German trauma surgeons have recorded a 58.8 per cent increase in life-threatening stab injuries over the past 12 years, according to an analysis of the national trauma registry published on August 20.
The study, based on the TraumaRegister DGU run by the German Trauma Society (DGU) and published in the Deutsches Ärzteblatt, tracked cases between 2013 and 2024. Numbers rose from 212 in 2013 to 336 in 2024, with a peak of 382 in 2023.
The registry logs only the gravest injuries. Patients are entered when they are in a life-threatening condition or need intensive care, with data drawn from more than 600 participating hospitals.
Of 291,752 severely injured patients documented over the period, 3,664 were recorded as stab victims of a suspected violent crime, or roughly 1.3 per cent.
The wounds fell most often on the torso, particularly the chest and abdomen. Emergency surgery was needed in 72 per cent of cases and 8.2 per cent of those admitted died in hospital.
Victims were overwhelmingly male, at 85.6 per cent, and younger than the average severely injured patient.
Lead author Philipp Störmann said such injuries remained a very small share of severe trauma work, though he added that the rise in case numbers had been concentrated in areas of high population density.
DGU president Frank Hildebrand said treating stab wounds had become a markedly more routine part of the surgical day than it was a decade ago.
The registry does not record who carried out the attacks, their motives or the origin and social status of the victims, the authors noted. They said the police crime statistics remained the only national measure of knife use in criminal offences.
That series began breaking out knife figures only in recent years, and 2024 was the first with complete national coverage, at 29,014 recorded attacks. The 2025 edition, presented by interior minister Alexander Dobrindt on April 20, put the total at 29,243, up 0.8 per cent, with non-German suspects accounting for 42.9 per cent of violent crime suspects.
Knife violence has shaped German security policy for several years. Berlin extended a citywide knife ban in April 2025 after a series of stabbings in public places, and the right-wing Alternative for Germany (AfD) has tabled a written question in the Bundestag seeking figures on offences in which knives were carried or used.
The DGU said its aim was to put the public argument over a supposed surge in serious knife injuries on firmer statistical ground.
