The Chancellor is surprised by an unexpected hug. His predecessor and former chancellor experienced a slap in the face or eggs thrown. But security breaches can also have bad outcomes.
German politicians can move relatively freely. The Federal Criminal Police Office is responsible for their protection. However, their bodyguards cannot prevent every unplanned approach.
Especially in election campaigns, being close to the people is considered the greatest asset – also in the literal sense. But not only since the word “angry citizen” made the rounds, politicians know attacks from the electorate: Angela Merkel’s bodyguards identified a suspected attacker in Saxony in 2017 who wanted to attack the CDU Chancellor with her umbrella. Your predecessor Gerhard Schröder (SPD) was slapped in the face by an unemployed person at an election rally in Mannheim in 2004. And in 1991 in Halle (Saxony-Anhalt), long-serving Chancellor Helmut Kohl (CDU) wanted to take action himself against demonstrators who had thrown eggs, tomatoes and bags of paint at him – employees and barriers were able to stop him.
Again and again incidents – sometimes with serious consequences
Political activists and demonstrators also repeatedly manage to break through security cordons in order to make it onto the political stage with their concerns. In 2021, a Thuringian known as a “lateral thinker” captured the microphone of Chancellor candidate Armin Laschet – his CDU took over the scene in an election campaign spot. In 2019, the then Federal Health Minister Jens Spahn (CDU) in Schleswig-Holstein was surprised by two half-naked Femen activists protesting against a study on abortions. Merkel has also had experience with the actions of the women’s rights group, for example when five naked women stormed at the Chancellor and the Russian President Vladimir Putin in 2013 when they were visiting the trade fair in Hanover together.
But there have also been much more serious incidents in Germany: CDU top politician Wolfgang Schäuble has been in a wheelchair since the assassination attempt by a mentally ill individual in 1990. The SPD chancellor candidate at the time, Oskar Lafontaine, was seriously injured in a knife attack that same year. The attacker who hit him near the carotid artery was mentally ill.
Source: Stern
I have been working in the news industry for over 6 years, first as a reporter and now as an editor. I have covered politics extensively, and my work has appeared in major newspapers and online news outlets around the world. In addition to my writing, I also contribute regularly to 24 Hours World.
