Germany to further limit knives in public after rise in attacks

German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser on Sunday said she wants to "further restrict the use of knives in public," amid a marked rise in knife crime.

Faeser told the Sunday edition of the German mass-circulation Bild newspaper that the coalition government is aiming to "create a general ban on handling dangerous flick knives."

The existing legal limit for knives carried in public of 12 centimetres is set to be shortened to 6 centimetres, the minister said.

"We will be submitting corresponding amendments to the weapons legislation shortly," she added.

According to police statistics, 8,951 cases of dangerous and grievous bodily harm were reported last year involving the use or threat of using knives, an increase of 5.6% on the previous year.

German police have registered more knife attacks in the first half of 2024, especially at railway stations, the newspaper said.

The interior minister of the southern state of Bavaria, Joachim Herrmann, criticized Faeser's plan as "symbolic politics."

"It is doubtful that further knife bans can solve the problem of knife crime," Herrmann told Monday's edition of the Münchner Merkur newspaper in comments seen in advance by dpa.

The recent stabbing of a police officer in the south-western city of Mannheim, for example, was "committed with a knife that was and is already prohibited under current law," he added.

Herrmann, from the opposition Christian Social Union (CSU) party, also questioned how the ban would be implemented in public places.

"Without consistent checks, further bans would only provide a false sense of security," he argued.

Deterrence through the threat of punishment is also hardly convincing, Hermann added. Instead, he suggested giving police more powers to search suspects and to focus on stopping repeat offenders.