tens of thousands in over 100 cities have protested and paid tribute to the nine young people with a migrant background who were shot dead by the German racist Tobias Rathjen five years ago The slogan “Say Their Names” has since been used to honour the memory of Kaloyan Velkov On the fifth anniversary of the terrorist attack in Hanau the relatives of the victims have drawn a bitter balance sheet the chain of failures on the part of the police and authorities was already evident: a police call centre that could not be reached on the night of the crime a perpetrator who was able to legally possess several weapons despite having a known psychosis All of these failures were compounded by the state authorities’ open disregard for the relatives who were isolated from the victims and only allowed to see their dead loved ones days later after they had undergone an autopsy without the permission of the families The fifth anniversary comes shortly before the German federal election where the main parties have unleashed a campaign of unprecedented agitation against refugees and migrants even though hundreds of thousands have taken to the streets across Germany against the general shift to the right and the elevation of the far right Alternative for Germany (AfD) Trump has come to power with an unprecedented xenophobic programme leading politicians are outdoing each other in warmongering demanding rearmament and “deportations on a grand scale” (Chancellor Olaf Scholz) the candidates for chancellor in the so-called “Quadrell” (Foursome) indulged in vile agitation against refugees in the style of the AfD Social Democratic Party and Christian Democratic Union politicians in North Rhine-Westphalia Lower Saxony and elsewhere are boasting that they are organising deportations to Afghanistan Political speeches directed against Muslims and those with a migrant background are being made across the country it is no wonder that right-wing violence is at the highest levels since the Nazis and far-right offences are exploding It is a direct consequence of the right-wing incitement from above Even Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier (SPD) and Hesse’s Minister President Boris Rhein (CDU) who cynically shed their crocodile tears on the market square in Hanau on 19 February For the relatives of those shot dead on 19 February 2020 this state of affairs is almost unbearable They spoke at their own commemoration on Saturday 15 February and soberly took stock and with disillusionment in view of the official hypocrisy said: “We all know that the next few years will be difficult Racist agitation seems more normal than ever When we look back over the past five years we have to be honest: we have not managed to repel racism and the shift to the right in society as a whole.” the relatives and their supporters have organised and initiated hundreds of rallies their motto: “To remember is to change,” has so far remained unfulfilled reconstructed the scene of the Arena Bar crime in order to clarify the course of events and the effects of the emergency exit presumably closed at the initiative of the local police making clear that several victims could still be alive if this door had been open the father of the murdered Vili Viorel Păun filed another complaint against senior Hessian police officers tried to alert the police several times on the night of the crime Vili Viorel bravely pursued the perpetrator to a second crime scene in Hanau-Kesselstadt dialling the police several times without success he himself was shot dead in his car by the gunman Those responsible in the police force and in the Hessian government have not been called to account On the contrary they have been promoted to higher positions there have been no official consequences from the attack All criminal proceedings were dropped in no time at all,” is the bitter conclusion of Gökhan’s brother Çetin Gültekin (author of the book Born It was only thanks to the initiative of the bereaved that a committee of inquiry in the Hessian state parliament was established to investigate the attack mishaps and mistakes,” but those responsible were nevertheless promoted Newroz Duman from the Initiative 19 February told Hessischer Rundfunk radio: “It’s frustrating You saw it in black and white in the committee of inquiry Law and justice are not the same thing in this country.” Çetin Gültekin continued at the Hanau memorial service on Saturday: “But we also want and need to ask ourselves: what have we achieved in these five years The AfD assisted in the shooting on 19 February 2020; the perpetrator was influenced and incited by AfD racists We emphasised this again and again after the attack the AfD was at around 10 percent at federal level this far-right party will in all likelihood enter the Bundestag with over 20 percent He pointed out that the CDU and Free Democratic Party had made common cause with the AfD in the Bundestag and voted in favour of “even tougher measures against refugees and immigrants.” In fact Çetin Gültekin warned that five years after Hanau “Right-wing extremists and racists are not only on the rise in the US told Hessischer Rundfunk: “A lot has happened in the last five years but at the same time little has changed.” Said Etris himself was seriously wounded and barely survived the attack Said Etris Hashemi vividly described the atmosphere that prevailed in the working class suburb of Hanau-Kesselstadt was its own little Noah’s Ark” that “housed all kinds of nations,” and he concluded: “[W]hat united us was our poverty whether in the ‘Kackhaus’ [a brown block with mainly German residents] or in the Afghan block And perhaps it was more the poverty that made Kesselstadt a hotspot and an enemy of the authorities Many in Hanau emphasised that they were not only concerned about their relatives but also about the victims of racist attacks in Mölln who spoke at the memorial service about her son Sedat Gürbüz one of those murdered in cold blood on 19 February 2020 reported that Sedat himself “never sorted people out according to nationality He always said: ‘They are all my brothers’.” This issue is preventing our website from loading properly. 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LOGIN Downloadable PDFs are a benefit of an FP subscription This article is an Insider exclusive Contact us at [email protected] to learn about upgrade options unlocking the ability to gift this article This article is co-published with The Dial, a new magazine of international journalism and literature Serpil Temiz Unvar was sitting in her kitchen when she saw an older man and a German shepherd standing outside She was bewildered when he began asking her increasingly strange and aggressive questions: Are you Kurdish How do you have enough money to live here and to go on so many vacations back in Turkey she called several friends who confirmed what she already suspected: The man with the German shepherd wasn’t just a neighbor He was also the father of her son’s killer Unvar’s son Ferhat, then 23, was one of nine people shot and killed in a violent rampage targeting immigrants on Feb opened fire at a bar in Hanau’s center before driving across town where he shot a man who had followed him from the first bar by car Tobias R.—identified by his first name and last initial in keeping with German privacy laws—walked into the Arena Bar & Cafe The shooter then drove to his mother’s house which authorities described as demonstrating a “deeply racist attitude.” The Hanau attack became a symbol of Germany’s struggle to extinguish far-right violence and anti-immigrant ideology. Then-Chancellor Angela Merkel condemned the attack Politicians who had offered solemn condolences moved on to other matters and the country went into lockdown as the COVID-19 pandemic took hold Unvar felt a growing sense of rage at the government’s lack of response to the Hanau attack, she told me when I sat down with her in March. Later that year, she became an activist: She founded an educational initiative aimed at fighting racism in schools; testified on the Hanau killings in the state parliament of Hesse where Hanau is located; and worked with the family members of other victims to pressure the government to take action to prevent future racist attacks But honoring Ferhat’s memory has made Unvar a target herself. The man’s 2022 visit to her home wasn’t an isolated event; Hans-Gerd R. came back that night and the next day After Unvar filed a restraining order against him “If you as a migrant hate the land of the German people and please go back to where you came from,” he wrote in one missive The harassment and stalking are still going on Unvar’s fight against racist ideas about who belongs in Germany has laid bare how deeply ingrained this ideology remains in parts of the country—particularly as the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party continues to creep up in the polls but this country also needs to protect us,” she said Mourners pray prior to the funeral of victims of the shootings in Hanau on Feb Hanau commanded particular attention because it was a targeted assault on people with “immigration backgrounds,” the official term Germany’s Federal Statistical Office uses to describe those who were born to at least one parent who was not a German citizen German authorities also faced intense scrutiny for their handling of the incident Police and emergency personnel are seen behind a police cordon in Hanau on Feb near one of the bars where the shootings occurred Late last year, after years of testimony and hearings, a Hessian parliamentary committee investigating the authorities’ response to the attack issued its final report. In 642 pages, it details the various security failures that contributed to the loss of life that day But without concrete consequences for those responsible for the security failures in Hanau victims’ family members say it’s hard to believe anything will meaningfully change in how Germany handles right-wing and racist terrorism None of the officers or authorities involved in Hanau’s security failures were disciplined or removed from their posts explicitly due to their handling of the situation Although the Hessian parliamentary committee’s report outlined areas where German law enforcement had fallen short those who lost family members that day felt its recommendations—for more stringent checks before issuing weapons permits to develop anti-racism programs in schools and to better communicate with families of victims—offered little more than lip service Armin Kurtovic, whose son Hamza was killed in the attacks, described the report as a “slap in the face” to the victims’ families. “I was convinced something like this wasn’t possible in this country,” he told German broadcaster Hessenschau late last year “But the more I get involved and the more I read Police officers’ handling of the investigation was infuriating to Serpil Temiz Unvar but it was hardly surprising to her and others who have tracked the history of far-right attacks in Germany The authorities’ seeming blind spot for this kind of violence—and a lack of concrete action to prevent it—extends back far beyond Hanau “A nation that liked to think it had atoned for its racist past [was] forced to admit that violent prejudice was a thing of the present,” American journalist Jacob Kushner wrote in his recently published book on the NSU murders, Look Away adding that “in an age of unparalleled mass migration the targets of white terrorism are increasingly immigrants.” Behind her is a portrait of her son Ferhat one of the victims of the 2020 shootings.Thomas Lohnes/Getty Images When I arrived at the offices of Unvar’s organization, the Ferhat Unvar Educational Initiative the first thing I saw was a black-and-white mural of Ferhat his face appears next to the words “We are only dead when we are forgotten.” Ferhat had posted the phrase on social media before his death It has now become his mother’s guiding principle as she builds an organization to honor his memory Unvar grew up in a Kurdish city in southern Turkey She moved to Hanau when she married a Kurdish man there Unvar said she agonized over what she could have done to make his life better while he was still alive She thought about the discrimination he faced in school as a student with an immigration background and found herself wracked with guilt that she hadn’t fought harder for him: pushing school officials harder to allow him on a more ambitious track of study or urging them to stop the discrimination he faced from teachers and other students but many other children with similar backgrounds faced those same tough odds at school—and there was still a way to help them which seeks to combat racism and discrimination in the German education system giving talks and holding trainings and workshops to empower young people struggling against systemic racism and to educate teachers about the challenges that students from immigrant communities face Her first donation was from a group of Ferhat’s friends who handed her an envelope with 125 euros they had raised together but I can help them through Ferhat,” she said The Ferhat Unvar Educational Initiative holds an anti-racism workshop in Hanau on Feb “I never had it in my head to do something like this,” said Unvar reflecting on how her life changed after the attack Sitting on a black couch in one corner of the organization’s big event space with posters depicting the organization’s logo and events on the walls and brochures for her training programs on tables across the room Unvar was animated as she described how she and others have built the initiative into what it is today so “many people instrumentalize [the attack] and France to meet with other families of terrorist victims and with organizations that combat terrorism Unvar spoke with local activists and experts about ways to collaborate in their fight against violent extremism and learn from one another’s experiences “I saw how many other people are also fighting in this direction against terror But Unvar admitted that it can be difficult to press forward with her activism while feeling that no matter how hard she works her efforts are unlikely to change a country unwilling to address its shortcomings when it comes to welcoming and safeguarding immigrant communities In January, the German investigative news outfit Correctiv released a report about a secret meeting between right-wing extremist leaders near Berlin Those present discussed a “remigration” plan to deport millions of people with immigrant backgrounds Members of the Alternative for Germany party hold a demonstration in Köthen in Saxony-Anhalt Unvar said the national outrage over the Correctiv report—and the millions of people who turned out to protest across the country in the weeks that followed—gave her hope that the German population at large finally understood the scale of its problem with right-wing extremism “It’s good that [the story] came out because then people like us can see how big and important a problem it is,” she said … We need to really hold together against the right wing and against terror.” The far-right party is also a growing threat in Unvar’s home state: In the years since the attack, Hesse’s political landscape has shifted to the right. The AfD won 18.4 percent to become the second-largest party in last fall’s state elections an increase of 5.3 percentage points from the previous election in 2018 People hold signs and images of victims of the 2020 shootings in Hanau on the anniversary of the attack on Feb In February, around the anniversary of the Hanau attack, Hans-Gerd R. sent Unvar another letter Hans-Gerd R. has been cited dozens of times for harassing Unvar and other victims’ family members and for repeatedly violating a restraining order against Unvar He was taken into custody when he defied the restraining order and showed up outside her house again in 2023 He was also briefly sent to jail that year for failing to pay his fines for the various citations he had received related to that harassment the police told Unvar that they can’t do anything about the letters that keep arriving at her house: There are no laws in Germany against sending missives to someone via the postal system regardless of the intolerance they contain Hanau Mayor Claus Kaminsky described Hans-Gerd R’s harassment of Unvar and other victims’ family members as “subtle almost diabolical” terrorism in a 2023 interview with the German broadcaster ARD saying he wished the man would leave Hanau But he reiterated that there is little the authorities can do beyond the penalties they have already put into place it would be best if the father left the city if he changed his place of residence,” Kaminsky said I asked Unvar whether she was afraid that Hans-Gerd R would escalate from letters and leering outside her kitchen window to something worse had just come into the office and sat down next to her on the black leather sofa She wrapped her arms around him as he looked up shyly I really have zero fear—what should I be afraid of I’ve already lost my dearest son,” she said as she told me repeatedly throughout the course of our conversation the long hours of volunteer work—it’s about children like Ferhat who struggle to get ahead in school because of the color of their skin; it’s about Mirza Emily Schultheis is a journalist based in Los Angeles who has covered European elections and the rise of the far right. 