A 21-year-old US citizen was stabbed in the face early Sunday in Dresden, Germany, after intervening when two men—reportedly immigrants or of immigrant background—harassed female passengers on a tram. The attack occurred around 12am at the Neustädter Markt stop on line 7 toward Gorbitz.
The victim sustained multiple facial cuts but was not in life-threatening condition and received hospital treatment.
Police initially detained a 21-year-old Syrian national nearby, but he was released due to insufficient evidence. ‘He was provisionally arrested and has been released by decision of the public prosecutor’s office,’ police spokesman Thomas Geithner told Bild.
The other suspect, believed to have inflicted the knife wounds, remains at large. The weapon has not been recovered. Investigators are reviewing tram surveillance footage and seeking eyewitness accounts from other passengers.
Reacting to the incident, Alice Weidel, co-chair of the anti-immigration Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) party, wrote on X that it is ‘a disastrous signal that such offenders interpret as a free pass instead of being immediately deported.’
The stabbing occurred as the governing Christian Democratic Union (CDU) has been working to implement stricter migration policies. Key measures include reinstating nationwide border controls, suspending family reunification for those under subsidiary protection for two years, resuming deportations to countries like Syria and Afghanistan (particularly for criminals and security threats), expanding the list of ‘safe origin’ countries, and introducing coordinated border rejections of irregular asylum seekers in cooperation with EU partners.
However, these measures appear insufficient. As European Conservative reported, official data show a 17 per cent increase in stabbing incidents during the first half of 2025. Of the 737 recorded crimes, 278 involved German suspects, while 270 involved non-Germans. Although foreigners comprise 14.86 per cent of Germany’s population, they accounted for 36.64 per cent of all suspects, reflecting a clear overrepresentation in nearly all violent crime categories.
Among non-German suspects, Syrians formed the largest group with 29 cases, followed by Afghans with 23. Other nationalities included Turks, Ukrainians, Romanians, Moroccans, Algerians, Bulgarians, and Tunisians.
AfD’s migration strategy advocates mass deportations and so-called ‘remigration’—a concept increasingly viewed favourably by German citizens. As Hungarian Conservative reported, AfD is currently Germany’s largest party, polling at 26 per cent, two percentage points ahead of the CDU, according to a 12 August survey by the Forsa Institute for Social Research and Statistical Analysis.
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