More than 600 police officers have carried out a large-scale raid on 50 sites across Germany in an operation aimed at detaining suspected members of nationally oriented youth gangs, the youngest of who are just 16 years old. The raids spanned 12 federal states, with the main focus on North Rhine-Westphalia, Saxony and Berlin.
The investigation targeted members of the neo-Nazi groups Jung & Stark and Deutsche Jugend Voran, the latter also operating under the name Neue Deutsche Welle. The searches were carried out primarily to “map the internal networks” of the groups, and no arrests have been made so far.
Recruitment of new followers, many of who are minors, is being systematically carried out via social media platforms such as TikTok and Instagram, after which coordinators manage newcomers in closed chatrooms. The teenagers are suspected of organising attacks on LGBT+ people, left-wing activists and migrants, as well as individuals they have personally labelled as paedophiles. The groups’ actions are characterised by extreme violence, with victims routinely beaten and left with serious injuries.
Germany’s federal police have recorded a sharp rise in new nationally oriented youth networks since mid-2024. Last year, raids on Deutsche Jugend Voran took place in Berlin, and in the spring of 2025 one of the gang’s leaders received a lengthy prison sentence for grievous bodily harm and making threats.