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Emiş Gürbüz’s son was murdered in Hanau by a far right terrorist Her plea for justice five years on drew an astonishing reaction from the state and afterwards killed his mother and himself The attack on 19 February of that year not only left a deep wound within immigrant communities throughout the country, it again raised questions about how seriously the German state takes rightwing extremist terrorism, even after the infamous murders by neo-Nazi terrorist cell the National Socialist Underground (NSU) which spanned most of the decade from 2000 Emiş Gürbüz, mother of one of the Hanau victims, spoke at this year’s official commemoration attended by the city’s highest-ranking politicians as well as Germany’s federal president “This event is a stain on the history of Hanau and of Germany,” Gürbüz said these nine people would still be alive.” Gürbüz’s son was killed during the attack at the shisha bar he had previously owned But what followed this year’s commemoration – which, unfortunately, coincided with the anti-immigrant and racist discourse of the final week of the federal election campaign – was frankly shocking. Read moreThe coalition of mainstream parties that runs Hanau’s city government issued an extraordinary statement laying into Gürbüz disrespect and of “exploiting” the atrocity It said that no such future commemorations would be held in Hanau to mark the victims Citing another speech that Gürbüz made at the Berlin film festival the statement further alleged that she had publicly expressed hatred for Germany and Hanau “Why she applied for German citizenship in such a state of mind will probably remain her secret,” the statement added The alleged “hate” quotes from Gürbüz’s Berlin speech could not be verified by any of the guests who attended the event But why would it be inappropriate for a grieving mother whose son was murdered by a racist and who now has to witness almost every political party campaigning on anti-immigrant manifestos to express hatred for what Germany has become And, speaking of political agitation, why would Gürbüz’s personal naturalisation process be mentioned in an official statement? At a time when the expatriation of people with dual citizenship who commit a crime is being discussed in parliament On the night of the crime, the local emergency police telephone line couldn’t be reached by witnesses followed the gunman in his car from the first to the second shooting attacks while trying to call the police several times before the gunman entered a kiosk and a bar and killed more people It took the police another hour to finally reach the perpetrator’s home But the mayor highlighted for criticism a different part of the speech in which Gürbüz claimed the city had received public funding in the aftermath of the attack and had used the money to “balance their own deficits” Gürbüz provided no evidence for this claim But a one-sentence rejection by the city council would have been more than enough of a response to a grieving mother the city publicly defamed the victims of a devastating terrorist attack as “disrespectful” Is this to be the fate now of anyone of migrant heritage who criticises public failings How believable is the state’s investigation of the continuum of racist and right wing extremist violence if it’s more concerned with exposing the victims than with protecting them from more violence Maybe this is why the mediocrity of Hanau is creeping me out – what has happened here, it seems, could have happened anywhere else in the country. The behaviour of office holders in Hanau seems to mirror the general message Germany is sending to its immigrants right now: just be grateful you are still alive – and still here playwright and a Guardian Europe columnist Germany’s president on Wednesday commemorated the victims of the 2020 racist attacks in the city of Hanau at a memorial event marking their fifth anniversary. Frank-Walter Steinmeier said although the right-wing extremist's attack targeted people with immigration background, his actions were a concern for the entire nation. “The right-wing extremist murders in Hanau were an attack on peaceful coexistence in our country. They were an attack on our open society and our liberal democracy,” he said. He reiterated the responsibility to fight “racism and right-wing extremism.” The president also expressed his “deep regret” for the relatives of the victims who expected more from the state. The murders in Hanau did not come out of nowhere, he said. “The perpetrator did not draw his racist world view from himself alone. The prehistory of his crime includes resentment of Muslims, Jews, Sinti and Roma,” he said, underlining that the internet and social media facilitated the spread of hatred. On Feb. 19, 2020, far-right extremist Tobias Rathjen attacked two cafes in the city of Hanau, killing nine young people, including four Turks, and injuring five others. All the victims had migrant backgrounds. Before the attack, the far-right extremist posted videos on the internet expressing his xenophobic views. He later killed his mother and himself. HomeDestinationsInterestsTop Places to Travel by MonthSearchMenuBest time to go to Frankfurt am Main Some of the largest and most atmospheric Weihnachtsmärkte and a careful look beyond the city limits reveals a range of enchanting alternatives the markets lure visitors with historical settings and handmade gifts for a festive start to the holiday season Most of the markets listed below are within an hour's drive from Frankfurt known as Frankfurter Weihnachtsmarkt in German is one of the largest and oldest in Germany Held at iconic locations such as Römerberg the market features a magnificent Christmas tree and dozens of stalls offering delicious food and drinks Friedrich-Stoltze-Platz stands out with its enchanting pink illumination where charming wooden huts serve hot cocktails and homemade soups The entire square is beautifully adorned with intricate pink details the market hosted a historic Royal Christmas Wedding The Frankfurt Christmas Market is a must-visit for anyone seeking holiday cheer and traditional German festivities The opening hours of the market are Monday to Saturday Hanau's beautiful town center transforms into a magical wonderland during the traditional Christmas market season filled with the enticing aromas of mulled wine Hanau offers a true fairy tale atmosphere throughout the holidays The market boasts over seventy-five stalls featuring unique gifts Children will delight in the mini Ferris wheel visitors can enjoy performances by various artists the town hall has been transformed into the world's largest Advent calendar unveiling a new scene to eager spectators at 6 pm each evening Located just thirty minutes east of Frankfurt the market is open daily from 11 am to 9 pm It's a perfect destination for holiday magic and family fun The Christmas Market in Mainz immerses visitors in a magical fairy tale atmosphere With over one hundred beautifully decorated stalls set against the backdrop of the 1000-year-old Martinsdom (Martin Cathedral) the market is perfect for holiday shopping The artists' factory offers unique handmade items A highlight is the richly decorated 36-foot (11-meter) Christmas pyramid adorned with depictions of local figures like carnival-goers and Gutenberg hand-carved nativity figures in front of St 18 angel figures gracefully circle atop a nine-meter-high music box with reservations for the wooden barrel huts recommended for a memorable experience Opening Hours to the Mainzer Weihnachtsmarkt are Sunday to Thursday from 11 am to 8:30 pm and Friday and Saturday from 11 am to 9 pm Christmas market in historical Michelstadt features over one hundred picturesque wooden stalls near the famous town hall building The highlight of the market is traditional nativity scenes with life-sized figures There is also a seven-meter Christmas pyramid and a musical box adding to the magical atmosphere Kids will be delighted to visit the Toy Museum and see Father Christmas while adults attend the castle's wine tasting hall or enjoy Christmas concerts and the art fair The Michelstädter Weihnachtsmarkt operates on Wednesdays and Thursdays from 2 pm to 8 pm Please note that the market is closed on Mondays and Tuesdays The Christmas market in Wiesbaden stretches from the town hall to the neoclassical city palace encompassing the area around the Marktkirche Festive lighting is provided by 21 illuminated lilies and four gates at the market entrances along with 20 small lilies in the pedestrian zone and 51 along Wilhelmstrasse and fairy lights in the trees add to the dazzling ambiance The Twinkling Star Christmas Market features an entertainment stage in front of the Rathaus and nearly 130 stalls offering a wide variety of traditional Christmas gifts The children's shooting star market will be located on Luisenplatz offering a varied program for winter 2024/25 visitors can enjoy Hessian specialties at the WinterStubb along with "the highest Christmas market in Hesse" featuring a Ferris wheel Additional events will include wine and mulled wine tastings in the gondola the Hessische Winterstubb will provide even more space than before with an enlarged winter garden allowing guests to enjoy a wide selection of mulled wines and festive delicacies at standing tables outside The Bowling Green in front of the Kurhaus will once again be transformed into Germany's largest mobile ice rink from November 26 to January 12 The Aschaffenburg Christmas Market takes place near the stunning Johannisburg Castle creating a magical atmosphere with twinkling lights and the inviting aromas of cardamom and mulled wine Visitors can enjoy a glass of Äpplewoi or apple wine while exploring stalls featuring various traditional German crafts The market is known for its local specialties and unique decorations including a large nutcracker at Schloßplatz Children will enjoy rides on a Christmas train and an old-fashioned Ferris wheel the entertainment program features theater performances The opening hours of the Aschaffenburg Christmas Market are Monday to Saturday from 10 am to 9 pm the Darmstadt Christmas Market welcomes visitors to the city's royal castle and the inviting scents of roasted almonds and mulled wine it's the perfect place to boost your Christmas spirit Colorful stalls offer a variety of German foods as well as international specialties Highlights include impressive ice sculptures Darmstadt has a "Glühweinprinzessin" (mulled wine princess) who unveils the new design for the mulled wine glasses at the market's opening The German People (Das Deutsche Volk) by Marcin Wierzchowski was one of the highlights of this year’s Berlinale right-wing terrorist Tobias Rathjen shot and killed nine people in the German city of Hanau Police later found the gunman and his mother dead in his apartment Marking five years since the far-right attack Wierzchowski’s film powerfully documents the struggle of the bereaved and their supporters against racism in the German police and security apparatus as well as the refusal of the political authorities to take any effective action The title of the film refers to the monument to the famed Brothers Grimm in Hanau’s market square which bears the inscription “The German People.” Jacob (1785–1863) and Wilhelm (1786–1859) Grimm came from Hanau and took part in the 1848 revolution Jacob Grimm proposed an amendment to the ill-fated German draft constitution in the Frankfurt National Assembly Like many other progressive initiatives at the time “The German people are a people of free men It sets strangers and the unfree who dwell on it free”—was rejected But the Brothers Grimm still had many supporters among the rising bourgeoisie and the population at large The relatives of the victims of the Hanau shootings wanted to erect their own memorial against racism to commemorate their dead at this—and no other—location but this proposal too was turned down by the authorities most of whom were born and raised in Hanau and the surrounding area Some of their families had originally come from the former Yugoslavia a population persecuted and murdered by the Nazis was known to the authorities for his hatred of foreigners He legally owned several weapons and regularly took shooting lessons he posted a document on his website containing Nazi fantasies of annihilation virtually announcing his intention to commit murder He also at one point accused US president Donald Trump of stealing his slogans The German People makes it clear that the Hanau tragedy was not simply a case of a psychopathic individual nor was it a case of “run of the mill” racism on the part  of the so-called “man on the street.” The murderer acted under the very noses of the state and its politicians who have systematically stoked anti-foreigner sentiment It was “official racism,” as one affected father states in Wierzchowski’s film “We are angry about the promotion of far-right sentiment that makes such acts possible,” young people yell at a demonstration one year after the murders the news broke that the special police commando (SEK) unit deployed in the area at the time was itself riddled with neo-Nazis the state government of Hesse was forced to disband the unit The main characters in the film are the relatives of the dead and their friends and colleagues from Hanau who organise their own initiative to investigate the crime and demand a memorial for the dead They fought for a parliamentary commission of inquiry which ultimately revealed that the authorities and police contributed significantly to the deaths of the young people with the help of lawyers and the British research collective Forensic Architecture relatives found out that the emergency exit of the Arena Bar surprising cuts and contrasting changes of scene including audio and video recordings of politicians’ speeches memorial services and rallies and—again and again—the families and friends of the dead seeking to find the words in German to express their memories The start of The German People is striking: shouts at a rally then the babble of voices breaks off—in the sudden silence Someone appears working on a piece of stone and we see a kind of mausoleum in a cemetery with photos of Vili and the other victims attached to the outer wall As Vili’s father continues to carve the stone we hear radio messages from the night of