Overview
- The Landeskriminalamt Baden‑Württemberg and the public prosecutors in Stuttgart and Munich presented what Interior Minister Thomas Strobl called the first criminological study of the scene.
- Researchers analyzed 37 cases and reported a loose online network connecting hundreds of young Germans via Telegram-style channels that glorify violence and promote attacks.
- Officials describe the milieu as exclusively male, highly violent and terror‑ready, with the stated aim of triggering chaos and collapsing social order.
- The average age is just over 16, with some participants under 14, and roughly half of the documented radicalizations occurred in less than a year.
- Nearly all examined individuals had diagnosed mental illnesses or psychological abnormalities, many were described as family‑neglected, and experts estimate a much larger high three‑digit hidden population while urging families and schools to act as early‑warning systems.