Violent death of a firefighter in Germany

They save people, risk their lives for society every day, and sacrifice themselves so that others can survive. Whether they are police, paramedics or firefighters. The everyday heroes of society who don’t wear capes.

Yet it is precisely they who are repeatedly the victims of violence. In 2018 alone, 11,704 cases and 22,035 victims were recorded.(https://www.lto.de/recht/nachrichten/n/kleine-anfrage-afd-wirksamkeit-strafschaerfung-angriff-vollstreckungsbeamte/ , 23.07.2019) by attacks on rescue workers, as well as police officers. On Dec. 13, 2019, another fatal attack occurred against a plainclothes firefighter.

A 49-year-old firefighter simply wanted to spend his evening off with his wife, as well as a couple of friends, at Augsburg’s Christmas market, but the evening ended in a fatal argument.

In the meantime, scarcely one week later, the course of events becomes ever clearer. Videos from the surveillance cameras of Augsburg’s Königsplatz are considered the main evidence here.

After the foursome left the Christmas market, they passed a bawling, intoxicated youth group. In passing, the later victim asked the group to be a little quieter and to be considerate of their surroundings. Christmas time is a contemplative time, not a time for shouting and bawling. This view is debatable, after all it is public space and in a city center it is always noisy, nevertheless the man will have his justification why he pointed out the loudness to the group. The fact is, he has acted legally!

Instead of taking the words and reacting to them properly, the group, consisting of 17 to 19-year-old Germans with partial Turkish citizenship, began to beat the man. When the man, who was a friend, intervened, they also hit him, but he was “only” seriously injured. For the 49-year-old, this attack ended fatally. When the ambulance arrived later, he was lying motionless on the floor, and after several unsuccessful attempts at resuscitation, the man was pronounced dead.

The two women escaped physically unharmed, but are both still in shock and unable to be questioned. It is further known that the victim leaves behind a 19-year-old daughter in addition to his wife. It is not known whether other passers-by intervened apart from the friendly man. It is to be hoped, however, there are no statements!

A 19-year-old accomplice surrendered to the police on the spot, all the others fled. In the meantime, all seven suspects have been identified and are in custody, but the verdict is still unclear. Due to the excessive influence of alcohol, the perpetrators could be classified as insane, so that the verdict could be very lenient, moreover, a large part of the perpetrators are minors.

Across Germany, firefighters gathered this week to remember their deceased comrades, to bring attention to what is happening and to break the silence!