the assault: “How many dead at Heumarkt—so an address by the German President Frank Walter Steinmeier declares that the act was “an attack on all of us.” There are those This was not an attack on “all of us,” i.e. those with a white skin who originate from the local region of Westphalia or Breslau but rather was directed against those with  “dark skin and dark hair,” who are regarded as “outsiders.” Sedat Gürbüz’s Turkish mother says that for a long time she did not feel like an outsider was born locally in Langen and grew up in Dietzenbach wanted to be boss.” The hookah bar that he managed was one of the crime scenes where he himself died a Roma from Romania and the only child of his parents came to Germany in 2013 at the age of 16 to earn money for his mother’s medical treatment He worked as a courier driver and on the night of the attack tried to stop the perpetrator with his car until the latter shot him through the windscreen he had dialed the police emergency number four times claiming there was only one emergency call centre in Hanau that day and it needed updating Vili’s father holds the cell phone up to the camera: he tried to contact his son repeatedly after he heard about a shooting on the radio that he and his wife were informed of their son’s murder A similar story was recounted by the father of 22-year-old Hamza Kurtović who had just completed his training as a warehouse worker The family had immigrated from the Bosnian part of Yugoslavia years ago they suddenly received a message with a postmortem report and a request to identify and wash the body—if it was their son The father is outraged: “The report stated that the body was of a man with an ‘Oriental southern’ appearance.” He shows the photo of his son who in fact looks typically German with blond hair and “blue eyes,” as the father emphasises The director shows the affected families without embellishment A scene begins with a funeral service in the Orthodox Church then suddenly there is a sharp cut to a young boxer throwing punches across the entire screen from left to right The boxer is a friend of Viorel and other victims in the Arena Bar that fateful evening He saved his own life by hiding behind the bar he sits in front of the gym entrance and repeats the same sentences over and over again He says he has never experienced anything like it in his life: he was having fun with his friends in the bar and suddenly three of his friends are dead This bitter experience is increasingly combined with a loss of political illusions Despite a parliamentary committee of inquiry initially supported by the Social Democratic Party (SPD) the friends and relatives of the dead encounter growing resistance including from the state’s opposition parties to their plea for a memorial on the market square repeatedly rejected designs for such a memorial on the market square saying that anonymous criticism of such a plan has been received from the public something could be installed in a different place In a hearing with the city council and the mayor emphasises that either the memorial stands in the market square or the relatives would rather do without it He opposed the cowardly excuse that there had allegedly been letters from the public opposing this spot It’s better not to have a memorial at all,” he says It is important for the whole of society “to be confronted every day with what happened,” he adds points out that her son always met with his friends in the market square She expresses her hatred for the politicians and the mayor who has continuously shrugged off the relatives Mayor Kaminsky is offended and responds that he had to “catch his breath.” At a meeting with the chancellor a week earlier Gürbüz had already shouted out that she “hates Germany and all Germans.” Sedat’s mother promptly interrupts him Niculescu Păun sums up his experience of politics as follows:  There used to be skinheads in bomber jackets and combat boots the neo-Nazis are sitting in parliament wearing ties and suits You say that (the racist murders in) Mölln must not happen again but it will keep happening unless fundamental action is taken The German People is a remarkable film that strives for the truth in a manner both serious and artistically empathetic It provides an effective counterweight to the current flood of right-wing agitation against migrants and refugees which assumed a completely new dimension in the German election campaign iStock, simplehappyart A little over six months after news hit that Evonik would cut up to 2,000 employees, a fresh round of layoffs is on the way at the Germany-based specialty chemicals company and contract manufacturer. Evonik announced Oct 11 that due to discontinued production of keto acids in Hanau it will let go about 260 people by the end of 2025 the company is also evaluating strategic options such as partnerships or divestment for its keto and pharma amino acid production sites in Ham noting they have “outstanding potential.” The company stated its keto and pharma amino acid business generate an annual average revenue of about 100 million euros ($109 million) The planned and potential changes are tied to Evonik transforming its healthcare business into a systems solutions provider and growing its core areas of expertise It will focus on areas including complex and highly potent active pharmaceutical ingredients precision biosolutions such as lipids for mRNA and gene delivery and cell culture ingredients “I am confident our new chapter will focus our Health Care business and empower our customers to pioneer innovation,” said Thomas Wessel chief human resources officer and labor relations director German Chancellor Olaf Scholz commemorated the fifth anniversary of a racist terror attack in the city of Hanau in which nine people were killed by a far-right extremist In a video message shared on social media Tuesday Scholz condemned the attack as a brutal act of far-right violence and stressed the need to confront racial hatred He expressed his condolences to the victims' families and emphasized the lasting impact of the tragedy on German society "The victims of Hanau have left a painful void in their families We can confront the racial hatred that fueled the murders in Hanau Hate is now manifesting itself in very obvious ways I feel deeply saddened when citizens write to me or tell me in personal conversations that they are afraid of being attacked," he said Scholz’s remarks came amid rising concerns over racism and far-right extremism in Germany with calls for stronger measures to protect communities from hate-driven violence Tobias Rathjen carried out a racially motivated terrorist attack at two cafes in Hanau’s city center special operations police raided Rathjen’s home where they discovered that the 43-year-old gunman had killed his 72-year-old mother and then committed suicide Investigations revealed that Rathjen had a hunting license and had left behind a letter and a video explaining his extremist motives then-Chancellor Angela Merkel strongly condemned the attack Intelbrief / IntelBrief: Far-Right Terrorist Attack Puts Germany on Edge a lone individual identified as ‘Tobias R.’ went on a terrorist rampage shooting patrons at two separate hookah bars and murdering nine people The attacker was later discovered dead from an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound in his home where his elderly mother was also found murdered Federal prosecutors in Germany have assumed responsibility for the case told regional lawmakers in Wiesbaden that all available evidence so far points to a ‘far-right motive’ for the terrorist attack The suspect had a license for firearms and ammunition and gun magazines were located in his car following the attack although he expressed paranoia that he had been followed by the intelligence services for long periods of time German police agencies have added hundreds of officers to counter the growing threat of violent right-wing extremism and white supremacy Several videos and a manifesto began circulating in German media The terrorist has been described as a 43 year-old man motivated by an eclectic mix of anti-immigrant beliefs There are some indications that ‘Tobias R.’ was a voluntary celibate (as opposed to an involuntary celibate or ‘incel’) and part of a fringe community called ‘Men Going Their Own Way,’ or MGTOW which expresses vehemently anti-feminist and misogynist viewpoints His manifesto reveals a hatred for non-whites and foreigners which may be why he selected the hookah bars as his target as they are a popular hangout for Hanau’s Kurdish community Some of the victims were reportedly of Turkish origin The terrorist’s manifesto calls for the extermination of people from the Middle East although it focuses more on race than religion highlighting his belief in eugenics and the ‘science’ or race superiority the terrorist writes ‘Not everyone who has a German passport is purebred and valuable.’ neo-Nazi and white supremacist violence over the past several years German chancellor Angela Merkel commented on the Hanau attack hate is a poison,’ and adding ‘This poison exists in our society and it’s at fault for too many tragic events.’ For tailored research and analysis, please contact:  [email protected]      © Copyright 2025 The Soufan Center • All rights reserved • The Soufan Center is a 501c3 non-profit organization Company takes over former barracks site from logistics firm P3 French data center firm Data4 is to launch a new campus in Hanau Last year GIC-backed European logistics real estate firm P3 Logistic Parks announced plans for a large data center campus on the site of a former army barracks in Hanu Data4 has now acquired the approximately 20-hectare site from P3 and is planning to build its own data center campus there Data4 CEO Olivier Micheli said: “The development of a sustainable and innovative data center campus in Hanau will benefit both the local and regional community We at Data4 see great market opportunities in Germany one of the leading nations in Europe in terms of digital infrastructure and have high ambitions for the Hanau campus which will eventually become one of the largest data center campuses in Germany and in Europe.” July 2022 saw P3 take over the former Großauheim barracks in Hanau from the Bundesanstalt für Immobilienaufgaben (Institute for Federal Real Estate) and announce plans to develop the P3 Datacenter Hanau data center campus on the 250,000 sqm (2.7 million sq ft) site At least eight data center modules on a building area of around 200,000 sqm (2.1 million sq ft) were to be built over a period of ten years; the site will have an electrical supply of 180MW Data4 hasn’t said whether it will change the site plans but said it will invest €1 billion ($1.09bn) in the development P3 has found an established data center operator who will also take over and continue the financing and development and will be responsible for its data centers itself," said Semir Selcukoglu “This is another important building block for securing the future of our city," added Hanau's Lord Mayor Claus Kaminsky "and marks the beginning of the finale in the conversion of the former US military site which can rightly be described as Hanau's success story Hanau with the planned campus will then be one of the most powerful locations in Germany.” Approximately 500,000 cubic meters of old buildings at the barracks – vacant since 2008 – will be decontaminated and demolished with the building stock materials recycled and reused for groundworks P3 will continue to support the ongoing demolition and development work Demolition work and construction preparations on the site are already underway and the commissioning of the first module is expected in 2024 Full development is expected to be completed by 2032 A ten-hectare photovoltaic system measuring is being built in the immediate vicinity and will contribute towards the campus’ operations Stadtwerke Hanau GmbH and its subsidiary Hanau Netz GmbH are building a combined heat and power plant and a substation on the site Discussions are underway to use waste heat from the site to heat parts of Hanau After World War II, the city of Hanau was one of the largest American military bases in Europe. Originally built as a depot and taken over by the US at the end of the war, the Grossauheim barracks (also known as Großauheim Kaserne) span approximately 38.5 hectares. Since the end of 2008, properties in Hanau used by the American armed forces with a total area of ​​approx. 340 hectares have been vacated and made available for development Google is developing a data center in Hanau as part of an expansion to its Frankfurt cloud region Data Centre Dynamics Ltd (DCD), 32-38 Saffron Hill, London, EC1N 8FH Email. [email protected]DCD is a subsidiary of InfraXmedia Please enable JS and disable any ad blocker Heavy rains that began Wednesday evening persisted throughout the night leading to widespread flooding across several regions of Germany police responded to numerous locations affected by heavy rainfall and flooding an underpass was temporarily closed due to flooding The city of Hanau and the Main-Kinzig region in Hesse saw flooded streets heavy rains flooded streets and inundated building basements cities like Gorlitz and Bautzen also faced road flooding and basement inundations a train collided with fallen trees obstructing the tracks the basement of the Central and State Library archives was flooded after a rainwater drainage pipe burst under the strain of heavy rainfall forming bucket brigades to remove water and prevent damage to hundreds of thousands of books stored in the archive emphasizing the unprecedented scale of flooding within their building "I have never witnessed such a volume of water in our facility," Fansa said As scholars working on different aspects of male supremacism we appreciate the new focus and attentiveness that is given in the broader media landscape to the significance of gender and misogyny in relation to (right-wing) extremist attacks there are certain caveats we would like to share regarding the ways in which incels were discussed in the wake of the Hanau shooting with some media outlets quick to term the perpetrator an incel There is a danger of trivializing the relevance of how misogyny and white supremacy are deeply linked within a violent belief system Discussing incels after the Hanau shooting But the terminology of misogyny and how it shapes online groups is more complex than has been portrayed in various media outlets published a manifesto and several YouTube videos detailing his motivation before killing six people in Isla Vista His reasoning was rooted in male sexual entitlement and frustration with his involuntary celibacy The attack brought the idea of ‘inceldom’ in its new misogynistic iteration a first wave of public attention and led to the identity’s association with violent extremism he was thwarted in his attempt to gain entry to the building) His desire to punish all women for his (involuntary) celibacy speaks to a belief that women owe men sex and attention and that men are entitled to women and their bodies posters share stories of rejection from women these stories of rejection are cited as the reason that the poster considers themselves to be an incel or when they became aware of their status as an incel this increased attention has arguably not yet given the public a better understanding of what an incel is or what they believe Misogynist cultures online - incels and the Manosphere While deep-seated misogyny and feelings of sexual entitlement were certainly present in the Hanau manifesto as well as in manifestos of the incel killers of Toronto and Tallahassee misogyny per se should not be used as evidence that the Hanau attacker was an incel Blanket-labelling any violent misogynist as incel does not help when we are trying to understand misogyny and its potentially deadly consequences while present in