Once celebrated as a jewel of European culture and industry, Berlin has now earned the grim distinction of being ranked among the dirtiest and most dangerous cities in the developed world, with crime, garbage-strewn streets, and decaying infrastructure drawing comparisons to third world slums found in Haiti and Kenya.
TPV reports: According to an official investigation, great swathes of the city are covered in human feces and other biological remains, trash, and needles, as hospitals overflow with patients that have fallen ill due to the contamination.
Popular travel YouTuber Kurt Caz — known for venturing into some of the most dangerous corners of the developing world — says 2025 Germany feels less safe than many of those places. In a recent video, Caz revealed he couldn’t even walk down a city street without fearing for his safety.
Popular YouTuber Kurt Caz shows the harsh reality of Germany in 2025.
— iamyesyouareno (@iamyesyouareno) August 8, 2025
This guy has been to the worst parts of the third world, but he can’t even walk down a street in Germany safely. Think about that. pic.twitter.com/yo6e2y8eVL
On a gray winter afternoon in Berlin’s once-bustling Alexanderplatz, shopfronts sit boarded up beside fast-food chains plastered with graffiti. A group of elderly Germans huddle at a tram stop, clutching their bags tightly as two police officers move quickly toward a shouting match breaking out nearby.
“It wasn’t like this before,” says Helga, 72, who has lived in the city her entire life. “You could walk here at night without looking over your shoulder.”
Now, she says, the streets feel more tense, more unpredictable — a microcosm of a country many fear is losing the stability and order that once defined it.
According to Martin, a spokesperson for the insurgent Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) party, “Germany is changing really fast, and lost their identity.”
Supporters of this view trace the shift back to former Chancellor Angela Merkel’s 2015 decision to open the nation’s borders to a wave of migrants, including roughly two million Syrians and additional arrivals from the Middle East, Africa, and beyond.
They argue the policy set in motion profound cultural and demographic changes that continue to reshape the country in 2025.
“If you import the third world in such numbers, you cannot be surprised when you become a third world nation,” he said.
