Investigative commission finds failure of authorities after rape allegations in Neukölln youth center

After allegations of rape in a Berlin youth center, an investigative commission found numerous mistakes by social workers and failures of the authorities. However, there was no evidence of a deliberate cover-up of alleged sexual assaults, according to the report by the independent commission, which worked on behalf of the Neukölln district. The young person affected feels supported, “but overall she is not doing well”.

At the first indication of problems, the youth welfare office should have made its own assessment and developed its own protection concept for girls and should not have left this to the youth center, it was said. The youth welfare office should also have included a video and blackmailing of girls by male teenagers as well as the criminal complaint requested by the young person.

In the youth club in the Gropiusstadt district, a 16-year-old is said to have been raped and later harassed by young people at the end of 2025. The police only found out about this when the father reported it in February 2026. Neither the youth center nor later the district youth welfare office filed a report. The State Criminal Police Office (LKA) and the Berlin public prosecutor's office are now investigating. The youth center has been closed since March 13th.

There were suspicions that the incident was not reported to avoid stigmatizing the Muslim suspects. The investigative commission found that there was no concrete evidence to support this accusation.