Antifa against AfD

“Nazis out”: riots after knife attack

Following the knife attack on Friday, there were clashes between left-wing and right-wing groups in Mannheim on Sunday. The police had to intervene.

(Bild: picturedesk.com/Thomas Frey/dpa)

The knife attack in Mannheim , which left one dead and five injured, has led to the first political clashes on the streets. While the AfD youth organization called for a rally on the market square on Sunday, counter-demonstrators held a vigil in which a group of Antifa activists also took part. There were clashes with the police. 

Both groups were consistently kept apart by the police. While the AfD youth organization, the Junge Alternative, which is classified as right-wing extremist by the Office for the Protection of the Constitution, held its meeting just a few metres from the scene, the counter-demonstrators formed a peaceful human chain along the streetcar tracks in the form of a vigil. Officers stood between them with helmets and batons.

"Remigration would have prevented the crime"
According to a police spokesperson, up to 1,000 people took part in the vigil. According to the Bild newspaper, around 150 people attended the event organized by the AfD youth under the slogan "Remigration would have prevented this crime!".

Young Alternative rally

(Bild: Screenshot/Newstime)

"Nazis out"
Videos on the internet show demonstrators forming a long human chain in the city center - and the police clashing with a group of Antifa activists. They waved red flags and set off fireworks. The slogan "Nazis out" was chanted on the market square.

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Antifa wanted to storm the market square
Shortly after the start of the Junge Alternative rally, at which political speeches were also made, around 30 Antifa sympathizers attempted to storm the market square. They were surrounded in a side alley. Pepper spray was also used. After the two events on the market square had dispersed, the Antifa demonstrators were taken away individually and their personal details recorded.

Great mourning for the dead police officer
At this point, it was not yet officially known that the 29-year-old police officer who was stabbed in the knife attack on Friday had died in hospital on Sunday afternoon. The attacker, who came from Afghanistan, had stabbed the officer several times in the head.

Police officers mourn their dead colleague

(Bild: AP/The Associated Press)

(Bild: AP/The Associated Press)

The German authorities also announced that the police officer had undergone "emergency surgery immediately after the attack and was placed in an induced coma", but "succumbed to his serious injuries in the late afternoon hours of June 2". "We mourn the loss of a police officer who gave his life for our safety", the statement added.

Perpetrator's motive still unclear
The motive of the 25-year-old perpetrator is still unclear. So far, the man, who was born in Afghanistan but came to Germany as a teenager in 2014, was not fit for questioning - he was also injured in the minutes after the attack. He had not previously appeared before the police, is married, has two children and lives in Heppenheim, Hesse.

During the attack on Friday morning, the man injured six men, including the police officer, on the market square in the city center at the event of the Islam-critical movement Pax Europa (BPE). Among the injured was BPE board member Michael Stürzenberger.

He lost his life because he stood up to protect other people.

Baden-Württembergs Innenminister Thomas Strobl trauert um den toten Polizisten

"The news shocks me"
"The news shakes me to the core", said Baden-Württemberg's Minister President Winfried Kretschmann in the evening. His thoughts are with the family, relatives and colleagues. "This terrible act is a painful reminder to us all of the often incalculable risk police officers are exposed to on a daily basis." The service of police officers for the state, the community and the free and democratic basic order cannot be praised highly enough. "As a society, we owe them the highest respect and appreciation."

Pictures from the crime scene:

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"These are moments when the world seems to stand still," explained Baden-Württemberg's Interior Minister Thomas Strobl. "The entire Baden-Württemberg police force will always and forever honor his memory." The police officer was the victim of a brutal, bestial attack. "He lost his life because he stood up to protect other people."

Police union furious
The German Police Union reacted with shock, but also anger. "The violence we encounter on a daily basis is relentlessly brutal, inhumane and often deadly," said regional head Ralf Kusterer. The campaigns against hate and agitation often do not even begin to address the problems that police officers have to endure on a daily basis. "Discussions about democracy and freedom of expression do not reach perpetrators who are incapable of guilt or crime, nor religious fanatics whose world of thought seems completely alien and absurd to us."