Alina Cara Beyer

Quality of life where you live is not a side issue. It shapes health, creates freedom, holds a society together. And it shows how seriously politics takes the people on the ground. In Germany, it seems to be treated as a trifle.

In Trier, a 22-year-old was stabbed to death on the open street. Clans control the streets. Train stations have become places of violence, drugs and neglect. The trend is impossible to miss: more and more people feel unsafe — no longer at home in German cities. Me too.

The experiences I have had in German cities alone would fill a book. Harassment. Theft. Violence. Taking the train after 6 p.m.? A gauntlet. Getting off at the station? And running into unpredictable addicts, homeless people or other shadowy figures? No way. Is it worth the money for a taxi? But even in a taxi I have to reckon with incidents. In the background, the certainty: even if something happens, no one will help me. And I can’t even prove it, because there is no surveillance technology.

For more than a year I researched, gathered data, spoke with experts, authorities and those affected — and wrote down my own experiences. This book makes a feeling tangible and backs it up with numbers, data and facts.

Anyone living in Germany no longer even notices the decline. We accept it, treat it as the new normal. But I can’t look away — because I travel abroad a great deal for work, and internal security is my field. I see how other countries invest in quality of life, design cities that make their citizens’ lives pleasant and safe. The striking part: some of these countries have fewer financial resources than Germany, or a higher share of migrants. It can be done, if there is the will. Which means, in reverse: the excuses politics serves us simply don’t hold.