Saturday’s ramming attack by a Muslim man with known Islamist associations on the Berlin Pride festival — an attack in which he also attacked bystanders with a machete, killing one person and injuring several others — brings to mind the history in recent decades of Islamist attacks in Germany.
Germany’s experience with Islamist terrorism has been a near-constant barrage of failed plots ranging from organized cells with international links to a more recent pattern of attacks carried out by individuals, often immigrants, acting alone with knives, vehicles, or improvised weapons.
Below is a chronological account of the major incidents, compiled from court records, prosecutorial statements, and news coverage.
In July 2006, a device planted in a suitcase aboard a regional train at Cologne’s central station failed to detonate because of a construction flaw, narrowly averting what could have been a mass-casualty bombing.
The following year, in September 2007, Germany’s GSG 9 anti-terror unit broke up the so-called Sauerland Group, arresting two German converts to Islam and a Turkish national with ties to al-Qaeda. The cell had planned coordinated car bombings targeting airports in Dortmund and Düsseldorf in an attack intended to kill at least 150 people.
The first fatal Islamist attack on German soil came on March 2, 2011, when 21-year-old Arid Uka, a Kosovo Albanian, opened fire on American servicemen at Frankfurt Airport, killing two and wounding two others while shouting, “Allahu Akbar.”
In December 2012, a bomb was discovered on a platform at Bonn’s main train station; it failed to explode. The suspected perpetrator was a German convert to Islam identified as Marco G.
After the migration significantly increased in 2015, 2016 followed with a major escalation, with five major incidents in the space of ten months.
In February 2016, 15-year-old Safia S., a German-Moroccan girl who had been in contact with Islamic State members online, stabbed a federal police officer at Hannover’s central station and inflicted life-threatening injuries.
In April 2016, three youths detonated a homemade bomb at a Sikh temple in Essen, injuring three people; the attackers said they considered Sikhs “unbelievers.”
Then came a horrific eight-day period in July: On July 18, a 17-year-old Afghan refugee attacked passengers with an axe and knife aboard a train near Würzburg, injuring five before being shot dead by police; the Islamic State claimed responsibility. Six days later, on July 24 in Ansbach, a 27-year-old Syrian asylum seeker detonated a bomb outside a music festival, killing himself and injuring 15 others, again claimed by the IS.
The deadliest Islamist attack in German history came on December 19, 2016, when Tunisian asylum seeker Anis Amri drove a stolen truck into a Christmas market at Berlin’s Breitscheidplatz, killing 12 people and injuring 56. The Islamic State claimed responsibility.
In April 2020, Muharrem D., a 27-year-old German citizen of Kurdish descent, carried out a string of arson attacks against Turkish-owned businesses and a mosque in the Bavarian town of Waldkraiburg, including a fire at a supermarket that endangered 26 people living above it. A Munich court found he had become radicalized toward Islamic State ideology from 2017 onward.
On August 18, 2020, a 30-year-old Iraqi man, Sarmad A., deliberately rammed his car into motorcyclists across three separate collisions on Berlin’s A100 ring road, seriously injuring three people, before rolling out a prayer rug on the highway and shouting, “Allahu Akbar.”
In November 2021, a knife attack aboard an ICE train involved a 27-year-old assailant, Abdalrahman A., attacking four passengers.
In April 2023, a Syrian national, Maan D., who had come to Germany as an asylum seeker around 2015–2016, carried out two knife attacks in Duisburg nine days apart: fatally stabbing a man in the city’s old town on April 9, then wounding four more people at a gym on April 18. The Düsseldorf Higher Regional Court found he had acted from jihadist motivation.
On May 31, 2024, Sulaiman Ataee, a 25-year-old Afghan national, stabbed six people, including prominent anti-Islam activist Michael Stürzenberger at a rally organized by the group Pax Europa in Mannheim. Police officer Rouven Laur, who intervened, later died of his injuries.
On August 23, 2024, Syrian asylum seeker Issa Al H. stabbed festival-goers at Solingen’s 650th anniversary celebration, killing three and injuring eight, targeting victims’ necks. He had pledged allegiance to Islamic State in videos before the attack.
On December 20, 2024, Taleb A., a 50-year-old Saudi psychiatrist, drove into a crowded Christmas market in Magdeburg, killing five and injuring more than 200.
On February 13, 2025, a 24-year-old Afghan asylum seeker, Farhad N., deliberately drove his car into a trade union demonstration, killing a 37-year-old municipal employee and her two-year-old daughter and injuring roughly 39–44 others.
On February 21, 2025, a 19-year-old Syrian man stabbed a Spanish tourist in the throat at the Holocaust Memorial, shouting “Allahu Akbar.” He was found carrying handwritten Quranic verses and a pledge of allegiance to Islamic State.
On May 18, 2025, Mahmoud M., a Syrian who had arrived in Germany as an asylum seeker around 2023, attacked football fans outside a bar in Bielefeld using a modified walking stick fitted with an 18-centimeter blade, seriously wounding four people. He was found to have joined Islamic State in Raqqa around December 2014.
Separate from this list of terrorist attacks are the mass sexual assaults and thefts reported by hundreds of women in Cologne and other German cities on New Year’s Eve 2015–2016, primarily attributed to men of North African and Arab appearance.
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