The charges against the four defendants, all Russian nationals, are serious. Appearing at the Hanseatic Higher Regional Court in Hamburg on Monday, they will be facing accusations of being members of a foreign criminal organization and of supporting a foreign terrorist organization. More specifically, they are alleged to have used social networks to collect donations for the extremist "Islamic State" group(IS), said to be a total of €174,000 ($198,000).

For many years, the danger posed by Islamist extremists in Germany was considered a threat to the country, especially in the period following the September 11. 2001 attacks on the US.

Since then, far-right violence and crime have become a greater threat, according to the authorities. But the risk posed by religious extremists remains high, said Konstantin von Notz of the Green Party faction in the German parliament. Von Notz, an expert on interior policy, is also the chair of the Parliamentary Oversight Panel, which is responsible for monitoring Germany's intelligence agencies.

"Islamist [extremist] acts continue to pose a very serious security threat to our country," he told DW. "I expressly welcome the fact that the law enforcement authorities are taking a very close look at the funding of terrorism and are resolutely following up on leads. This is extremely important, especially in view of the many different threats to our democracy at the moment."

Majority of politically-motivated crimes by far right

Speaking in Berlin as he presented a report on crime earlier this month, Germany's new interior minister, Alexander Dobrindt, said the threat posed by Islamist extremists remained significant. Dobrindt, of the conservative Christian Social Union (CSU), said the number of crimes that could be described as being politically motivated in the broadest sense had risen sharply, and that the authorities had registered more than 84,000 such crimes in 2024, a good 40% more than in the previous year.

According to the report, the majority of these crimes were committed by right-wing extremists and right-wing radicals. Many were also allegedly motivated by antisemitism, particularly since the start of the war in Gaza in October 2023.

The report found that the number of crimes committed by Islamist extremists has remained constant for years. This was also confirmed by the number of violent offenses: Of the 4,107 politically-motivated violent crimes reported, the proportion of those perpetrated by people with a far-right background was particularly high. Some 975 violent crimes were attributed to "foreign ideology."

Accused of collecting funds for IS

There are currently several cases regarding the collection of donations for IS before the German courts. In early April, the trial of two suspected supporters of the extremist group began in the southern city of Stuttgart. The 34-year-old German suspect and the 29-year-old Syrian suspect are accused of passing on donations to the IS group. Their trial is expected to last until September.

This month, a 28-year-old man was convicted of a similar offense in Frankfurt am Main. The Higher Regional Court ruled on May 21 that it had been proven that the suspect had transferred around €4,200 to IS between May 2020 and August 2021.

In this case, there was a call for donations on social media platforms and messaging apps such as Telegram. The recipients were purportedly the wives and children of IS fighters who are detained in two camps in northern Syria. The money was allegedly transferred to IS members in Syria via financial agents in Turkey.

Terrorist groups renew focus on Europe

In 2023, Germany's domestic intelligence service, the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution, estimated the number of people in Germany with close ties to extreme Islamist movements at around 27,200.

"The focus of terrorist jihadi organizations and especially of IS but also of al-Qaeda is still and increasingly on Europe, and thus also on Germany," it stated in a report, which can be found on its website.

"Currently, ISKP [Islamic State Khorasan Province, the IS branch in Afghanistan] seems to be the strongest regional branch of IS. After ISKP had so far focused on carrying out attacks in Afghanistan, there are more and more indications to suggest that Germany and Europe are now also regarded as potential targets for attacks," the report said.

This article was originally written in German.