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Germany Shooting Is Deadliest Yet in Upsurge of Far-Right Attacks Far-Right Shooting Shatters an Already Fragile Sense of Security in Germany
(32 minutes later)
HANAU, Germany — A German gunman driven by racism and diffuse conspiracy theories opened fire on two bars frequented by immigrants late Wednesday, killing nine people and shocking a nation where violent crimes targeting minorities have spiked against the backdrop of a resurgent far right. HANAU, Germany — At least until a racist extremist opened fire at a hookah bar Wednesday night, killing nine mostly young people in Germany’s worst attack in recent memory, Hanau considered itself a melting pot, an island of tolerance.
Politicians scrambled to express their sorrow and horror at the attack, which security officials said on Thursday was carried out by a 43-year-old German who appeared to have been driven by ethnic hatred. A working-class community in western Germany, just outside Frankfurt, Hanau was ethnically diverse long before the issue of immigration began tearing apart German politics with the arrival of nearly a million asylum seekers five years ago.
The shooting in Hanau, 15 miles east of Frankfurt, was the most violent in a growing string of attacks targeting ethnic minorities, or Germans who openly support them, in a country roiled by bitter debates over immigration in recent years. All nine of those killed in the bars had immigrant backgrounds, Peter Frank, Germany’s federal prosecutor, said. “We have lived very peacefully together,” said Metin Kan, a 43-year-old of Turkish descent, who said he was a friend of one of the victims, the owner of the Midnight bar.
“Everything is being done to clarify the background of these horrible murders to the last detail,” Chancellor Angela Merkel told reporters in Berlin. “But at present there is much evidence that the perpetrator acted out of right-wing extremist, racist motives. Out of hatred against people of other origins, other beliefs or other outward appearances.” The attack Wednesday did more than shock Germany. It drove home the realization that no one, and no part of the country, is now immune to the potential for violence that has been unleashed with rise of a far right angered by Germany’s changing society.
“Racism is a poison,” Ms. Merkel said. “Hatred is a poison.” The attack, the authorities said, was carried out by a 43-year-old German who had posted a racist video and screed on the internet. He was later found dead from a gunshot, along with his mother, at his home, the authorities said, without identifying them.
The suspect and his mother, neither of whom were officially identified, were both found shot dead in his home early Thursday, said Peter Beuth, the interior minister for the central state of Hesse. His rampage took place in the heart of a region that prides itself on diversity and tolerance. The victims were not among the recent asylum seekers in Germany from places like Syria who have so angered the far right.
Germany has some of the world’s strictest gun laws and last year moved to tighten them further, including requiring background checks, after a spike in shootings by right-wing extremists in the past year. Rather, for the most part, they came from Turkish and Kurdish families that have lived in Germany for generations.
The local authorities in Hanau said the gunman had been in possession of a valid gun license for marksmanship. The license was issued to Tobias Rathjen, said an official from Main-Kinzig, the district that includes Hanau, who declined to be named because he was not authorized to disclose the information. People of foreign descent in Hanau, a city of 95,000, often object to being called immigrants. In many cases, they are German citizens, born in Germany.
That was apparently the case for several of the victims, including one identified by relatives as Ferhat Unvar, 23, who had just finished training to be a heating system installer. Mr. Unvar, from a Kurdish family, had never visited his parents’ homeland, said Aydin Yilmaz, a cousin.
“It’s important to say that,” Mr. Yilmaz said. “He was born in Hanau. He’s a German. It was an act of terror against us all.”
“He had nothing against anyone,” Mr. Yilmaz said. “He just wanted to spend a nice evening with his friends.”
Mr. Yilmaz was among dozens of people who gathered Thursday afternoon at a Kurdish community center, a simple building across from a Harley-Davidson dealership on the outskirts of Hanau. Pictures of the victims were tacked to the wall. People drank strong tea from paper cups and talked quietly.
