Würzburg’s Lord Mayor Christian Schuchardt (CDU) wrote an open letter to the citizens of the city after the fatal knife attack on Friday evening. The alleged perpetrator is a 24-year-old man from Somalia, who apparently suddenly killed three women and injured seven other people, some of them life-threateningly. Schuchardt’s letter in the wording:
Dear Würzburg women, dear Würzburgers, I cried last night. Weeping for the victims and their loved ones. About the people who were suddenly attacked, surprised and killed or injured with a stabbing weapon on a peaceful and beautiful summer evening. I was informed by eyewitnesses about the images of horror and horror that were presented.
In the further course it was passers-by, people with moral courage, who threw themselves against the perpetrator at risk for their life and limb. They acted together spontaneously and without agreement. It reminded me of the pictures in Nice when a man running next to the truck tried to stop a rampage.
Indeed, it is these images and parallels that make this bloody act so dangerous for our urban society. July 18th marks the fifth anniversary of the Heidingsfeld ax attack. That night I was outside until the early hours of the morning and yesterday again until after midnight at the crime scene and at the perpetrator’s dormitory. The images, the background of the perpetrators, the possible reputation of Allahu Akbar, God is greatest, arouse parallels.
But yesterday evening I also cried for our city. Because this short circuit, this equating is so obvious. Refugees, immigrants, violent criminals, religious warriors and terrorists – massacres. And yet – not everything that lags is a comparison. Solving such cases takes some policing, but the crime – and I understand that – is already being imputed today.
The crimes of individuals can never be traced back to population groups, religions or nationalities. Even we Germans were not condemned across the board after the Second World War. Neither does this now apply to Somalis or refugees in general. This stereotype thinking must come to an end. And at the same time there will be no end. This is my moral demand, my wish to the society that I know cannot come true. Because how would you feel as a foreigner in our city today?
All the more, the enlightenment, the work against it in this direction must be the object of our social endeavors in order to enable a peaceful and self-determined existence for each individual, who can also be assigned to any group. Sartre says it so beautifully “L’enfer c’est les autres”, hell, that’s the others. We can make our earthly existence a collective hell or a paradise on earth. In history it was never completely one or the other. But the pendulum, we have to move it as best we can. In the right direction. Our thinking, our sympathy is with the victims and their families today.
Our thanks go to everyone who tries to do something good, the courageous citizens who opposed the attackers, the rescue workers, the police officers who were there so quickly, the citizens who put flowers or show their empathy with the victims and to you who work here today to keep the peace in our urban society. Your Christian Schuchardt