There is growing outrage after a discount retailer in Berlin, Norma, launched a sale on machetes, marketing the blades as low as €9.90 per machete despite a surge in knife crimes reported throughout the city and the country.
The first deputy federal chairman of the German police union (PolG), Manuel Ostermann, wrote on X: “79 knife crimes per day in 2024 and at the discount store you can buy a machete with a barb for 9.90 euros. Hello Norma, are you still feeling any impact? Why not just give it away to potential knife murderers? Unbelievable.”
Ostermann also posted a photo of the advert being promoted by Norma, which showcases the deadly-looking blades and their discount price.
In addition, the German Police Union (DPolG) chairman, Rainer Wendt, also reacted with outrage. He said that the ease of obtaining such weapons presents the police with a large security problem.
“It’s hard to beat the cynicism. No one in Germany needs such items,” Wendt told
Bild newspaper. “The police can barely keep up with the checks – even children are sometimes armed.”
The 79 knife crimes a day applies to all of Germany, which reported nearly 30,000 knife-related crimes in 2024 and record high levels of violent crime. However, Berlin itself accounts for a large share of these knife crimes and attacks, recording 3,412 in 2024 alone, a 2-percent decrease from the 10-year-high hit in 2023. That amounts to nearly 10 knife attacks per day.
The special blade offer has been in place since last week and includes machetes, bush knives, and axes in the multicultural neighborhood of Kreuzberg for €9.99 each. The company promotes these blades as “ideal for gardening, camping, and the outdoors,” — not typically the type of activities people in the middle of the city enjoy doing. In fact, gardening with a large machete would be illegal in most public gardens, and very few people own a private garden in Kreuzberg.
The blades are up to 56 centimeters long (22 inches), some with barbs. For security reasons, they are not stored openly, but are only handed out upon request to only those 16 years and older. It is legal to possess such blades, but carrying them in public is illegal. The store indicated that they only support people using such blades for their intended purpose.
Remix News wrote an in-depth article on the recent wave of knife crime in Germany, detailing the toll it is taking on Germany. An extremely high number of these attacks are perpetrated by foreigners or those with a migration background, which is especially worrying given their overall smaller share of the population.
Remix News has occasionally posted some of the most egregious machete battles recorded in Berlin, such as this recording from Leipzig last year. It is not possible to embed in this article, perhaps due to EU restrictions placed on the post.