Solingen (dpa) – According to Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier, the suspected Islamist attack in Solingen has hit the entire country at its core. The bloody act has hit “a friendly, open, diverse country” at its core, said Steinmeier at a memorial event for the victims of the terrorist attack in the Bergisches Land city just over a week ago. “It hits us in our self-image as a nation in which people want to live peacefully and together despite all differences – people who have lived here for generations as well as those who came later.” The head of state emphasized in his eulogy: “It is precisely this, precisely this core local hatred that the perpetrators of Solingen have hit with, just like the perpetrators before him.”
Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD), Bundestag President Bärbel Bas, North Rhine-Westphalia's Prime Minister Hendrik Wüst and Interior Minister Herbert Reul (both CDU) were among those attending the memorial service in the theater and concert hall. Steinmeier's wife Elke Büdenbender was also among the approximately 450 guests in attendance. The pain is almost unbearable, said the Federal President, who had just spoken to relatives of the three dead and eight injured. “I can hardly imagine, we can hardly imagine, what you, dear relatives and friends, are going through, what you have to suffer, what hell you are going through.”
A 26-year-old man from Syria, who came to Germany as a refugee via Bulgaria and is in custody, is suspected of the crime. The terrorist militia Islamic State (IS) claims responsibility for the crime. “Fanatic Islamists want to destroy what we love: our open society, our art of living, our community, our freedom,” said Steinmeier. “We don't want the terrorists' plan to work, for their terrible seeds to bear fruit, but we feel fear and uncertainty.” Both have their reasons. However, we should not allow ourselves to be paralyzed by fear.
