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CRIME

US travel warning for Garmisch-Partenkirchen to be lifted

After a recent altercation between Americans and locals in the mountain resort, the US consulate in Munich said Americans could be targeted over the 4th of July weekend. On Sunday, the consulate said the alert would be lifted soon.

Published: 5 July 2009 12:41 CEST
US travel warning for Garmisch-Partenkirchen to be lifted
Photo: DPA

Garmisch-Partenkirchen is a popular recreation spot for US military personnel stationed in Germany. After a brawl at a Garmisch nightclub two weeks ago where several people were injured, an American serviceman who took part was threatened with revenge attacks. Further threats came later in the week and warned that Americans would be the target of new attacks.

The US consulate in Munich issued a warning July 2, telling Americans to “avoid public gather places, particularly restaurants, bars and discos frequented by American citizens,” in Garmisch.

With the weekend drawing to a close without incident, consulate spokeswoman Kathrn Crockart told the news service DPA that the warning would “most likely” be lifted Monday.

“When we have this kind of threat, we have to inform our citizens,” said Crockart, who said she had not seen a similar warning issued in her 18 months of service in Bavaria.

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CRIME

Teenager turns self in after attack on German politician

A 17-year-old has turned himself in to police in Germany after an attack on a lawmaker that the country's leaders decried as a threat to democracy.

Published: 5 May 2024 12:52 CEST
Teenager turns self in after attack on German politician

The teenager reported to police in the eastern city of Dresden early Sunday morning and said he was “the perpetrator who had knocked down the SPD politician”, police said in a statement.

Matthias Ecke, 41, European parliament lawmaker for Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s Social Democrats (SPD), was set upon by four attackers as he put up EU election posters in Dresden on Friday night, according to police.

Ecke was “seriously injured” and required an operation after the attack, his party said.

Scholz on Saturday condemned the attack as a threat to democracy.

“We must never accept such acts of violence,” he said.

Ecke, who is head of the SPD’s European election list in the Saxony region, was just the latest political target to be attacked in Germany.

Police said a 28-year-old man putting up posters for the Greens had been “punched” and “kicked” earlier in the evening on the same Dresden street.

Last week two Greens deputies were abused while campaigning in Essen in western Germany and another was surrounded by dozens of demonstrators in her car in the east of the country.

According to provisional police figures, 2,790 crimes were committed against politicians in Germany in 2023, up from 1,806 the previous year, but less than the 2,840 recorded in 2021, when legislative elections took place.

A group of activists against the far right has called for demonstrations against the attack on Ecke in Dresden and Berlin on Sunday, Der Spiegel magazine said.

According to the Tagesspiegel newspaper, Interior Minister Nancy Faeser is planning to call a special conference with Germany’s regional interior ministers next week to address violence against politicians.

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