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Mannheim
“Cowardly act”: One day after the knife attack on an AfD politician, there are still many unanswered questions
In Mannheim, an AfD local council candidate was attacked with a knife late Tuesday evening
© Rene Priebe / DPA
After the murder of a police officer, Mannheim has experienced the second knife attack within a few days. A police officer died at the weekend, and now a local AfD politician has been injured.
It is Tuesday evening in the south of Mannheim and already dark when the politician Heinrich Koch crosses Relaisstrasse in the Rheinau district with brisk steps. He calls out: “Stop, stay where you are. Lie down, lie down!” With his left hand he points to a young man in jeans and a T-shirt, with his right he films. AfD election posters are tucked under the young man’s arm, in his hand he is holding a cutter knife.
When Koch reaches the man, the image becomes blurry and then breaks off. Then on Wednesday morning, a few days before the local elections, a message spreads: An AfD politician in Mannheim has been the victim of a knife attack: Heinrich Koch.
Mannheim experiences two knife attacks within a few days
It is the second knife attack on a person within a few days. On Friday, Mannheim hit the national headlines when a man killed a police officer with a knife; the act was captured on video. Investigators suspect an Islamist background. There is also a video of the renewed knife attack, this time on a local politician from the AfD; it was first published by Die Welt. Rumors quickly spread about the attack. There are a number of unanswered questions.
What is certain so far according to the police: Late on Tuesday evening, a 25-year-old man was out and about in the Rheinau district of Mannheim. He is said to have damaged and stolen AfD election posters near the Rheinau market square; witnesses called the police. The AfD candidate for the local council election, Heinrich Koch, 62, noticed this. He followed the man and arrested him. The 25-year-old is said to have injured the AfD politician with a cutter knife – and then fled. Officers arrested the suspect shortly afterwards, at 10.30 p.m., near the market square.
AfD in Mannheim speaks of attack “by a left-wing extremist”
According to information from the star He was treated in hospital overnight and was said to still be there on Wednesday afternoon. According to the police, he suffered a cut behind his ear and a stab wound in his left lower abdomen. Neither is said to be life-threatening. “But he is still in shock,” says Rüdiger Ernst, spokesman for the AfD Mannheim.
Even the day after, there are still a few traces of the events around the market square. Some AfD posters are largely scratched or cut off.
Three lessons from the Mannheim knife attack
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Koch is said to live a short distance from the market square; all the curtains in the house were drawn on Wednesday afternoon. In front of it is a car trailer with the inscription: “Door to Reason” and the faces of the four current Mannheim AfD council members, including Koch. What is missing are the party’s logos; they have been torn down.
In a press conference on Wednesday afternoon, AfD member of the Bundestag Markus Frohmaier said that the media and political climate against the party was helping to lower the inhibition threshold. He is considered to be right-wing extremist. The federal executive board of the right-wing party made similar comments. The AfD in Mannheim spoke at the request of the star of an attack “by a left-wing extremist” and of a total of three people involved, two of whom could have escaped.
Investigators: Evidence of mental illness in suspect
The police, however, believe that there was one perpetrator. On Wednesday afternoon, the 25-year-old was brought before the magistrate, who issued a detention order for attempted manslaughter. The investigators also stressed that the suspect had “clear signs of mental illness” when he was arrested. He was therefore taken to a psychiatric hospital, also on the orders of the magistrate. According to the current status of the police investigation, there is no evidence that the suspect knew that his pursuer was an AfD politician when he attacked.
Mannheim’s mayor, Christian Specht, strongly condemned the attack on the AfD local politician. “This cowardly act is abhorrent and cannot be justified in any way,” he said. Anyone who attacks election candidates is “calling into question our free, equal, general, direct and secret elections – and thus the basis of our democracy.”