Berlin-Neukölln | Rape in the youth center not consciously covered up

City councilor Sarah Nagel (l.) and commission chairwoman Elke Nowotny present the report of the investigative commission. Photo: dpa/Jens Kalaene A notice in front informs: "Unfortunately, the Wutzkyallee youth center will remain closed until further notice." The addresses and opening times of three other youth clubs nearby as well as the girls' club "Rosa Minta" are given right here in Wutzkyallee. The access to the 6,000 square meter site in Berlin's Neukölln district is blocked with garbage cans and barrier tape.

At the end of 2025, a group of young people is said to have raped a 16-year-old here, who is said to have been harassed again later. The victim revealed himself in the girls' club. He looked after the adolescent and reported the case to the youth welfare office. Kerstin Stappenbeck says that although they talked about the events, they did “not enough.” She heads the youth and child protection department in the Senate Education Administration and was a member of the independent commission that investigated possible failings since April.

On Friday, the commission will present its report in the Gropiusstadt community center - just one subway station away from Wutzkyallee. The six experts on the commission have gained a variety of experiences that could help them here. For example, they have already investigated other serious cases, even those that resulted in death, as commission chairwoman Elke Nowotny explains.

When the rape allegations became public in 2026, it attracted a lot of attention - especially because of the associated accusation that the perpetrators were not immediately reported to the police in order not to stigmatize Muslim young people overall because of their origin and religion.

»There is no evidence of a deliberate cover-up. The hearings don’t show that, the files don’t show that.”

Stappenbeck now makes it clear: “There is no evidence of a deliberate cover-up. The hearings don't show that, the files don't say that." However, the youth welfare office in Neukölln was of the wrong opinion that the girls' club was already taking care of things. The office would have been obliged to take the matter into its own hands and, for example, to clarify whether there actually was a video of the rape, which was also used to try to blackmail the girl and her sister.

The commission was able to speak to staff from the youth center and the girls' club, a few young people and the girl. According to the commission, the youth center and the girls' club sometimes gave contradictory information. However, there were obviously very dominant groups of male visitors to the youth center who called girls "whore" or "slut", simply pulled them onto their laps or put their arm around their shoulders against their will. It's not just the girls who say that.

It is also apparently a fact that the teams from the youth center and the girls' club pursued different pedagogical approaches, did not get along with each other and in some cases no longer wanted to have anything to do with each other. Of course it doesn't work that way, the expert commission is convinced. There should be regular joint meetings and a protection concept for the youth center, just as there is for the girls' center.

The responsible district councilor Sarah Nagel (Left) regretted on Friday that mistakes were made at all levels in the youth welfare office. “You can and must learn from your mistakes,” she believes. She tells those affected: “What happened to you is terrible. You weren’t heard sufficiently by the youth welfare office – and that shouldn’t have happened.”

The youth center should be reopened “as soon as possible.” It is needed on Wutzkyallee. There was significant staff turnover at the center. “The team will no longer work there in the same composition,” assures Nagel. The fact that this youth center must also have had its good sides is confirmed by a young person's statement to the commission that he had visited it for more than ten years, viewed the people as his family and was helped there to find a training place.

“The report confirms our previous assessment: There is no evidence of a deliberate cover-up, but there are serious failings in the youth welfare office,” reacts district councilor Tjado Stemmermann (Greens). “The report must not become the final point of the process,” he believes.

The criminal proceedings against the perpetrators are still ongoing. Investigations against City Councilor Nagel were not even started because, after examination by the public prosecutor's office, there was no initial suspicion that she personally wanted to cover up anything. The CDU nevertheless tried to saw off the nail. She herself called it "disturbing" on Friday that Education Senator Katharina Günther-Wünsch (CDU) and her State Secretary Falko Liecke had fueled the debate by assigning blame. “Youth work needs resources and support,” Nagel is convinced. She noticed that the events in Neukölln had also led to uncertainty in other districts.

Sarah Nagel, who comes from Oberhausen, was elected as the first left-wing city councilor in the Neukölln district office in 2021. She actually wanted and should stick with it for another five years, but announced on Thursday: "Now it's time for me to get involved professionally and politically elsewhere. The birth of my third child in July also played a role in the decision.

The Left district chairwoman Jorinde Schulz regrets Nagel's decision not to do so. “She took a stand against the discriminatory practice of the so-called shisha bar raids and remained steadfast in her fight against racism and unequal treatment, even in the face of strong headwinds from the right,” praises Schulz. Since it is expected that the party will receive so many votes in the election on September 20th that it will be entitled to a second city council position, a second person will soon be nominated in addition to the left-wing faction leader Ahmed Abed, who is already slated to be city councilor or district mayor. What can no longer be changed is that Sarah Nagel will be on the ballot papers as the Left's top candidate for the Neukölln district council.

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