Hanau Terrorist Attack Reignites Debate on Dangers of far-Right Ideology

Linda Schlegel

On the evening of Wednesday, February 19, 2020, a man allegedly opened fire on a bar and a kiosk in the German city of Hanau, which were frequented mainly by customers with a migrant background. Nine people died during the attack; many others were wounded. Most of the victims were part of the immigrant community in Hanau. The perpetrator then allegedly drove to his home, killed his 72-year-old mother and then himself [1]. The alleged perpetrator was identified as Tobias Rathjen, a 43-year old German native with a gun license [2]. During the night of the attack, the office of the German Attorney General immediately took control of the investigation. The Attorney General is the actor in charge of investigating offenses related to terrorism, espionage and non-compliance with international law and can independently decide to take charge of an investigation if he or she suspects it to be related to one of the three main areas of focus of the Attorney General’s office [3]. The investigation is still underway and caution should be exercised when judging the incomplete information currently available to the public.

The alleged attacker and his motive

The alleged perpetrator seems to have been motivated by a mixture of right-wing ideology and conspiracy theories. Before executing his attack, the perpetrator had uploaded several videos and a 24-page manifesto to his website which also shows the image of a white wolf, potentially alluding to a self-image as a lone wolf. However, a video titled ‘explanation’ seems to have been removed from the website, complicating the search for a definitive motive [4]. According to the leader of Rathjen’s pistol club, the attacker never uttered right-wing extremist statements or criticized immigrants openly, but his manifesto confirms a worldview characterized by paranoia and anti-immigration beliefs [5].

According to terrorism expert Peter Neumann, the perpetrator’s manifesto is written in excellent German and contains hints that he received a university education. According to Neumann, the perpetrator belongs to a type of extremist who picks and chooses different extreme and non-mainstream beliefs from various sources found online to form his own ideology. There seems to be a clear indication that he adhered to a right-wing extremist worldview. He writes that a variety of Muslim-majority countries, as well as Israel, need to be ‘completely annihilated’ and that the existence of certain national minorities and ethnic groups is a ‘fundamental mistake’ [6].

Next to his right-wing extremist motives, the perpetrator was also allegedly believed to be under surveillance from covert agencies and showed signs of mental health issues. Some even postulate that the manifesto contains signs that the perpetrator was suffering from schizophrenia. For instance, he wrote about hearing voices and that his thoughts were being monitored by intelligence agencies [7]. Nevertheless, Neumann stresses, mental health issues cannot be used to exclude political motives. Perpetrators can suffer from mental health problems and still know what they are doing when they are perpetrating a politically-motivated attack [8].

Similarly to Norwegian terrorist Anders Breivik’s manifesto, the Hanau manifesto is used by the author not only to display his ideological beliefs and justify his actions but to also tell the story of his life. On Twitter, Neumann speculates that the perpetrator might also belong to the so-called Incel subculture because he complains about never having found a woman willing to date him and that the intelligence services prevented him from having a relationship [9]. Overall, however, it is not yet known with certainty what the ideological underpinnings of the attack were, how severe the perpetrator’s mental health issues were and whether or not he had connections to the right-wing extremist scene in Germany or elsewhere.

A wave of solidarity

A wave of solidarity swept across Germany on the day after the attack in Hanau and several vigils and marches against hate were held in multiple German cities including Hanau. In Berlin, for instance, thousands took to the streets to display their solidarity with the victims and the disapproval of any right-wing, racist or extremist worldview [10]. Chancellor Angela Merkel (CDU) spoke out in solidarity with the victims and postulated that “racism is poison, hate is poison” for a society. She drew parallels to other right-wing extremist attacks in Germany, including the murder of CDU politician Walter Lübcke and the synagogue attack in Halle last year. Foreign Minister Heiko Maas addressed the extremist directly, stating that “this is not your country, this is our country” [11].

