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CRIME

German media roundup: Could Winnenden have been prevented?

Could the Winnenden massacre have been prevented? With the nation still in shock, German newspapers in The Local’s media roundup engage in some soul-searching following the bloody school rampage in Baden-Württemberg.

German media roundup: Could Winnenden have been prevented?
Photo: DPA

A day after 17-year-old Tim Kretschmer killed 15 people on Wednesday, Germany is grappling with the causes and consequences. The authorities say the teen had been in psychiatric care and he had announced his intentions on the internet before the bloodbath. But the country’s main papers on Thursday can’t agree on the best way to prevent such school rampages in the future.

Click here for a photo gallery of the incident.

The centre-left Süddeutsche Zeitung argues that stricter gun laws wouldn’t prevent similar tragedies, but better checks on people already possessing a firearm would be a step into the right direction.

“Even owning a weapon is tied to several obligations,” the paper points out. “The father of the deadly shooter did not fulfill these and therefore he’ll have to be held accountatble.”

Conservative daily Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung instead focuses on the fact that the current tragedy is almost certain to animate others to copy it.

“The images of the rampage encourage politicians to voice their outrage, shock and how dumbfounded they are. It encourages the police to fine tune their video simulations and role-playing for such massacres,” the paper argues. “Why shouldn’t the images of these massacres encourage all kinds of people but not the next person set to cause another massacre?”

Berlin-based daily Der Tagesspiegel sees the shooter as a product of his environment and German society, which failed to offer him help to escape his inner aggressions.

“The school, his friends and his parents, didn’t offer him this chance, which is every child’s right. Now, as the culprit will have calculated, he is taken seriously. The price to pay for a failure like this is unacceptable,” the paper writes.

The right-wing paper Die Welt, on the other hand, argues Germany much look at what motivated the teen gunman in order to keep it from happening again. “Prevention focused on perpetrators must be broadly expanded so as to see early warning signals,” the daily writes, adding that security must also be increase at the nation’s schools. “At every airport and at many companies we are subject to search, but anyone can enter a German classroom unchecked.”

MILITARY

What we know so far about the alleged spies accused of plotting attacks in Germany for Russia

Investigators have arrested two German-Russian men on suspicion of spying for Russia and planning attacks in Germany – including on US army targets – to undermine military support for Ukraine, prosecutors have said.

What we know so far about the alleged spies accused of plotting attacks in Germany for Russia

The pair, identified only as Dieter S. and Alexander J., were arrested in Bayreuth in the southeastern state of Bavaria on Wednesday, federal prosecutors said in a statement.

The main accused, Dieter S., is alleged to have scouted potential targets for attacks, “including facilities of the US armed forces” stationed in Germany.

Russia’s ambassador to Berlin was summoned by the foreign ministry following the arrests.

Germany would not “allow Putin to bring his terror to Germany”, Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock subsequently said on X.

But Russian officials rejected the accusations.

“No evidence was presented to prove the detainees’ plans or their possible connection to representatives of Russian structures,” the Russian embassy in Berlin said in a post on X.

Police have searched both men’s homes and places of work.

They are suspected of “having been active for a foreign intelligence service” in what prosecutors described as a “particularly serious case” of espionage.

Interior Minister Nancy Faeser likewise called the allegations “a particularly serious case of suspected agent activity for (Vladimir) Putin’s criminal regime”.

“We will continue to thwart such threat plans,” she said, reiterating Germany’s steadfast support for Ukraine.

How US army facilities were targeted 

“We can never accept that espionage activities in Germany take place,” Chancellor Olaf Scholz said at a meeting of EU leaders in Brussels.

According to prosecutors, Dieter S. had been exchanging information with a person linked to Russian intelligence services since October 2023, discussing possible acts of sabotage.

“The actions were intended, in particular, to undermine the military support provided from Germany to Ukraine against the Russian aggression,” prosecutors said.

The accused allegedly expressed readiness to “commit explosive and arson attacks mainly on military infrastructure and industrial sites in Germany”.

Dieter S. collected information about potential targets, “including facilities of the US armed forces”.

Fellow accused Alexander J. began assisting him from March 2024, they added.

Dieter S. scouted potential targets by taking photos and videos of military transport and equipment. He then allegedly shared the information with his contact person.

Der Spiegel magazine reported that the military facilities spied on included the US army base in Grafenwoehr in Bavaria.

“Among other things, there is an important military training area there where the US army trains Ukrainian soldiers, for example on Abrams battle tanks,” Der Spiegel wrote.

Dieter S. faces an additional charge of belonging to a “foreign terrorist organisation”. Prosecutors said they suspect he was a fighter in an armed unit of eastern Ukraine’s self-proclaimed pro-Russian “People’s Republic of Donetsk” in 2014-2016.

Espionage showdown 

Germany is Ukraine’s second-largest supplier of military aid, and news of the spy arrests came as Vice Chancellor Robert Habeck was on a visit to Kyiv.

“We will continue to provide Ukraine with massive support and will not allow ourselves to be intimidated,” Interior Minister Faeser said.

Germany has been shaken by several cases of alleged spying for Russia since the invasion of Ukraine in 2022, amid suggestions that some German officials have been too sympathetic with Moscow in the past.

A former German intelligence officer is on trial in Berlin, accused of handing information to Moscow that showed Germany had access to details of Russian mercenary operations in Ukraine. He denies the charges.

In November 2022, a German man was handed a suspended sentence for passing information to Russian intelligence while serving as a German army reserve officer.

“We know that the Russian power apparatus is also focusing on our country — we must respond to this threat with resistance and determination,” Justice Minister Marco Buschmann said Thursday.

READ ALSO: Two Germans charged with treason in Russia spying case

Additionally, a man suspected of aiding a plot by Russian intelligence services to assassinate Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has been arrested in Poland, on Thursday, according to Polish and Ukrainian prosecutors.

It said the suspect had stated he was “ready to act on behalf of the military intelligence services of the Russian Federation and established contact with Russian citizens directly involved in the war in Ukraine”.

Russian authorities for their part have levelled treason charges against dozens of people accused of aiding Kyiv and the West since the invasion.

A Russian court sentenced a resident of Siberia’s Omsk region to 12 years in jail earlier this month for trying to pass secrets to the German government in exchange for help moving there.

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