both incel forums and in the manifesto are much more far-reaching—both throughout broader society there are also male supremacists who are not associated with one of these organized ideologies; just like “white supremacy” “male supremacy” is an overarching belief system The manifesto of the Hanau shooter, besides being filled with racist and conspiratorial tropes While some are reminiscent of incel talking points the manifesto does not demonstrate a clear connection to the incel identity either in terms of evidence that the shooter frequented incel forums or shared basic incel ideology try intentionally to separate themselves from women and blame—again—women and feminism for the need to stay alone as an act of self-preservation the shooter named an imagined surveillance as a reason for staying single does not fit neatly into the groups of the Manosphere the Hanau Manifesto does demonstrate misogyny and male supremacism The entitlement of not wanting to settle for anything ‘but the best’ shows a sexist This perspective is common throughout online misogynist forums for which male sexual entitlement is a belief that cuts across all the various ideologies Categorizing people—men and women alike—into a sexual hierarchy is a classic trope across misogynist online groups Incels typically consider themselves at the bottom of this hierarchy in current society but still feel themselves entitled to women’s bodies while other groups are trying to ‘improve’ their place within this hierarchy through financial success or physical fitness the Hanau manifesto exudes stark paranoia and references conspiracy theories ranging from assertions of secret bunkers in the United States to a conviction that he is one of the few people who notices that he is being surveilled by an ominous secret agency he imagines himself to have access to ‘secret knowledge’ Secret knowledge or ‘seeing the world as it truly is’ is a common aspect that unites misogynist and far-right sub-groups and lays a foundation for shared beliefs and identities—including ‘The Red Pill’ This elite is also often thought to be Jewish It is important to better understand just how exactly anti-Semitism and male supremacist groups cross-fertilize with one another; and while their connections must be kept in mind and further analyzed male supremacy should be taken seriously on its own as well Incel and far-right reaction to the Hanau shooting The labeling of the Hanau attacker as ‘incel’ is problematic in several regards The misattribution of the attack to one particularly known sub-group of the manosphere risks feeding into the incel narrative of unjustified societal victimization and at the same time provides them with a new wave of curious potential followers To avoid overly simplistic (or plain inaccurate) labelling we therefore suggest ‘male supremacism’ as the more fitting label for the misogynist motivation of attacks like Hanau and potentially more harmful is the media framing of inceldom as simultaneously exotic and ‘weird’ as well as potentially dangerous The focus on incels as strange outcasts of ‘normal’ society tends to obscure that misogyny and male supremacism do not originate in and are not exclusive to obscure corners of the internet Misogyny—like racism—has always been a part of our societies and intimate partner violence as just the tip of an iceberg of persistent male entitlement It goes much deeper into the realms of sexual harassment and daily life practices that still put child rearing and household work squarely as the responsibilities of women Accurate labelling of the ideologies at stake is one element required for a deeper understanding of the societal dynamics and issues on which the success of extremist groups of all couleur are built In order to avoid trivializing how deeply misogyny and white supremacy remain entrenched in our societies we have to go past any simplistic use of the incel-label Instead we must continue to ask the hard questions: how and why it seems so intuitive to some young men to connect anti-Semitism and misogyny into a worldview that—in their view—demands violent activism Increasing Barriers to Accessing Sexual and Reproductive Health Care in Romania Poverty and Gender in Germany’s Social Security System Get updates on human rights issues from around the globe Human Rights Watch is a 501(C)(3) nonprofit registered in the US under EIN: 13-2875808 Evonik opened a clinical and small-scale commercial pharmaceutical lipids manufacturing facility in Hanau Pharmaceutical lipids manufacturing facility Germany-based speciality chemicals company Evonik opened a new good manufacturing practice (GMP) facility to manufacture pharmaceutical lipids for clinical development and small-scale commercialisation at its existing site in Hanau The facility supports the production of all types of custom and proprietary lipids for advanced pharmaceutical drug delivery applications It complements the laboratory and commercial manufacturing capabilities of the existing multi-purpose Hanau site to support the customer’s requirements at each stage of development and commercialisation The new facility is a part of the company’s series of investments being made in lipid manufacturing for ribonucleic acid (RNA) and gene therapies globally The lipids produced at the facility are used in the development of a broad range of mRNA and gene therapies for infectious disease Evonik’s new lipids production facility is located at the Wolfgang Industrial Park in Hanau The industrial park is a production and research centre for materials technology Its 820,000m² area houses a total of ten companies The new lipid facility offers high-quality GMP material to customers which enables them to scale up seamlessly to move rapidly through the development phases It features particle engineering and purification capabilities to offer fast and flexible manufacturing of a vast scope of lipids Evonik is expanding its Hanau and Dossenheim sites to expand their capacity to support the rising demand for pharmaceuticals for the contract manufacturing of active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) and advanced intermediates within Europe The first phase of the expansion project was completed with an investment of €25m ($29.8m) in June 2021 while the entire project is expected to be completed by 2024 The production capacities for the plant-derived cholesterol PhytoChol® accelerating the Covid-19 vaccine production The Hanau site supports the rapid production of Pfizer-BioNTech’s Covid-19 vaccine by supplying lipids an essential component of mRNA-based vaccines The site produces two different lipids for the vaccine Lipids are the fundamental building blocks of all living cells and are significant in producing mRNA-based drugs The mRNA is enclosed in a lipid nanoparticle (LNP) consisting of specific lipids The LNP protects the mRNA from degradation LNPs are the most advanced drug delivery systems and have gained global approval for the development of vaccines against Covid-19 Evonik’s plant-derived cholesterol Phytochol ensures a secure and stable supply and completely non-animal derived cholesterol with advanced large-scale manufacturing capabilities which are tailored according to the needs of injectable and biopharmaceutical cell culture applications PhytoChol Inject is a parenteral grade cholesterol for nucleic acid therapies and mRNA vaccines beyond Covid-19 It can be provided in the proportions necessary for LNP manufacturing PhytoChol BioPharma is a phytochemical powder utilised to optimise cell culture for improved cell culture outcomes or may be crucial for some cell lines including NS0 cell culture for protein synthesis and culture of packaging cell lines for virus production Evonik supports pharmaceutical companies globally with extensive services for developing and manufacturing complex parenteral and oral drugs The services include pharmaceutical excipients such as polymers and lipids and the manufacturing of clinical samples and commercial drug products The company has production plants in 27 countries and is present in more than 100 countries across North America In 2022, the company made a joint investment of $220m with the US Government to build a new lipid production facility at its site in Tippecanoe Give your business an edge with our leading industry insights View all newsletters from across the GlobalData Media network GIC-owned logistics firm planning large development at former army barracks west of Frankfurt European logistics real estate firm P3 Logistic Parks is planning a large data center campus on the site of a former army barracks in Hanu The company announced this week that it had taken over the former Großauheim barracks in Hanau outside Frankfurt from the Bundesanstalt für Immobilienaufgaben (Institute for Federal Real Estate) and plans to develop the P3 Datacenter Hanau data center campus on the 250,000 sqm (2.7 million sq ft) site Terms of the land acquisition were not shared nor was the timeline for the first phase to go live Construction will take place in several phases with at least eight data center modules on a building area of around 200,000 sqm (2.1 million sq ft) to be built over a period of ten years; the site will have an electrical supply of 180MW P3 said the on-spec campus will be built and operated sustainably and supplied with 100 percent green electricity The barracks – vacant since 2008 – will be decontaminated and will see the existing building stock materials recycled and reused for groundworks Construction of a combined heat and power plant by Gemeinschaftskraftwerk Hanau GmbH & Co KG is also planned on the campus to provide a district heating supply for Hanau from 2024 A transformer station is also being built on the project site by the local grid operator managing director of P3 Logistic Parks Germany said: "The e-commerce boom and increasing teleworking are making it ever more clear how important data centers are for us all advancing digitalization is not possible and the need to meet this demand with a green alternative is enormous We are delighted to be able to develop this future-proof solution This appears to be P3's first data center development; the company is the latest in a number of logistics & warehouse industrial real estate firms looking to move into the data center space and others are also looking to develop facilities in the US added: "Our project in Hanau will be one of the largest data center campuses in Europe The exciting question we have tackled is: how can we reconcile a large-scale data center with the challenges of climate change I am particularly proud that we found a trend-setting solution in collaboration with the city of Hanau The project will have no negative impact on the land balance of the Rhine-Main area as it is an already sealed area formerly used for military purposes." After World War II, the city of Hanau was one of the largest American military bases in Europe. Originally built as a depot and taken over by the US at the end of WWII, the Grossauheim barracks (also known as Großauheim Kaserne) span approximately 38.5 hectares. Since the end of 2008, properties in Hanau used by the American armed forces with a total area of ​​approx. 340 hectares have been vacated and available for development added: "The development of the former Großauheim barracks into a data center campus that is also very large by international standards represents for us the centerpiece of the implementation of our data center strategy The joint development and binding definition of sustainability goals above the generally accepted level – for example half of the energy will be fed from local renewable sources – was particularly important to us also due to the size of the campus when construction is completed." P3 was supported in the brokerage of the property by CBRE A&T Industrial & Logistics division Legal advice on the purchase was provided by the law firm Noerr Google is developing a data center in Hanau as part of an expansion to its Frankurt cloud region Data Centre Dynamics Ltd (DCD), 32-38 Saffron Hill, London, EC1N 8FH Email. [email protected]DCD is a subsidiary of InfraXmedia By: Charlie Sternberg Use of this constitutes acceptance of our privacy policy The material on this site may not be reproduced except with the prior written permission of Rodman Media a port city on the River Main near Frankfurt is the temporary shelter to newly arrived migrants who have crossed Europe fleeing poverty and war in their home countries Iraq and other Muslim countries are also arriving in Germany Syrians make up the largest single contingent - estimated at about 45 percent Amid Europe's worst refugee crisis since World War Two Germany has said it will likely take 800,000 asylum seekers European Commission plans to distribute 120,000 refugees across the 28 European Union countries over the next two years have exposed deep divisions between EU member nations with stiff resistance from several eastern countries including Hungary which unlike Britain or France has no tradition of taking in immigrants from former colonies Many new arrivals are still contending with problems all refugees face such as learning the language and getting a job The number of those yet to follow them is also unknown in the cavernous sports hall with an athletics track surrounding rows of temporary beds the new arrivals get their bearings - and draw breath after a journey across many borders Migrants get assistance on their way to a temporary refugee registration centre in Hanau Well-wishers applaud a Syrian woman carrying her baby as she makes her way to the registration centre A handwritten cardboard is on display at the shelter Migrants have their bags checked by security officers A doctor conducts a medical test for newly arrived migrants A migrant undergoes a medical check at the shelter A migrant child carries food at the sports hall A child uses a scooter on the athletics track A migrant child sits on the terrace of a sports hall Donated clothing for migrants is stored ready for use A migrant tests a new pair of shoes for size Rows of beds are arranged to accommodate the newly arrived migrants Police say attack suspect killed nine people at two shisha bars then killed his mother and himself at home A gunman killed nine people in two apparently racially motivated shootings at shisha bars in the German town of Hanau Investigators believed a racist motive was behind the attack the interior minister for the state of Hessen Angela Merkel said the circumstances of the attack needed to be fully investigated and the shootings had exposed the “poison” of racism in German society She pledged to stand up against those who sought to divide the country Nine people died in the attacks on the two bars on Wednesday night Some of those killed were of Turkish origin, a spokesman for the Turkish presidency said. “We expect German authorities to show maximum effort to enlighten this case. Racism is a collective cancer,” İbrahim Kalın tweeted The killer was named by police as 43-year-old Tobias R. His surname was not given, in line with German practice. German media named him as Tobias Rathjen Screengrab shows suspect Tobias R, 43, taken from an account purportedly belonging to him, which has now been removed from the site. Photograph: Getty ImagesHe shot himself and his 72-year-old mother at home, police said. They also confirmed he possessed a hunting licence. The Bild newspaper said the gunman had expressed extreme rightwing views in a letter of confession he left behind. A video in which he explained his motives is believed to be part of the investigation. The Guardian could not confirm the details of his confession. The video was taken down from social media sites on Thursday morning, police said. After the murders, a huge hunt was launched for the perpetrator involving dozens of armed police and a helicopter hovering above the commuter town 15 