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Berliners offer thousands of euros to find suspect in brutal U-Bahn attack

Two private citizens have come forward, each offering thousands of euros in reward money to whoever can identify the man who kicked a woman down the stairs of a Berlin U-Bahn station.

Published: 12 December 2016 13:03 CET

Berliners offer thousands of euros to find suspect in brutal U-Bahn attack

Screenshot taken from video released by police.

The attack has gone viral since police last week shared CCTV footage, showing a man at Hermannstrasse U-Bahn station kicking a woman in the back, sending her tumbling down the stairs to land face-first on the platform below.

Berlin media report that the 26-year-old woman broke her arm during the fall.

The footage has been shared across social media and even been picked up by international press like Fox News and The Sun as police search for witnesses.

Though police have yet to identify the man responsible, they had received ten tips as of Monday, according to Tagesspiegel.

And now at least two private citizens are getting in on the hunt. A former bodyguard to celebrities like Angelina Jolie and Leonardo DiCaprio, Michael Kuhr, wrote on Facebook on Sunday that he would pay a €2,000 “bounty” to anyone who could provide the name and address “of the bastard”.

Da kommt mir beim Frühstück die Galle hoch, wenn ich das lese! Ich bezahle ein “Kopfgeld” in Höhe von 2.000,- € für den…

Posted by Michael Kuhr Security on Sunday, December 11, 2016

“This makes my blood boil when I read this at breakfast,” Kuhr said in the message, along with a picture of him holding a newspaper about the attack.

An anonymous “prominent businessman” told tabloid BZ on Sunday that he was willing to spend a total of €10,000 to help the victim and find the perpetrator.

“I will donate €5,000 to the victim so that she can go on vacation and recover from the pain,” said the man, who himself has a daughter. He also said he would pay €5,000 to the person who could correctly identify the man in the video.

According to Tagesspiegel, police said on Monday that they still do not have concrete leads on the perpetrator or his acquaintances, who are shown in the video standing by during the attack.

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Nine face trial in Germany for alleged far-right coup plot

Nine suspected participants in the coup plot will take the stand in the first set of proceedings to open in the sprawling court case, split among three courts in three cities.

The suspects are accused of having participated in the “military arm” of the organisation led by the minor aristocrat and businessman Prince Heinrich XIII Reuss.

The alleged plot is the most high-profile recent case of far-right violence, which officials say has grown to become the biggest extremist threat in Germany.

The organisation led by Reuss was an eclectic mix of characters and included, among others, a former special forces soldier, a former far-right MP, an astrologer, and a well-known chef.

Reuss, along with other suspected senior members of the group, will face trial in the second of the three cases, in Frankfurt in late May.

The group aimed to install him as head of state after its planned takeover.

Heinrich XIII arrested at his home following a raid in 2022.

Heinrich XIII arrested at his home following a raid in 2022. Photo: picture alliance/dpa | Boris Roessler

The alleged plotters espoused a mix of “conspiracy myths” drawn from the global QAnon movement and the German Reichsbûrger (Citizens of the Reich) scene, according to prosecutors.

The Reichsbürger movement includes right-wing extremists and gun enthusiasts who reject the legitimacy of the modern German republic.

Its followers generally believe in the continued existence of the pre-World War I German Reich, or empire, under a monarchy, and several groups have declared their own states.

Such Reichsbürger groups were driven by “hatred of our democracy”, Interior Minister Nancy Faeser said in Berlin on Sunday.

“We will continue our tough approach until we have fully exposed and dismantled militant ‘Reichsbürger’ structures,” she added.

READ ALSO: Who was involved in the alleged plot to overthrow German democracy?

‘Treasonous undertaking’

According to investigators, Reuss’s group shared a belief that Germany was run by members of a “deep state” and that the country could be liberated with the help of a secret international alliance.

The nine men to stand trial in Stuttgart are accused by prosecutors of preparing a “treasonous undertaking” as part of the Reichsbürger plot.

As part of the group, they are alleged to have aimed to “forcibly eliminate the existing state order” and replace it with their own institutions.

The members of the military arm were tasked with establishing, supplying and recruiting new members for “territorial defence companies”, according to prosecutors.

Among the accused are a special forces soldier, identified only as Andreas M. in line with privacy laws, who is said to have used his access to scout out army barracks.

Others were allegedly responsible for the group’s IT systems or were tasked with liaising with the fictitious underground “alliance”, which they thought would rally to the plotters’ aid when the coup was launched.

The nine include Alexander Q., who is accused by federal prosecutors of acting as the group’s propagandist, spreading conspiracy theories via the Telegram messaging app.

Two of the defendants, Markus L. and Ralf S., are accused of weapons offences in addition to the charge of treason.

Markus L. is also accused of attempted murder for allegedly turning an assault rifle on police and injuring two officers during a raid at his address in March 2023.

Police swooped in to arrest most of the group in raids across Germany in December 2022 and the charges were brought at the end of last year.

Three-part trial

Proceedings in Stuttgart are set to continue until early 2025.

In all, 26 people are accused in the huge case against the extremist network, with trials also set to open in Munich and Frankfurt.

Reuss will stand trial in Frankfurt from May 21st, alongside another ringleader, an ex-army officer identified as Ruediger v.P., and a former MP for the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, Birgit Malsack-Winkemann.

The Reichsbürger group had allegedly organised a “council” to take charge after their planned putsch, with officials warning preparations were at an advanced stage.

The alleged plotters had resources amounting to 500,000 euros ($536,000) and a “massive arsenal of weapons”, according to federal prosecutors.

Long dismissed as malcontents and oddballs, believers in Reichsbuerger-type conspiracies have become increasingly radicalised in recent years and are seen as a growing security threat.

Earlier this month, police charged a new suspect in relation to another coup plot.

The plotters, frustrated with pandemic-era restrictions, planned to kidnap the German health minister, according to investigators.

Five other suspected co-conspirators in that plot went on trial in Koblenz last May.

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