What happened in Aschaffenburg?

The assailant seemed to come out of nowhere on Wednesday, January 22. Within a few minutes, an idyllic park turned into a place of horror. Shortly before midday, he attacked a group of kindergarten children with a knife in Schöntal Park in the middle of Aschaffenburg, in Bavaria. The suspected perpetrator is charged with killing a child and an adult.

In an interview with DW, Andrea Lindholz (CSU), a member of the Bundestag from Aschaffenburg and an expert on internal affairs, said she was beyond horrified by the crime. "For one thing, the fact that young children were the target of the attack. And secondly, the brutality of the attack. Unbelievable, in broad daylight in the middle of our city." At the wreath-laying ceremony in the park Thursday, Lindholz said she met many people who were not only shocked and grieving with the families, but who also had many questions and few answers.

Who are the victims and how are the injured doing?

One of the two people killed is a two-year-old boy whose family is from Morocco. The second person killed is a 41-year-old bystander. He is said to have tried to stop the attacker. Thanks to his actions, "other children were saved from death," said Joachim Herrmann (CSU), Bavarian Minister of the Interior.

The three injured, a two-year-old Syrian girl, a 72-year-old man, and a 59-year-old kindergarten teacher, were taken to a hospital in Aschaffenburg. They are not at risk of death. The attacker wounded the two-year-old girl in the neck with his knife and the man in the upper body. The kindergarten teacher broke her forearm when she fell.

What do we know about the suspect?

The alleged perpetrator, Enamullah O, is 28 years old and hails originally from Afghanistan. He lives in asylum housing near Aschaffenburg. According to the Bavarian authorities, the man was mentally ill. Furthermore, he had "already been reported to the police several times in the past," according to a press release of the regional police.

A search of the suspect's home did not indicate that he had a political motive, Herrmann said. "At the moment, conjecture is very strongly leaning towards his obvious mental illness." Psychiatric drugs were found in his residence.

Herrmann called for a review of the standards for the institutionalization of mentally ill people. "Of course, given our understanding of freedom, it is not easy to decide: Someone must be admitted to a closed facility and then locked up," he told BR radio. "But of course, we also have to look at the obvious risks to the public."

The suspected perpetrator had already been found to be involved in violent crimes and drug offenses. In December, he was even ordered to be placed under supervision, the Bavarian interior minister explained. Nevertheless: "The precise background to the crime and a possible motive are still unclear and are the subject of ongoing investigations," the local police headquarters wrote.

The suspect had entered Germany in November 2022 — apparently via the EU member country Bulgaria. Two months ago, he had stated that he planned to return to his home country of Afghanistan voluntarily. His asylum case was then closed, and he was ordered to leave the country.

In Germany, only those who do not have German citizenship or a residence permit can be ordered to leave the country. This applied to the suspect, who came from Afghanistan. According to EU rules, he could have been sent back to Bulgaria. He had stated his intention to apply for exit papers for Afghanistan. What became of this is unclear.

According to experts from the Migration Media Service, around 221,000 people in Germany were required to leave the country as of the end of 2024. Around 80% of them were granted "tolerated" status, which means that for various legal reasons, they cannot be deported. The largest number of people whose asylum application have been rejected (as of June 2023) and who are required to leave the country are from Afghanistan (12.3%).

Will immigration now become the number one topic in the election campaign?

Politicians from all major parties have expressed their horror at the violent attack. And it comes at a pivotal time: in a month, Germany will elect a new Bundestag. Migration and deportation are hotly debated issues on the campaign trail. According to polls, people in Germany currently consider migration to be the most sensitive political issue.

The mayor of Aschaffenburg, Jürgen Herzing (SPD), warned against hate and agitation. "We cannot and must never attribute the act of one individual to an entire demographic group," he said on Thursday at a wreath-laying ceremony at the scene of the crime in Schöntal Park: "The terrible act of a lone perpetrator must not set off a spiral of violence and hatred."

On X, terrorism expert Peter Neumann from King's College in London called the crime, if indeed it was committed by the suspect, the "result of a failed system." He explained that in Germany, many young asylum seekers are kept in asylum camps for years on end and not allowed to take up work, meaningful activities or prospects. "The result is all manner of dysfunctionality," Neumann said, including radicalization, violent crime, and mental illness. This system benefits neither society nor the asylum seekers, he said.

Last year, the number of foreign citizens suspected of committing crimes rose by around 13.5%. This does not include violations of the right of residence. According to the Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA), this is due to the overall high rate of immigration, but also to the living conditions in the accommodations, economic insecurity, and to the fact that the immigrants have themselves been victims of violence.