In 2025, more people than ever before turned to Germany's Federal Anti-Discrimination Agency for advice. Ferda Ataman, the independent federal commissioner for anti-discrimination, believes these people need better legal protections and more support services.
It's not just about protecting minorities, Ataman emphasized during the presentation of the agency's 2025 annual report on Tuesday.
"Anyone could experience discrimination at some point in their lives," she said. What matters to her is that "all people in Germany" receive adequate protection.
According to the report, the Federal Anti-Discrimination Agency received 13,067 requests for counseling last year — 1,662 more than in 2024, and more than three times as many as in 2019, the last year before the COVID-19 pandemic.
Ataman said this number is only the tip of the iceberg, highlighting the comprehensive findings from the German Socio-Economic Panel presented a few months ago. According to its report, more than 13% of people in Germany reported having experienced discrimination in the past 12 months. Extrapolated, that amounts to about 9 million people — and only a fraction of those affected reported incidents to the Federal Anti-Discrimination Agency.
