German Politics Thread

A gunman suspected of shooting at least nine people dead at two shisha bars in a German city reportedly revealed he had far-right political views in a confession letter he left behind.

The rampage late on Wednesday in Hanau, a town close to Frankfurt in the western state of Hesse, ended with the suspect killing himself.

German daily Bild said the man had left a written confession and a video claiming responsibilty for the attack.

Police chased a car used to leave the scene of one shooting to its owner's address, where they found the bodies of a 43-year-old German man and his 72-year-old mother, Hesse interior minister Peter Beuth said.

Some of the victims were migrants from Turkey, officials said, while federal prosecutors said they had taken charge of the case due to indications that the attack had an extremist motive.

Turkey's ambassador to Germany said five of those killed were Turkish citizens.

"We expect German authorities to show maximum effort to enlighten this case. Racism is a collective cancer," tweeted Ibrahim Kalin, a special adviser to Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

German magazine Focus cited security sources as saying many of the victims had an immigrant background.

Germany's political landscape has been polarised in recent years, with a wave of immigration and a slowing economy helping to fuel support for extremist groups at both ends of the spectrum.

In October, an antisemitic gunman opened fire outside a German synagogue on Yom Kippur, the holiest day of the Jewish year, and killed two people as he livestreamed his attack.

Authorities have banned some far-right groups endorsing violence, while Germany's post-war centrist political consensus has been undermined by growing support for the anti-immigrant Alternative for Germany (Af D) party, notably in the former-Communist eastern states.

Police said work to confirm the identities of the two bodies at the home was under way, and they could not immediately give details on them or the identities of the earlier victims.

It is believed the gunman returned home after his rampage and shot himself. Officers said there were no indications other suspects were involved in the attack.

Mr Beuth said the suspect was in legal possession of arms and was a sports marksman, and Bild said ammunition and gun magazines were found in the suspect's vehicle.

Can-Luca Frisenna, whose father and brother run one of the two bars attacked, said he rushed there after learning about the shooting.

"I heard my father was affected and my little brother, they run the kiosk, I don't have much to do with it," said Frisenna. "But then I saw them both - they were horrified and they were crying and everything. So everyone was shocked."

At one of the bars on Thursday morning, forensics police in white overalls inspected the crime scene, cordoned off close to Hanau's historic market place. Nearby, traffic flowed as normal and commuters waited for buses.

In shisha bars, customers share flavored tobacco from a communal hookah, or water pipe. In Western countries, they are often owned and operated by people from the Middle East or South Asia, where use of the hookah is a centuries-old tradition.

Government spokesman Steffen Seibert tweeted: "Deep sympathy goes out to the families concerned, who are mourning the loss of their dead. With the injured, we hope they will soon recover."

European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen, who is German, said in a tweet she was deeply shocked by the shooting and that she mourned with the families and friends of the victims.

"Thoughts this morning are with the people of Hanau, in whose midst this terrible crime was committed," German chancellor Angela Merkel's spokesman said on Twitter.

"Deep sympathy for the affected families, who are grieving for their dead," the spokesman, Steffen Seibert, said. "We hope with those wounded that they will soon recover."

Hanau mayor Claus Kaminsky told Bild: "This was a terrible evening that will certainly occupy us for a long, long time and we will remember with sadness."

Legislator Katja Leikert, a member of Ms Merkel's centre-right Christian Democrats (CDU) party who represents Hanau in the German parliament, tweeted that it was "a real horror scenario for us all", while the leader of the CDU said xenophobia was a growing problem in Germany.

"It's poison to see people as opponents, to see yourself as better than others, to see fellow citizens as foreigners - that's a poison that is increasingly penetrating society and can ultimately lead to these crimes," Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer said.

Several people were injured Monday when a car drove into a carnival procession in the central German town of Volkmarsen, police said.

"There are dozens of injured, including some who are gravely hurt," a spokeswoman for Volkmarsen police told AFP.

Speaking to DPA news agency, a police spokesman added that children were among the injured. The driver has been arrested.

Germany is on high alert following a shooting spree by a far-right gunman in the city of Hanau, also in Hesse, last Wednesday, that left 10 people dead.

Monday's incident took place as residents in many parts of the country celebrate Rose Monday, a highlight of annual carnival festivities that sees adults and children alike dress up and attend parades where people play music and throw candies from floats.

Police in Hesse announced on Twitter that all carnival parades across the state had been cancelled as a precaution.

A spokeswoman for police in the town of Volkmarsen where the incident took place told AFP "it is too soon" to say whether the driver ploughed into the crowd on purpose.

Volkmarsen is situated in the central state of Hesse, northwest of the city of Kassel.

Pictures from the scene showed police officers and rescue vehicles next to a silver Mercedes hatchback with its doors open, having apparently come to a halt outside a REWE supermarket.

According to witness reports in local media, the incident in the town of some 7,000 people started at around 2:30 pm.

"Eyewitnesses say the driver bypassed a street closure and raced into the crowd at full speed," the Frankfurter Rundschau newspaper wrote.

A pile of debris is seen on the side of the road next to the car, including a knocked-over traffic cone and bottles of sparkling wine.

Several dozen people are seen milling around on the sidewalk, many in colourful costumes.

"We're on the site with a big squad. An investigation is underway," tweeted local police after the incident.

Rampage

The incident comes as Germany is still reeling from a shooting spree in the city of Hanau, in the same German state of Hesse, that left 10 people dead last Wednesday.

The gunman, who left behind a racist manifesto, first opened fire at a shisha bar and a cafe in Hanau, killing nine people, before shooting dead his mother and himself.

The rampage fuelled concerns over Germany's increasingly emboldened far right scene, after a pro-migrant politician was murdered in June and an anti-Semitic attack on a synagogue left two dead in the city of Halle last October.