Mr. Unvar’s father was among them, looking gaunt with grief. Asked by a reporter if he wanted to say anything about his son, the father nodded affirmatively, but was then unable to speak. A woman standing next to him apologized, saying he was in too much shock.
Waves of “Gastarbeiter,” or guest workers, were brought to Germany in the 1950s and 1960s because of labor shortages, many of them from Turkey. Among them, Mr. Yilmaz said, was Mr. Unvar’s grandfather, who worked on paving crews, helping to build the streets that the perpetrator walked on.
Many people in western Germany have regarded right-wing sentiment as largely an eastern German phenomenon. When waves of Syrians refugees arrived in 2015, they were barely noticed in some western cities where there were already large minority communities.
In the aftermath of the attack, some residents wondered if the right-wing sentiment that had gripped other parts of the country had finally arrived here.
But Hanau has apparently long harbored right-wing sympathizers. In the last city elections, the far-right, anti-immigration Republikaner party received almost 10 percent of the votes.
That was even before the Alternative for Germany, or AfD, became the first far-right party to enter Parliament since World War II, in Germany’s last national elections in 2018.
“The AfD,” Mr. Kan said, “they’re the ones who are profiting from this hate.”
German politicians scrambled on Thursday to express their sorrow and horror at the attack, and to tamp down widening fears in Germany’s immigrant communities that they are endangered.
“Everything is being done to clarify the background of these horrible murders to the last detail,” Chancellor Angela Merkel told reporters in Berlin.
“Racism is a poison,” she said. “Hatred is a poison.”
Germany has some of the world’s strictest gun laws and last year moved to tighten them further, including requiring background checks, after a spike in shootings by right-wing extremists.
German authorities did not officially identify the gunman, in keeping with the country’s strict privacy laws. But the local authorities in Hanau said the gunman had a valid gun license.
It was issued to Tobias Rathjen, said an official from Main-Kinzig, the district that includes Hanau, who declined to be named because he was not authorized to disclose the information.
Terrorism experts and several German media outlets identified the shooter as Tobias R., whose photos matched the images of a man who posted a nearly two-minute screed on the YouTube page of a Tobias Rathjen, which has since been taken down.Terrorism experts and several German media outlets identified the shooter as Tobias R., whose photos matched the images of a man who posted a nearly two-minute screed on the YouTube page of a Tobias Rathjen, which has since been taken down.
Speaking in accented English, he addressed Americans, citing various conspiracy theories and calling on them to “Fight now.”Speaking in accented English, he addressed Americans, citing various conspiracy theories and calling on them to “Fight now.”
Mr. Frank, whose office took over the investigation into the shooting in Hanau, a city of about 95,000 people, did not name the suspect, but said that racist materials found on the attacker’s website pointed to a far-right motive for the crime. Why he addressed Americans and spoke in English remains a mystery, but it recalled the failed attempt to storm a synagogue in Halle on Yom Kippur last October. The gunman instead shot and killed a passer-by and a customer at a kebab shop.
“On the home page of the suspected attacker were posted video messages and a sort of manifesto that, in addition to confused thoughts and abstruse conspiracy theories, displayed deeply racist convictions,” Mr. Frank said. Then, too, the attacker, a German, left a racist online diatribe in English, in what experts said was an attempt to broadcast his hate to a broader audience.
This latest shooting adds to an expanding number of far-right attacks in a political environment that has grown more aggressive, especially since the Alternative for Germany party became the first far-right party to enter Germany’s national Parliament since World War II. “The profiles of the all the attackers are uncannily similar,” said Peter Neumann, a professor of security studies at Kings College London. “All were socially isolated men who spent a lot of time online and had problems with women. They all cobbled their ideologies together in a do-it-yourself manifesto.”
In June, a conservative politician whose name had appeared on a neo-Nazi hit list circulated online was fatally shot in the head in what officials believe was the country’s first far-right political assassination since the Nazi era. The Hanau shootings add to an expanding number of far-right attacks in a political environment that has grown more aggressive with the AfD’s rise.
