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US tourist dies after assault at famed Bavarian castle

A 21-year-old American woman has died after being assaulted and pushed down a slope by a US tourist near the Neuschwanstein castle in Bavaria, police said on Thursday.

Published: 15 June 2023 16:51 CEST

Neuschwanstein and Alpsee in Bavaria

Neuschwanstein and Alpsee in Bavaria. Photo: picture alliance/dpa | Karl-Josef Hildenbrand

A 30-year-old American man was arrested after the incident on Wednesday afternoon, police from the town of Kempten said in a statement.

The 21-year-old and her 22-year-old woman friend were hiking in the area when they met the 30-year-old man, the police said.

The man allegedly persuaded them to follow him down a secret trail that led to a good lookout point.

He then “physically attacked” the 21-year-old woman, police said.

When her friend tried to intervene, he allegedly choked her and pushed her down a steep slope.

Police believe “an attempted sexual offence” was then committed against the 21-year-old.

She was then also pushed down the slope, falling next to her friend some 50 metres below.

When mountain rescue workers found the two women, the 22-year-old was injured but able to talk.

READ ALSO: Two children ‘still critical’ after France knife attack

The 21-year-old was seriously injured and taken by helicopter to hospital, where she died later that night as a result of her injuries.

The man is being investigated on suspicion of murder, attempted murder and a sexual offence.

Member comments

Anonymous - 16 June 2023 at 10:39 CEST

Oh my god. If he’s a soldier, hand him over for court marshal so he can be executed immediately after a short tribunal. If not, send him back to the States so he can be tried and given a death sentence. There’s no fixing these types of monsters.

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Germany will 'not hold snap election' after EU vote

“The regular election date is next autumn. And that’s what we plan to do,” Steffen Hebestreit told a government press conference, referencing the next planned federal vote in Germany.

Scholz’s coalition suffered a stinging defeat at the European elections Sunday, with all three parties in his government trailing the conservatives and the far right, preliminary results showed.

The Social Democrats (SPD) scored its worst result in history with 13.9 percent, third behind the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) on just under 16 percent, and well behind the conservative CDU-CSU bloc’s 30 percent.

READ ALSO: What the EU elections say about the state of politics in Germany

The Greens recorded around 12 percent while the liberal FDP took five percent.

The result sparked calls from opposition parties for Scholz to follow the lead of French President Emmanuel Macron and call a snap election.

Alice Weidel, co-leader of the AfD, said Germany had “voted out the chancellor” and the government.

“There is now only one task left for Scholz: clear the way for new elections – instead of governing for another year against a large majority of the population,” Weidel wrote on X.

Markus Söder, the leader of the conservatives in the southern state of Bavaria, also called for new elections as soon as possible.

The three-way coalition “no longer has the support of the population”, Söder told the RTL broadcaster, calling for Germany to follow in the footsteps of France.

Macron has called snap elections for June 30th and July 7th after his centrist alliance lost to the far right in the EU elections.

AfD top candidate excluded from delegation

Meanwhile, the top candidate for the AfD at the EU polls will be excluded from the party’s delegation at the European Parliament due to a string of scandals, the party said on Monday.

Maximilian Krah has been accused of having suspicious links to Russia and China, while comments that he made minimising the crimes of the Nazis’ notorious SS also prompted the AfD’s expulsion from the far-right group within the European Parliament.

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