Berlin court allowed first names of suspects - an outcry!

Berlin court allowed first names of suspects - an outcry!

Berlin, Deutschland - The Berlin Constitutional Court has decided that the Berlin Senate was not allowed to refuse the request of an AfD member according to the first names of German suspect for data protection reasons. This decision, which is based on the decision of May 13, 2025, was made with a narrow majority of 5: 4 voices and represents a significant interpretation of the parliamentary question.

The AfD has been making inquiries about the "perpetrator background" of knife attacks in the capital since 2018. The questioners would like to prove that foreigners are disproportionately represented by suspects and that many of the German suspects have previously been naturalized. In particular, the most common first names of German suspect were on the AfD agenda. This information was provided by the Senate until 2023.

refusal of information

In 2024, however, the Senate refused to put together a list of prioras of the suspects and referred to a judgment of the Lower Saxony State Constitutional Court, which had declared the publication of first names for reasons for data protection reasons. AfD MP Marc Vallendar then raised an organization that was now negotiated in front of the Berlin Constitutional Court.

The judges found that the Senate violated the parliamentary right to question in accordance with Article 45 (1) of the constitution of Berlin. The acceptance of a "high risk of identification" was critically seen, which under the circumstances of the request was classified as not plausible. The Senate had provided information about the crops and groups of perpetrators, but did not communicate the 20 most common first names of German citizens.

disagreements among the judges

While the majority of the constitutional judges did not share the perspective of the Senate, the inferior judges in a special vote to consider that the creation and publication of a first list list could be regarded as discriminatory and as a violation of human dignity. They pointed out that the Berlin state constitution expressly prohibits discrimination based on ethnic origin.

The most common first names such as "Christian", "Nico" and "Ali", which had an earlier request in 2022 among the 1,194 German suspects, are a potential indication of ethnic origin in accordance with the judges, which could undermine confidentiality and protection of personal data. The decision of the Constitutional Court is now forcing the Berlin Senate to again decide on answering this parliamentary request, and raises questions about data protection and discrimination.

Further information on the topic can be found on the pages of the lvz , Beck and Bundesag