Fatal attack in Idar-Oberstein: “an almost unbelievable act”

Mourning and the question of how it got this far: The killing of a 20-year-old in Idar-Oberstein is condemned sharply across all parties. But warnings from extremism researchers had been around for a long time.

Federal Minister of Agriculture Julia Klöckner is very close to Idar-Oberstein’s act. She knows where it happened, because Idar-Oberstein is her constituency: “And of course, I also know the gas station that gained notoriety on Saturday evening,” says Klöckner in a video message on Twitter.

The CDU politician calls the deadly mask dispute an “almost unbelievable act” – that a young man is shot because there were different perspectives on the Corona rules. “And the young employee did not ask for anything other than what goes without saying that everyone who affects the petrol station has to wear mouth-and-nose protection to protect themselves and others.” Klöckner says she is concerned with how radicalized extreme perspectives can be and where they can lead.

Scholz: “Should be severely punished”

Olaf Scholz, the Vice Chancellor, is also dismayed: “This is a terrible murder and it should be severely punished,” the SPD candidate for Chancellor made clear in an interview with ZDF. It is unacceptable “if one thinks that one then does such deeds,” emphasizes Scholz. “I think a society can endure that many people disagree, but we still have to stick together.”

The life of others and the health of others should be respected and protected, which was “completely broken” by this act.

CDU competitor Armin Laschet is still struggling for words during an election campaign appearance in Stralsund: “We do not want this violence in our country. We condemn this aggression and urge everyone to stop!”

Signs of radicalization for a long time

“Request” to “let go” of this violence? For constitutional protectors like the Thuringian state office boss Stefan Kramer, the tone and the message in the lateral thinker scene could be much harder. Because signals of radicalization have been around for a long time, says Kramer.

It shows what he and his colleagues for the protection of the Constitution had already feared. “That this radiation effect of the powerful words and ideology that the citizens of the Reich and right-wing extremists scatter here into the lateral thinker scene, spread over and basically lead to the situation escalating further.”

In addition to civil disobedience, rabble and acts of violence, the highest level of escalation was unfortunately added – a murder.

“A kind of conspiracy extremism”

Extremism researchers and journalists who observe the scene for longer usually see it in a similar way to Kramer. And the chairman of the Association of German Criminal Investigators, Sebastian Fiedler, warns common Morning magazine from ARD and ZDF:

According to my assessment, we are dealing with our own extremism here, which cannot be classified as right or left, not xenophobic or Islamist, but I would describe it as a kind of conspiracy extremism.

A conspiracy extremism that a society must defend itself against, says Fiedler. The act of violence in Idar-Oberstein is even celebrated from within the milieu in the network of parts of the movement. Another danger, says Fiedler: “if the radicalization progresses so far that we then have terrorist actions.” That is why he advises “on the one hand to be very distant in the discussion, but also to be very clear in the language”.

“Where is Seehofer?”

Many questions about the act of Idar-Oberstein on Saturday are still open. The police check the perpetrator’s activity on social media. The 49-year-old should not have been noticed by the Office for the Protection of the Constitution. When a 20-year-old gas station cashier asked him to wear mouth and nose protection when buying beer, he apparently came back to the gas station a second time and shot the student.

And the Federal Minister of the Interior? Von Horst Seehofer was initially – also at the request of the ARD capital studios – nothing to hear from Idar-Oberstein. “Where’s Seehofer?” There were numerous questioning and indignant comments on Twitter. Now his spokesman has spoken out and calls the act of violence “hideous and disturbing”. Seehofer himself, however, still does not want to express himself personally.

Vice-government spokeswoman Ulrike Demmer condemns the act “on behalf of the entire federal government”. Above all, she points out that the “unbearable” act would now be used in messenger services “to divide our society, and to stir up even more hatred and hate speech, and to incite violence”. That is disturbing.