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‘I fired the shot’: German neo-Nazi on trial over politician murder admits to killing

A German neo-Nazi on trial over the murder of pro-refugee politician Walter Lübcke admitted Wednesday to the killing that has shocked the nation and highlighted the growing threat of right-wing extremism.

Published: 5 August 2020 12:20 CEST

'I fired the shot': German neo-Nazi on trial over politician murder admits to killing

Stephan Ernst on trial on Wednesday. Photo: DPA

“I fired the shot,” Stephan Ernst, 46, told the court of the killing in a statement read out by his defence.

Federal prosecutors have said Ernst was motivated by “racism and xenophobia” when he allegedly shot Lübcke in the head on June 1st, 2019.

Lübcke's killing is believed to be Germany's first far-right political assassination since World War II.

Apologising to the victim's family, Ernst said he had carried out a “cowardly and cruel” act.

He insisted that he did not act alone but along with co-defendant Markus Hartmann, who stands accused of helping him train with firearms — including the murder weapon.

“I know that what I and Hartmann did to you will always be inexcusable. What we did was wrong,” he told the family in the statement.

“No one should die because he has another view,” said Ernst, adding that he had been “misled by wrong ideas”.

Lübcke belonged to Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservative CDU party and headed the Kassel regional council in the western state of Hesse.

He supported Merkel's 2015 decision to open the country's borders to refugees, with more than one million arriving since then, and spoke in favour of hosting asylum seekers in a local town.

Prosecutors say Ernst and his accomplice attended a speech by Lübcke in October 2015 when the politician defended helping refugees, adding that anyone who did not agree with those values was “free to leave the country”.

The late Walter Lübcke. Photo: DPA
'Hatred of foreigners'

The remark was widely shared online and turned Lübcke into a hate figure for the far right.

After the speech, Ernst “increasingly projected his hatred of foreigners” on to Lübcke, according to the indictment.

Angered by mass sexual assaults by migrants against women in Cologne on New Year's Eve 2015 and the 2016 terror attack in the French city of Nice, Ernst “began planning the murder in earnest” and started tracking Lübcke's movements, the indictment said.

Between 2016 and 2018, prosecutors say Ernst worked with Hartmann to improve his skill with firearms, and the two attended right-wing demonstrations together.

In the course of their investigations, prosecutors separately charged Ernst with attempted murder for allegedly stabbing an Iraqi asylum seeker in the back in 2016.

Ernst has a long criminal history and was known to police as a neo-Nazi sympathiser.

He was convicted of an attempted bomb attack on an asylum home in 1993. In 2009, German media say he took part in neo-Nazi clashes targeting a union demonstration.

But Ernst then slipped off the security services' radar, leading to criticism that the authorities were not taking the far-right threat seriously enough.

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Output is expected to expand 0.3 percent this year, the economy ministry said, up from a prediction of 0.2 percent in February.

The slightly rosier picture comes after improvements in key indicators — from factory output to business activity — boosted hopes a recovery may be getting under way.

The German economy shrank slightly last year, hit by soaring inflation, a manufacturing slowdown and weakness in trading partners, and has acted as a major drag on the 20-nation eurozone.

But releasing its latest projections, the economy ministry said in a statement there were growing indications of a “turning point”.

“Signs of an economic upturn have increased significantly, especially in recent weeks,” Economy Minister Robert Habeck said at a press conference.

The ministry also cut its forecast for inflation this year to 2.4 percent, from a previous prediction of 2.8 percent, and sees the figure falling below two percent next year.

“The fall in inflation will lead to consumer demand — people have more money in their wallets again, and will spend this money,” said Habeck.

“So purchasing power is increasing, real wages are rising and this will contribute to a domestic economic recovery.”

Energy prices — which surged after Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine — had also fallen and supply chain woes had eased, he added.

Several months ago there had been expectations of a strong rebound in 2024, with forecasts of growth above one percent, but these were dialled back at the start of the year as the economy continued to languish.

‘Germany has fallen behind’

But improving signs have fuelled hopes the lumbering economy — while not about to break into a sprint — may at least be getting back on its feet.

On Wednesday a closely-watched survey from the Ifo institute showed business sentiment rising for a third consecutive month in April, and more strongly than expected.

A key purchasing managers’ index survey this week showed that business activity in Germany had picked up.

And last week the central bank, the Bundesbank, forecast the economy would expand slightly in the first quarter, dodging a recession, after earlier predicting a contraction.

German Economics Minister Robert Habeck

Economics Minister Robert Habeck (Greens) presents the latest economic forecasts at a press conference in Berlin on Wednesday, April 24th. Photo: picture alliance/dpa | Michael Kappeler

Despite the economy’s improving prospects, growth of 0.3 percent is still slower than other developed economies and below past rates, and officials fret it is unlikely to pick up fast in the years ahead.

Habeck has repeatedly stressed solutions are needed for deep-rooted problems facing Germany, from an ageing population to labour shortages and a transition towards greener industries that is moving too slowly.

“Germany has fallen behind other countries in terms of competitiveness,” he said. “We still have a lot to do — we have to roll up our sleeves.”

Already facing turbulence from pandemic-related supply chain woes, the German economy’s problems deepened dramatically when Russia invaded Ukraine and slashed supplies of gas, hitting the country’s crucial manufacturers hard.

While the energy shock has faded, continued weakness in trading partners such as China, widespread strikes in recent months and higher eurozone interest rates have all prolonged the pain.

The European Central Bank has signalled it could start cutting borrowing costs in June, which would boost the eurozone.

But Habeck stressed that care was still needed as, despite the expectations of imminent easing, “tight monetary policy has not yet been lifted.”

In addition, disagreements in Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s three-party ruling coalition are hindering efforts to reignite growth, critics say.

This week the pro-business FDP party, a coalition partner, faced an angry backlash from Scholz’s SPD when it presented a 12-point plan for an “economic turnaround”, including deep cuts to state benefits.

Christian Lindner, the fiscally hawkish FDP finance minister, welcomed signs of “stabilisation” in the economic forecasts but stressed that projected medium-term growth was “too low to sustainably finance our state”.

“There are no arguments for postponing the economic turnaround,” he added.