Memorial event: Steinmeier: Solingen massacre hits nation at its core

According to Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier, the suspected Islamist attack in Solingen has struck the entire country at its core. The bloody act struck at the core of “a friendly, open, diverse country,” said Steinmeier at a memorial event for the victims of the terrorist attack in the Bergisches Land city just over a week ago. “It strikes at our self-image as a nation in which people live and want to live together peacefully despite all their differences – people who have lived here for generations as well as those who came later.” The head of state emphasized in his eulogy: “That is exactly what the perpetrator of the attack in Solingen was aiming at with his hatred, just like the perpetrators before him.”

Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD), Bundestag President Bärbel Bas, North Rhine-Westphalia’s Prime Minister Hendrik Wüst and Interior Minister Herbert Reul (both CDU) also attended the memorial service in the theater and concert hall. Steinmeier’s wife Elke Büdenbender was also among the approximately 450 guests in attendance. The pain is almost unbearable, said the Federal President, who had just spoken to relatives of the three dead and eight injured. “I can hardly imagine, we can hardly imagine, what you, dear relatives and friends, are going through, what you have to suffer, what hell you are going through.”

A 26-year-old man from Syria, who came to Germany as a refugee via Bulgaria and is in custody, is suspected of the crime. The terrorist militia Islamic State (IS) claims responsibility for the crime. “Fanatic Islamists want to destroy what we love: our open society, our way of life, our community, our freedom,” said Steinmeier. “We don’t want the terrorists’ plan to work, for their terrible seeds to bear fruit, but we feel fear and uncertainty. Both have their reasons.” However, one should not allow oneself to be paralyzed by fear.