Dresden

Dresden's baroque streets hide a violent past. Several bookable true crime tours now bring the city's darkest chapters to life after dark.

In 2023, German activist Lina E. was convicted of membership in a left-extremist criminal association based in Dresden. The case centred on a series of violent attacks against right-wing individuals and property in Saxony between 2015 and 2019. The verdict sparked a wide debate in Germany about the boundaries between political activism and organised violence.

In November 2019, five men carried out one of Germany's most audacious art thefts, breaking into the historic Green Vault museum in Dresden's Residenzschloss and stealing Baroque jewelry and artifacts worth approximately 113 million Danish kroner. The perpetrators, linked to the notorious Remmo clan from Berlin, disabled the museum's alarm and security systems before targeting the jewel collection on the first floor. Three members of the group were convicted in 2021, though most of the stolen artwork has never been recovered.