On a Sunday evening in Kreuzberg, a group of trans women had gathered for their weekly meet-up. Then the police came in.

On October 18, Berlin police searched Casa Kuà, a trans-led community and health centre on Naunynstraße, while The Dolls, a weekly meet-up for transfeminine people, was taking place inside. Six days later, about 500 people marched through the neighbourhood under the banner “Hands off trans lives.”

Here’s what happened, what is still unclear, and why trans people across Germany are paying attention.

What the police say

According to police information reported by rbb24 via The Local, 38 officers carried out the search. They seized hormone preparations, other medicines, narcotics, data storage devices and a four-figure sum of cash.

A spokesperson for the prosecutor’s office told taz the investigation concerns suspected illegal trade in prescription medicines, specifically hormone preparations for trans people. The Berliner reported allegations that hormone treatments were being given without medical supervision.

The Berlin public prosecutor’s office is evaluating the evidence, and the investigation is ongoing. Nobody has been convicted of anything.

What Casa Kuà says

Casa Kuà describes itself as a self-organised health and community centre run by trans and non-binary people of colour. Its aim is to make healthcare more accessible to trans, intersex, non-binary and queer people, particularly those affected by racism.

The centre called the search a “violent intrusion into our space.” According to its statements, reported by The Advocate, officers identified everyone present, held people inside for up to four hours, searched belongings, broke into lockers and took away several boxes of items. Casa Kuà says no individuals were named in the search warrant.

Two protests in one week

The same night, about 140 people gathered outside in a spontaneous protest with the slogan “Hormone für alle” (hormones for all), The Berliner reported. There were clashes with police, and a riot unit was called in. Berlin’s queer commissioner, Alfonso Pantisano, was at the scene.

On Saturday, October 24, a planned march set off from Mariannenplatz. Police counted about 500 people, according to a dpa report in taz, marching under the motto “Hände weg von Trans Leben!” and calling for better access to healthcare for trans people.

Support has also come in as money. A fundraiser for Casa Kuà and The Dolls raised about €14,000 of its €22,000 goal from 348 donors within 24 hours, queer.de reported.

What politicians and advocates are saying

  • Maik Brückner, the Left party’s queer policy spokesperson in the Bundestag, called the operation “shameful” and demanded clarification, The Local reported. According to taz, he also said the federal government is not making progress on closing a regulatory gap that makes it harder for trans people to get hormones from doctors and have insurers pay.
  • The Bundesverband Trans*, the national trans association, called the raid an alarming sign of how self-organised healthcare is being criminalised while the regular system increasingly fails trans and non-binary people, per taz.
  • Pantisano told rbb24 that structures for an adequate trans and intersex healthcare system in Berlin are “virtually non-existent.” He warned that humiliation, rejection and bureaucratic hurdles can push people toward informal ways of getting medication.
  • Martin Viehweger, a doctor who specialises in trans medicine, told the same outlet some doctors hesitate to prescribe hormones because they fear reimbursement claims from health insurers, and that self-organised networks are often the only route to basic care.

The bigger story: Germany’s insurance gap

Germany has one of Europe’s most progressive gender recognition laws. Since November 1, 2024, the Self-Determination Act has let people change their gender entry with a simple declaration at the registry office. But that law doesn’t cover medical treatment, and that’s where things get stuck.

Statutory health insurers had paid for gender-affirming treatment since the 1980s. Then, on October 19, 2023, the Federal Social Court ruled against covering treatment for a non-binary person. It said this was a “new examination and treatment method” that first needs a decision by the G-BA, the joint committee that decides what statutory insurance covers.

A motion by the Greens in the Bundestag, dated July 29, 2026, lays out what happened next. The umbrella group of statutory insurers said the ruling must not abruptly end existing care, but a legal gap opened anyway. People already on hormones, people trying to start, and non-binary people are hit hardest, and in some cases previously approved treatment has been questioned or money clawed back. The motion asks the government to write a right to gender-affirming care into law, give the G-BA six months to set the details, and protect ongoing treatment in the meantime. It’s an opposition motion, so it doesn’t change anything on its own.

That’s the context activists mean when they say the raid isn’t only about one building in Kreuzberg.

What happens next

The prosecutor’s investigation continues, and we’ll update this story when there’s a decision. Meanwhile, the question at the heart of the protests is still open in Berlin and in the Bundestag: when the official system doesn’t reliably provide trans healthcare, where are people supposed to go?

Sources: The Local Germany (Oct 22, 2026, citing rbb24); The Berliner (Oct 20, 2026); taz / dpa (Oct 25, 2026); The Advocate (Oct 23, 2026); queer.de; Siegessäule (Oct 19, 2026); German Bundestag, Drucksache 21/7350; German Federal Government on the Self-Determination Act. Photo: Lucas Werkmeister, Christopher Street Day Berlin 2022, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.