It is the morning after a day when an act overshadowed everything: the attempted attack on a synagogue in Halle, which claimed two dead and two injured.
Deadly shots in Saxony-Anhalt
Jens Schlueter / Getty Images
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This scene, what a horror. A young man in combat gear, who shoots at the door of a synagogue , tries to blow it up, then resigns in resignation. Behind the door 70, 80 worshipers, scared, the head of the Jewish community in Halle can follow everything on the video camera at the entrance. It is Yom Kippur, the supreme Jewish holiday, the festival of reconciliation, how cynical.
There could have been many deaths, at noon in Halle yesterday, had the door of the synagogue not been so well secured, and had not the boy's self-made rifle failed so often.
There were still dead, a courageous woman who appeals to the man as he throws an explosive device into the graveyard next to the synagogue. He strikes her down with a shot, later he shoots her probably dead body several times.
A man also dies in a Turkish kebab shop, which the culprit visits after he failed at the synagogue. Two more people are injured.
It commemorates the crime of the Norwegian assassin Anders Behring Breivik 2011 with 77 dead, it commemorates the assassin Brenton Tarrant of Christchurch this year with 51 dead. Astonishing parallels exist, the perpetrator appeared martial, he wrote a cold manifesto in which the goal is described "to kill as many anti-whites as possible, preferably Jews". The act was recorded with a helmet camera and should be transmitted live on the Internet, the offender addressed an imaginary audience, where he apologized repeatedly because his plan had not worked. It seemed as if he had been under great pressure to succeed.
Today and in the next few days many questions arise for politics and society: Are Jewish citizens and their places of encounter in Germany adequately protected? Why was the synagogue not guarded on this holiday, why was the police not there right away? Will the police have to guard every synagogue in the future, even the little ones, the more unknown ones? And what does that mean for Germany, if Jews here have to fear for their lives? Do we adequately perceive who is preparing the ground for anti-Semitism , consciously or unconsciously? When and where did this young man develop his hatred, which was directed not only against Jews, but also against people who are in a kebab store?
The 27-year-old should have been a single perpetrator , nevertheless, the question of who or what promoted his radicalization, the disappearance of any empathy, the targeted hatred? Who could possibly help him build and procure weapons (his rental car was full of it)? Did he have friends from the right-wing extremist scene, he rocked in relevant forums on the net, who brought him the hatred of Jews, who the denial of the Holocaust, he was actually a lone wolf, a lone wolf?
Since the right-wing terrorist assassination attempt on Kassel's regional governor Walter Lübcke, it is clear that the German security authorities have a deficit in the fight against right-wing extremism . In Islamist terror, they are on, for example, in the threat assessment of potential perpetrators.
Politicians urgently need to put in place regulatory reforms and develop new concepts to discover in advance those right-wing terrorists who do not leave behind the usual and obvious traces that are as hidden and unobtrusive as this young man.
Should there have been any doubts that urgent action is needed, they are likely to be eliminated since yesterday.
- In the news blog you can read all the events of the day. The great research with all previous findings on the attack in Halle can be found here. And this afternoon you read on spiegel.de an interview with SPD Secretary General Lars Klingbeil, who also commented on the act of Halle.
The "Landplage"
Herwig Prammer / REUTERS
If one wants to understand how anti-Semitism can spread undisturbed , one only has to look to Austria. There appeared in the summer of 2015 in the extreme right-wing journal "Die Aula" a text that dealt with the consequences of the liberation of the concentration camp Mauthausen. "The fact," it said in it, "that a not inconsiderable part of the freed prisoners from Mauthausen the people to the land plague , is for the judicially proved and will be denied on Thursday only by concentration camp fetishists."
Investigations against the author of the text were quickly stopped, with a staggering explanation: It was "understandable that the release of several thousand people from the Mauthausen concentration camp was a nuisance for the affected areas of Austria," wrote the competent prosecutor. The author then reiterated his anti-Semitic statements about concentration camp liberals as "mass murderers", "criminals" and "plagues".
Aba Lewit, who was one of the last Jewish survivors of the Mauthausen concentration camp at the age of 96, and other ex-inmates went to "Die Aula" and demanded compensation. The Regional Court for Criminal Matters Graz dismissed the applications, however: The collective of Mauthausen Liberals, which in 1945 included up to 20,000 people, was too large, that each individual member would be personally identifiable and affected by the statements. The plaintiffs appealed unsuccessfully. Finally, Lewit moved to the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) in Strasbourg and sued Austria. The written judgment is expected today.
It would be a scandal if the justice system's previous dealings with the author and the survivors were considered legal.
- The Jewish CDU politician Mike Delberg tells how he deals with the everyday threat and how much he longs for normalcy
Acute diplomacy
Kirsty Wigglesworth / AP
At Brexit, the situation is getting worse , it's like football, three minutes before the final whistle, is still the saving hit to victory?
Boris Johnson talks to his Irish counterpart Leo Varadkar today . The question of how future border traffic between Northern Ireland and Ireland will be regulated is at the heart of the dispute between Brussels and London.
As things stand, Britain is expected to leave the EU on 31 October, but there is no such thing as an agreement that is mutually agreed. Against a hard Brexit turn, which Johnson advocate, the British Parliament had spoken out.
On Friday, Britain's Brexit minister Steve Barclay is likely to meet EU chief negotiator Michel Barnier. It's the last day an agreement can be reached before a law commits Johnson to postpone Brexit for another three months, which he absolutely wants to prevent. However, the chances of reaching an agreement are not high.
In order to break the anti-attitude of Parliament, Johnson remained in the episode only new elections. Alternatively, he could ignore the law of Parliament and work towards a hard Brexit, whatever the consequences.
All options do not sound good.
Maybe one should not give up hope for a successful negotiation. At least not until Friday.
- Johnson welcomes the President of the European Parliament: "Oh, you should not be sad"
The compact news overview in the morning: current and opinionated. Every morning (weekdays) at 6 o'clock. Order directly here:
The latest news from the night
- Turkey has now launched a ground offensive in northern Syria: with a bipartisan resolution, US senators want to increase pressure on the Turkish president. In addition, the US is taking over several captured IS fighters of Kurdish militias in Syria
- Video report from Halle: After the attack in Halle with two dead, hundreds of people gathered in the city in the evening to mourn together - our video reporters were on site
- Oxfam study on Assam tea: Foods go back a long way to land in German supermarkets - often leaving behind the human rights of workers in their countries of origin
The SPIEGEL + recommendations for today
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- Before the election in Poland: That's why the right-wing nationalists are so popular
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- Boxing fights soon back on ZDF: Fair Play - that would be something new
I wish you a nice day, also with time to think.
Your Martin Knobbe
