German Cities with the Highest Crime Rates

Key Takeaways

• Frankfurt am Main ranks first among major German cities for crime rate. It recorded 15,026 offences per 100,000 residents in 2025.
• Munich is Germany’s third-largest city. It recorded 6,061 offences per 100,000 residents. This puts it near the bottom for crime rate among all 80 cities tracked.
• Bremen, Düsseldorf, and Hannover round out the top five German cities with highest crime rates. Each recorded more than 12,800 offences per 100,000 residents.
• Cities with heavy commuter and transit traffic show inflated crime rates. Their case counts include offences by people who do not live there.

German Cities With the Highest Crime Rates

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Learn something new about Germany every week and make informed decisions with confidence.

Stay tuned!

Learn something new about Germany every week and make informed decisions with confidence.

Frankfurt Records Germany’s Highest Crime Rate Among Major Cities

Berlin recorded more than 500,000 criminal offences in 2025. It has the highest raw number of any German city.

However, raw counts mostly track population size. Adjusted for population, Frankfurt am Main ranks first for crime rate out of all cities in Germany.

Frankfurt am Main recorded 113,603 criminal offences in 2025. That equals 15,026 offences per 100,000 residents.

That is the highest rate among the 80 cities tracked in Germany’s city-level crime statistics.

Berlin’s crime rate lands lower than Frankfurt’s. It stands at 13,642 offences per 100,000 residents.

That is because Berlin also holds roughly five times Frankfurt’s population. At the same time, Frankfurt’s case count includes offences committed by non-residents:

• Airport passengers
• Train commuters
• Visitors passing through the city

None of them count toward Frankfurt’s population. That mismatch pushes Frankfurt’s rate above cities with similar case totals but fewer daily non-residents.

Why Crime Rates Run Higher in Commuter and Transit Hub Cities

Frankfurt (15,026), Düsseldorf (12,999), Hannover (12,849), and Cologne (12,727) are four of the 15 German cities with the highest crime rates.

Each of these cities hosts a major airport, train hub, or trade fair ground that draws large non-resident crowds daily.

A high crime rate does not mean these cities are the most dangerous to live in. Non-residents show up in their case counts but not in their population totals.

That is why cities with heavy transit traffic rank near the top of the list.

Munich Records Low Crime Rates Despite Being Germany’s Third-Largest City

Munich is Germany’s third-largest city. It recorded only 6,061 offences per 100,000 residents.

That puts it near the bottom of the list for crime rate.

That result breaks from Germany’s other large cities.

• Berlin ranks second nationally for crime rate.
• Cologne is the fourth-largest city. It ranks seventh.
• Hamburg ranks twelfth. It is the second-largest.

Munich is the only one of Germany’s four largest cities to miss the top 15. City size alone does not predict crime rate.

Crime rate is a more meaningful number than raw case totals for comparing German cities. But it has its own limits.

Rate can run high in cities with heavy non-resident traffic. It does not rise or fall simply with a city’s size.