miles (25km) east of Frankfurt. Read morePolice tweeted at about 5am local time that special police force officers had stormed the home of the alleged suspect and found him dead along with another body “There are currently no indications of other perpetrators,” police said in a statement 1:11Footage shows aftermath of deadly shisha bar attacks in Germany – videoOfficers sealed off and searched the terrace house in Hanau’s Kesselstadt district after following up witness statements on a getaway car eight or nine shots were fired at the Midnight shisha bar on Heumarkt in the centre of the town at about 10pm shots were fired at a second shisha bar – the Arena Bar and Café in Kurt-Schumacher-Platz in the western Kesselstadt district Police denied initial reports of a third incident in the district of Lamboy They urged any witnesses with mobile phone footage to upload it to a police website and appealed to them not to post the evidence on social media Michael Malkmus,a spokesman for Hessen police force said local people helped the police track down the alleged perpetrator after seeing his car parked on the street “We came to the building after calls from people who had seen a vehicle We ID’d his number plate and matched it to his home We sealed the area and then entered the home.” Neighbours reported hearing a huge bang as police used explosives to break down the door at 3am Federal prosecutors said on Thursday they were taking charge of investigating the shooting amid reports that the suspect may have had a far-right motive Merkel pledged that “everything will be done to investigate the circumstances of these terrible murders” This hatred exists in our society and its is responsible for far too many crimes.” Hanau’s federal MP, Katja Leikert, called the attack a “horrific scenario” in a tweet in which she offered her “heartfelt condolences” to the victims said it was the “worst evening imaginable” 1:00Germany attack: gunman acted on rightwing, racist motives, says Merkel – videoLast Friday one person was shot dead and four were injured outside a Berlin music venue. The shooting occurred near the Tempodrome The motives behind the Berlin attack have remained unclear Witnesses to the Hanau attack described how the gunman randomly fired shots into the bars said he was waiting to hear whether his uncle “I do not know whether he has pulled through,” he told the TV station NTV “It’s very sad in particular that young people – a young lad Someone who worked there was also taken to hospital One man in his early 30s said he received a call from a friend who had been in one of the bars “He left a message to tell me he had been hit,” the man Another witness who knew some of the victims said: “These are people we have known for years That there are people out there who are so heartless shooting others who have done nothing wrong.” Other witnesses spoke of finding empty bullet casings strewn on the ground outside one of the cafes The map on this article was amended on 27 February 2020 The suspect’s home was in Helmholtzstrasse and not in “Heim holtzstrasse” as an earlier version had said '+n.escapeExpression("function"==typeof(o=null!=(o=r(e,"eyebrowText")||(null!=l?r(l,"eyebrowText"):l))?o:n.hooks.helperMissing)?o.call(null!=l?l:n.nullContext||{},{name:"eyebrowText",hash:{},data:t,loc:{start:{line:28,column:63},end:{line:28,column:78}}}):o)+" \n '+(null!=(o=c(e,"if").call(r,null!=l?c(l,"cta2PreText"):l,{name:"if",hash:{},fn:n.program(32,t,0),inverse:n.noop,data:t,loc:{start:{line:63,column:20},end:{line:63,column:61}}}))?o:"")+"\n"+(null!=(o=(c(e,"ifAll")||l&&c(l,"ifAll")||n.hooks.helperMissing).call(r,null!=l?c(l,"cta2Text"):l,null!=l?c(l,"cta2Link"):l,{name:"ifAll",hash:{},fn:n.program(34,t,0),inverse:n.noop,data:t,loc:{start:{line:64,column:20},end:{line:70,column:30}}}))?o:"")+" Angela Merkel using the word ‘racist’ to describe the murders was a quantum leap I have to admit that when I heard the news my first thought was: “I hope the perpetrator wasn’t a migrant.” The press would surely go at us hammer and tongs again warning about the danger posed by immigration in general and Muslims in particular There would be endless articles and talk shows discussing the threat My second thought was: “Thank God it is a white guy.” Read moreThe general public in Germany seemed surprised Hanau was the latest in a series of far-right terror attacks in Germany Yet in our collective minds terror is brown How long do we have to live in Germany before we stop being foreigners He sounded so much like my teenage son when he talks to his friend: “Brother I kiss your eyes.” But when I emailed a friend whose children were the same age and asked her how she felt after Hanau she replied: “Hanau?” Of course she had been outraged by the crime most books in my childhood had racist images like that “Clan criminality” is also the pet hate of North Rhine-Westphalia’s CDU interior minister, Herbert Reul. He has ordered more than 1,000 raids on shisha bars in his state in the last 18 months alone Even though there is no clear definition of what “clan criminality” is supposed to be and clan liability has been outlawed in Germany since 1945 No wonder the Hanau killer had the impression that shisha bars were hotbeds of crime A study conducted by Macromedia University Hamburg showed that while migrants commit far fewer crimes than white Germans – after all there are fewer of them – in TV reports on crime they outnumber white Germans by eight times and in newspapers 14 times in 34.7% of all cases it is only as criminals the terrorist and he alone is responsible for his actions But we – and by this I mean our politicians and media – are all guilty of creating a climate of fear and mistrust What we need most at the moment is civic trust academic and broadcaster based in Dusseldorf and accused US President Donald Trump of stealing his ideas named in the German media as Tobias Rathjen first opened fired at the Midnight hookah bar in Hanau at 10 p.m He then drove 1.5 miles west to the Arena Bar & Cafe, proceeding to shoot dead five people before returning home, according to local media and the Hessen State Police Police officers later found Rathjen and his 73-year-old mother dead at their home Authorities have said they are not seeking any other suspects the 43-year-old posted a 24-page manifesto to his website in which he sought to justify his beliefs The man calls for the people of a large number of North African, Asian, and Middle Eastern countries to be "completely destroyed" on the baseless idea that they are biologically inferior also claimed Trump stole some of his ideas "A billionaire in the USA is implementing my policy recommendation (even some slogans I developed like 'America First Buy American and Hire American')," the manifesto says The author also criticized other "races and cultures" as "destructive," singling out Islam The man also wrote that he was an incel — a term describing those who involuntarily refrain from sex He said he had not had a relationship with a woman in 18 years out of a fear of the state surveilling him.  Much of the manifesto is obtuse and rambling and does not have the ring of being written by a person in a sound mental state "Initial analysis of the webpage of the suspect indicate a xenophobic motivation," Peter Beuth, the interior minister for the state of Hesse, said, according to the Associated Press The nine victims are believed to be mainly Turkish and Kurdish, according to local media The German newspaper Bild said many of those who died came to Germany as immigrants A shooting in Hanau, Germany on Wednesday night has left 10 people dead and five wounded, according to local police. All of the victims were from immigrant backgrounds and some were German citizens, local media reports. whom he shot in their home before killing himself and a waiter who was engaged to be married Gültekin was a waiter at the Turkish-owned Midnight bar. He was bringing out food to three diners when he was shot by the attacker, according to The Guardian. the newspaper cited Turkish state media outlet TRT as saying His cousin told one German journalist that Gültekin's father is dying of cancer Ünvar had just finished studying, and was his family's "biggest pride," his father said in an interview with BILD Gunman who posted manifesto online kills nine at shisha bars before shooting himself Angela Merkel has said the murder of nine people in a shooting rampage by a suspected rightwing extremist has revealed the “poison” of racism and hate in Germany carried out attacks at two shisha bars in Hanau Investigators said he a “deeply racist mindset” citing a video and a lengthy manifesto he had posted on social media Authorities said they were treating the attacks as an act of domestic terrorism All nine of those killed at the shisha bars had an immigrant background, and at least five were Turkish, several of Kurdish origin, prosecutors said. Six others were injured, one of whom had life-threatening injuries. There were unconfirmed reports that a 35-year-old pregnant mother of two was among those who died Merkel promised the state would stand up with “strength and decisiveness” to those who try to divide society Campaigners for migrant rights in Germany said the attacks were indicative of widespread indifference shown by the state towards rightwing extremism despite evidence that it was on the rise then things like this will happen,” said Mehmet Daimagüler a lawyer for victims of far-right terrorism “You could have set the clock by this attack People tell us they have learnt from Auschwitz but this shows that sort of talk is just ‘blah 1:11Footage shows aftermath of deadly shisha bar attacks in Germany – videoFederal prosecutors said they would be taking charge of the investigation as is normal practice when the state is considered to be endangered by a crime Investigators aim to establish whether he acted alone or received support from any individuals or groups the tabloid Bild reported that Rathjen had contacted authorities with his conspiracy theories only three months ago seemingly contradicting claims that he had not been on intelligence agencies’ radar Rathjen wrote to Germany’s general prosecutor and called on authorities to “approach me and communicate with me” Parts of the 19-page letter were virtually identical to the rambling manifesto published on his website but it was unclear whether it included any threats against ethnic minorities the letter will prompt further questions over whether authorities might have been able to intervene to prevent the deadly attack the gunman first drove to a shisha bar called Midnight where he fired about eight or nine shots apparently randomly into the room at about 10pm on Wednesday After driving to a second bar called Arena on Kurt Schumacher Platz in the western district of Kesselstadt where he shot his 72-year-old mother before shooting himself After a frantic search involving dozens of armed police and a helicopter police were alerted to his parked car in Kesselstadt and quickly matched it to the address and sealed off the area neighbours heard a large bang as police detonated the front door of the white terraced house where they found Rathjen’s body and that of his mother Police said they had no indications that other perpetrators were involved On Thursday morning they interviewed Rathjen’s father who is reported to have been in the house when Rathjen returned and who managed to escape In a 24-page manifesto and a video, Rathjen outlined his racist theories including his belief that certain races should be eliminated and foreigners who could not be deported from Germany should be “destroyed” He said he had been driven by voices in his head since birth and followed by secret agents and also talked about a wide range of conspiracy theories including that 9/11 was carried out by the US state and made claims about his ability to influence the playing tactics of the German national football team Police urged any witnesses with mobile phone footage or other information related to the attacks to upload it to a police website and appealed to the public not to post any evidence on social media fought back tears as he described the shooting as “the bitterest saddest experience” the town had suffered since the second world war said most people would feel solidarity with the victims and their families He said of the attack: “This changes everything Addressing people of an immigrant background Bouffier said: “I know you are scared … but I want to say to you Candlelit vigils were planned across Germany on Thursday evening to pay tribute to those who died and to make a stand against racism One expert said domestic intelligence agents believed there were 24,000 rightwing extremists in Germany 13,000 of whom were considered potentially dangerous Michael Ortmann told NTV that investigators in Germany had been slow to recognise a rise in rightwing extremists ready to perpetrate violence having devoted much of their resources into fighting the threat of Islamist terrorism 1:00Germany attack: gunman acted on rightwing, racist motives, says Merkel – videoThis week German investigators said they had smashed a ring of rightwing extremists who had been plotting to carry out large-scale gun attacks on mosques throughout Germany The man believed to be the ringleader hoped to trigger a civil war said: “Our political debates cannot duck the fact that 75 years after the end of the Nazi dictatorship rightwing terror exists in Germany again,.” the junior coalition partner in Merkel’s government called for an “insurgency of the decent” in which he said ordinary Germans should make a stand against anti-immigrant sentiment parliamentary party leader of the anti-immigrant Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) in the state of Hesse Asked by a German journalist if he thought the AfD should take any responsibility for the attacks for its use of anti-foreigner rhetoric Lambou said: “Such horrific murders as this must lead all of us to reflect on how we can avoid such things from happening.” She said the government “and every state institution” would “stand up with all our strength and decisiveness to those people who try to divide Germany.” Falling tree limbs in Birmingham kills one person by MICHAEL PROBST and FRANK JORDANS Associated Press Germany (AP) — A 43-year-old German man shot and killed nine people at several locations in a Frankfurt suburb overnight in attacks that appear to have been motivated by far-right beliefs The gunman first attacked a hookah bar in central Hanau at about 10 p.m before heading about 2.5 kilometers (1.5 miles) west and opening fire again Hookah lounges are places where people gather to smoke flavored tobacco from Middle Eastern water pipes and some of the victims appeared to be Turkish Witnesses and surveillance videos of the suspect's getaway car led authorities quickly to his home wherehe was found dead near the bodyof his 72-year-old mother the interior minister for the state of Hesse Both the suspect and his mother had gunshot wounds A website believed to be the suspect's is being evaluated "Initial analysis of the web page of the suspect indicate a xenophobic motivation," he said.It does not appear that the suspect was known either to police or Germany's domestic intelligence agency He said federal prosecutors have taken over the investigation of the crime and are treating it as an act of domestic terrorism Turkey's Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said the consulate in Frankfurt and the embassy in Berlin were trying to obtain obtain information about the attack,including the possibility that some of the victims were Turkish German news agency dpa reported that police are examining a video the suspect may have posted online several days earlier in which he details a conspiracy theory about child abuse in the United States The authenticity of the video couldn't immediately