According to the Vienna Observatory on Intolerance against Christians OIDAC, 471 cases of violence against them were recorded in Germany in 2024; over 2200 incidents related to the Christian faith were documented across Europe.
In 2024, 471 Christians in Germany became victims of violence due to their faith. This is evidenced by the statistics from the Observatory on Intolerance against Christians and Discrimination against Christians in Europe (OIDAC). This is a non-governmental organization based in Vienna. Data for 2025 is currently unavailable. According to OIDAC head Anna Tang in an interview with Deutschlandfunk, Germany has been one of the leaders in this regard for several years.
This figure is based on statistics from the Federal Ministry of the Interior of Germany (BMI) on "politically motivated crime" and cases recorded by OIDAC. According to the organization, in 2024, Germany was the country with the second-highest number of anti-Christian incidents in Europe after France.
In France, attacks on Christians rose to 843 cases in 2025, according to Le Monde. This is a 9% increase compared to 2024. Most incidents are related to property damage, according to the French Ministry of the Interior, which the publication cites.
Overall in Europe, 2,211 cases of hate crimes against Christians were recorded in 2024, OIDAC reports. Of these, 274 were attacks on individuals. These include both physical assaults and threats. In 2023, there were 2,444 cases recorded, of which 232 were attacks on individuals. This data is based on police statistics, OSCE data, local organizations, and "independent studies," as OIDAC itself refers to them.
Director Anna Tang stated to Euronews that the basis is the internationally recognized OSCE methodology for hate crimes. According to it, there must be a real crime motivated by prejudice. In attacks on religious sites—churches, synagogues, or mosques—the OSCE generally assumes a possible motive of hatred and recommends appropriate classification.
In crimes committed out of hostility towards Christians, most suspects are German citizens, according to a response (source in German) from the federal government to a request from the Alternative for Germany party (AfD) faction, sent in early 2025. Of the 107 identified suspects, 75 are Germans, followed by 10 Syrian citizens and 7 Afghan citizens.
This data pertains to 2024 (as of December 10, 2024). According to authorities, 228 crimes motivated by hostility towards Christians were recorded across the country, "including one committed murder, 14 cases of bodily harm, and 52 episodes of property damage."
Anna Tang, in a conversation with Euronews, also pointed out the high share of latent crimes and noted that the recently published OSCE recommendations for combating hate crimes against Christians indicate "increased vulnerability of converts to Christianity and Christians of migrant backgrounds" and that many attacks are often not reported to the police.
For instance, in Cottbus in April, unknown individuals committed an act of vandalism in the entrance of an evangelical pastor's house. In May of last year, according to rbb, unknown individuals, among other things, carved a swastika on the wooden door of one of Berlin's churches.
The Federal Ministry of the Interior, in its statistics (source in German) on "politically motivated crime," counted 337 crimes motivated by hostility towards Christians in 2024, which is a 21.7% increase compared to 2023, when 277 such offenses were recorded.
The Ministry of the Interior of North Rhine-Westphalia, in response to a request from the AfD faction in the state parliament, distributed the cases as follows: in 2025, of the registered incidents, 41 were related to religious ideology, 18 to foreign ideology, 14 to right-wing extremism, and 4 to left-wing extremism. The rest were classified as "other categories."
A representative of the German Conference of Catholic Bishops lamented in an interview with the Rheinische Post about increasingly severe acts of vandalism in churches. "There are no longer any taboos here," he added. According to him, cigarette butts are left in front of holy images, prayer books and hymnals are deliberately damaged. There exists a "gray area of acts of vandalism in churches that are not reflected in police statistics."
