The Eppstein school shooting was a

school shooting A school shooting is an attack at an educational institution, such as a primary school, secondary school, high school or university, involving the use of firearms. Many school shootings are also categorized as mass shootings due to multiple c ...

that occurred on 3 June 1983 at the Freiherr-vom-Stein

Gesamtschule A comprehensive school typically describes a secondary school for pupils aged approximately 11–18, that does not select its intake on the basis of academic achievement or aptitude, in contrast to a selective school system where admission is res ...

in Eppstein-Vockenhausen,

West Germany West Germany is the colloquial term used to indicate the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG; german: Bundesrepublik Deutschland , BRD) between its formation on 23 May 1949 and the German reunification through the accession of East Germany on 3 O ...

. The gunman, 34-year-old Karel Charva, fatally shot three students, a teacher and a police officer and injured another 14 people using two

semi-automatic pistol A semi-automatic pistol is a type of repeating single-chamber handgun ( pistol) that automatically cycles its action to insert the subsequent cartridge into the chamber (self-loading), but requires manual actuation of the trigger to actuall ...

s, before committing

suicide Suicide is the act of intentionally causing one's own death. Mental disorders (including depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, personality disorders, anxiety disorders), physical disorders (such as chronic fatigue syndrome), and s ...

. The shooting is the eighth-deadliest of its kind in

post-war In Western usage, the phrase post-war era (or postwar era) usually refers to the time since the end of World War II. More broadly, a post-war period (or postwar period) is the interval immediately following the end of a war. A post-war period c ...

Germany, after the

Erfurt massacre The Erfurt massacre was a school shooting that occurred on 26 April 2002 at the Gutenberg-Gymnasium, a secondary school in Erfurt, Germany. 19-year-old expelled student Robert Steinhäuser shot and killed 16 people, including 13 staff members, ...

in 2002, the

Winnenden school shooting The Winnenden school shooting occurred on the morning of 11 March 2009 at the Albertville-Realschule, a secondary school in Winnenden, southwestern Germany, followed by a shootout at a car dealership in nearby Wendlingen. The shooting spree resu ...

in 2009, the

Cologne school massacre The Cologne school massacre was a mass murder that occurred at the Catholic elementary school () located in the suburb of Volkhoven in Cologne, West Germany on 11 June 1964. The perpetrator, Walter Seifert, also known as "" ("Firedevil of Volk ...

in 1964, the

2020 Hanau shootings The Hanau shootings occurred on 19 February 2020, when eleven people were killed and five others wounded in a terrorist shooting spree by a Schizophrenia, schizophrenic far-right extremist targeting two Hookah lounge, shisha bars in Hanau, near ...

, the

2016 Munich shooting On 22 July 2016, there was a mass shooting in the vicinity of the Olympia shopping mall in the Moosach district of Munich, Germany. An 18-year-old Iranian-German, David Sonboly, opened fire on fellow teenagers at a McDonald's restaurant before ...

, the Fahrdorf massacre in 1970 and the

2020 Rot am See shooting On 24 January 2020, six people were killed and two others were wounded in a mass shooting in Rot am See, Germany. One suspect, a 26-year-old German citizen, was arrested after reporting himself to the police. Shooting The shooting either occurr ...

Shooting

At about 7:20 a.m. Charva rented a VW

panel van A panel van, also known as a blind van, car-derived van (United Kingdom) or sedan delivery (United States), is a small cargo vehicle with a passenger car chassis, typically with a single front bench seat and no side windows behind the B-pillar. ...

at a car rental agency in

Frankfurt am Main Frankfurt, officially Frankfurt am Main (; Hessian: , "Frank ford on the Main"), is the most populous city in the German state of Hesse. Its 791,000 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located on its na ...

and is supposed to have driven through the area in search for a school that gave lessons that day, as many were closed due to a holiday. Thus, it is assumed, it was pure chance that he ended up at the Freiherr-vom-Stein Gesamtschule in Eppstein, about 30 kilometers from Frankfurt.Amokschütze Karel Charva steckte voller Haß
''

Hamburger Abendblatt The ''Hamburger Abendblatt'' (English: ''Hamburg Evening Newspaper'') is a German daily newspaper in Hamburg. The paper focuses on news in Hamburg and area, and produces regional supplements with news from Norderstedt, Ahrensburg, Harburg, and ...