be verified the speaker said he was delivering a "personal message to all Americans" that "your country is under control of invisible secret societies." he says there are "deep underground military bases" in which "they abuse He makes no reference to the far-right fringe QAnon movement in the U.S. but the missive is similar to the movement's central President Donald Trump is waging a secret campaign against enemies in the "deep state" and a child sex trafficking ring run by satanic pedophiles and cannibals On a website registered by someone with the same name as the man in the video the owner says he was born in Hanau in 1977 and grew up in the city later training with a bank and completing a business degree in 2007 The attack comes amid growing concerns about far-right violence in Germany Chancellor Angela Merkel called off a planned visit Thursday to a university in Halle said she was "being constantly kept abreast of the state of the investigations in Hanau." Halle was the site of a deadly anti-Semitic attack last year A man expressing anti-Jewish views tried to shoot his way into a synagogue failed and killed two passers-by before being arrested The shooting in Halle came months after the killing of a regional politician from Merkel's party The suspect had a long history of neo-Nazi activity and convictions for violent crime "Thoughts this morning are with the people of Hanau in whose midst this terrible crime was committed," Seibert said on Twitter "Deep sympathy for the affected families We hope with those wounded that they will soon recover." Beuth said one person was seriously wounded and multiple other people suffered less serious injuries cordoning off the area of one of the shootings as a helicopter hovered overhead A car covered in thermal foil also could be seen Forensic experts in white overalls collected evidence "This was a terrible evening that will certainly occupy us for a long long time and we will remember with sadness," Hanau Mayor Claus Kaminsky told the Bild newspaper a member of Merkel's center-right party who represents Hanau in the German parliament tweeted that it was "a real horror scenario for us all." Hanau is about 20 kilometers (12 miles) east of Frankfurt It has about 100,000 inhabitants and is in Hesse state Germany (AP) — A 43-year-old German who posted a rant calling for the “complete extermination” of many “races or cultures in our midst” shot and killed nine people of foreign background in an attack on a hookah bar and other sites in a Frankfurt suburb He was later found dead at his home along with his mother and authorities said they were treating the rampage as an act of domestic terrorism The gunman attacked the hookah bar and a neighboring cafe in Hanau around 10 p.m then traveled about 2.5 kilometers (1.5 miles) and opened fire again The bloodshed came amid growing concerns about far-right violence in Germany and stepped-up efforts from authorities to crack down on it including last week’s detention of a dozen men on suspicion they were planning attacks against politicians and minorities Chancellor Angela Merkel said the shootings exposed the “poison” of racism in Germany and she pledged to stand up against those who seek to divide the country “There is much to indicate that the perpetrator acted out of far-right extremist “Out of hatred for people with other origins other faiths or a different appearance.” said it was obvious why the gunman chose the neighborhood a doner kebab place there — it’s a place frequented by immigrants,” he said People of Turkish background make up Germany’s single largest minority and Turkey’s ambassador said five of the dead were Turkish citizens said that all nine people killed were of foreign backgrounds and that six others were injured Investigators said it appeared the gunman acted alone but Frank said authorities are trying to find out whether there were others who knew of or supported the attack He added that his office is looking into any contacts the killer may have had inside Germany or abroad who ran over from a cafe he runs nearby after hearing the first shots said he was shocked at the extent of the violence While fights or stabbings aren’t unheard of something we hear about from America.” Witnesses and surveillance videos of the getaway car led authorities quickly to the gunman’s home Both the attacker and his 72-year-old mother had gunshot wounds Frank identified the gunman only as Tobias R. and confirmed he had posted extremist videos and a screed with “confused ideas and far-fetched conspiracy theories” on his website He identified himself on the website as Tobias Rathjen Rathjen claimed to have approached police several times with conspiracy theories But Beuth said it does not appear the gunman had a criminal record or was on the radar of Germany’s domestic intelligence agency races or cultures in our midst that are destructive in every respect,” Rathjen wrote He said he envisioned first a “rough cleaning” and then a “fine cleaning” that could halve the world’s population He wrote: “The following people must be completely exterminated: Morocco Rathjen also detailed fears that he has been under government surveillance for years and blamed the monitoring for his inability to have a relationship with a woman The deadly attack was quickly condemned by many organizations the Confederation of Kurdish Associations in Germany “This poison exists in our society and its is responsible for far too many crimes,” Merkel said citing killings committed by a far-right gang known as the NSU the fatal shooting last year of a regional politician from her party and a deadly attack on a synagogue in Halle in October Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan called it a “heinous attack” and expressed confidence that German authorities “will exert all kinds of effort to shed light on all aspects of this attack.” local authorities told Germany’s dpa news agency Local media reported he owned three 9mm pistols though some 5.4 million of the country’s 83 million people possess them including showing that they are not mentally ill The gunman’s permit was last checked in 2019 German police were also examining a video he may have posted online several days before the attack in which he detailed a conspiracy theory about child abuse in the U.S. The authenticity of the video couldn’t immediately be verified but the YouTube account was under the same name as the website containing the gunman’s screed the speaker warned Americans that “your country is under control of invisible secret societies.” In a slow and deliberate voice in accented English he said there are “deep underground military bases” in which “they abuse He made no reference to the far-right QAnon movement in the U.S. but the message was similar to the fringe group’s central baseless belief that President Donald Trump is under attack from “deep state” enemies and that satanists and cannibals are running a child sex trafficking ring writing: “I doubt that Donald Trump knowingly implements my recommendations.” He suggested that “mind control” might be at work Rathjen wrote that he was born in Hanau in 1977 and grew up in the city later training with a bank and earning a business degree in 2007 Michael Probst and Christoph Noelting in Hanau and Suzan Fraser in Ankara contributed to this report © 1996 - 2025 NewsHour Productions LLC PBS is a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit organization Subscribe to Here's the Deal with Lisa Desjardins Cookies allow us to understand how you use this site and improve your experience. Our detailed Cookie Policy can be found here By continuing to use this website you accept our use of cookies Mandatory cookies help make this website usable by enabling basic functions like page navigation and access to secure areas of the website Our website cannot function properly without these cookies Statistic cookies help us understand how visitors interact with this website for example seeing which pages are most popular This information is collected anonymously and helps us improve the site by making the most sought after information easy to find Marketing cookies are used to track visitors across websites allowing the display of ads that are relevant and engaging for the visitor Whilst we do not display any advertising on the WJC website allowing marketing cooking may allow other sites to see that you have visited our site NEW YORK – Reacting to the mass shooting in Hanau, Germany “The World Jewish Congress is extremely concerned about the rising threats against minorities in Germany from both sides of the political landscape in Germany are just two more examples of the far-right violence that targets Jewish citizens who might not fit a long standing and bizarre racial view of some German citizens must be sensitive to this deadly and growing issue This tragedy underscores the need for far more effective measures by the police and authorities to protect the lives of Germany’s minorities But it isn’t just minorities that are threatened These crimes pose the greatest threat to the democratic fabric of German society and Germany’s commitment to uphold the values at the core of its postwar identity This website is using a security service to protect itself from online attacks The action you just performed triggered the security solution There are several actions that could trigger this block including submitting a certain word or phrase You can email the site owner to let them know you were blocked Please include what you were doing when this page came up and the Cloudflare Ray ID found at the bottom of this page Leading politicians say Alternative für Deutschland should face surveillance Leading German politicians have called for the far-right party Alternative für Deutschland to be placed under surveillance, claiming it has helped fuel the extremist rhetoric behind the deadly attack in Hanau Nine people with an immigrant background were murdered on Thursday in the western German city by Tobias Rathjen, a 43-year-old who had posted a racist video and manifesto on the internet before carrying out the killings On Thursday night thousands of people took to the streets in 50 cities across Germany to mourn the victims of the attack at candle-lit vigils Some chanted “Nazis out” and “Never again” announced he would be increasing police protection at mosques and other locations considered vulnerable to attack by rightwing extremists ahead of a meeting with representatives of the Turkish and Kurdish communities that “the bloodstains of rightwing extremism are trailing across Germany” As more details emerged of the nine victims Seehofer warned Germans to brace themselves for a “spiral of rightwing violence” Among measures he said he wanted to introduce immediately were psychological profiles to be carried out on those applying for weapons permits after it was revealed that Rathjen had easily obtained his murder weapons the father of the only female victim spoke of his incredulity at the loss of his daughter She was shot dead as she entered the bar to order food Filip Goman told the German newspaper Bild I cannot comprehend the absurdity of the crime How can you comprehend what was going on in his head To blow away nine people for no reason and then to go home and kill his mother leaves behind a 16-year-old son and an eight-year-old daughter who Goman said were now being looked after by him and his wife A police van outside the home of the gunman Photograph: Adam Berry/Getty ImagesLars Klingbeil general secretary of the Social Democrats (SPD) junior partners in the coalition government with Angela Merkel’s Christian Democrats led calls for a clampdown on the far-right AfD insisting it had contributed to a normalisation of far-right rhetoric “It is very clear that the AfD is a party which should be under constitutional surveillance,” Klingbeil said. The youth wing of the AfD, the JVA, is under constitutional watch, but the AfD is not. In Germany, if authorities establish that an organisation has what are deemed “extremist ambitions”, then it can be monitored closely using a variety of surveillance techniques. The chief federal prosecutor, Peter Frank, said on Thursday that Rathjen had demonstrated a “deeply racist mindset” in his internet posts. Investigators are now examining whether he acted on his own or had the support of other groups or individuals. Rathjen possessed two guns legally, both of which were bought on the internet. The Glock pistol he used to carry out the attack had been optimised to release the bullets more quickly, German media has learned from investigators. Other politicians were also quick to criticise the AfD. “Of course there is a direct connection between the growing strength of the AfD and the increase in rightwing violence,” said Boris Pistorius, the interior minister for the state of Lower Saxony, and member of the SPD. “A fatal disinhibition has been set in motion and the AfD is complicit in this.” Cem Özdemir, a prominent Green party member with Turkish roots, said it was time mainstream parties excluded the AfD, calling it “the political arm of hate”. Read moreThe AfD was founded as an anti-euro party but rose to prominence on the back of the refugee crisis in 2015 during which up to 1 million refugees came to Germany It won 12.6% of the vote at the last election and is represented in the parliaments of each of Germany’s 16 states It has frequently called for the forced deportation of foreigners and blames refugees for making life in Germany less safe It has urged a rethink over Germany’s remembrance culture of its Nazi past The AfD responded angrily to the demands for it to recognise any responsibility for the Hanau attacks and disgusting instrumentalisation of this monstrous crime” in a statement “The ‘manifesto’ of the crazed man of Hanau is now known The remote diagnosis of a psychiatrist is that he was suffering from paranoid hallucinatory schizophrenia attempts are being made to put the blame on us for his act of madness,” the statement added Friends and relatives hold up photos of one of the victims of the shooting in Hanau German and Turkish media reported more details of the people who died had last week completed an apprenticeship as a facility mechanic at a sanitary plant “He was our pride and joy,” said Metin Ünvar who moved to Germany 50 years ago from the eastern Turkish province of Ağrı told a German journalist he had terminal cancer but now that his son had died before him who had moved to Germany several years ago to find work and was employed as a lorry driver fled the Balkan war as refugees in the 1990s was described by his friend Navid as “a beloved brother” “He always laughed and wouldn’t harm a fly,” he said He was dining at the Midnight bar when the gunman burst in The Romanian foreign ministry has confirmed the death of one of its citizens believed to be a 23-year-old man from Giurgiu county who had been working in Germany for about five years German Chancellor Angela Merkel gives a statement following a shooting in the central German city Hanau Several people were killed at locations in when shots were fired in Hanau late Wednesday with the suspect and another person found dead at his home afterwards A man places flowers near a hookah bar where several people were killed on Wednesday night in Hanau A 43-year-old German man shot and killed several people at more than one location in a Frankfurt suburb overnight in attacks that appear to have been motivated by far-right beliefs Forensics investigate at the scene after a shooting in central Hanau Eight people were killed in shootings in the German city of Hanau on Wednesday evening A forensic police officer walks into the hookah bar where several people were killed late Wednesday in Hanau Several people were killed at locations when shots were fired in Hanau late Wednesday Criminal experts working on a car containing dead bodies where several people were killed late Wednesday in Hanau A 43-year-old German man shot and killed nine people at several locations in a Frankfurt suburb overnight in attacks that appear to have been motivated by far-right beliefs officials said Thursday.