LINGUA NON CORRUPTA ESSE: The ‘Cologne New Year’s disaster 2015/16’ as example for linguistic corruption and wrongdoing within the German police (non-fiction book)

During the New Year’s Night 2015/16 it came to numerous cases of sexual harassment in the area of the railway station of the city of Cologne. Though there were early complaints and telephone emergency calls the police did not take that very serious and started no countermeasures. A close by located group of hundred policemen was sent into New Year’s holiday a short time after the first cases of sexual harassment were reported (NDR Info, 31.12.2025, am 11.25). It became a real disaster as more and more emergency calls came in while there were jet no more police forces available in the city of Cologne. The police headquarter still did not take the reports for serious as time proceeded and failed to intervene. Even available police forces in nearby cities were not requested by the HQ in Cologne which resulted in a scenario of unprecedented proportions at the railway station. In the end there were more than thousand cases of sexual harassment and pre-stages of rape. Even robberies of personal belongings of women were reported in the aftermath of the night at the central railway station. The problem from a linguistic point of view was that the calls were still ignored nor communicated within the police nor between police HQs or in the media to warn others. This condition of silence lasted for several days until the news got spread by the media but not by the police while still increasing numbers of complaints arrived that something terrible had happened during New Year’s night. As there was still no reaction of the police, no official statement the news was spread by the media. This police wrongdoing to keep ongoing crimes secret was registered as one of the worst police disasters in German post-war history. All communicative lines within the police failed. Policemen were verbally blocked and behaved like mentally paralyzed. During that night, in the beginning of the crimes no police officer took responsibility for further police action. The involved police structures were later recognized as corrupted by foot-dragging and vetoes of superiors and decision makers.