A brutal attack against three young victims on a Berlin playground sparked headlines this week due to the brutality of the assault. Now, local residents are saying the perpetrators are a youth gang, either of Arab or Afghan origin, which has been causing trouble in the area of wealthy, left-wing Pankow for months. As Remix News outlines in the second half of this report, the targeting of youths in Pankow by foreigners has been a long-running issue for the last few years.
Residents described the group already causing trouble over the summer, with a group of six to eight young people of Arab or Afghan origin roaming in Paule Park and causing trouble with loud shouting and aggressive behavior.
Now, the situation reportedly escalated, with residents saying the gang is responsible for the attack.
On Saturday, at around 8:00 p.m., the “youth gang” targeted three children on a Berlin playground, leaving two 13-year-old victims with severe fractures across their bodies.
The five youths targeted the group of victims without warning. The 13-year-olds were beaten several times, while the 11-year-old, who managed to escape, ran and got help. When two adults tried to intervene, the attackers escaped and allegedly kidnapped one of the 13-year-old boys.
The first 13-year-old was transported to the hospital with a broken nose. The other 13-year-old, who had been dragged from the scene, was found by police at Schönholz S-Bahn station with severe injuries and was also transported to the hospital. This victim had severe fractures to his face and a broken hand.
The perpetrators stole a cell phone and a debit card.
While residents are saying the suspects were Arab or Afghan, police said they have not identified the suspects, and they all remain on the run. Police have also not released any description of the suspects.
Pankow, a wealthy leftist enclave
Pankow is notably one of the wealthier neighborhoods in Berlin, and as typical of such locales, it features a high proportion of White left-wing, pro-migration voters. In the 2025 Bundestag elections, the left parties (SPD, Greens, and the Left Party) all took home close to 54 percent of Pankow’s vote.
Pankow also recently made headlines in Berlin for its opposition to an asylum home, which saw strong protests from local residents.
Just yesterday, authorities halted the plans to build the asylum home, which was justified to protect a bat population that would have been “disturbed” by the construction. Critics called it another example of the wealthy pushing “diversity for thee, not for me.”
The wealthy neighborhoods of Prenzlauer Berg and Pankow belong to the same district, which is also called Pankow. They have seen German youths terrorized in robberies and violence, often by suspects with a foreign migration background.
“What happened to her is now everyday life in Prenzlauer Berg. Young people rob young people. Sometimes without weapons, sometimes with them — every weekend, more often than anywhere else in the capital,” reads a report from Tagesspiegel, published last year.
“In no other district of Berlin have the authorities registered as many cases of so-called ‘youth group violence’ in the past three years as in Prenzlauer Berg, with 183 cases such as robbery, threats and bodily harm having been recorded here since 2020. Other corners of Berlin, like Hohenschönhausen or Neukölln, follow far behind,” the article states.
The report further states that many of these robberies involve “stripping” the victims of all their clothes, which can have lasting and “enormous” psychological consequences for the victims, according to police chief Anja Rode.
The report notes that many of the perpetrators are not from the neighborhood, but instead from the multicultural Wedding neighborhood, known for its high proportion of Arab and Muslim residents.
Tagesspiegel notes that even though many of the perpetrators have a migration background, there is reluctance to talk about it in the highly left-wing neighborhood.
“The cliché of the young person with a migrant background who comes from Wedding to Prenzlauer Berg to target ‘rich kids’ is something of a taboo topic for some, especially in Prenzlauer Berg, where the Greens regularly just miss an absolute majority in individual polling stations,” reads the report.
However, a mother, Anke Weber, wants to openly talk about the issue to Tagesspiegel.
The teacher and mother of two had her 16-year-old daughter robbed by three male teenagers last year, close to the Eberswalder Street metro station.
“They held a machete to her neck,” said Weber.
The 16-year-old was traveling in a group of four, and all of them had money, headphones and other belongings taken. At least one robber was identified, but it remains unclear if he suffered any legal consequences.
The mother also describes other youths battling with each other, sometimes with knives, in her neighborhoods, including in other robberies that she witnessed. She called the police but lamented that the problem is not going away.
“My impression is that the perpetrators come from neighboring districts, especially from Wedding. The majority of them are boys with a migrant background,” the teacher said. She said the young robbers “systematically run through and rip off people.”
Remarkably, the teacher is concerned that her son might have growing “prejudices” because foreigners are systematically robbing and threatening young people while they are trying to enjoy public spaces.
Tagesspiegel writes, “Especially with her son, she notices how prejudices are slowly growing.”
“I’m working against it, but he’s had repeated bad experiences,” she said.
In an illustration of a nationwide phenomenon — or perhaps a European-wide phenomenon — it is of paramount importance that victims of migrant crime do not become prejudiced, with leftist women “working against it” everywhere, regardless of the consequences.
