Berlin Police Recruits’ Language Skills So Poor They Must Take German Lessons

TOPSHOT - Policemen stand guard on December 21, 2016 near the Kaiser-Wilhelm-Gedaechtniski
CLEMENS BILAN/AFP/Getty
Victoria Friedman

Berlin’s police academy has seen failing levels of German language competence due to the high number of migrant-background recruits.

The head of Berlin’s Police Academy, Tanja Knapp, told the Berlin Senate Monday that recruits should drop English tutorials after it found that recruits had “fundamental difficulties when it comes to [German]… including correct spelling, punctuation and producing written texts,” according to Deutsche Welle.

“Of course, it makes sense to be able to speak English to the capital’s many tourists,” Ms Knapp said. “But if the basic required level of German is too low, then the focus should be on German.”

The public international broadcaster noted that “many” of the new recruits have “foreign heritage,” and “the level of secondary education achieved among recruits varies widely.”

Berlin’s police have faced issues with migrant officers and recruits in the past, after leaked audio recording revealed in 2017 that migrant recruits, specifically of Arab or Turkish origin, had poor levels of written and spoken German.

The recordings of the instructor, verified by Berlin authorities, also revealed that in one class half of recruits were alleged to be migrants, some of whom had “threatened” German colleagues “with violence.”

Claiming that the migrant officers would be “a second-class of police that will only be corrupt,” the instructor is heard to have said: “These are not colleagues, that’s the enemy. This is the enemy in our ranks and I have never felt such hostility in this class.”

Breitbart London also reported allegations that organised Arab criminal gangs have infiltrated Berlin’s force, with Berlin’s Criminal Police Office saying a police officer was found in a bar with members of the “Miri” crime clan.

The Miri clan is an infamous criminal outfit comprised of several Lebanese families that operate across Germany. Security Services have been following their activities for several years, resulting in the arrest of four brothers in the western state of North Rhine-Westphalia and the eastern state of Saxony in October on suspicion of smuggling cocaine and marijuana into Germany and drug dealing.

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