More people who experienced discrimination sought help from Germany's Federal Anti-Discrimination Agency last year than at any point in the agency's history. The figure comes from the organisation's 2025 annual report, released Tuesday in Berlin. In response, Ferda Ataman, the Independent Federal Commissioner for Anti-Discrimination, called for greater funding and for lawmakers to close existing legal gaps. Racist discrimination was the single most common complaint, accounting for 43 percent of all inquiries.
"Racist attitudes are becoming entrenched, and they lead to discrimination that is experienced far more harshly," Ataman said. People reported racist insults and humiliation in the workplace, discriminatory rejections while searching for housing, and unequal treatment in the healthcare system.
The commissioner warned that such behaviour reaches well beyond its immediate victims. "Racist behaviour harms not only those affected; it also harms society and the economy," she said. She added that racism and discrimination do not fade on their own, particularly when people sense that mistreatment carries no consequences. Clear legal rules, she argued, are essential so that everyone can live in freedom and safety.
The report also shows that racism is not experienced in the same way by everyone. People affected by anti-Muslim racism reported it most often in working life, in 39 percent of those cases. Anti-Black racism frequently occurred at work too, but even more often in dealings with the state, public offices, the education system, and the justice system and police, accounting for 26 percent of cases. Anti-Asian racism, by contrast, was felt most in access to goods and services and on the housing market, which made up 31 percent of the relevant inquiries.
The report recorded 13,067 inquiries to the advisory service over the year, 15 percent more than in 2024. Of these, 4,571 concerned racist discrimination. A further 3,015 inquiries, or 27 percent of cases, involved disadvantages linked to a disability or chronic illness.
Gender-based discrimination accounted for 2,407 cases, roughly 22 percent of inquiries. Other grounds included age discrimination at 12 percent, religion and worldview at 7 percent, and sexual identity at 4 percent.
When measured by the setting in which discrimination occurred, the workplace topped the list with 3,600 inquiries, citing issues such as discriminatory job advertisements, rejected applications and bullying. Around 20 percent of inquiries related to access to goods and services, including the housing market, an area that rose by about 25 percent to 488 inquiries.
The health and care sector also drew more reports than before, with inquiries climbing nearly 25 percent year on year. All of these areas fall under Germany's General Equal Treatment Act (AGG), which is designed to shield people from discrimination.
Ataman was critical of the AGG overhaul recently approved by the federal cabinet. Closing certain gaps, such as those covering sexual harassment, was both correct and overdue, she said. "But the planned reform is too weak and offers people very little in everyday life."
Many of those affected will still be unable to rely on the AGG, for example, when disadvantaged by state bodies. The healthcare sector and discrimination caused by artificial intelligence likewise remain, in her words, "grey areas" in anti-discrimination law.
Inquiries to the agency also reach into territory the AGG does not cover. In more than 1,400 cases, people described disadvantages inflicted by public offices and authorities. Another 500-plus inquiries dealt with discrimination involving the courts and police, while around 600 cases were reported in education. Taken together, complaints arising from contact with state institutions made up almost a quarter of all advisory inquiries.
"Unfortunately, the AGG offers no protection here," Ataman said as she presented the report. "The state has exempted itself from the scope of anti-discrimination law." The planned reform, she insisted, must close those gaps.
Ataman voiced broader frustration at what she described as years of political indifference to the agency's findings. She also criticised the limited budget allotted to her office and to other advisory services, stressing that no country in the European Union spends less per capita on anti-discrimination work than Germany.
Caritas President Eva Welskop-Deffaa said the latest report "holds up a merciless mirror to us as a society." She added: "It is alarming when more and more people in our country experience discrimination because of their skin colour, a disability, their gender or their age."
From breaking news to thought-provoking opinion pieces, our newsletter keeps you informed & engaged.
