Germany is hosting the European soccer championship, Euro 2024, and fans fear visiting Frankfurt. Prior to the Belgium vs. Slovakia game on June 17, the Belgian police warned: “The use of hard drugs on the street is normal. Passersby are harassed; drug users ask for money. Foreign media describe the neighborhood as ‘zombie country,’ and that’s exactly what it is. It’s not safe there. We ask Belgians who come by train to leave the station area as quickly as possible and go to the fan zone.”

Bild wrote in April: “The British warn of the ‘zombie land’ of the station district, the ‘hellhole’ at Germany’s most important main station. The fear of Frankfurt is spreading on the island.” The paper concluded: “Germany should be ashamed of this city!”

Frankfurt, the city where emperors were chosen and crowned, today’s financial capital of Germany, is overrun by strangers. A visit to the Karlstrasse, named after the alleged city founder Charlemagne, reveals depravity and lawlessness. Frankfurt is Germany’s shame.

Unrelated to the European soccer championship, my family and I also made a necessary trip to Frankfurt. Between the hotel we stayed at and the main train station down the road was a small grocery store. Although just a few feet away, for us it was unreachable. The road was filled with strangers and seemed impassable. What my family experienced was described in a 2019 article in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. “Noise, Garbage and Other Debris”:

Karlsplatz has never been a nice place. It is an island on the edge of Frankfurt’s station district, where the drug scene has always been present, but rarely as concentrated as this year. The situation there has worsened since early summer. Residents have repeatedly reported up to a hundred people gathering in the small square to shoot up and smoke crack cocaine—just a few meters away from the drug help center. Dealers stood between them. And even now, when it’s cold, addicts keep coming to this place. Almost all of the residents and business people who work on Karlstrasse now know them. And almost none of the residents believe that the situation can be resolved quickly now that it has become entrenched.

Over the years, the situation has worsened. Citing security staff, Frankfurter Neue Presse wrote on July 3, 2023, that the area around the Karlsplatz sees altercations every weekend; an average of at least one stabbing per month. The security staff suspect there are 50 to 100 gun, knife and glass attacks each year in the entire district.

Frankfurter Rundschau wrote in September 2023: “Retailers and companies are increasingly shying away from the station district in Frankfurt. The problem zone around Niddastrasse, Taunusstrasse and Karlstrasse is growing.”

It’s certainly not just strangers that contribute to the lawlessness in Frankfurt. But what we personally witnessed that day is largely ignored by the mainstream media and a growing uncontrolled problem. Around 30 people, likely refugees from Northern Africa, were all around us. Since they have nothing to do with their time, they turn, as most others would, to immorality and lawlessness. While it is not a problem of race or nationality, it shows an absolute failure in education in Africa and immigration in Germany. Searching the news also shows the media fail to address the issue.

What we saw in Frankfurt reminded us that our world is unable to solve its problems. Germany’s shame is set to shape its future. Frankfurt’s problems are spreading across Europe, shaping society and politics more and more. They have led to the rise of the far right, reigniting racism and demands for strong leadership.

Most of these problems could be solved by applying the laws of the land—but this is not happening. The longer lawlessness is allowed, the harder it will be to solve the issues.

What we are seeing in Germany is tragic, but what the Bible reveals for the nation is even more tragic. Jesus Christ prophesied of our time in Matthew 24, and in this prophecy He referred to the book of Daniel, which is also for our time. To understand what is ahead for Germany and the whole world, we need to understand what these prophecies foretell.

Daniel 8:23-25 read: “And in the latter time of their kingdom, when the transgressors are come to the full, a king of fierce countenance, and understanding dark sentences, shall stand up. And his power shall be mighty, but not by his own power: and he shall destroy wonderfully, and shall prosper, and practise, and shall destroy the mighty and the holy people. And through his policy also he shall cause craft to prosper in his hand; and he shall magnify himself in his heart, and by peace shall destroy many: he shall also stand up against the Prince of princes; but he shall be broken without hand.”

We are living in the time when transgresses are come to the full. We see this on every continent of this world. While America is leading in many ways in immorality, other parts of the world are filled with similar depravity and other problems. The book of Daniel reveals that a leader will rise from the heart of Europe to promise “peace.” He will promise to solve the conflicts that have caused the floods of refugees. Europe is prophesied to follow this man into war—many of the refugees today may even join this rising military power and be deployed to their home countries.

But while this man may temporarily bring safety back to European streets, his solutions are nothing more than man’s solutions as deceived by the god of this world, Satan the devil (2 Corinthians 4:4; Ephesians 2:2; Revelation 12:9). Soon this leader will not only deploy troops to the crisis zones of this world, he will also set his mind on conquest.

Unless we repent of what the Bible defines as transgression, our world will be destroyed. Indeed, the Bible reveals that it will take Christ’s intervention to prevent utter annihilation (Matthew 24:21-22).