German place of shame. “I'm always scared when I'm here.”
A taxi driver stands by the tracks, smokes a cigarette and waits for customers. A regional express to Berlin passes by. The railway station in Furstenwalde (Brandenburg) is one of the oldest in Germany. Built in 1842, the simple building dates back to a time when trains were a symbol of progress.
The man puts out his cigarette and begins to say: crime at the station? Yes, he's heard of such a thing. But not here – he points to the underpass behind the station building.
The indicated place smells of smoke and beer. The light flickers, the walls are painted from top to bottom. To the side, a homeless man lies on a sleeping pad and sleeps.
Standing at the exit is Maja O., a slim and tall 32-year-old who has been living in Furstenwalde for five years. She moved here with her husband from Poland because of his job. Now he avoids the station. — I'm always scared when I'm here. We hear too many stories – says.
59-year-old Sabine B. claims that she remembers the station from the times of the GDR. — It used to be nice here. Today there is only garbage and graffiti, he adds. Everything has changed. Sabine's friend had her purse stolen in an underground passage. “I don't dare stay here at night anymore,” the woman says.
At the exit from the station, there is a 24-hour kiosk. Chris Gretzschel says he stands here every day and drinks beer after work. He works as a machine operator at a local tire factory and grew up in Furstenwalde. — At the age of 18, I quickly moved to Berlin. I couldn't stand it any longer – he says. At the age of 32, he returned “because of his parents”. “All my old friends moved away and never came back,” he adds.
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A terrifying place
Chris points to an underpass. — There is currently an open gang war in Furstenwalde. Kosovo Albanians have to defend themselves against numerous Syrians. The Syrians want to take over the city, he says. He then raises the beer bottle as if to apologize for the sentence. — I don't blame foreigners. The Germans did not take enough care of it, he adds. Chris works with many Syrians in the factory.
Standing next to him is 54-year-old Arne Braunlich. He used to be Gretzschel's friend, now he is unemployed. Out of habit, old friends sometimes meet here to drink beer. — You can't walk around the station here at night. There are groups standing here and harassing people, adds Braunlich.
He says that he used to be a Bundeswehr soldier. When he talks about the current situation in Furstenwalde, he quickly becomes emotional. — Merz is right about the image of the city. The worst thing is how boys treat women. They lack any respect, he explains. Last week, Chancellor Friedrich Merz (CDU) talked about a “problem” in the “city image” in the context of migration. On Monday, he confirmed this statement, referring to the experiences of young women (“ask your daughters what I might have meant”).
However, Furstenwalde has survived worse times. Braunlich talks about the 90s, about fights, combat boots and skinheads. “The violence back then was worse than today, but the fear was the same,” he adds. He takes a drink and nods towards the underpass. “It's definitely a scary place for a lot of people,” he says.
Underpass at Furstenwalde stationMaximilian Heimerzheim / Die Welt
“Perceived lack of security”
Anyone who talks to the police in Brandenburg will hear different opinions than those expressed at the kiosk in Furstenwalde. According to the services, the number of certain crimes is decreasing throughout the city. In 2023, the police in Furstenwalde registered 28 cases of robbery or extortion, and in 2024 – 20. The number of cases of destruction of property also decreased – from 359 to 331.
However, during the same period the number of cases body damage increased from 329 to 375. The situation also worsened at the station itself: in 2023, 197 interventions were recorded here, and a year later 256. However, the services do not want to talk about a new crime center in this place. Not every intervention ends in a proceeding, emphasizes the spokesman for the Brandenburg police.
The mayor of Furstenwalde, Matthias Rudolph, told “Markische Onlinezeitung” in August about a “perceptible lack of security” at the railway station. According to Rudolph, this cannot be confirmed with numbers and facts. Nevertheless, according to the politician, places such as the neighboring Eisenbahnstrasse should be kept in mind. One option would be to install video surveillance, but there is a lack of staff. The city and the railway are currently working on establishing a common contact point in the station building – as a visible sign of presence.
The fact that such a center can be useful is demonstrated by the evening of August 18, 2025. Several police cars went to the station in Furstenwalde. Passersby reported a man with a knife who was rampaging on the platform. When officers arrived at the scene, the situation was unclear: the suspect, a 27-year-old man from Cameroon, was already lying injured on the ground. He is suspected of stealing from a nearby store and injuring the owner with a knife. Shortly afterwards, a video taken at the station appeared on the Internet. It shows several men beating the suspect, and one of them uses a baseball bat. The man defended himself, tripped and tried to escape. Passersby ran past.
Darkness and garbage
Whether the beating was the result of an attempt to detain the man or an act of lynching is open to debate ongoing investigation. The police talk about a “complex incident involving several people.” The Cameroonian and the store owner were taken to hospital with injuries. A few hours before the incident in Furstenwalde, the suspect had already attracted attention in Frankfurt (Oder). There, he allegedly listened to loud music on the tram and attacked passengers who asked him to turn down the volume. He slightly injured three people. The police temporarily detained the Cameroonian and initiated an investigation.
Such events trigger big concern among residents Furstenwalde. Christian Kromberg, chairman of the German Urban Safety Forum, says places such as the train station underpass show how sensitive public spaces can be. The activist calls them “the discomforts of public space” – places where strangeness, poverty or disorder must be endured because they are part of common life.
Even if things become statistically safer, that doesn't change many people's feelings much, Kromberg says. – We live in times of perception, not truth – says “Die Welt”. Fear comes not from numbers, but from images – from darkness, graffiti, noise, garbage. “When people feel like no one cares, the place itself becomes a threat,” he adds. Where there is no light and no one takes visible responsibility, mistrust grows. Security, Kromberg argues, does not start with police intervention, but with urban planning.
A lot will soon change in front of and behind the station. The city of Furstenwalde wants to build and clean. It is to be built on the immediately adjacent Eisenbahnstrasse 118, currently an undeveloped area new district. The city has bought a plot of land and an urban planning competition is planned. The railway also wants to carry out reconstruction: new floors, information boards, bus shelters, bicycle parking. The excavators are scheduled to start operating in 2026.