(AP Photo/Michael Probst) A police forensic officer walks to investigate at the scene after a shooting in central Hanau A German man shot and killed several people at different locations in a Frankfurt suburb overnight A woman lights a candle at a monument on the market place during a mourning for the victims of the shooting in Hanau A 43-year-old German man shot and killed several people at different locations in a Frankfurt suburb overnight in attacks that appear to have been motivated by far-right beliefs A picture of a woman is seen between candles and flowers at a monument on the market place during a mourning for the victims of the shooting in Hanau A 43-year-old German man who posted a manifesto calling for the “complete extermination” of many “races or cultures in our midst” shot and killed several people of foreign background on Wednesday night People place candles and flowers at a monument on the market place during a mourning for the victims of the shooting in Hanau German police officers guard the entrance of a bar where several people were killed late Wednesday in Hanau In this image taken from an undated self-recorded video a man who identifies himself as Tobias Rathjen makes a statement A 43-year-old German man who posted a manifesto calling for the “complete extermination” of many “races or cultures in our midst” shot and killed nine people of foreign background German media have identified the gunman as Tobias Rathjen he identifies himself as Tobias Rathjen and the mailing address provided matches the one were the bodies of the shooter and his mother were found Police forensic officers investigate at the scene after a shooting in central Hanau several people were killed in shootings in the German city of Hanau on Wednesday evening Hessen provinces interior minister Peter Beuth walks in front of the hookah bar where several people were killed on Wednesday in Hanau A woman sets a candle near the hookah bar scene where several people were killed late Wednesday in Hanau Germany (AP) — A German who shot and killed nine people of foreign background in a rampage that began at a hookah bar frequented by immigrants had posted an online rant calling for the “complete extermination” of many “races or cultures in our midst,” authorities said Thursday German Chancellor Angela Merkel said the attack exposed the “poison” of racism in the country ethnic Kurds and people with backgrounds from Bulgaria Bosnia and Romania were among those killed Turkey’s ambassador said five of the dead were Turkish citizens People of Turkish background make up Germany’s single largest minority a doner kebab place there — it’s a place frequented by immigrants,” he said said he was shocked at the extent of the violence: “This is a whole other level The bloodshed came amid growing concerns about far-right violence in Germany and stepped-up efforts to crack down on it including last week’s detention of a dozen men on suspicion they were planning attacks against politicians and minorities “This poison exists in our society and its is responsible for far too many crimes,” Merkel said citing the killings of 10 people across the country between 2000 and 2007 by a far-right gang and a deadly attack outside a synagogue in Halle on Yom Kippur in October She pledged to stand up against those who seek to divide the country “There is much to indicate that the perpetrator acted out of far-right extremist “Out of hatred for people with other origins While investigators said it appeared the gunman acted alone said authorities are trying to find out whether there were others who knew of or supported the attack said it does not appear Rathjen had a criminal record or was on the radar of Germany’s domestic intelligence agency Witnesses and surveillance video of the getaway car led authorities quickly to the gunman’s home where he and his 72-year-old mother were found dead with gunshot wounds apparently bringing the number of victims killed to 10 and confirmed he had posted extremist videos and a screed with “confused ideas and far-fetched conspiracy theories” on his website races or cultures in our midst that are destructive in every respect,” Rathjen wrote in his rambling He said he envisioned first a “rough cleaning” and then a “fine cleaning” that could halve the world’s population “The following people must be completely exterminated,” he wrote Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan called it a “heinous attack” and expressed confidence that German authorities “will exert all kinds of effort to shed light on all aspects of this attack.” Rathjen also detailed fears that he had been under government surveillance for years and blamed the monitoring for his inability to have a relationship with a woman He also claimed to have approached police several times with conspiracy theories he sought help last year in finding out who was allegedly observing him from a Austrian man who teaches “remote viewing,” a practice that adherents claim gives them the ability to sense the unseen “I didn’t reply because I could tell from the email that he was a nutcase,” Gloggnitzer told The Associated Press He said Rathien forwarded to him a criminal complaint that he had drawn up and sent to Germany’s federal prosecutors and “it was one conspiracy theory after another.” Rathien said that he worked for a price comparison website as a sales consultant but quit to devote all his attention to investigating the alleged surveillance he said he was born and raised in Hanau and earned a business degree local authorities told Germany’s dpa news agency Local media reported he owned three 9 mm pistols Some 5.4 million of Germany’s 83 million people have guns German police were also examining a video Rathjen may have posted online several days before the attack in which he detailed a conspiracy theory about child abuse in the United States but the message was similar to the fringe group’s central baseless belief that President Donald Trump is under attack from “deep state” enemies and that satanists and cannibals are running a child sex trafficking ring Antidote rests with responsible European politicians My thoughts are with the people of Germany as they grieve those lost in the terrible attack in Hanau last night The UK stands with our German friends against this racist assault on our values Es ist längst Zeit zu erkennen: Demokratie muss sich wehren gegen die Feinde der Freiheit. Das gilt natürlich für den Rechtsstaat. Das gilt aber auch für uns alle. Trauer und Entsetzen müssen uns Ansporn sein, umso entschiedener für unsere Demokratie einzutreten. #Hanau (2/2) please click the box below to let us know you're not a robot Get the most important global markets news at your fingertips with a Bloomberg.com subscription It took mere minutes for a far-right extremist to kill nine people having a night out in the German town It was 10pm on Wednesday when the shooting began in the west German town of Hanau. A man burst into the Turkish-owned Midnight bar, not far from the city centre. And then he started killing First he targeted three guests who were sitting down enjoying a late meal Then he shot dead the waiter who had just brought them their food the cafe with its comfortable green leather sofas and hookah pipes was transformed into a scene of bloody carnage It was popular with locals because it was one of few bars in the area that was open 24 hours a day – a good spot for a drink after work “They shot our brothers and children,” the bar’s owner Kemal Koçak said Floral tributes left outside the Midnight bar Photograph: Sascha Steinbach/EPAThe suspected murderer was identified as Tobias Rathjen The 43-year-old appears to have calmly left the cafe after the killing spree and climbed into his black BMW heading west towards the home he shared with his father and mother in the Kesselstadt district It was a five-minute journey past nail bars Far-right racist attacks in Germany are usually associated with the former communist east is situated in the west’s prosperous democratic heartland Seemingly unnoticed by the police or the authorities the suspect had harboured his hatred for foreigners and migrants in private before embarking on Wednesday’s horrific and demonstrative acts Instead he headed to Karl-Schumacher Platz and the Turkish-owned Arena bar and cafe He was spotted checking it out a week or so earlier Next door to the hookah bar – also open 24 hours – is a beauty salon and a Lidl supermarket; directly above is a multi-tenant apartment block; nearby are hotels and betting shops Police tape cordons off the Arena shisha bar Photograph: Armando Babani/EPAAccording to German media he rang the bell at the cafe’s side entrance Then he strolled inside and opened fire in a crowded smoking area he sprayed one half of the room with bullets before heading towards the other side At the time Iskender Muhammad had just started eating and was sitting at the bar with about a dozen friends “We heard five or six shots,” Muhammad recalled The guy collapsed on the floor and then the gunman came and shot at us We hid behind the wall and piled up on top of each other Speaking to Turkish television from his hospital bed The young guy beneath me had a hole in his neck I can’t breathe.’ I said: ‘Say the prayer for your soul.’ He cried out I didn’t know anything after that or see if the gunman left [the building].” In a matter of minutes, and in two separate locations, the shooter had murdered nine people These were coldly calculating and explicitly racist attacks the suspect drove to his home in Helmholtzstrasse He appears to have gone inside and shot his 72-year-old mother dead The car believed to belong to the suspect is removed from near his home Photograph: Thomas Lohnes/AFP via Getty ImagesRathjen then shot himself By the time armed police arrived at the front door in the early hours of Thursday – shouting a warning through a loudhailer before blowing off the front door – the suspected perpetrator was already dead Rathjen’s Glock was found next to his body and was the same weapon used in a previous deadly far-right shooting in Munich in 2016 Rathjen left behind a rambling, hate-filled manifesto in which he denounces Germany’s ethnic minorities the 24-page text calls for the “complete annihilation” of people from the Middle East He also claims mind readers from an “intelligence agency” have been controlling his deeds and thoughts residents gathered at the town’s Heumarkt to lay flowers in front of the bar where the second attack took place “It’s a slap in the face,” said Cem Karahalil who is childhood friends with one of the men injured inside the Arena bar Some of those murdered were friends of friends “I am speechless that something like this can still happen in our century because you couldn’t do anything to stop what happened even if maybe we couldn’t have done anything.” Ahmet Kata, 52, drove his bus past the venue at 10.30pm on Wednesday and had returned on Thursday. “It’s absolutely terrible,” he said with a Hessian accent. “Where does hatred like this come from that you just shoot people who are just out to have a pleasant time?” your new go-to podcast to spice up your weekday mornings with relevant news and behind-the-scenes from Brussels and beyond From the economy to the climate and the EU's role in world affairs this talk show sheds light on European affairs and the issues that impact on our daily lives as Europeans Tune in to understand the ins and outs of European politics Dare to imagine the future with business and tech visionaries Deep dive conversations with business leaders Euronews Tech Talks goes beyond discussions to explore the impact of new technologies on our lives the podcast provides valuable insights into the intersection of technology and society Europe's water is under increasing pressure floods are taking their toll on our drinking water Join us on a journey around Europe to see why protecting ecosystems matters and to discover some of the best water solutions an animated explainer series and live debate - find out why Water Matters We give you the latest climate facts from the world’s leading source analyse the trends and explain how our planet is changing We meet the experts on the front line of climate change who explore new strategies to mitigate and adapt Nine people have been killed in two shootings at shisha bars in the German city of Hanau Police say the suspected gunman and his mother were found dead after they stormed the man's home some hours later Federal prosecutors have taken over the case and say they suspect a far-right motive for the attacks Officials have alluded to extremist material being found at the man's apartment There were two attacks several minutes apart on shisha bars – also described as hookah lounges – in two districts of Hanau a city of some 100,000 people about 20 kilometres from Frankfurt Witnesses have described how several shots were fired The first bar attacked was called “Midnight” and the second the “Arena Bar and Cafe” They are situated about two kilometres apart Midnight is in Heumarkt in the city centre In the second attack the gunman is believed to have fired on a car and then the bar A manhunt was launched lasting several hours as police sought what was then an unknown number of perpetrators In photos from the scene a Mercedes car can be seen covered in foil perhaps indicating that in at least one of the shootings the victims were hit outside the bar often associated with the Middle East or South Asia are places where customers share flavoured tobacco from a communal instrument Reports said three people were killed in the first attack Police later said the number of fatalities had risen to nine after another person died of their injuries Several other people are said to have been injured The area where the shootings took place has a large Kurdish community The Turkish embassy in Berlin reported that five Turkish nationals were among those killed a lawmaker in Hesse's state parliament said he believed the victims came from Turkish and North African backgrounds police said early on Thursday morning that a suspect had been found dead at his home The body of another person was discovered at the scene The apartment is also said to be in Hanau’s Kasselstadt district AP reported that the police had followed up on witness statements about a getaway car Police carried out a search of the flat and investigations are focusing on possible far-right material Germany has been on alert for far-right extremism Federal prosecutors -- which investigate serious crimes including terrorism -- have taken over the case and the authorities say they suspect a far-right motive The interior minister for the state of Hesse said a website that indicated a "xenophobic motive" was being evaluated He added that prosecutors were treating it as an act of domestic terrorism Police said a video was taken down from social media sites on Thursday morning Reports have suggested the suspect left a "letter of confession" German media reports say investigators found ammunition in the suspect's car Police are said to have carried out check-ups on his background and to have found nothing untoward Attacker identified by media as Tobias Rathjen also said he was under control of ‘intelligence agency’ mind-readers The gunman who killed nine people in the town of Hanau out of apparent hatred of minorities and turned his weapon on his own mother and then himself has been identified in German media as Tobias Rathjen Born in 1977 in the Hessian town of 100,000 east of Frankfurt Rathjen attended a local school before training as a bank clerk in Frankfurt He took a degree in business management at the University of Bayreuth There