How Safe is Germany?

Germany remains "part of the international zone of danger" from terrorists but is nevertheless among the safest countries in the world, German Interior Minister Wolfgang Schäuble said Wednesday in Berlin.

Only Switzerland, Austria and parts of France are safer than Germany, according to the national security report he and Justice Minister Brigitte Zypries presented.

However, violent crime in Germany has risen 14 percent since 1999, according to the report.

"This concerns us," Schäuble said, adding that the statistic may not mean that violence has increased but that more citizens are reporting domestic violence crimes.

Perception versus reality

Schäuble and Zypries added that the public's impression of the frequency of violent crime has been distorted by over-emphasis in the media, particularly in murder and sexual abuse cases involving children.

"People think far more of these crimes happen than in reality," Zypries said. "As awful as the individual cases are, the number is not so large."

In a television interview Wednesday with German public broadcaster ARD, Zypries said that more people in Germany feel safe.

"The feeling: 'We're afraid that everything's just going to get worse' doesn't coincide with the findings in the report," she added.

"It's a feel-good report"

But Konrad Freiberg, the head of the federal union of police officers (GdP), responded to the security report with heavy criticism.

"It's a feel-good report that doesn't completely represent the reality," said Freiberg Wednesday in Berlin. "Our perception is different in many respects and I think that the police are closer to reality than many politicians."

Freiberg said that, while the number of police officers in Germany has dropped from 273,000 to 266,000 in the past five years, violence against officers has increased sharply.

He was re-elected Tuesday by a 95 percent majority vote as chairman of the police union, which represents 54 percent of Germany's police officers.