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CRIME

Drinks wagon fight led to fatal Rostock beating

Police said on Friday that the man who was beaten to death in Rostock on Thursday was killed in a senseless argument over whose drinks wagon was better-looking.

Drinks wagon fight led to fatal Rostock beating
Photo: DPA

The 45-year-old man had been part of a group which had become embroiled in a fight with another group during Thursday’s holiday known as Herren Tag, or Men’s Day. The day off is often used as an excuse for groups of male friends to stagger around drinking as much as they can, towing their booze behind them in a little wagon.

One of the two groups which confronted each other in Rostock was carrying drinks in a supermarket trolley while the other had a handcart. The men had become involved in an argument and then a fist fight about which was better, said Klaus Müller, state prosecutor in Rostock, at a press conference on Friday.

The fighting was actually over when one of the drunken men delivered another hit to the 45-year-old, causing him to hit his head against a train, said Müller.

“The fight is clear to see on the video,” he said, referring to the security video recovered from the Warnemünde local train station’s cameras.

Three men aged 23, 24 and 29 fled the scene and hid in a shop nearby before being arrested just a few hours later. They were so drunk at the time that they could only be questioned on Friday once they had sobered up.

Two more men from that group are being sought by officers investigating the man’s death.

The dead man, who has not yet been identified, was initially resuscitated and was thought to be out of danger.

But during the trip to hospital the man’s condition suddenly and dramatically worsened so much that he died by the time he got there.

The German police union (DPolG) called for a more consistent approach to violent, often drunk criminals. Judges pull back from imposing the harshest sentences on those who can say they were very drunk when attacking someone, said the union’s deputy chairman Joachim Lenders.

“A changed social awareness is necessary,” DPolG chairman Rainer Wendt said on television station n-tv. “Whoever, through such violent actions risks the life of another, or ignores the danger of that risk, must realise that he must spend a number of years behind bars for it – even drunken people understand this.”

DPA/DAPD/hc

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TRANSPORT

Hit by worker shortage, German city gets students to drive trams

Seated before the tram's control panel, Benedikt Hanne, 24, deftly steered the red and white wagons, hours before heading to Nuremberg university to study for a social work degree.

Hit by worker shortage, German city gets students to drive trams

As an apprentice, Hanne was watched closely by a trainer, and the tram he drove had no passengers.

But if all goes well, he will soon become a fully-fledged tram driver moving people across Nuremberg in the evenings or at weekends, when he does not have classes to attend.

Squeezed by a serious manpower shortage, public transport operators like Nuremberg’s city service VAG have had to find new sources to expand their pool of workers.

The VAG needs to recruit 160 new drivers annually to run its metro, trams and buses.

For Harald Ruben, who heads the company’s recruitment and training team, it was clear that “we won’t reach this target unless we explore all possible possibilities”.

The transport company put out an advert targeted at university students, offering a part-time job to drive trams outside school hours.

To qualify, they need a regular driver’s licence, be above 21 years of age, and be “reliable and suitable for driving and shift work”.

Many sectors in Germany, like other European countries, are suffering from a serious manpower shortage which is expected to worsen unless urgent measures are taken.

Public transport operators have warned they may have to reduce the number of buses, trams or metros as tens of thousands of jobs are expected to remain vacant in the coming years.

The worker gap has led public transport employees across the country to go on strike in the last weeks to underline their plight, with union Verdi
warning of deteriorating conditions.

Benedikt Hanne, a student of social work at Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg (FAU), sits in the driver's cab of a tram simulator on the maintenance depot of Nuremberg's public transport company VAG

Benedikt Hanne sits in the driver’s cab of a tram simulator on the maintenance depot of Nuremberg’s public transport company VAG in Nuremberg, southern Germany, on March 21, 2024. (Photo by Daniel Karmann / AFP)

Many operators are reporting up to 20 to 30 percent unfilled posts, with shortages contributing to a vicious circle of overworked employees who are then falling ill, exacerbating the situation.

Other German cities like Mannheim and Munich have also begun tapping students as potential part-timers to fill public transport gaps.

‘Really cool’ 

Hanne never thought he would be driving a tram, until a few weeks back, when he spotted the VAG ad.

He applied immediately, he said, and became one of five recruited. In all, the VAG received 36 applicants.

Dressed in the red and blue uniform of the company, the apprentice drivers are put through an accelerated four-week course that is held during school holidays.

After several hours of theory lessons, the trainees practise on a tram simulator, before moving on to a real tram.

They are also expected to take on extra homework to make up for the accelerated pace of the course, which is half the length of regular training.

After passing a driving test and several days accompanied by a trainer, Hanne will be driving a tram alone for 20 hours a week.

Hanne, whose previous part-time jobs included working at a gas station, said he is unfazed about juggling university courses and work.

“If I can choose, I’d prefer to drive the tram before going to university, so that the day ends with classes,” he said, adding however that he wants “to also work at other times of the day to see different people and situations”.

“It’s just a great feeling, to have all these wagons behind you,” said Hanne.

“My classmates find it really cool, my family too. They’ll catch my tram some day, that’s for sure.”

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