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FOOTBALL

Masked men threaten footballer at home

Five masked men broke into the home of Magdeburg footballer Daniel Bauer on Friday night and threatened him and his girlfriend if he didn’t improve his performance in Sunday’s regional league match against Halle.

Published: 31 October 2011 14:52 CET
Masked men threaten footballer at home
Photo: DPA

Bauer said the men told him, “This is just a warning. If nothing happens against Halle, we will come back.” The midfielder immediately left town with his girlfriend, missing Sunday’s game in the eastern state of Saxony-Anhalt.

“It was just a verbal threat,” the 29-year-old said on Monday. “But I knew I better leave for now.”

Bauer’s agent Henry Hennig said the player had not pressed any charges, though Magdeburg football club has. Bauer is already pressing charges for a written death threat he received a few weeks ago.

The president of Saxony-Anhalt’s football association Werner Georg condemned the attackers. “What happened in this case was highly criminal,” he said. “If the perpetrators are found, extreme punishments need to be imposed to draw a line.”

Magdeburg football club’s Sporting Director Detlef Ullrich told the Mitteldeutsche Zeitung newspaper, “I’ve not had any contact with him. This business has surprised us all.”

Hennig also confirmed that Bauer would not be playing in Wednesday’s cup fixture against Union Sandersdorf. “There’s no way he’s going back to Magdeburg for the moment,” he said. Bauer is considering seeking a negotiation with club management to terminate his contract.

Bauer had rows with Magdeburg fans last season after he spoke out against threatening against players.

Bauer’s team-mates did not comment on the affair. The club drew 0-0 against Halle on Sunday and is stuck in 16th place in Germany’s northern regional league, having sacked coach Wolfgang Sandhowe last week.

The Local/DPA/bk

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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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