Schleswig Holstein
A moving funeral service for the victims of the train attack
Federal Chancellor Olaf Scholz (l) and Hamburg’s First Mayor Peter Tschentscher take part in the funeral service. photo
© Marcus Brandt/dpa-Pool/dpa
In Neumünster’s Vicelin Church, hundreds of people commemorate the victims of the fatal knife attack on a regional train. Among the mourners are the Chancellor and many state celebrities.
It is only a few minutes’ walk between the church with hundreds of mourners and the prison in Neumünster where the alleged perpetrator is being held. The 33-year-old is said to have killed two young people on a regional train between Kiel and Hamburg on January 25 and injured five others, some of them critically. Eleven days later, more than 300 friends, helpers, church representatives and politicians mourn the victims at an ecumenical service.
On Sunday afternoon, Federal Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD), Prime Minister Daniel Günther (CDU), Hamburg Mayor Peter Tschentscher (SPD) and numerous other top politicians from both countries are sitting in the Vicelin Church with very serious faces in “quiet remembrance”.
The great sympathy is encouraging
In Neumünster, the two dead, a 17-year-old and a 19-year-old young man, attended vocational school. They recently became a couple. The alleged perpetrator, Ibrahim A., a Palestinian who has made multiple criminal appearances, is in custody after the crime on the train near Brokstedt (Steinburg district) for two counts of murder and four counts of attempted manslaughter. He had only been released from custody a few days before the fatal knife attack, which he had served in Hamburg for another crime.
The Catholic Church and the Evangelical Lutheran Church had jointly invited to the service. “What happened at Brokstedt overwhelms and exceeds our imagination,” said Archbishop Stefan Hess. “Such a service does not undo anything. The souls of many people will be sore for a long time.” The great sympathy is overwhelming and encourages, said Hesse.
Ten large candles are burning in the simple church on this Sunday. Relief workers came, acquaintances and friends of the victims, railway workers, and CEO Richard Lutz. Also present was a young man who, according to his own statements, resisted the attacker on the train, whereby the perpetrator lost the knife. After that he could be overpowered. Prime Minister Günther and Interior Minister Sabine Sütterlin-Waack (CDU) spoke to him.
A woman and a man briefly disrupted the service twice by holding out accusatory notes towards the top politicians and other guests. There were also some protest posters in front of the church.
The 17-year-old who was killed was an altar boy in Elmshorn. Their small cross, which she often carried with her to church, was brought by other altar boys from there to Neumünster and tied to a large cross there.
“You have to endure the incomprehensible”
“A terrible thing happened, a senseless act of violence on a train that claimed many victims,” said Gothart Magaard, Bishop of the Evangelical Church in Schleswig and Holstein. People across the country were shocked. The fact that there is life-threatening violence and death in the middle of life is difficult to bear and makes you angry. You have to endure the incomprehensible. “The trust in a safe everyday world has cracked, and that’s why it’s important and good that we’re here together today,” said Magaard. “Let’s work together to ensure that love and hope are stronger than hate and violence.”
The regional bishop of the North Church, Kristina Kühnbaum-Schmidt, also prayed for the victims and their relatives during the memorial service. The people are “terrified and stunned, full of pain”, also searching, doubting and questioning. The deputy state chairwoman, Şeyda Sarıçam, spoke a prayer for peace on behalf of the Muslim religious community Schura.
The processing of the crime is accompanied by massive criticism of the communication between authorities in Hamburg, Schleswig-Holstein and North Rhine-Westphalia, where the alleged perpetrator lived for years after his first arrival in 2014, and the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees. There are divergent statements from those involved regarding the flow of information between the Hamburg judicial authority and the immigration authority in Kiel, where the man lived for a time. The debate about political consequences – for example more consistent deportations of repeat offenders – is in full swing. In Neumünster, on the other hand, silence dominates this Sunday.