1. The insane act of Ilerkirchberg
What motivates a man to attack two girls aged 13 and 14 on their way to school with a knife, to stab them, to injure them so much that one girl dies a little later and the other is seriously injured in the hospital?
After the act of violence in Illerkirchberg in Baden-Württemberg, this question worries many people in the state today.
Did you also squeeze your child particularly hard this morning when it left the house?
Many of the circumstances of the crime are still in the dark the day after.
But the authorities now have some information about the suspect, a 27-year-old man from Eritrea who appears to be living in a refugee shelter near the scene of the crime.
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Markings from the police forensics at the scene of the crime: suspected knife attacker still in the hospital
Photo: Bernd Weissbrod / dpa
The alleged perpetrator had undergone surgery with significant injuries and is under police guard in the hospital, the prosecutor said.
A police spokesman had previously said the man may have injured himself with the knife.
The public prosecutor's office checks whether they have applied for an arrest warrant or whether there are indications of reduced or excluded criminal responsibility.
This would possibly result in placement in a psychiatric hospital.
A short psychiatric report on this has been commissioned.
According to the authorities, the alleged perpetrator has not yet been noticed by violent crimes.
He was only caught doing fare evasion once.
How do the people in Illerkirchberg deal with the horrific act?
Horror and bewilderment are likely to be great in the 5,000-inhabitant community.
Many have already placed flowers and candles at the crime scene, a dim, unlit thoroughfare.
The two girls only had to walk 50 meters to the illuminated bus stop on the main street at around 7.30 a.m. yesterday and then take the bus to their school in Ulm.
My colleague Rüdiger Bäßler was there today;
he spoke to non-party mayor Markus Häußler, who says men from Eritrea had been living in the house in front of which the girls were stabbed for several years.
So far, "there has been good social control there," according to the mayor.
Read more here: A village is looking for explanations
2. Rag away in bus and train
Bavaria is one of the first federal states to abolish the obligation to wear masks in local public transport.
From next weekend there will be a "recommendation" for buses and trains to wear a mask.
After his mental journey from team caution to team sense of proportion, Bavaria's Prime Minister Markus Söder (CSU) has now arrived in team freedom, once again successfully demonstrating his adaptability to changing surveys.
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Woman with corona mask on the tram
Photo:
Julian Rettig / dpa
The counter-example of defiant perseverance is provided by Federal Health Minister Karl Lauterbach (SPD).
Yesterday he appealed to the federal states to maintain the mask requirement in local transport.
He can draw on a robust body of medical studies that are presumably on the bedside table next to his bed.
In politics, however, Lauterbach seems to have suffered another defeat.
Söder torments him with statements from the Bavarian state government, according to which the mask requirement is no longer appropriate "due to the current stable infection situation".
Like Bavaria, Saxony-Anhalt now wants to phase out the mask requirement, probably before the weekend.
Schleswig-Holstein also wants to relax.
States like Thuringia and Hesse would like to extend the requirement, but noted that it would be difficult if others abolished it.
Train passengers in German local transport will soon be putting on or taking off their masks, depending on the federal state.
But, hey, there will soon be a nationwide public transport ticket for that.
However, you could also simply wear the mask voluntarily.
My colleague Julia Aé draws attention to this in his comment.
The mask has become a symbol of division.
Well, without compulsion, it could become a sign of "politeness and consideration."
Read the full comment here: For the mask, against duty
3. The Bierhoff earthquake and its consequences
Oliver Bierhoff is gone – is Hansi Flick going too?
In any case, the coach of the German national soccer team, which failed in Qatar, reacted with great regret to the end for the DFB director: "My coaching team and I are finding it difficult at the moment to imagine how the gap created by Oliver's departure can be closed professionally and personally can,” it said in a statement.
Flick thanked Bierhoff for the long cooperation.
»For me personally, Oliver was my first contact and friend within the team.
Our common goal was the EM 2024 project in Germany.« (More on the background to Bierhoff's withdrawal here.)
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Photo:
Marc Schueler / IMAGO/
Tomorrow there should be a meeting between Flick, DFB President Bernd Neuendorf and DFL Supervisory Board Chairman Hans-Joachim Watzke.
So far, Flick had emphasized that he wanted to continue.
But he has already proven at Bayern Munich that he is not afraid to say goodbye if something does not suit him.
First of all, German football needs a successor to Bierhoff.
My colleague Felix Dachsel writes in his World Cup mini column that there can actually only be one candidate:
"In German football, sooner or later people will talk about Matthias Sammer, it's that time again. You must have heard the latest rumor. For me, Matthias Sammer is the man of ›biliousness‹. Ten years ago, when he was sporting director in Munich, he scolded after the final whistle that the team hadn't been 'bilious' enough. Bayern had just won for the ninth time in a row.
I looked up what this word actually means in the dictionary and came across an example sentence that really leaves no questions unanswered: 'Due to improper gutting, the turkey was bilious and inedible'. Okay, Mr. Sammer, take over. That sounds delicious."
Read more here: »I have a hard time imagining how the gap can be closed«
News and background to the war in Ukraine
Attack with the miracle drone - or the museum piece?
Ukraine has attacked Russian military airfields with drones.
Russia apparently has a massive problem with its air defenses.
What is known so far.
How scouts spy out the Russian supply lines:
The Ukrainians have recaptured Kharkiv and Cherson - and now they are pushing further.
