15 to 40 infant deaths per year across Germany
Since the 1990s, state crime statistics have shown 15 to a maximum of 40 infanticides per year nationwide. It is difficult to say in Germany how high the actual number is. In the 1980s and 1990s, criminologists assumed that for every baby body found, at least ten to a maximum of 25 others would remain undiscovered. In Saxony, the police crime statistics for 2024 recorded no murder or manslaughter victims under the age of 14.
“However, the number of unreported cases suggests that the number is much higher, given the fact that not every baby body is likely to be found,” wrote Nadine Jelden in her dissertation at the Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg.
Cases from Saxony:
In June 2017, a dead newborn was found in a meadow in Wilkau-Haßlau in western Saxony. The 33-year-old mother was sentenced to three years in prison. The court assumed that there was another child whose body was being searched for in April 2015. She hasn’t been found yet.