'' (June 7, 1983, page 16) Charva parked his car near the school, leaving 160 rounds of ammunition, a bag and

handcuffs Handcuffs are Physical restraint, restraint devices designed to secure an individual's wrists in proximity to each other. They comprise two parts, linked together by a Link chain, chain, a hinge, or rigid bar. Each cuff has a rotating arm whi ...

behind. He then entered the building with two semi-automatic pistols, a 9×19mm

Smith & Wesson Model 59 The Smith & Wesson Model 59 is a double-action pistol produced from 1971 to 1982. It was developed by Smith & Wesson from the earlier Smith & Wesson Model 39 by adapting a 14-round capacity stagger-stack magazine. History and users The Model 59 w ...

and a 7.65mm-caliber Astra pistol, as well as seven additional

magazines A magazine is a periodical publication, generally published on a regular schedule (often weekly or monthly), containing a variety of content. They are generally financed by advertising, purchase price, prepaid subscriptions, or by a combination ...

. At about 10:45 a.m. he arrived at room 213, where Franz-Adolf Gehlhaar taught English to a sixth grade class. Charva fired a shot at Gehlhaar, missing him, and immediately retreated out of the classroom, only to re-enter. When Gehlhaar confronted the gunman, he told him not to shoot the children, but take him instead. He fired seven shots at the teacher, hitting him in the stomach, face and left arm. As soon as Gehlhaar lay on the floor gravely wounded, Charva began shooting the children, killing three of them and wounding another thirteen, four of them critically. Alarmed by the gunshots, teacher Hans-Peter Schmitt rushed into the classroom, trying to help, but was also shot and killed, as was Gisbert Beck, an unarmed police officer who was at the school instructing students on traffic safety. When police arrived at the scene they tried to calm Charva down, but the gunman simply yelled at them and continued shooting. At about 11:15 a.m. Charva retreated into a classroom opposite the English class where the attack began and committed suicide by shooting himself in the mouth. The autopsy of his body later showed that he had acted under the influence of alcohol.Karel Charva war ein Einzelgänger
''

'' (June 6, 1983, page 22) In all Charva had fired about forty shots, killed 5 people and injured another 14. Additionally, 30 children suffered from shock. Initially, there was some confusion that Charva might have known the wounded teacher, as shortly before the shooting started someone had asked for Gehlhaar, though it was later found that the person was not the gunman.

Victims

The five people killed by Charva are:Eppstein - ein Jahr nach dem Anschlag
''

'' (May 30, 1984, page 48) * Stephanie Hermann, 12 * Javier Martinez, 11 * Gabriele Siebert, 12 * Hans-Peter Schmitt, 36, teacher * Gisbert Beck, 45, police officer

Perpetrator

Karel Charva, a native from

Prague Prague ( ; cs, Praha ; german: Prag, ; la, Praga) is the capital and largest city in the Czech Republic, and the historical capital of Bohemia. On the Vltava river, Prague is home to about 1.3 million people. The city has a temperate ...

Czechoslovakia , rue, Чеськословеньско, , yi, טשעכאסלאוואקיי, , common_name = Czechoslovakia , life_span = 1918–19391945–1992 , p1 = Austria-Hungary , image_p1 ...

and follower of

Alexander Dubček Alexander Dubček (; 27 November 1921 – 7 November 1992) was a Slovak politician who served as the First Secretary of the Presidium of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia (KSČ) (''de facto'' leader of Czechoslovak ...

, fled to West Germany in 1968 when the Soviet-led intervention ended the

Prague Spring The Prague Spring ( cs, Pražské jaro, sk, Pražská jar) was a period of political liberalization and mass protest in the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic. It began on 5 January 1968, when reformist Alexander Dubček was elected First Sec ...

. After living in a camp at

Zirndorf Zirndorf () is a town, which is part of the district of Fürth. It is located in northern Bavaria, Germany in the Regierungsbezirk of Middle Franconia. Neighbouring municipalities The following towns and municipalities share borders with Zirn ...

for a while he was finally granted the status of a political refugee in 1971. Stating he was a

psychologist A psychologist is a professional who practices psychology and studies mental states, perceptual, cognitive, emotional, and social processes and behavior. Their work often involves the experimentation, observation, and interpretation of how indi ...

and wanting to become a teacher, Charva moved to

Mörfelden-Walldorf Mörfelden-Walldorf is a town in the Groß-Gerau district, situated in the Frankfurt Rhine-Main region in the federal state (Bundesland) Hesse, Germany. Geography Location Mörfelden-Walldorf is situated within a triangle formed by the South He ...

and later to

Darmstadt Darmstadt () is a city in the States of Germany, state of Hesse in Germany, located in the southern part of the Frankfurt Rhine Main Area, Rhine-Main-Area (Frankfurt Metropolitan Region). Darmstadt has around 160,000 inhabitants, making it th ...