They want to cut off supplies to the Russians in the Donbass.
Ukrainian scouts have an important role to play in this.
"The risk of a tanker accident is greater than it has been for a long time":
Russia wants to circumvent the West's oil price cap with a "shadow fleet" made up of old tankers.
That could be dangerous, says expert Adnan Vatansever.
He warns of further risks.
Find all the latest developments on the war in Ukraine here: The News Update
What else is important today
Greens oppose the Ministry of Transport's motorway plans: Minister of
Transport Wissing is counting on faster construction of new motorways, causing trouble for the Greens.
The draft law contradicts the coalition agreement, warns their transport policy spokesman, Gelbhaar.
Constitutional Court allows German participation in EU corona funds:
For the first time, the EU Commission is incurring billions in debt to help member states in the corona pandemic.
The Federal Constitutional Court has now approved Germany's participation in the program.
Economists plead for a higher tax on the wealthy:
Socially, an increase in the tax on the wealthy in Germany is controversial.
Experts, however, have a clear preference for it - as a survey of 153 experts shows.
"A revolution that we absolutely need":
The problems in the hospital system have been known for years.
Health Minister Lauterbach now wants to counteract this with a reform.
The government commission is presenting a large package of measures.
My favorite story today: The Black Friday Schmu
The "Black Friday" discount battle at the start of the Christmas business, which is now also common in Germany, is in truth often just scams and fools. My colleagues Holger Dambeck and Simon Uhl came to this conclusion after comparing the price trends of the 1000 most important products on the comparison portal cheaper. de have analyzed More than a third of the products were therefore even more expensive on the alleged bargain day than in the previous month.
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Photo: Axel Heimken / picture alliance / dpa
Here are a few examples: The vacuum cleaner V12 Slim Absolute from Dyson suddenly cost 609 euros on Black Friday instead of 567 euros, i.e. 7.5 percent more.
Apple's AirPods Pro with MagSafe charging case increased in price by 3.1 percent.
A Lacoste perfume gained 25.7 percent.
And for 500 grams of Jacobs Krönung coffee, even 29.3 percent more was due on Black Friday.
"It confirms the assumption that prices will rise before the discount days," Thilo Gans, Managing Director of billiger.de, told my colleagues.
Somehow also logical: Why should retailers sell their most popular products in the run-up to Christmas, when demand is particularly high?
But when is a good time to shop for gifts?
For some products, the prices have actually fallen again after Black Friday.
But if you really want to save money when shopping for Christmas, it's probably better to wait a little longer - until after Christmas.
Read the full story here: Paid on Discount Day
What we recommend at SPIEGEL+ today
Why it rained meat from the sky in Kentucky:
It looked like beef – but what really fell on a farm in Kentucky in 1876 puzzled experts for decades.
The solution is unsavory.
For whom the inheritance of real estate is now becoming more expensive:
A change in tax law means that it can become expensive to inherit real estate in 2023.
The owner lobby is sounding the alarm, but tax experts are reassuring.
What owners need to know now.
»This is Ethiopia's last chance«:
There is a ceasefire in Tigray – but Eritrean forces are still plundering and murdering there, the starving are waiting for aid deliveries.
Ethiopia expert Alex de Waal is nevertheless cautiously optimistic.
The man with the credibility problem:
Finance Minister Christian Lindner wonders how he could be more successful in the traffic light coalition?
He should try sound financial policy.
Which is less important today
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Billie Eilish: 'This is absolutely incredible for me to see'
Photo Credit: Joel C Ryan / Joel C Ryan/Invision/AP
Feminist:
Billie Eilish
, 20, is happy about the growing success of women in the music business.
"It's absolutely incredible for me to see because it hasn't always been like this," the US singer told the BBC.
About herself, Eilish said she often feels most powerful when she's more masculine.
She struggled with it for a long time, but now she can also draw strength from her feminine side.
Eilish stormed the charts with her debut album when she was 17.
This year she won the Oscar with her song "No Time to Die" for the latest Bond film.
Typo of the day
, now corrected: “The Federal Constitutional Court has decided that Germany’s participation in the EU’s billion-euro Corona development fund is legal.”
And tonight?
The corona break in the theaters is over, but the ranks in many houses often remain empty.
This applies "especially to those theaters that were chosen by specialist journalists as the most important in the German cultural area," says director Matthias Hartmann.
"Like there's a causal connection."
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Corona seating in the Berliner Ensemble 2020
Photo: Britta Pedersen / picture alliance / dpa
For SPIEGEL, Hartmann wrote a bitter reckoning with theater makers who have long considered the general public to be superfluous, as philistines who do not want to take part in the progressive content and aesthetic discourse of our time.
»The audience is not needed.
In its capriciousness it endangers the mining of meaning.«
Hartmann therefore considers the theater crisis to be a home-grown problem: »Shakespeare and Molière, the theater giants, refined the punch lines until the people in the auditorium stopped chatting, walking around or eating during the performance.
They knew what they were doing.
This is another reason why they were the greatest theater artists of all time.
However, I maintain that there are only a few directors in the German cultural area who simply have the technical ability to captivate the audience's attention.
The theater today is probably the best-paid dilettante hideaway in the whole world.«
Do you agree with Hartmann?
When was the last time you went to the theatre?
And should it really be your last time?
Please write to me: alexander.neubacher@spiegel.de
I wish you a nice evening.
Yours sincerely,
Alexander Neubacher