When the investigators of the Munich police came to the press in the spring of 2017, they did so with self-confidence. They succeeded, they announced, to dig a criminal gang that could have been responsible for every fifth burglary in Germany last year. The chief investigator described the approximately 500 people clan as "octopus", with "poor" in Belgium, Spain, France and Italy. However, the heads of the organization made the criminalists in Croatia. There were arrests there too.

Perhaps Federal Interior Minister Horst Seehofer (CSU) and his colleague from Magdeburg, Holger Stahlknecht (CDU), owe the good news, which they were able to announce this Tuesday, at least in part to the Munich investigators. For the police crime statistics (PKS) recorded for 2017, a significant decline in apartment burglaries. Accordingly, their number dropped by 23 percent to 116,450 acts. At the same time, the awareness rate rose slightly from 16.9 to 17.8 percent. In 2015, 167,136 registered burglaries had reached a peak in recent years. For years, the number of burglaries in Germany had increased until then.

While the PKS is hardly meaningful for many other offenses, it pretty much describes the frequency of burglaries - simply because they are displayed very often. The dark field is comparatively small.

There were so many burglaries in your region



"The fact that a consistent approach of the rule of law can lead to success, shows us the development in burglary theft," said Stahlknecht. Erich Rettinghaus of the German Police Union is also satisfied: "The general development is gratifying and proof that many of the concepts developed by the police in recent years are now paying off."

In fact, investigators in federal and state governments have done a great deal to deal with structural omissions of the past. In 2013, officials from North Rhine-Westphalia were extremely self-critical as to why they were unable to keep up with highly mobile break-in gangs for a long time: "Nationwide, professional and habitual offenders organized in different county police agencies experience criminal acts in NRW too little pressure of persecution, "it said at that time. For a long time nothing changed. Also because the staff were often absent for the complex and complex investigations against burglars - the Islamist terrorism tied and bind many forces.

Offenders move to Scandinavia

Nevertheless, the pressure of persecution on burglars in Germany seems to have grown at least in such a way that many internationally active professionals avoid the federal territory. Experts such as the detective Michael Will, who deals with Europol intensively with the issue, recognize a "evasive movement" of the gangs. These groupings, mainly from southeastern Europe, would now become increasingly active in Scandinavia. "The number of burglaries there is increasing," says Will. In addition, there are indications that the perpetrators also moved to other offenses, such as car breaks. "I warn against considering the problem settled," says Will.

In a confidential paper of the German police it is said that the "intensification of the international co-operation, the improved information exchange and the priority fight" of Einbrecherbanden had led to the fact that the number of the burglaries had decreased. Added to this would be the closure of the Balkan route and more intensive border controls in the Schengen area.

The investigators were always convinced despite the low awareness rate that "traveling burglars" from abroad were primarily responsible for the increase in the deeds in 2015. They deduced this from insights gained during preliminary investigations as well as from comparable procedures and crime scene traces.

In addition, in North Rhine-Westphalia, for example, the proportion of non-German suspects had increased from 27.9 percent to 48.5 percent in 2015. In 2016, according to an LKA report, the majority of suspected burglars were non-German for the first time. This changed again in 2017: almost 2,400 suspects arrested in NRW came from Germany, around 2,100 from abroad. "The current development is a proof of our thesis that the former increase in burglaries was on the account of professional perpetrators," says Sebastian Fiedler of the Bund Deutscher Kriminalbeamter. "Some of these offenders, who were responsible for a variety of offenses, could be caught."

"Better armor against burglars"

Burglars also failed a bit more often than in the past. Experts attribute this to the fact that many homeowners are better protected, such as safer windows and doors. In North Rhine-Westphalia, about 46.3 percent of the 39,000 registered apartment dips that were recorded there last year remained at the experimental stage; in 2014, only 41.3 percent of the 55,000 dips occurred. "Many people have been advised in recent years by the police, how they can better arm themselves against burglars," says police unionist Rettinghaus. "The success of these preventive measures is now becoming visible."

On the other hand, it is unclear to what extent the tightening of penalties contributed to a downturn in the slump. The Federal Government had decided higher penalties in the past year. A break in a private home is now a minimum of one year in prison instead of six months. The maximum penalty is now ten years. The police has also been testing computer-based crime forecasts for a long time, which should lead to a more targeted use of strips in residential areas.

The trial of the six alleged members of the record breaking burglar team in Munich in November 2017 has still not started. The local district court did not see itself responsible. Meanwhile, a chamber in Landshut is designated to conduct the proceedings. It's supposed to start in June - almost two and a half years after the first arrests.

  • Read on: The worst gang of burglars in Germany - and how the police caught them.