Inspired by this article about the worst neighborhood in Japan. My impression of Germany is also one of "incredible levels of public order, safety, and cleanliness." There are a few more beggars/homeless people than in Japan, but I have never felt unsafe in Germany. (I've heard of women who were harassed in the crowd after football games.)

Are there areas in Germany that are exceptions to this impression? What areas would you nominate for this dubious title?

by kingharis

39 comments

  2. Most of Berlin. A lot of areas in Cologne. Hamburg. Rheinland Pfalz is one of the nicer areas because it lacks larger cities. Imo the true test isn’t some rural area but a big city. So you would have to compare cleanliness and safety of say Tokyo to Berlin. And looking at the 2 it does not look too good for the ole black red and gold.

  4. Interesting. If I were to pick ONE aspect where Germany has declined most in the recent 10 or so years, I would definitely name cleanliness. It has become noticeably worse even in famously „very clean“ cities like Munich. Especially objects of public infrastructure (train stations etc) and public places have suffered. I was astonished as I visited train stations in Czechia and Poland recently, how much cleaner they were.

    Answering your question, first thing that comes to my mind is probably Duisburg-Marxloh.

  9. Didn’t the Berlin chief of police warn LGBT and Jewish people from going into certain neighbourhoods?

  10. Never felt unsafe in Germany, you can change that by walking around Frankfurt Hbf at night

  11. You can find places and streets in every German town that are dominated by groups of young males activly looking for trouble. This places can be dangerous, especially when it is dark or if you are female and/or alone.

  14. Depends what you consider “worst neighborhood”

    Plenty of areas of German cities are dirty and a bit chaotic like Frankfurt Bahnhofsviertel and Kottbusser Tor. But probably at most times of day, for a regular person, nothing bad will happen to you there. No one will harrass you or look at you strangely for speaking a foreign language there, or insult you for being black/brown/etc.

    My worst German neighborhood? Any eerily quiet, poor, small East German town, where you know over 50%+ voted AfD, there are barely any functioning businesses or shops, and there’s no non-white face to be seen for kilometers in any direction. And the grannies peak out the windows when anyone walks by. As a minority you feel like a sitting duck in one of these places. Scary!

  15. Berlin Alexanderplatz. I want to leave this place as soon as I set foot in it.

  17. Berlin: Neukölln, Alexanderplatz, Görlitzer Park, Wrangelkiez, Kottbusser Tor.

  21. There are some problematic neighborhoods in most of NRW’s major cities, but to be honest I never really felt unsafe. Like, I’ve read about kid gangs pulling out knives and snatching your phone in broad daylight in the Mönchengladbach city center, but luckily never experienced any of it.

    Overall, I feel like in most major cities round here there’s a drug epidemic on the rise, followed by increased homeless, littering, pissing/shitting in the streets, etc.

    Like, Cologne seems waaaaaay more dirty now than 20 years ago when I studied there, same with the area around Düsseldorf HBF front and back, which has never been exactly nice, but in the last 5 years or so…pheeeew.

  22. Any of these villages in the east where like half the people voted AfD, wouldn’t really feel welcomed there

  25. Most major city central stations (especially at night), A good part of Duisburg and Ludwigshafen

  26. You often don’t see the homeless in Japan. Why do you think there are so many capsule hotels and internet cafes with sleeping space? Especially in the big cities in Japan there are a lot of invisible homeless people. That’s why I don’t think there are slightly more homeless people in Germany. They are just more visible.

  28. I haven’t seen much but I was once in Hagen and it was absolutely shithole

  29. Leipzig, Eisenbahnstraße is said to be the ‘most dangerous street in Germany’

  30. I bet it would be some village in Saxony or Thuringia. If you consider safety that is, probably not that much homelessness or cleaniness.

  33. The places people in Germany consider “dangerous” in their cities usually aren’t and the actual worse shit happens in parts of these cities that are generally considered more upscale.

    Most of the bad reputation normally derives from prejudice against parts of the inhabitants. Basically, it’s mostly racism, islamophobia, and people looking down on the weakest and poorest members of society.

  36. I’m surprised no one has said Hamburg Reeperbahn area.

  37. Im astonished that you think of Germany as clean and safe. I feel like the last 5 years both of points completely derailed here. Trash is everywhere. There are group of young criminals pestering people left and right.

  39. Offenbach
    Frankfurt hauptbahnhof
    Mannheim
    Ludwigshafen
    Some areas in Berlin and duesseldorf

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