandoned by politics and society.”
Sometimes being able to spin the truth of how Germany is now is a struggle for even specialist police officers, she said, adding: “I have repeatedly witnessed press officers struggling to find the right words to make absurd situations acceptable and bearable in front of the camera.”
Von Boetticher reflected to Welt that the “pretty much unanimous opinion was: It’s getting worse and worse” and had been told by one police officer that “the Germany we know is disappearing”. Others said that “in Germany it is open season for robbery and rape” and she was told “Even the most serious crimes often have surprisingly few consequences. Far too often, perpetrators more or less get away with it.”
Of her experience of talking to Berlin cops, Von Boetticher noted that city was a “hotspot”, in a level of trouble beyond the rest of the country. She said: “Some police officers have even told me, quite literally, “We’ve already lost this country” or “This country is finished.” At the same time, I want to emphasize that this is a process taking place, and there’s still a theoretical chance of turning things around. But that would have to happen quickly.”
The despairing attitude of German police officers comes despite a decade-long effort to purge Germany’s police forces of mass migration-critical officers and supporters of populist-right border control party the Alternative for Germany (AFD). That push to get conservatives out of the police continues today, with the country’s senior policeman saying in 2025 that supporting AFD is “incompatible” with being a police officer and German states seeking to ban AfD party members from taking government jobs at all.