After a stone was thrown at the top Bavarian Green Party duo Ludwig Hartmann and Katharina Schulze at a campaign rally in Swabia, extremism investigators are examining the suspect’s environment. “With regard to a possible motivation for the crime,” seized data carriers, among other things, would be evaluated, said a spokesman for the Munich Public Prosecutor’s Office. The Bavarian Central Office for Combating Extremism and Terrorism (ZET) is located there and took over the case because of the suspect’s possible political motivation.
The police investigation into the case has now been completed, said a spokesman for the Swabia South/West police headquarters. The investigators there have attributed the suspects to the “Reichsbürger” scene since the incident in Neu-Ulm in September 2023. The man had corresponding banners with him. The then 44-year-old basically admitted the crime.
His motive was that he was dissatisfied with the political situation. He didn’t mean to hurt anyone by throwing the stone. The spokesman for the authority was initially unable to say when the public prosecutor’s office’s investigation into the case might be completed. However, the process could “certainly take several weeks or months”.
The attacker is suspected of attempted grievous bodily harm and of attacking and resisting law enforcement officers. “Reich citizens” are people who do not recognize the Federal Republic and its democratic structures. The Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution counted around 23,000 people across Germany in 2022 as part of the “Reich Citizens” and “Self-Administrators” scene, 2,000 more than in the previous year.