Recent data from the German Judges Association (Deutscher Richterbund, DRB) show that the criminal justice system is severely overloaded, with the northern and western regions of Germany suffering the most.
In Hamburg, the number of open cases has surged from 29,355 in 2020 to 76,637 today-a 161 % increase. Prosecutors also report a steady rise in new filings: by 2025, the city expects a peak of roughly 186,000 new cases.
North Rhine‑Westphalia-Germany’s most populous state-has seen its prosecution workload rise sharply as well. In 2025, investigators recorded more than 1.3 million new proceedings (1,303,773). Open cases at the state’s prosecutor’s offices climbed from 177,846 at the end of 2020 to 299,959 by the end of 2025, a 69 % rise over five years and a growing backlog that is getting harder to manage.
Earlier this week the DRB announced that, for the first time nationwide, the total number of criminal cases had surpassed one million at the end of 2025. “Every year the prosecutor’s offices keep piling up an ever‑larger mountain of cases, and without additional staff they cannot clear it” said DRB national manager Sven Rebehn. Consequently, suspects are increasingly released from pretrial detention because their cases take too long, averaging one release per week.
Rebehn warned that such delays undermining public confidence in the rule of law. “It is alarming that the judiciary can only deliver prosecutions based on available budget” he said, calling on the federal and state governments to finally act. He urged the parties to reinforce the chronically understaffed criminal justice system through the agreed renewal of the Rule of Law Pact. Nationwide, 2,000 prosecutors and criminal judges are needed; in North Rhine‑Westphalia alone, about 350 additional prosecutors are required to cope with the growing flow of cases.
In Lower Saxony, prosecutors handled 556,156 new criminal cases last year-slightly up from 550,735 in 2024. The backlog of pending cases has also grown, from 57,937 in 2020 to 81,078 by the end of 2025, a 40 % increase over five years.
Schleswig‑Holstein’s situation is roughly in line with the national average. The state’s prosecutors see a 49 % rise in open cases, from 26,892 at the start of 2020 to 40,026 currently. Meanwhile, the number of new criminal filings has shown a modest decline: 181,773 in 2025 compared with 193,501 in 2024.
