A person can fall victim to different types of crimes. Someone might, for example, steal from you, harass you, threaten you with violence, blackmail you, break into your house or destroy your property. Someone could injure or sexually abuse you.

If you require help in such situations, call the police. Under the emergency phone number 110, you are able to contact an operations centre of the police round the clock.

Deaf and hearing impaired have the possibility to send an emergency fax with their local emergency fax number. For more information, visit the Website of the German association for hearing impaired.

If you make an emergency call, keep the following points in mind: Try to remain calm and speak clearly, even though this might be difficult in many situations. Remember to give your name and, for eventual further inquiries, your telephone number. Explain where you need help and briefly describe what has happened so that the police officer is able to assess the situation and decide how to help you.

Please do not end the call or hang up before the person on the other end of the line in the operations centre has ended the conversation. Once you have made the call, the police will assess the danger and initiate all reasonable measures to get you out of the dangerous situation you are in and protect you from violence.

Once you are safe again, the police will take further steps, depending on the given situation. Their further course of action cannot be covered exhaustively within the scope of this website.

If a criminal offence has occurred, the police must record the complaint in any case. It is not necessary to know who the offender is at this stage. The complaint may also be filed against an unknown person.

If possible, the police will arrest a person who behaves violently, or order such person to leave the premises. In cases of domestic violence, it is also possible to order violent persons or persons threatening violence to leave the premises. Likewise, a prohibition to enter or return to the premises may be issued. In this case, it is irrelevant who the owner or tenant of the premises is.

If you are affected by violence or someone unlawfully encroaches on your private sphere, a local court is able to prohibit such person from making further contact with you, or take other measures necessary to protect you. 
Contact the local court that is responsible for the area in which you live. In urgent cases, the courts will also issue temporary injunctions outside the regular office hours. You will find the local court responsible for your place of residence at www.justiz.de, under the menu item local directory/list of courts.

You can inform yourself about how to make your immediate private surroundings safer and how you can better protect yourself against potential dangers. For this purpose, members of the federal and regional police centres for crime prevention are at your disposal. You will find further information on this topic in the Internet at criminal prevention.

For further information, please contact the victim helpline 116 006, which is at your disposal free of charge as a central contact point for victims of crime in Germany, round the clock, 365 days a year or the online counseling service of WEISSER RING. Deaf or hard of hearing victims can also contact WEISSER RING using this form.