, where he began working as a

taxi driver ''Taxi Driver'' is a 1976 American film directed by Martin Scorsese, written by Paul Schrader, and starring Robert De Niro, Jodie Foster, Cybill Shepherd, Harvey Keitel, Peter Boyle, Leonard Harris, and Albert Brooks. Set in a decaying and ...

for a

Frankfurt Frankfurt, officially Frankfurt am Main (; Hessian: , "Frank ford on the Main"), is the most populous city in the German state of Hesse. Its 791,000 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located on its na ...

cab company. In 1976 he was arrested and convicted for loosening the nuts on the front wheels of two cars. Though the motives behind this deed are unknown, it was suggested that it might have been politically motivated. Living in Frankfurt since 1981, where he found a job as

security guard A security guard (also known as a security inspector, security officer, or protective agent) is a person employed by a government or private party to protect the employing party's assets (property, people, equipment, money, etc.) from a variety ...

, Charva was known by his neighbours as a loner and very reserved person, who spent whole nights typing on his

typewriter A typewriter is a mechanical or electromechanical machine for typing characters. Typically, a typewriter has an array of keys, and each one causes a different single character to be produced on paper by striking an inked ribbon selectivel ...

and studying chemistry and mathematics, apparently to become a teacher. He was also a member of a local

gun club The Gun Club were an American rock band from Los Angeles, California, United States, which existed from 1979 to 1996. It was formed and led by singer-songwriter and guitarist Jeffrey Lee Pierce. History Early days (1979–1980) The Gun Club w ...

and legally purchased the two weapons used in the shooting in 1981. In the last weeks of his life he was described as increasingly aggressive. The motive behind Charva's shooting remains unknown, though it was speculated that pent-up anger and frustration about failing to bring his aspiring attempts to qualify as a teacher to fruition could have been a cause.

References

External links

Madman opens fire in school, kills five
''

Wilmington Morning Star ''Star-News'' is an American, English language daily newspaper for Wilmington, North Carolina, and its surrounding area (known as the Lower Cape Fear). It is North Carolina's oldest newspaper in continuous publication. It was owned by Halifax Me ...

'' (June 4, 1983)
West Germans hold memorial for school shooting victims
''

The Ledger ''The Ledger'' is a daily newspaper serving Lakeland, Florida, and the Polk County area. The paper was founded on August 22, 1924, as the ''Lakeland Evening Ledger''. In 1927, it bought its main competitor, the morning ''Lakeland Star-Telegram' ...

'' (June 9, 1983)
Gunman kills 5, self, at school in Germany
''

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette The ''Pittsburgh Post-Gazette'', also known simply as the PG, is the largest newspaper serving metropolitan Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Descended from the ''Pittsburgh Gazette'', established in 1786 as the first newspaper published west of the All ...

'' (June 4, 1983)
5 die as gunman blasts schoolroom
''

Ocala Star-Banner Ocala ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Marion County within the northern region of Florida, United States. As of the 2020 United States Census, the city's population was 63,591, making it the 54th most populated city in Florida. Home to ...

'' (June 4, 1983)
Police say attacker knew teacher
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'' (June 5, 1983)
Six die in school shooting
''

The Gainesville Sun ''The Gainesville Sun'' () is a newspaper published daily in Gainesville, Florida, United States, covering the North-Central portion of the state. The paper is published by Lynni Henderson, the paper's Executive Editor is Douglas Ray and the edi ...

'' (June 4, 1983)
Classroom shooting spree: man a recluse
''

New Straits Times The ''New Straits Times'' is an English-language newspaper published in Malaysia. It is Malaysia's oldest newspaper still in print (though not the first), having been founded as ''The Straits Times'' on 15 July 1845. It was relaunched as the ' ...

'' (June 7, 1983)
Gunman called a friendless loner
''

Sarasota Herald-Tribune The ''Sarasota Herald-Tribune'' is a daily newspaper, located in Sarasota, Florida, founded in 1925 as the ''Sarasota Herald''. History The newspaper was owned by The New York Times Company from 1982 to 2012. It was then owned by Halifax Media ...

'' (June 6, 1983) {{Mass shootings in Germany 1983 crimes 1983 in West Germany 1983 mass shootings in Europe 1980s in Hesse Crime in Hesse Deaths by firearm in Germany June 1983 events in Europe Mass murder in 1983 Deaths in West Germany Mass shootings in Germany Massacres in Germany Murder–suicides in Germany School killings in Germany School massacres in Europe School shootings in Germany Spree shootings in Germany 20th-century mass murder in Germany

Shooting

Victims

Perpetrator

See also

References

External links