Less than six months later, a right-wing gunman killed two Germans — a passer-by and a customer at a kebab shop — after a failed attempt to storm a synagogue in Halle on Yom Kippur. The number of far-right racist hate crimes surged from 2017 to 2018, to 1,664 from about 1,200, according to police statistics. The attacks — including stabbings, beatings, threats and harassment — targeted refugees, Jews and politicians or local representatives who voiced support for foreigners.
Last week, the authorities broke up a suspected far-right terrorist network, arresting 12 people, including a member of the police force. More recent figures have not been released yet, but violence and threats have continued.
In the past three decades, the German population has grown increasingly diverse, leading to bitter dispute over who qualifies as German and who is still considered a “foreigner” in a country where roughly a quarter of the nearly 82 million inhabitants are immigrants or descendants of immigrants. In June, a conservative politician, Walter Lübcke, who had supported refugees, was fatally shot in the head. A man with neo-Nazi ties and a record of attacks on minorities confessed to the killing, which officials called the country’s first far-right political assassination since the Nazi era.
That debate became especially inflamed after Ms. Merkel’s decision in 2015 to open Germany’s borders to more than a million asylum seekers, many from wars in Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan. Security forces then revealed that Mr. Lübcke was one of many people on a neo-Nazi hit list.
The conflict over the country’s cultural identity spilled into the streets in the eastern city of Chemnitz in August 2018, when Germans flashing Nazi salutes and shouting “Foreigners out!” clashed with others chanting “Refugees welcome.” The attack in Halle came less than four months later.
The rioting followed the fatal stabbing of a 35-year-old German. A year later, a Syrian asylum seeker was convicted of manslaughter in the killing. And last week, the authorities broke up a suspected far-right terrorist network that they said had been plotting to attack politicians, asylum seekers and Muslims. Among the 12 men arrested was a member of the police.
Kemal Kocak, a cashier at a convenience store next to the Arena Cafe & Bar, the second to be attacked, said that he had arrived at the scene soon after the shootings and found a “catastrophe.” In the past three decades, the German population has grown increasingly diverse, leading to bitter dispute over who qualifies as German and who is still considered a “foreigner.” Roughly a quarter of Germany’s nearly 82 million people are immigrants or descendants of immigrants.
“Afghani, Bosnian, Pole, two Turks, a Roma,” said Mr. Kocak, who said he had known virtually all of the victims. The conflict over the country’s cultural identity spilled into the streets in the eastern city of Chemnitz in August 2018, when Germans flashing Nazi salutes chased down people they thought looked like immigrants.
In front of state lawmakers, who gathered to hold a moment of silence for the victims before canceling their planned session, Mr. Beuth declared: “I condemn this act in sharpest terms,” adding: “It is an attack on our free and democratic society.” The Hanau shootings have deepened the sense of insecurity among minority groups, leaving them frustrated at what they regard as a tepid government response to the growing strength of right-wing movements.
Flags on public buildings across the state were ordered lowered to half-staff. A school and several day care centers in the area remained closed on Thursday, the city’s mayor said on Facebook. “We would like to see the government take more decisive action against right-wing extremism,” said Mehmet Tanriverdi, vice chair of the Kurdish Community in Germany, who visited the scene of the shooting Thursday.
Both of the bars attacked, the Midnight and the Arena, were popular with young people from the city’s tight-knit Kurdish and Turkish communities. Turkish officials said that five of the victims were citizens of Turkey. A few minutes later, sirens and the rumble of police motorcycles drowned out his words, as a motorcade arrived carrying Horst Seehofer, the German interior minister, one of numerous political leaders who swept into Hanau to offer condolences.