Condemning the violence in Hanau, Chancellor Angela Merkel said Germany had to fight back against the "poison" of racism and hatred running through German society.

Thousands of Germans later joined vigils to mourn the victims and call for more protection for minorities.

Many also used the occasion to vent their anger at the far-right Af D party, which has been accused of stoking anti-foreigner sentiment and normalising hate speech in recent years.

Germany's deadliest terror attack in recent history took place in 2016 when a jihadist drove his truck into a crowded Berlin Christmas market, killing 12 people.

The attacker, a failed Tunisian asylum seeker, had pledged allegiance to the Islamic State (IS) group.

The Christmas market rampage prompted police across Germany to tighten security at public gatherings.

In response to the shootings in Hanau, Interior Minister Horst Seehofer on Friday again vowed to ramp up security and put more police at mosques, train stations, airports and borders.

He also said that there would be a higher police presence at carnival processions on Monday.

"I want to end it if the pain gets unbearable," 63-year-old Melanie S. tells Lukas Radbruch, a doctor at University Hospital Bonn, who has also been serving as the president of the German Association for Palliative Medicine since 2014. She has end-stage lung cancer, and fears she could suddenly lose the ability to swallow and suffocate while fully conscious. This possibility has led Melanie S. to consider assisted suicide.

Paragraph 217 of Germany's criminal code had prohibited assisted suicide. The law was adopted in 2015 by Germany's parliament, the Bundestag, to prevent associations or individuals from turning suicide into a kind of business. Specifically, the law states that "anyone who, with the intention of assisting another person to commit suicide, provides, procures or arranges the opportunity for that person to do so and whose actions are intended as a recurring pursuit incurs a penalty of imprisonment for a term not exceeding three years or a fine."

Legal experts have since hotly debated whether the law also criminalizes consultations — or merely mentioning, for example, that one may end one's life by foregoing food.

Seeking assisted suicide abroad

As a result, individuals who until 2015 had facilitated assisted suicides ceased doing so. And doctors and staff working in hospices became too scared to even consult patients on this possibility. Consequently, many terminally ill individuals traveled to Switzerland or the Netherlands instead, where even active assisted suicide through a third party is legal.

Anyone too weak or without the financial means to embark on such a journey, however, found themselves forced to ask family members to help them end their suffering. Family members who did meet this final wish were not prosecuted. But who would want to burden a close relative or loved one to assist in their suicide?

Many terminally ill individuals were deeply dissatisfied with this legal situation. Along with a number of medical professionals, they then took to Germany's highest court to challenge paragraph 217. Wolfgang Putz, an expert in medical ethics, told DW he believes the current legal situation regarding assisted suicides is untenable and must be reformed: "Germany's [Protestant and Catholic] church still exert significant influence on political decision-makers, even though we live in a secular state."

The Protestant and Catholic churches in Germany reject all forms of assisted suicide. Putz, therefore, welcomed the possibility that Germany's highest court, the country's supreme legal institution, could strengthen the constitutionally guaranteed right to self-determination with regard to suicide.

The potential of palliative care

The president of the German Association for Palliative Medicine, Lukas Radbruch, knows that it is essential to empathize with and carefully listen to patients who are considering assisted suicide. In his experience, whenever someone enquires about this possibility, it is often a cry for help to end one's suffering. Whenever he then suggests pain-relieving sedative drugs, terminally ill patients gladly opt for this possibility.

Ahead of the verdict, he warned that "if the constitutional court rules to scrap paragraph 217, it could embolden individuals who assist with suicides and that could be a dangerous development for society." He fears that many terminally ill individuals could choose assisted suicide so as not to burden anyone. And he stresses that nobody must ever feel pressured into taking such a step. In his opinion, assisted suicide should always be an absolute last resort.

What did Germany's top court decide?

The country‘s top court on February 26 ruled that paragraph 217 is incompatible with the constitution, making assisted suicide once more possible in Germany, as it previously was. The verdict opens the door to legislation that would allow doctors to counsel patients about this option and provide them with lethal drugs, yet not administer them.

The court found that individuals have a right to "self-determined" suicide, including the freedom to take one's own life and to enlist organized services provided by third parties.

Leading advocate dies before historic ruling

Uwe-Christian Arnold was one of Germany's leading assisted suicide advocates. The Berlin urologist, who died in April 2019, once accused German lawmakers and healthcare decision-makers of a pre-Enlightenment mindset when he asked: "How can people, who have never been afflicted by a serious illness themselves, be so brazen as to judge whether a person's life is still worth living?"

He was convinced that terminally ill individuals, who are mentally healthy and have an autonomous mind, should be permitted to choose whether or not they want to end their lives in dignity. Arnold's role in helping others commit suicide, meanwhile, meant he constantly violated the Hippocratic Oath and thus risked losing his German medical license.

Arnold was repeatedly taken to court for his role in facilitating assisted suicides — and acquitted each time. He said that he assisted more than 100 individuals across Germany in ending their own lives — after first thoroughly vetting their mental ability to make the choice.

Arnold was one of the plaintiffs who called on Germany's top court to review the legality of paragraph 217. He had been scheduled to give a five-minute statement before the court in April 2019 regarding his role in facilitating assisted suicides. The president of Germany's constitutional court, Andreas Vosskuhle, had specifically asked Arnold to speak before the court to learn in which life situations patients express the desire to die by assisted suicide and how physicians deal with such wishes. But Arnold, who suffered from bone marrow cancer, passed away before he could address the court.

Better than Kemmerich who got support by the Af D, but his disastrous interview with Maischberger really showed why he shouldn't be PM either.

He engaged in his defence of the GDR, denying once again against the consensus of historians that the GDR practiced a systematic rule of injustic

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