Aside from expressions of sadness and solidarity, however, a fight for the political interpretation of the attack and the dominant position in the discourse has begun. The Alternative for Germany (AfD) party is currently facing criticism as a consequence of the violence in Hanau because it moved the Overton window in Germany to the right and brought the language of right-wing extremists such as ‘remigration’ or ‘Islamization’ into mainstream political discourse. CDU politician Norbert Röttgen cautioned to “not view the attack as an isolated incident. We have to fight the poison that has been brought into our society by the AfD and others”. Others went even further, viewing the AfD as the political arm of right-wing terrorism in Germany and the Social Democratic Party (SPD) has suggested that the German Verfassungsschutz, the constitutional protection service, should monitor the AfD [12]. The AfD, itself, has denied any link between its politics and the attack. AfD party leader Meuthen stated that the attack was neither right-wing or left-wing extremism but the ‘action of a mad man’ and AfD politician Gauland complained that other parties were trying to instrumentalize the attack to discredit the AfD [13].

Conclusion

It is to be expected that the attack in Hanau will again spur discussion about the causal links between mental health issues, extremist worldviews and the perpetration of violence by lone wolf actors. More importantly in the long term, however, will be the accumulative effect of the recent attacks in Germany over the last years and their potential to further polarize the political discourse. The political climate in Germany has suffered tremendously since the influx of refugees in 2015 with a new rise in right-of-center voting behavior. The Overton window has moved so far to the right that right-wing extremist news is regularly covered by the mainstream media and a polarization dynamic is slowly but surely crushing the moderate political center. This was not the first and it unfortunately will not be the last right-wing attack in Germany. The most important question is how well political decision makers and civil society will be able to withstand the centrifugal power of the current political climate.

European Eye on Radicalization aims to publish a diversity of perspectives and as such does not endorse the opinions expressed by contributors. The views expressed in this article represent the author alone.

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References

[1] Spiegel, Wie ging der Täter vor?, 2020 Retrieved from: https://www.spiegel.de/panorama/justiz/hanau-was-ueber-den-anschlag-in-hessen-benutzen-a-9c8b703a-b144-480d-ba80-66fdd65cb8e6

[2] Jansen, F. and Lemkemeyer S., Wer war Tobias Rathjen?, 2020 Retrieved from: https://www.tagesspiegel.de/politik/der-taeter-von-hanau-wer-war-tobias-rathjen/25566016.html

[3] Generalbundesanwalt (n.d.) Retrieved from: https://www.generalbundesanwalt.de/DE/Home/home_node.html

[4] Tweet by Rajan Basra https://twitter.com/rajanbasra/status/1230578404266827780

[5] Jansen, F. and Lemkemeyer S., Wer war Tobias Rathjen?, 2020 Retrieved from: https://www.tagesspiegel.de/politik/der-taeter-von-hanau-wer-war-tobias-rathjen/25566016.html

[6] Die Welt, Der Täter von Hanau sieht sein Publikum in der ganzen Welt, 2020. Retrieved from: https://www.welt.de/politik/deutschland/article206018319/Hanau-Taeter-sieht-sein-Publikum-in-der-ganzen-Welt.html

[7] Tuscheit, K., Es spricht vieles für eine Schizophrenie, 2020. Retrieved from: https://www.faz.net/aktuell/politik/inland/psychiaterin-es-spricht-vieles-fuer-eine-schizophrenie-16644002.html

[8] Stahl, B., Terrorismusexperte sieht beim Täter von Hanau Parallelen zu Breivik, 2020. Retrieved from: https://www.mainpost.de/regional/wuerzburg/Terrorismusexperte-sieht-beim-Taeter-von-Hanau-Parallelen-zu-Breivik;art735,10410086?wt_ref=https%3A%2F%2Fnews.google.com%2F&wt_t=1582239126931&wt_ref=https%3A%2F%2Ft.co%2FmZ1uZBIKcH%3Famp%3D1&wt_t=1582269055912

[9] Tweet by Peter Neumann https://twitter.com/PeterRNeumann/status/1230402281666949123

[10] Tweet by Moritz Wittler https://twitter.com/MoritzWittler/status/1230626003904536577