One young man who spoke in Turkish from his hospital bed to TRT television said that he had been in a group of about a dozen friends who had just ordered, when they heard several shots ring out. As Mr. Seehofer spoke to reporters in front of the Midnight bar, a man in the crowd shouted, “It’s all just theater!”
“Than I saw the man coming inside,” said the victim, identified only as Muhammed B. “He came to the other side and killed them all. Than he came to our side and shot anyone he saw from the head.” Earlier, state lawmakers gathered to hold a moment of silence for the victims before canceling their planned session, and flags on public buildings across the state were ordered lowered to half-staff.
The police had cordoned off the block around the Midnight Bar, which faces a pedestrian area with gaming parlors, kebab restaurants and small hotels. Fluorescent paint markings could be seen on the sidewalk, seemingly made by police officers securing evidence. Claus Kaminsky, the mayor of Hanau, called the attack ‘‘one of the most bitter hours in our peacetime history.”
Small groups of residents talked among themselves, but life in the neighborhood was already returning to normal. A gaming parlor several doors down from the shooting scene was already full of patrons. “We will do everything humanly possible to defend our shared solidarity,’’ he said. ‘‘We will not allow it to be destroyed.”
Tarek Al Wazir, the economy minister for the state of Hesse, drew comparisons to Anders Brevik, who went on a rampage in Norway in 2011 that killed 77 people, and the attacker in Halle, saying that he believed the gunman appeared to have been self-radicalized. Citizens, too, were anxious to show that the vast majority remains tolerant. In the early evening, throngs of residents streamed toward the city’s market square for a demonstration of solidarity, many carrying homemade signs. Across the street from the Midnight bar, people left flowers or lit candles.
“We know this from Islamic terrorism, that people radicalize over the internet” via videos and in chat groups, he told the German news outlet N-TV. But expressions of sympathy and solidarity did not go far in appeasing anxieties.
The first attack took place at around 10 p.m. at the Midnight, a hookah bar — sometimes referred to as a shisha bar, named for the water pipes that are smoked on the premises — that was popular with young people from the local Kurdish and Turkish community. Farak Demir, who described himself as a friend of one victim, said that Hanau’s ethnic and religious groups generally treat each other with respect. But he was also among those suddenly wondering whether that sentiment was as widespread as he had thought.
Shortly afterward, residents in Hanau started posting warnings on social media with the license plate number of a car urging people to remain inside their homes. “We have no security, foreigners in Germany,” he said. “It happens again and again.”
German media cited witnesses who reported seeing a vehicle fleeing from the scene, and the police later said they were searching for “a dark car” in connection with the attack.
The police said they were called to a different neighborhood in the city, and local media reported that more shots had been fired at the Arena Bar by a gunman who then fled the scene. At least nine people were killed at the two bars, another remained in serious condition and five others were injured, Mr. Frank said.
“There were bodies lying on the ground,” said Mr. Kocak, the cashier, who added that most of the victims were men. “There was blood everywhere.”
The area around the home where the suspect’s body was found remained cordoned off on Thursday. A neighbor said Mr. Rathjen had grown up in the white rowhouse with his parents.
“He seemed nice, but very shy, even a bit awkward,” said Andrea Lischeid, 53. “When I greeted him, he would greet back, but he’d quickly look away.”
Claus Kaminsky, the mayor of Hanau, where several hundred U.S. troops and their families were stationed until 2008, called for a vigil to be held in honor of the victims later Thursday.
“It is one of the most bitter hours in our peacetime history,” he said. “We will do everything humanly possible to defend our shared solidarity. We will not allow it to be destroyed.”
Jack Ewing reported from Hanau, and Melissa Eddy from Berlin. Christopher F. Schuetze contributed reporting from Hanau and Tiffany May and Austin Ramzy from Hong Kong.Jack Ewing reported from Hanau, and Melissa Eddy from Berlin. Christopher F. Schuetze contributed reporting from Hanau and Tiffany May and Austin Ramzy from Hong Kong.