A young German student was punched, kicked in the head and left on the ground by a group of roughly ten youths outside the Heinrich-von-Kleist School in Frankfurt (Oder) this week. Police are investigating ten suspects aged 13 to 15 of Syrian, Chechen, Polish, Russian and German nationality on charges of aggravated assault and robbery.
The attackers filmed the assault and released the video with a gangster-rap soundtrack. Videos circulating on social media, which authorities have confirmed as authentic, show the student being confronted and asked for something. He displays empty pockets before one of the group punches him in the face. Others then join in with punches and kicks, including to the head, and the attack continues after he falls.
The victim suffered facial injuries and reported the incident to police the same day. Headmaster Sören Schunke said the attackers were not students at his school. Officers later carried out an operation at the nearby Ulrich von Hutten High School linked to the case.
Frankfurt (Oder) Mayor Axel Strasser said: "What was done to a young person here in Frankfurt (Oder) leaves me speechless. It hurts to have to witness such violence. And it makes me angry that a youth has to experience something like this." He said this level of organised youth violence was previously unknown in the city and would not be tolerated. Strasser has spoken with Brandenburg Interior Minister Jan Redmann and arranged security talks involving police and school authorities.
The attack comes amid repeated group assaults in neighbouring Potsdam. Redmann has described a wave of predominantly migrant-linked youth violence there, including Syrian suspects. On 25 September, roughly 20 people, mostly migrants, entered a private party uninvited and attacked guests. The next day a group of about 25 assaulted three youths. Further attacks in early October left victims with head injuries that required hospital treatment. Authorities are monitoring a group of roughly 25 mostly migrant suspects. Two alleged ringleaders are in pretrial detention, and police presence has been increased.
Redmann has said foreign perpetrators, particularly Syrians whose protection status can be revoked, could face deportation: "Whoever comes to Germany and simply has no respect for Germany, we will not tolerate that. The rule of law has the final say."
In a related case in Berlin's Wannsee district, witnesses described up to 20 people with an "Arab migration background" beating three high-school students from the Catholic Marien School in Babelsberg. One 17-year-old lost consciousness. An 18-year-old struck his head against a parked car and needed hospital treatment. A witness told Tagesspiegel: "For me, this is attempted murder." The attackers fled into a forest. Suspects are believed to come from Potsdam, where robberies by youth gangs have increased.
In July, young German students were reportedly hunted and beaten by a group of foreigners at a train station in Jessen, Saxony-Anhalt. Victims said they did not know why they were targeted. Police had been unable to locate the perpetrators at the time of reporting, and a video of the attack later circulated.
Government figures released after a parliamentary inquiry showed that in 2024 nearly 40 percent of suspects identified in school-violence cases across Germany did not hold German citizenship. Of 11,558 suspects, 4,254 were foreign nationals, including 1,236 Syrians and 421 Afghans. There were 35,570 violent incidents at schools that year, averaging nearly 100 a day, with more than 740 involving knives.
At the Karolina-Burger high school in Ludwigshafen, police recorded 118 criminal complaints over three years, roughly half involving bodily harm, along with more than 100 false fire alarms. A 16-year-old student attacked a teacher in the staff room with a knife. Prosecutors said she acted with the intention of killing her. Interior Minister Michael Ebling said: "Violence has no place in our society - and certainly not in our schools." Education Minister Sven Teuber said: "Every child has the right to learn well and safely."
A special-education teacher at a secondary school in the Rhineland, where roughly 75 percent of students have a migrant background, described daily fights, drug dealing on school grounds, and a 15-year-old girl who prostituted herself in the school toilets for drugs and money before becoming pregnant and leaving. The teacher, who was punched in the face while intervening in a fight, said: "Every day is a challenge. Fights, shouting - this happens in the classroom and on the schoolyard. We are happy if we can teach for a few minutes at a time. Sometimes the police have to come several times a week." She added that colleagues are insulted, threatened or ambushed after school and that "No one from the school board ever shows up. They've left us to fend for ourselves."
In Düsseldorf, an 18-year-old Afghan intern at a primary school exposed his erect penis to two second-grade girls at a classroom sink while a teacher was present showing a film. He also admitted groping the class teacher's buttocks on two occasions. Police opened a criminal investigation, searched his apartment and notified immigration authorities because of his asylum-seeker status. The internship was terminated and he was banned from the premises. An investigator noted that schools often prefer to keep a low profile in such cases.
Separate stabbings have also been reported. A 13-year-old Arab boy stabbed a 12-year-old German classmate several times with a kitchen knife in the locker room of an elementary school in Berlin's Spandau neighbourhood. The victim required emergency surgery. In Remscheid, an 11-year-old Iraqi child stabbed a 13-year-old German boy twice in the leg with a kitchen knife after an arranged fight. Because the suspect was under 14 he faced no criminal charges and was released to his parents under youth-welfare supervision.
In Harsefeld, Lower Saxony, a youth gang active for at least six months committed beatings, threats, extortion and drug trafficking and uploaded videos of the assaults. Two known leaders had approximately 15 reported crimes each. Residents formed a vigilante patrol to protect children after the police response was criticised as inadequate. A police spokesperson said: "Yes, of course, we find that quite creepy. A vigilante group doesn't help anyone."
The filmed attack in Frankfurt (Oder), in which the suspects include Polish nationals, sits alongside these cases of students being surrounded, beaten and filmed by groups that include large numbers of foreign nationals and people with migration backgrounds.