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Russian hooligans jailed in Cologne for beating Spaniard

Five Russian football hooligans arrested in the German city of Cologne after attacking a group of Spanish tourists have been placed in custody, a police source said on Saturday.

Published: 18 June 2016 17:59 CEST

Russian hooligans jailed in Cologne for beating Spaniard

English fans clash with Russians on the stand. Photo: Daniel Dal Zennaro/ANSA

“A judge issued a warrant against the five men who have been placed in detention,” said a Cologne police spokesperson, adding that a sixth man had been released due to insufficient charges.

German police said the men acted in an “extremely aggressive and brutal manner” towards three Spanish nationals — two tourists and their guide — on Thursday.

The Russians “beat and kicked” their victims, leaving one seriously wounded, police said, without giving details on what sparked the attack.

The suspects aged 26 to 30 years were making a stop at the western city of Cologne after leaving Marseille, where the worst violence at an international tournament since the 1998 World Cup in France erupted last Saturday between Russian and English football thugs.

A French court on Thursday jailed three Russian football supporters over Euro 2016 fan unrest while a far-right Russian agitator was thrown out of the country.

Ancient Jewish settlement to be brought back to life in Cologne

The site of the construction in Cologne. Photo: DPA

If you are a tourist walking through the centre of Cologne, sooner rather than later, you'll come across a construction site located in the very best position, in the middle of the town hall square.

At the beginning of this millennium, the people of Cologne dug into the earth directly in front of their historic city hall and found a treasure from another millennium: the Jewish quarter.

Complete with a dance hall, a hospital, a bakery and a synagogue, the quarter contains the ruins of a settlement from the Middle Ages. It is a city within a city, a miniature world of houses huddled together.

Of course, all that is left is ruins – one needs a bit of imagination to picture how the whole thing once looked. But experts from Germany and abroad agree: there's nothing like it anywhere else in the world.

Ancient tradition

No other German city has been associated with Jewish history for so long as Cologne.

The first documented Jewish community dates back to the year 321, making it the oldest north of the Alps.

But in 1349, the neighbourhood was destroyed and its inhabitants were murdered or expelled. Local Christians blamed Jews for the outbreak of the plague.

Currently, a museum is being built over the site on the town hall square. It will be a parallel world underground: visitors will be able to relive life in the Jewish quarter in the era of knights and minstrels on a 600-meter-long trail. The trail also visits the governor's palace from Roman times, which was rediscovered in the 1950s.

The museum is called MiQua after the name for the Jewish ritual bath, Mikveh.

Exhibits will include artifacts found during the excavations; among them is a crescent-shaped, gem-set gold earring from the 11th century.

The researchers also discovered a tablet dating back to the Middle Ages with the inscription “yt in ys neyt anders.” This could be translated as “Et is wie et is” (It is as it is) – a classic Cologne saying.

The museum is scheduled to open in 2024, but through the panorama windows on the third floor of the Wallraf-Richartz-Museum, also located on Rathausplatz, one can already follow the progress of construction work.

This year Jewish life will be celebrated across the country – the anniversary year '1,700 years of Jewish life in Germany' will be celebrated nationwide.

Hamburg is organising a themed week entitled 'More than Little Jerusalem'; in Nuremberg the photo exhibition 'Germany's Emigrants' will be opened; and in Herxheim in Rhineland-Palatinate the play Judas by Lot Vekemans will be staged.

READ MORE: 9 hilarious gifts Judaism gave the German language

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