Emergency medical intervention (symbolic image). © Fabian Geier / Einsatz-Report24 / Imago
In Mannheim, a 33-year-old allegedly killed his ex-partner with a kitchen knife on Monday morning and then killed himself.
Mannheim – Early Monday morning, an emergency call was received by the police in Mannheim. In an apartment on Neckarauer Waldweg, the emergency services found a 33-year-old man and his 36-year-old former partner dead. Investigators believe that the man first killed the 36-year-old and then himself with a kitchen knife. Two of the couple's three children were in the apartment at the time of the crime, but are doing well, according to police.
Man kills ex-partner and then himself: Two children at the time of the crime in the apartment
According to Monday, police and prosecutors assume that the 33-year-old man stabbed the 36-year-old in her apartment with a kitchen knife and then killed himself. The knife had been secured on the spot. The police had been alerted at around 2:00 a.m. – presumably by the woman herself who was still alive or the man shortly before his suicide. The emergency call was not spoken, a police spokesman explained the background.
At the time of the crime, the couple's two and three-year-old children were in the apartment. Probably, the two boys would not have noticed anything of the act, according to the police spokesman. The couple's third child, a 14-year-old daughter, was not at home on Monday morning, but was also doing well. The motive of the alleged perpetrator is still unclear. It is also still being determined whether the man had lived together with the woman in the apartment or was just visiting.
Femicides in Germany: Every third day a woman dies at the hands of a partner or ex-partner
More than a hundred women die in Germany every year at the hands of their partner or ex-partner, according to figures from the Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA). Every day there is also a police-registered attempted killing of a woman, the number of unreported cases is likely to be significantly higher. Violence in relationships also remains at a high level in Germany, with 90 percent of victims being women, according to a BKA evaluation. "Women are killed because they are women and they are degraded to a thing, a thing. Far too many men still believe that women belong to them," said Federal Minister for Family Affairs Lisa Paus (Greens) in an interview with Bunte in mid-May.
Jealousy, love and aggression against women are often cited as motives. "Violence has nothing to do with love, but with power," the Green politician replied. The fight against violence against women is long overdue, said the minister. "Until the nineties, marital rape was unpunished, and Friedrich Merz voted against the overdue reform in the Bundestag at the time," Paus recalled. Today, there is more sensitivity to the issue, but still too little help. According to the Minister of Family Affairs, she wants to expand the number of women's shelters and counselling centres (bme/dpa).
"Do you have suicidal thoughts or have you noticed them in a relative/acquaintance? Help is offered by the telephone counselling service: Anonymous advice is available around the clock on the free numbers 0800 / 111 0 111 and 0800 / 111 0 222. Advice via the Internet is also possible at http://www.telefonseelsorge.de."