is currently no indication that Rathjen was acting as part of a wider organised network The interior ministry of Hesse state said on Thursday that the gunman had not been on the radar of police or intelligence agencies for holding rightwing extremist views On what seems to have been his personal website taken offline in the hours since the attack Rathjen had uploaded a 24-page text in which he tells his life story claiming that his thoughts and actions have been controlled by mind-readers working for an unnamed “intelligence agency” While the statement does not explicitly announce his intention to carry out an act of terror, there are lengthy passages in which Rathjen rails against ethnic minorities in Germany and announces that people of certain African Asian and Middle Eastern origins have to be “completely annihilated” within the country A screengrab showing gunman Tobias Rathjen Photograph: Getty Images“If there was a button available that would make this become a reality Rathjen claims to have arrived at his belief from personal experiences at school and work as well as reading newspaper reports of fights between Germans and “foreigners” which he says would be aimed as a “double blow” against the secret organisation he believes is watching over him and the “degeneration of the people” the Hanau attacker also claims to have invented the slogan “America First” and predicted the plots of numerous Hollywood movies as well as the career of Liverpool FC’s coach A few days before the attack Rathjen uploaded an English-language video to Youtube in which he tried to warn Americans that they were controlled by devil-worshipping “secret societies” At about 3am in the early hours of Thursday special forces stormed Rathjen’s apartment on Helmholtzstrasse in Hanau’s western Kesselstadt district after witnesses had spotted his getaway car parked in the street police discovered the bodies of Rathjen and his 72-year-old mother The father of the family was taken in by police In the car they found ammunition and a gun holster German media reported that Rathjen had been in possession of a hunting licence Eyewitnesses recalled the Wednesday night’s horrendous terror attack in Germany’s western town of Hanau -- where a far-right extremist killed at least nine people located opposite to one of the cafes where the racist terrorist attack took place -- told Anadolu Agency they run to the site of the terror attack after hearing gunshots he was chatting with a friend in front of his kiosk a few meters away from the scene.He stated that he could not forget the horror of the night and that he is still shaken by the attack “My brother-in-law works for that cafe And the place was owned by my beloved friend who died in the attack,” Rutbil noted my brother Sedat was on the floor covered in blood,” he remembered Everything happened in just a matter of seconds,” he said Rutbil claimed the person shown on German television was not the attacker they saw at the scene “We saw the attacker from the back while he was running away the person they show on television is not the same person we saw I'm very sure of that [...] Even if I didn’t see his face I’m certain the person shown is not the person that shot our friends and brothers,” he added Rutbil also said there are nearly 30,000 Turkish migrants in the city and it is the first time such an attack took place He also said the attacker had been posting on Facebook about his views but authorities didn’t take any measures “It was obvious that he had a gun in his home,” Rutbil said adding the authorities could have prevented the incident but they failed to do so there will definitely be another attack at some other place [...] These [racist attacks] have been happening for years which one have they solved so far?” Rutbil questioned a Polish national living at the building opposite the cafe said she along with her boyfriend shot videos of the scene soon after the attack and posted them on social media “They [videos] had a great impact.”Susanna Kopec “We heard something outside at around 22.00 p.m Then my boyfriend opened the window to check what is happening outside There were people rushing out of the Midnight bar […] Police came just two minutes later,” said Kopec “It is just sad that a number of people died [...] It happened due to racism,” she added a 43-year-old far-right extremist attacked two shisha cafes in the western town of Hanau killing nine people with migration background and wounding six others identified by the authorities as Tobias R. posted a manifesto on the internet detailing his racist views and plans for ethnic cleansing It was the third major terrorist attack committed by a far-right extremist in Germany in the last several months the police dismantled a far-right terror cell and arrested 12 suspects over plans to attack six mosques to provoke a civil-war-like situation in the country Germany has witnessed growing racism and Islamophobia in recent years fueled by the propaganda of neo-Nazi groups and the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party Germany has the second-largest Muslim population in Western Europe after France Among the country’s nearly 4.7 million Muslims You don't have permission to access the page you requested What is this page?The website you are visiting is protected.For security reasons this page cannot be displayed Political pledges of action to deal with far-right terrorism are met with scepticism Days after terror struck in the heart of its community something like normality returned to the streets and cafes of Hanau yesterday On Freigerichtstrasse on the eastern side of town people once again gathered in one of the multifunction spaces that act as sports bars to have a smoke or a hot drink with friends I guess it is scary,” said the Romanian woman who runs the venue Germany’s government has promised to crack down on rightwing extremists offer better protection for Muslim communities and look into tightening gun laws in response to Wednesday’s attack in which 43-year-old Tobias Rathjen shot dead nine people at a shisha bar and a kiosk in the town before turning his gun on his mother and then himself In a 24-page document the killer uploaded to his website before the shootings Africa and the Middle East had to be “completely annihilated”; the population of Germany needed to be “halved” The victims at the Midnight shisha bar and the Arena bar included German One was a 35-year-old pregnant mother of two Germany has vowed to make money available to support their families the interior minister and former leader of the Bavarian Christian Social Union party said on Friday that the threat of rightwing extremism antisemitism and racism was “very high in Germany” and promised concrete steps to better protect minorities for example by increasing the police presence outside mosques There would also be tighter security at railway stations and airports Seehofer proposed tightening the gun laws to include regular checks on the mental health of those holding a weapons licence though other conservative politicians were quick to push back against such proposals which is running second to Angela Merkel’s CDU in the polls such as a crisis management taskforce made up of external experts “Rightwing extremism has lost all inhibitions in Germany,” said Katrin Göring-Eckardt Both the Greens and the centre-left Social Democrats have called for Germany’s domestic intelligence agency the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution to start monitoring the far-right party Alternative für Deutschland At Thursday night’s wake on Hanau town square, there were some who felt the causes behind the attack went much deeper in German society. “Merkel says racism is a poison,” said Hasan Budak, 54. “But the real poison is that we have people who work five days a week and still have to claim benefits to survive. They end up looking for scapegoats and turn on people who look foreign. We have to take away the fascists’ arguments.” This is the archive of The Observer up until 21/04/2025. The Observer is now owned and operated by Tortoise Media. Print BERLIN — The latest German right-wing racially motivated attack in which nine people of foreign descent were slain by a gunman storming three hookah bars has deeply unsettled a nation with tight gun-control laws which has long struggled to come to terms with its Nazi past Chancellor Angela Merkel strongly condemned on Thursday the terror attack by a 43-year-old man who left behind a video message and manifesto strewn with racial diatribes after firing on strangers in the western city of Hanau on Wednesday linking the assailant to the perpetrators of a string of other far-right attacks in the past year “This poison exists in our society and it’s to blame for far too many acts of crime We will stand up with all our power and determination against anyone trying to divide Germany.” identified in German media reports as Tobias Rathjen was found early Thursday morning in his apartment along with the body of his 72-year-old mother The Turkish Embassy in Berlin said five of the murdered were Turkish citizens — members of a Turkish community of about 3 million living in Germany whose office took control of the case it labeled a terrorist act said that all of the victims were of foreign descent and they included a pregnant 35-year-old mother of two and several Kurds Frank said police discovered a 24-page letter in the assailant’s apartment that, according to a report by Bild newspaper was filled with diatribes railing against foreigners and U.S intelligence agencies while calling for countries like Turkey “There were signs of deeply racist sentiment found” on the video message and manifesto It was the third deadly act of far-right violence in Germany in the last nine months In June a local political leader in Merkel’s conservative party was shot in the head by a right-wing extremist after he had repeatedly expressed his support for her decision in 2015 to allow in more than a million refugees from war-torn Syria and elsewhere a shooting attack on a synagogue in the city of Halle in left two dead Merkel’s controversial move to allow the refugees in has caused tensions across the country and created deep rifts in her conservative party indirectly contributing to a rise in support for a small far-right that some have blamed for fomenting public anger toward immigrants Foreign Minister Heiko Maas also expressed his alarm about the “horrific act” in Hanau that stunned many in Germany, a country that places strict limits on those who are allowed to own guns and gives police sweeping powers to confiscate weapons The assailant had a gun license and was a member of a sports gun club “Right-wing terrorism has once again become a threat to our country,” Maas said “Democracy needs to take a stand against the enemies of freedom.” told reporters that there was “definitely a racist motive” behind the shootings Hanau is a working class city of 100,000 with a high percentage of foreign residents The first shots were fired at about 10 p.m two people were shot at the nearby Café-Bar La Votre The assailant then drove about a mile to the Arena café-bar and shot to death another five people at about 10:30 p.m. Special police commandos stormed the apartment at 3 a.m. “Germany has been downplaying the danger from the far right for decades,” Oezcan Mutlu, a leader in the Greens party in Berlin who was moved to Germany from Turkey as a child, said in an interview. “For too long, people with far-right sentiment from parties like the AfD have been able to spread their incendiary ideas and portrayed Muslims as enemies. It’s time to wake up to the far-right threat.” Hajo Funke, an author of several books on the far-right in Germany and political scientist at the Free University of Berlin, said that the rise of the AfD, which has won more than 20% of the vote in some eastern states, and the increasingly shrill anti-foreign language from some party leaders had likely played a role in the string of violence in the last nine months. “There’s clearly a connection between the rhetoric and sentiment in Germany and the violence we’ve seen,” Funke said. “The language has gone so far at times that assailants like this feel encouraged to act.” Erik Kirschbaum is a special correspondent. California World & Nation Hollywood Inc. Subscribe for unlimited accessSite Map religious leaders and soccer stars are commemorating the victims of a racist attack in the German town of Hanau one year after the gunman shot dead nine people with immigrant backgrounds in downtown cafes and bars before killing his mother and then himself caused widespread shock in Germany and beyond Anti-racism campaigners called for a crackdown on hate speech of the kind espoused by the attacker who left behind a paranoid rant filled with conspiracy tropes and vitriol against migrants called Friday for vigilance when it comes to overt and hidden racism “We have almost forgotten again what happened back then,” he said in a video message “But the relatives of the victims are suffering to this day.” German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier was due to make a speech at a memorial event in Hanau in the evening expressing solidarity with the victims and their loved ones Relatives have called for the names of the victims — Ferhat Unvar Sedat Guerbuez and Goekhan Gueltekin — to be widely publicized a rare practice in privacy-conscious Germany a prominent lawyer who has represented victims of other racist crimes in Germany said the attack in Hanau should prompt politicians to reflect on the stereotypes about migrants they repeat including portraying shisha bars as crime dens “The state needs to start fighting racism in its own house," Daimagueler told news portal Watson calling for racist officials to lose their jobs and victims of hate crimes to be taken more seriously rewritten or redistributed without permission BERLIN (AP) — Around 10,000 protesters marched through the central German town of Hanau on Sunday to mourn the nine people who were killed by an immigrant-hating gunman four days ago A 43-year-old German man shot to death nine people in the Frankfurt suburb on Wednesday before apparently killing his mother and himself Five of the victims were reported to be Turkish citizens The attacker left rambling texts and videos in which he espoused racist views called for genocide and claimed to have been under surveillance since birth warned that Turkish immigrants in Germany are experiencing more and more hate crimes in the country "This cannot and this must not continue," Aydin said at the protest The racist killings were Germany's third deadly far-right attack in a matter of months The rampage followed October's anti-Semitic attack on a synagogue in Halle and the slaying in June of a regional politician who supported Chancellor Angela Merkel's welcoming policy toward migrants The killings come at a time when the far right anti-immigrant Alternative for Germany has become the country's first political party in decades to establish itself as a significant force on the extreme right All of the victims had immigrant roots and many are accusing the party of producing a climate where right-wing extremism and racism can flourish There have been daily candle vigils for the victims since the shooting and another big protest against racism on Saturday that also drew thousands A memorial for the victims is planned for later this week Essential digital access to quality FT journalism on any device Complete digital access to quality FT journalism with expert analysis from industry leaders Complete digital access to quality analysis and expert insights complemented with our award-winning Weekend Print edition Terms & Conditions apply Discover all the plans currently available in your country See why over a million readers pay to read the Financial Times rewritten or redistributed without permission.