Berlin police are investigating an attack on a 26-year-old man near the Landsberger Allee S-Bahn station in Prenzlauer Berg as a homophobic hate crime. According to a police statement published on 17 September 2026, the man was standing at the station entrance at around 23:45 on 16 September 2026 when a stranger asked him for a cigarette and then asked about his sexual orientation.
After he answered, the stranger punched him in the face without warning. When he fell to the ground, several other men approached, kicked him, partly undressed him and took his valuables before fleeing. An ambulance took him to hospital with facial injuries, where he was admitted for inpatient treatment. Berlin's Landeskriminalamt has assigned the case to its State Security unit, which handles politically and ideologically motivated crime. No arrests have been reported, and police have given no description of the attackers beyond "several men".
Landsberger Allee station sits on the S-Bahn ring line connecting Prenzlauer Berg and Friedrichshain to the rest of the city, a stop many visitors pass through without a second thought. Prenzlauer Berg is one of the neighbourhoods covered in Gaycation's Berlin guide.
It follows another anti-LGBTQ+ incident in Berlin this month. On 1 September 2026, a rainbow-painted bench at the city's CSD memorial in the Tiergarten was destroyed.
Berlin remains one of the largest and longest-established gay scenes in Europe. The ordinary caution that applies to any big city at night, especially around transit stations after dark, applies here too, and a stranger's questions about your personal life do not require an answer.
