Munich

Is Munich safe?

Yes. Munich has a better claim than any other German city to be the safest, and its police have said so for 50 years in a row. In 2025 the city recorded 5,798 offences per 100,000 residents, less than half the rate in Berlin (13,233) or Cologne (12,387) and well below Hamburg (10,567). Police recorded 12 completed killings across the city and its surrounding county, about 0.6 per 100,000 people.

What a visitor is most likely to meet is a lost phone at the Oktoberfest or a rough corner near the main station. The bigger, rarer risk is terrorism: on 13 February 2025, a man drove into a trade union march on Seidlstraße, killing two people. We score Munich 88, above Vienna (85).

The 2025 attacks

The Seidlstraße attack hit a march of about 1,500 members of the ver.di union. A 24-year-old Afghan man living in Munich drove his car into the crowd, killing a mother and her two-year-old daughter and injuring more than 50 people. Police arrested him at the scene, and federal prosecutors charged him with two murders. In August 2026 the Higher Regional Court in Munich sentenced him to life; according to the prosecution he acted out of religious motives.

Later that year, on 1 October, a man set fire to his parents' house in the north of the city using homemade explosives, killing his father, and left letters that threatened the Oktoberfest. The festival stayed closed until police had checked the grounds and opened in the early evening. The UK FCDOFCDO travel adviceThe UK government's travel advice for each country, which can advise against all travel or all but essential travel to specific areas.More in the glossary says terrorists are very likely to try to carry out attacks in Germany, at markets, festivals and other crowded places.

Neither attack changes the day-to-day picture. Overall violent crime in Munich did rise 2% to a ten-year high in 2025, but robbery fell 15.5% and street robbery by more than half.

Oktoberfest: what really goes wrong

The 2025 Oktoberfest drew about 6.5 million visitors over 16 days, with about 600 police officers on the grounds. Police recorded 839 offences, including 252 assaults, 26 of them with beer mugs, and 74 sexual offences, among them 5 rapes. Pickpocketing was rare by comparison: 61 cases.

The more common problem is drink. Shortly after the 2025 festival opened, police reported a run of thefts in which a man asked drunk visitors on their way home to show him the way to a hotel on their phone, then snatched it and fled in a waiting car. Keep your phone in a zipped pocket, arrange a meeting point, and leave before closing if you can.

Pickpockets and the main station

Munich police recorded 1,489 pickpocketings in 2025, down 10.6% on 2024 and less than half the 3,124 in 2016. Per head, that is roughly a quarter of Berlin's rate. Munich's specialist pickpocket squad is good enough that other German cities borrow it for big events.

Thieves still work crowded S-Bahn and U-Bahn trains and the Christmas markets, where police hand out warning flyers every December.

The area around the Hauptbahnhof is the city's main trouble spot at night. Police and the city set up a task force for the station district, with more patrols, lighting and mobile video towers, and report a massive drop in crime in the Alter Botanischer Garten park. The southern part of the station district and the Nußbaumpark remain priorities. For visitors staying near the station, it is fine; just use the main streets late at night.

Roads, air and weather

Munich police counted 31 road deaths across the city and county in 2025, up from 19, about 1.7 per 100,000 people; 22 of them were in the city. Eighteen of the dead were pedestrians or cyclists. Bikes are everywhere, so look before you step onto a cycle lane, and take care at tram tracks.

Air quality is good for a big city. Federal Environment Agency stations in Munich measured annual fine particle levels of 7.3 to 9.3 µg/m³ in 2025, above the WHO guideline of 5 but low for Germany. Tap water is excellent.

Natural hazards are limited to summer heat, thunderstorms with hail, and the occasional high water on the Isar. There is no earthquake or coastal risk.

How to stay safe

• At the Oktoberfest, drink water between beers and leave the tents before the closing rush.
• Do not walk through the Alter Botanischer Garten or the side streets south of the station late at night.
• Keep phones and wallets zipped on the S-Bahn and at the Christmas markets.
• In an emergency, call 112, or 110 for the police.

For the rest of the country, see our Germany page.

How we scored it

Violent crime (93) and natural hazards (92) are Munich's strongest factors. We put violent crime just below the rubric's 95+ band, which a rate of 0.6 killings per 100,000 would normally earn, because of the 2025 attack and a ten-year high in violent crime overall. Theft (80) reflects pickpocketing at the station, on trains and at the Oktoberfest, though at a much lower rate than in Berlin or Vienna. Walking at night (84) follows the EU's 2023 survey of residents, which we use for every European city.