For months in Germany, there has been a debate over the “cityscape” comment from Chancellor Friedrich Merz, referring to changing demographics and increased crime due to mass immigration. However, despite cries from the left that such claims are racist, the people actually having to run businesses in the city centers of Germany often find the problems are indeed real.
The operator of the Rewe-Richrath supermarket in Cologne’s city center, Lutz Richrath, says he is frustrated and says he may close the entire supermarket down. The supermarket has been in operation for 12 years, since 2014, but during that time, crime and violence have only increased.
In fact, Richrath directly refers to the “cityscape” in an interview with Lebensmittel Praxis, while saying that the “problems are really very clear —and they have only gotten worse.”
There is not only more shoplifting, but drug addicts openly consuming drugs even inside the store.
“And I have to close the customer restrooms because otherwise the addicts shoot up there,” he said.
Richrath said that without security, he can no longer run the store in the Opern-Passage shopping arcade.
Like other business owners, he cited drug use and violence, which he said is now spilling inside the actual supermarket. Richrath said he was considering not renewing the lease and instead opening a new location on the outskirts of the city.
Richrath, who co-owns three other stores in Cologne and 12 other in the region, also sits on the supervisory board of the Rewe Group and said he regularly receives guests from Germany and abroad in Cologne. Due to the conditions inside the city, he said he is ashamed, and it is not only drug problems.
He said the willingness for people to use violence has grown, and homelessness has exploded. In the city center, there are more and more vacant storefronts.
Even SPD mayor admits Cologne has major problems
Although just one supermarket, it serves as a sort of symbol of what many businesses are experiencing in major German cities.
Cologne itself has seen crime stagnate in some areas, such as in break-ins, over the last ten years, but other crime categories have seen notable increases, such as assaults. Since 2021, violent crime has risen significantly, recording approximately 6,200 incidents in 2024.
A survey from Numbeo shows that 72 percent of residents feel crime has increased in the last five years.
Notably, Mayor Henriette Reker, a politician from the far-left Social Democrats (SPD), made headlines in 2025 for acknowledging a visible decline in the city’s cleanliness and safety. She famously stated: “I see an increasing neglect of the city of Cologne.”
In particular, she was addressing growing drug consumption and disorder in public squares like Neumarkt and Ebertplatz. She acknowledged that the presence of the open drug scene, combined with increasing homelessness and litter, had reached a point that was no longer acceptable for residents and visitors.
In that case as well, pressure was coming from local business owners. In response, she has advocated for a “safety and cleanliness” plan, acknowledging that the area had become a “no-go area” for many citizens due to aggressive panhandling and open drug use.
Following a series of explosions and shootings in late 2024 linked to international drug syndicates (often referred to as the “Mocro Maffia“), Reker addressed the heightened sense of insecurity, saying it was “unacceptable” while citing a “new dimension of crime” for the city.
Cologne, one of the most diverse cities in Germany, has seen many of the same problems as Frankfurt, generally considered the most international and multicultural city in the country, or at least a strong contender with Berlin.
