A man who carried out an attack on the Magdeburg Christmas market just before Christmas has defied categorization, according to the State Interior Minister, Tamara Zieschang. The question arises, she told the Spiegel, whether he can be classified as a “person with a mental disability and a potential for violence”. He did not fit into any established category, she said: “The daily challenge for security authorities is to identify among 100 people who pose a threat to violence, the one who will actually carry out an attack.”
Zieschang made the statement about four weeks after the fatal incident, which resulted in six deaths and around 300 injuries. She said that the man in question had never been charged or criminally sentenced in Saxony-Anhalt. When the police launched an investigation in 2023 due to threatening behavior on the internet, there were no indications of an extremist, Islamist, or terrorist background, according to Zieschang.
In this case, it appears that various security agencies may have ignored or misjudged the signs of his radicalization. Zieschang referred to the fact that the organizers of Christmas markets are responsible for security, and it was the city that had been required to develop a corresponding concept.
Upon being asked about the political responsibility for the alleged authorities’ failure, Zieschang said: “I see it as my task to ensure that the investigations against the accused are carried out with the utmost urgency.