In this paper the author analyzes how femi(ni)cide is framed and defined in European policy and domestic policy, and to what extent the concept of femi(ni)cide could improve the functioning of policies on violence against women in this region. This article is situated within the debates on the implementation and ratification of the Council of Europe Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence (Istanbul Convention). The author focuses her analysis on Germany, working with three types of sources: reports to the Group of Experts on Action against Violence Against Women and Domestic Violence (GREVIO); minor interpellations; and parliamentary motions. The paper is informed by feminist theories and so-called epistemologies of the South. The author argues that the discourses on femi(ni)cide in Germany illustrate how modern modes of thought limit the ability to address femi(ni)cide in its complexity and evidence a continuum of colonial structures of thought.