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Police still on hunt for mailbox bomber

Doctors will likely be able to save the life of a 12-year-old girl critically injured in a mailbox bombing in Berlin, while police are still on the hunt for the main suspect in the attack, reports said Saturday.

Published: 28 November 2008 09:23 CET

Police still on hunt for mailbox bomber

Photo: DPA

Police have located the booby-trapped car of the suspect, the girl’s step-uncle, and were overnight defusing a bomb in the vehicle, Der Tagesspiegel reported citing police sources.

Explosives specialists descended on the neighbourhood in the eastern district of Friedrichshain after the red BMW was found late Friday, and more than 100 residents were evacuated while the operation was underway.

A complicated device made up of “wires and pipes” was inside the vehicle, police said.

The suspect, whose name was given by the ,i>Berliner Zeitung newspaper as 32-year-old Peter John, allegedly placed a bomb in a letterbox, which exploded and critically injured the girl on Wednesday when she opened it at her family’s home in Rudow.

Doctors have been frantically trying to save the girl’s life, and they said there’s now a good chance they will be able to save her arm. But the girl, Charlyn, remained in critical condition at a Berlin area hospital.

“Dangerous toxins could spread through her body,” Andreas Eisenschenk, the lead surgeon on the operation, told the Tagesspiegel.

The suspect also allegedly put a second bomb on the roof of the car of the girl’s father, but that did not go off. He has been on the run since the incident, and police have sealed off his apartment.

A neighbour reported that the suspect never made an unpleasant impression and is supposedly “a calm and friendly man,” according to the paper.

He had always felt mistreated when compared to the standard of living of the rest of the family and a dispute has been ongoing for years.

The father reportedly revealed during police questioning on Thursday that he suspected someone in his extended family might want to harm his immediate family, but refused to comment further.

Anmeldung: Berlin to re-launch online housing registration in October

Every foreigner who’s lived in the German capital has experienced the stress of trying to find an appointment at the Bürgeramt, or citizens’ office.

In order to register an address – a process known as the Anmeldung in German – residents generally have to scour a list of available appointments, sometimes waiting weeks for a spot or travelling to a far-flung part of the city to complete the process.

From mid-October, however, the city has announced that people will be able to register and deregister their place of residence online. The Local has contacted officials to ask for the specific date in October that this is happening and will update this story when we receive the information.

According to the Senate, the move will free up around 500,000 appointments that would ordinarily have been taken by the hundreds of thousands who move into and around the city each year.

Berlin had briefly offered online registrations during the Covid-19 pandemic, but removed the service once social restrictions were lifted.

How will the new system work?

The online registration system is apparently based on Hamburg’s system, which was developed under the so-called ‘one-for-all’ (EfA) principle. This means that other states around Germany can adopt the same software as part of their digitalisation efforts.

People who want to register address will need to fill in an online form, provide proof of their new residence and also identify themselves using their electronic ID, which will either be an electronic residence permit or a German or EU ID card.

READ ALSO: What is Germany’s electronic ID card and how do you use it?

After the process has been completed, a sticker for the ID card will be sent out via post.

Aufenthaltstitel

A German residence permit or ‘Aufenthaltstitel’ with an electronic ID function. Photo: picture alliance/dpa | Daniel Karmann

This can then be used to update the information on a residents’ eID card and access the registration confirmation digitally.

Those who don’t have access to a validated electronic ID will need to either activate their eID function at the immigration office or Bürgeramt or register their address in person.

In 2024, the service will only be available for single residents, but online registration for families is also in the pipeline.

Is Berlin making progress with digitalisation?

It certainly seems like it. This latest move is part of a larger push to complete digitalise Berlin’s creaking services and move to a faster, more efficient online system.

At the start of the year, the capital centralised its naturalisation office in the Landesamt für Einwanderung (LEA) and moved all citizenship applications online.

Since then, citizenship applications have been completed around ten times faster than previously – though tens of thousands of applicants are still waiting for a response on their paper applications.

More recently, the LEA also announced that it had moved to a new appointment-booking system designed to end the predatory practice of appointment touting, or selling appointments for a fee.

Under the new system, many residents permits – including EU Blue Cards – can be directly applied for online, with in-person appointments reserved for collecting the new (or renewed) permit.

READ ALSO: What to know about the new appointments system at Berlin immigration office

Meanwhile, those who can’t apply online yet can access appointments by filling in the contact form, with the LEA hoping that this will deter people from booking appointments with the intention to sell them on.

In another move to speed up bureaucracy, Berlin also opened a new Bürgeramt in the district of Spandau this September, with the governing CDU announcing on X that more new offices would follow in the near future.

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