Magdeburg expresses condolences to victims of Christmas market attack – DW – 12/21/2024

A former church became a meeting place for mourners in the difficult hours following the attack on a Magdeburg Christmas market on Friday that killed several people and injured many more.

St. John’s Church is the oldest church in the city; Martin Luther preached here about 500 years ago. But the residents of the East German town are atheists, and services are no longer held at the church after it was desecrated. However, it is just a few meters away from the spot where the attack took place and has since become a meeting place for people seeking peace. There is a sea of ​​flowers and candles around the entrance.

Terror became “dense and tangible”

“I’m shocked. Terror has always been there, abstractly. But now it’s so dense and tangible. I just feel sad and powerless,” says Jatta, who declined to give her surname. Many of her friends are doctors, she tells DW. “Yesterday many people helped where they could.”

Everything changed for hundreds of locals when a 50-year-old doctor from Saudi Arabia named Talib A. allegedly deliberately drove his rental car into a group of people at a Christmas market in the city centre. By Saturday, five people, including a nine-year-old child, had died in Magdeburg, the capital of the eastern German state of Saxony-Anhalt. More than 200 were injured, some very seriously.

The next morning, the Christmas markets in the city of 240,000 are closed. It will remain like this. A few police cars are still parked on the street but a nearby shopping centre, which was a haven for many people seeking help on Friday evening, has already reopened. Traffic keeps flowing on the main road in front of the market.

Yet, the city seems strangely quiet – perhaps in a state of shock. Journalists and camera teams from many countries are often seen around the city centre, eager to report on what German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has to say when he visits the site of the attack.

Late in the morning, Scholz passes the street that the alleged criminal had turned into a crime scene just hours earlier. The chancellor is also accompanied by Saxony-Anhalt state premier Rainer Hasselhoff, German Interior Minister Nancy Feser and Friedrich Merz, leader of the conservative Christian Democrats and candidate for chancellor in the upcoming election. Everyone wears dark clothes and summery expressions. They place white roses in front of St. John’s Church and remain silent for a moment.

They then move on to private meetings with first responders and victims’ families. Later he appears in the surrounded market to say a few words to the residents.

Not everyone likes the fact that politicians are here. Some protesters in front of the barriers are shouting that they are only campaigning for the February elections. State Prime Minister Hasselhoff is the first to speak, clearly impressed. Today he wants to mourn, he says, “Then we’ll talk about security.”

call for unity

Chancellor Scholz speaks of a “horrible, insane act”, and calls on the nation to stand in “solidarity”. Scholz, who is not known for being particularly emotional, has clearly been touched by his interactions with those affected by the attack. “People will have to struggle with this phenomenon,” he says, “but they will not be left alone.” “Solidarity” will prevail over “hatred”, says Scholz, adding that Federal Commissioner for Victims of Terrorist Attacks Pascal Kober will look after those affected.

Resident Mandy Bode tearfully tells DW she is in shock, having just left the Christmas market just minutes before the attack. She came to St. John’s Church on Saturday “to show that the people of Magdeburg stand together.” He says that it does not matter to him whether there are politicians at the spot or not. “The truth is that people died, it’s the politicians’ fault,” she says.

Amidst the mourning, many people have questions as to how such violence could happen. Far-right supporters also stood in front of St. John’s Church and shouted, “Deport these people now!” One of them wears a bracelet with a Nazi flag.

But people like Jatta and Mandy Bode do not want to let this day be taken over by extremists and they shoot them. Instead, he and other like-minded residents will attend a service at Magdeburg Cathedral in the evening to honor those killed and injured in the attack.

This article was originally published in German.