The Killing of Walter Lübcke: One Year Later, Some Questions Remain

village where Lübcke lived. He had defended the project at a heated town hall meeting where a large section of the local population of 14,000 made it clear that they did not welcome the refugee center.

Driven by Racism and Xenophobia
The suspected killer, Stephan E., who says that he attended the gathering in Lohfelden, initially confessed to the killing but later retracted the confession. Nevertheless, federal prosecutors remain convinced that they have the right man. The apparent motive for the killing: “a fundamentally ultra-nationalist attitude based on racism and xenophobia.”

Furthermore, prosecutors believe that Stephan E. was determined “to use the murder to send out a public signal in defiance of the current German state as it manifests itself.”

Never Again a Blind Eye?
Although this sort of incriminating evidence had been gathered at such an early date, politicians and security services both overlooked the far-right threat for many years to come. That only changed with the killing of Lübcke and the October 2019 attempted mass shooting at a synagogue in the eastern city of Halle. The German government suddenly had no time to lose in coming up with a far-reaching plan of action against far-right extremism.

Just how necessary such a plan is became clear in figures on politically motivated criminal offenses only recently released by the Federal Criminal Police Office. The numbers prompted Interior Minister Horst Seehofer, of the Bavarian conservatives (CSU), to say that far-right extremists had left a “long trail of blood.”

This trail includes the racist attack on the western city of Hanau on February 19, which left 10 dead. Just a month later, the German government responded by creating a special committee to combat far-right extremism and racism, led by Seehofer and including a wide range of other key ministries. Whether it will guarantee that Germany’s political leaders will never again turn a blind eye to far-right violence remains to be seen.

The Battle Does Not Stop Here
The new committee met for the first time at the end of May, shortly before the first anniversary of Lübcke’s murder. Afterwards, government spokesman Steffen Seibert announced that “on top of the measures already taken, there would by November of this year be further concrete measures to combat right-wing extremism and racism.”

Organizations that have long been involved in the battle against right-wing violence praised the government’s initiatives. But Timo Reinfrank from the Amadeu Antonio Foundation — named after one victim of right-wing extremist violence — says that the work of the committee needs to be more broad-based, including victims of hate crimes, members of civil society and academic experts. If the committee it to fulfill its mandate, says Reinfrank, it must have clearly-defined goals, such as concretely reducing the number of politically motivated crimes by the far-right in the next five years.

This articleis published courtesy of the Deutsche Welle(DW). German press code stresses the importance of protecting the privacy of suspected criminals or victims. German media outlets therefore refrain from revealing full names in such cases.