Crackdown: German justice minister Heiko Maas

Germany will no longer allow migrants to have multiple wives or child brides, the justice minister has said.

Heiko Maas told German newspaper Bild that no one has the 'right to place their cultural values or religious beliefs above our laws'.

There has been increased concern over polygamous marriages in the wake of a rise in the number of migrants arriving in Germany, many from Muslim countries.

While polygamy is already banned in Germany, many officials 'turn a blind eye' to migrants who arrive in the country with more than one wife, the newspaper reports.

This is also true of forced and underage marriages.

Mr Maas told the tabloid: 'We need to look very carefully. Forced marriages, we can not tolerate, and certainly not when underage girls are involved.

He added: 'Everyone must abide by rules and laws, whether they grew up here or are new. The law is equal for all.'

Referring to migrants arriving with underage brides, the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees told local media: 'If the wife is underage, the youth authorities are alerted and they decide if the family stays together or not.'

It comes as a new academic study by researchers at the University of Leipzig found that nearly 34 per cent of people quizzed thought Germany is 'dangerously overpopulated by foreigners.'

Overall 12 per cent think Germans are by nature 'superior' to other people - a central plank of the ideology of Adolf Hitler and the original Nazis.

Other findings included four out of every ten people thinking Muslims should be prohibited from immigrating to the country and half of respondents in a survey of 2,240 people saying they feel like 'foreigners in their own country.'

Growing resentment: Protesters carry signs saying 'refugees not welcome' during a march earlier this year

Thirty per cent claimed Germany had been 'infiltrated by too many foreigners in a dangerous way.' And three out of every five Germans believe migrants who have arrived in the country seeking sanctuary from war and terror are bogus.

'There has been no increase in extreme right attitudes, but in comparison with our study from two years ago people who have far-right attitudes are more prepared to use violence to achieve their aims,' said Dr Oliver Decker, one of the report’s authors.

'There is a clear polarisation and radicalisation in German society, with more respondents also likely to completely reject violence this time around.