Hartmut Linnekugel can remember the first day of the trial, of course he can, after all it was about his city, Volkmarsen, it was about people who wanted to celebrate Carnival on Shrove Monday 2020 and were run over by a man in a silver Mercedes .
Parents swaying on the side of the road, children bending down for candy.
Hartmut Linnekugel also remembers how the public prosecutor read out the charges, attempted murder in 91 cases and dangerous bodily harm, the number was corrected to 88 cases during the trial. The man intended to “kill on the street”. Linnekugel also remembers his hope that the one question that concerns everyone would be resolved: Why is someone doing this?
The verdict is expected this Thursday, more than six months after the trial began, but the people in Volkmarsen still have no answer. The accused was silent. How does a city deal with it?
Helmut Linnekugel is 60 years old and has been mayor of Volkmarsen for 23 years. On Rose Monday 2020 he himself was standing on a car, motto: German Unity, he was disguised as Michael Gorbatschow. As they meandered through the streets, first the cell phone of the city fire inspector rang, a traffic accident, then that of the Wehrführer, something was wrong. Linnekugel started running.
“A picture of horror”
It wasn’t a traffic accident, a man drove into the move. First in the running group “Wilde 13”, some people he brushed with the outside mirror, others he hit head-on, they skidded over the car roof, he drove on, on and on, and when he stopped after 42 meters, when a woman tried to turn the ignition key pulling the wagon, he strangled her. Only several men were able to hold him. Children lay under the car. “That was a picture of horror,” says Linnekugel.
Hartmut Linnekugel (independent), Mayor of Volkmarsen, remembers the victims at the ecumenical memorial service on the anniversary of the rampage at the 2020 carnival parade.
(Photo: Swen Pförtner / picture alliance / dpa / dpa Pool)
In the days that followed, the witnesses were questioned, 150 people were affected, 28 had to be hospitalized, and two were critically injured. Traumatic brain injuries, debris, bruises. In the town hall there were also pastors who did not want to know how fast the car could have raced into people, at 50 or 60 kilometers per hour, who simply listened.
Volkmarsen is located in the north of Hesse, a city with a lot of half-timbered houses, a local history association, a castle, 6,900 people live here, and if you’ve been mayor for as long as Hartmut Linnekugel, you know most of them. He also knows the defendant: an inconspicuous man, 29 years old at the time of the crime. Shortly beforehand, he is said to have lost his job as an unskilled worker, but the investigators found bills for vodka bottles, sometimes one, sometimes two, in his apartment, but they did not find any indication of a possible motive.
At a memorial service for the victims, mourners light candles.
(Photo: THILO SCHMUELGEN / REUTERS)
Since February 2020, says the mayor, his city has gone through four phases. The first: shock. After a few days of sharing their memories of perhaps lighting a candle in church, many were relieved. After all, nobody died. In the third phase, that relief turned into anger at the man, and now, in the fourth phase, many have wanted the court to pass judgment.
“I would almost say that people yearn for a fair judgment.”
What would be fair?
“I’m not a lawyer, but it was said, life sentence.”
When the process is over, he says, it will be a deal for the city. Then they would no longer have to remember what was, but could look forward to what is to come. The next year they had to cancel carnival because of Corona, but they already have plans for the next but one session. The move will only be conducted through the city center, with barriers installed in the ground in important access roads. Carnival, says Hartmut Linnekugel, will not be missed.