The situation during Silvesternacht (New Year’s Eve) at the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin was considerably worse than originally reported. Almost four times as many sexual assaults were reported to the police by Friday.

The following article is careful not to refer to ethnicity when discussing the groping incidents. However, the need for “multilingual brochures” as a preventive measure gives us a clue about the culturally enriched nature of what occurred that night.

Many thanks to Egri Nök for translating this report from the German daily Der Tagesspiegel:

Brandenburg Gate in Berlin Sexual Assaults in Silvester Night — Police revise numbers upwards by Felix Hackenbruch

January 6, 2017 There were at least 22 cases of sexual assaults during the Silvester Party at the Brandenburg Gate. Victims were also isolated from groups and assaulted. The number of sexual assaults during the Silvester Party at the Brandenburg Gate has increased almost fourfold, it appears. After the police on New Year’s Day announced there were six cases of sexual harassment, as of Friday the number increased to 22 criminal complaints. All offenses took place in the party area between the Brandenburg Gate and the Victory Column. The police had this information on Thursday, but only released it on Friday at the request of Tagesspiegel. “In most cases, the victims were touched on the buttocks and between their legs,” one speaker said. In at least ten cases, the offenders approached victims and isolated them from groups. The police, for the protection of victims, did not disclose whether the victims were exclusively women, but in four cases, the victims were minors. Four suspects could be determined. The police did not release any further information on them. 1,700 police officers watched over the Silvester party The 22 criminal complaints do not include all of the cases of which the police spoke on New Year’s Day. Some of these did not take place in the party area, but on the way there. Another case of an exhibitionist, who exposed himself to a woman, was not included in the 22 complaints, as the police report. It was reported on New Year’s Day that all incidents happened independently of each other. The police could not confirm whether this also applies to the additional cases. “This is a terrible and regrettable development,” Anja Marx, a spokesman for the event, says. To her, sexual assaults at public events are a new phenomenon. “We saw this last year for the first time, but there were only two cases,” says Marx.