“The police have probably avoided a nightmare”. The German authorities announced, Thursday, May 12, to have thwarted the plan of attack “neo-Nazi” bombing of a 16-year-old teenager at his school in Essen (North Rhine-Westphalia). This is the latest example in a long series of threats from this movement in Germany.
The elite forces of the German police burst into the apartment of this teenager during the night from Wednesday to Thursday, after receiving a “intelligence”. They found there “16 pipe bombs”, improvised explosive devices, some of which contained nails, a crossbow with arrows and a homemade weapon. These machines were in working order. “function” but not yet to explode because the police have not found any detonators.
“SS Inscriptions”
Several clues suggest that the suspect had extremist political motivations: “SS registrations” were found in his room. In addition, the investigators discovered a large amount of written documents promoting far-right theses, “racists, anti-Semites and anti-Muslims”highlighted Herbert Reul, Minister of the Interior of the Land of North Rhine-Westphalia.
His writings could also be related to “the urgent cry for help from a desperate young man”, according to the politician, who clarified that the teenager was not known to the intelligence services. The investigators also favor the track of a solitary act. Herbert Reul said police were tipped off by another teenager that the young man “wanted to place bombs in his school”, an establishment located some 800 meters from his home. After the arrest, his high school and former middle school were searched by more than 120 police officers assisted by dogs.
The number one threat in Germany
This case has similarities with the racist attack in Hanau, near Frankfurt, perpetrated in February 2020 by Tobias Rathjen, a German involved in the conspiracy movement who had killed nine young people, all of foreign origin. In recent years, the German authorities have propelled far-right violence to the forefront of threats to public order, ahead of the jihadist risk.
The murder in June 2019 by a neo-Nazi activist of Walter Lübcke, an elected member of the Conservative Party who defended the policy of welcoming migrants from former Chancellor Angela Merkel, notably caused an electric shock in Germany. Since then, police operations against this movement have multiplied.