Rise in violence against rail employees and federal police recorded

The number of assaults on the federal police is also high. In addition to 1,427 physical attacks against federal police officers – "Hinzu kamen 1.427 tätliche Angriffe" – the authorities recorded 875 threats and 3,734 cases of resisting officers. Bartsch pointed out that, proportionally, around 30 federal police officers per day were affected. "Hinzu kämen rund 30 geschädigte Bundespolizisten pro Tag," he said.

Political reactions and demands

Bartsch expressed concern over the development. "Gehe es so weiter, steuere man dieses Jahr auf einen neuen Negativrekord der Gewalt zu," he warned. He called on Federal Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt (CSU) and rail chief Evelyn Palla to improve the protection of personnel through every conceivable measure. He also demanded that Deutsche Bahn and the Interior Ministry meet again for a summit "um Entsprechendes zu verabreden und auf den Weg zu bringen."

CDU interior policy spokesman Alexander Throm described the statistics as alarming and demanded: "Dieser Verrohung und Gewalt muss Einhalt geboten werden." He pointed to the new Federal Police Act, which is to pass the Bundestag this week. Throm added that biometric recognition and the use of AI could enable hazards at train stations to be detected earlier.

Background: Fatal attack on a conductor

The background to the debate is the death of a 36-year-old conductor in February of this year. He was beaten by a passenger without a ticket during a ticket inspection in Rhineland-Palatinate and succumbed to his severe injuries in hospital. The victim was publicly identified as "Serkan C." Bartsch commented: "Der entsetzliche Tod des Zugbegleiters Serkan C. im Februar, der das ganze Land schockiert hat, hat offensichtlich nichts verändert."

Deutsche Bahn's measures

Deutsche Bahn contradicted the assessment that nothing had changed since the death of the rail employee in February. "Vielmehr seien unmittelbar danach Maßnahmen zum Schutz von Mitarbeitenden und Fahrgästen ergriffen worden," a spokesperson said. The company is now placing greater emphasis on body cameras for its employees, and a "Trageversuch mit stichfesten Westen" was added in July. "Auch Bodycams hätten sich bewährt," it was said. In addition, new security concepts are being tested in regions where assaults are increasing.

As an example, Deutsche Bahn cited one-to-one accompaniment, in which customer attendants have a person with security expertise at their side. The company is responding to a development that Bartsch had already documented at the beginning of the year with an earlier query for the first ten months of 2025. At that time, the average was five physical attacks per day against rail employees. A verdict is expected on Thursday in the trial against the alleged perpetrator.