Walter Lübcke (22 August 1953 – 2 June 2019) was a German local politician in

Hesse Hesse (, , ) or Hessia (, ; german: Hessen ), officially the State of Hessen (german: links=no, Land Hessen), is a state in Germany. Its capital city is Wiesbaden, and the largest urban area is Frankfurt. Two other major historic cities are Dar ...

and a member of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU). On 2 June 2019, he was assassinated at his home by a neo-Nazi extremist. Stephan Ernst was arrested on 15 June 2019, and confessed to the crime on 25 June 2019. The Federal Prosecutor's Office classified the murder as a political assassination.

Early life and education

After attending primary and secondary school in

Edertal Edertal is a municipality in Waldeck-Frankenberg in northern Hesse, Germany. Geography Location Edertal lies roughly 30 km in a straight line southwest of Kassel. It is on the north and northwest edges of the Kellerwald range and stretches t ...

, he finished a two-year vocational training in

Bad Wildungen Bad Wildungen is a state-run spa and a small town in Waldeck-Frankenberg district in Hesse, Germany. It is located on the German Timber-Frame Road. Geography Location Bad Wildungen lies in the eastern foothills of the Kellerwald range in the s ...

in 1969 to briefly work in a local bank afterwards. During his voluntary military service between 1975 and 1983, he completed his human resources management training and later worked as an assistant in the press office of the art exhibition

documenta 7 ''documenta 7'' was the seventh edition of documenta, a quinquennial contemporary art exhibition. It was held between 19 June and 28 October 1982 in Kassel, West Germany. The artistic director was Rudi Fuchs Rudolf Herman "Rudi" Fuchs (born ...

. Concurrently, he studied at the

University of Kassel The University of Kassel (german: link=no, Universität Kassel) is a university founded in 1971 located in Kassel, Hessen, in central Germany. As of February 2022 it had about 25,000 students and about 3300 staff, including more than 300 profe ...

from 1981 to 1986, graduating with a degree in economics. In 1991, he successfully defended his doctoral dissertation on "The early economic planning attempts in the Soviet Union: 1924–1928; Socialism between utopia and pragmatism".

Career

Lübcke served as the municipal-oversight president of the governmental district (''Regierungsbezirk'') of Kassel, one of three in the federal state of

, for 10 years. Lübcke was known for his pro-migrant views. He received death threats after stating at a public gathering that people were free to leave the country if they opposed helping those claiming asylum.

Assassination

On 2 June 2019, Lübcke was found dead on the terrace of his residence in the village of . He had been shot in the head with a Rossi revolver at close range. On 15 June 2019, 45-year-old suspect Stephan Ernst was arrested. Ernst was known to have held extreme right-wing political views and had links to the far-right

National Democratic Party of Germany The National Democratic Party of Germany (german: Nationaldemokratische Partei Deutschlands or NPD) is a far-right Neo-Nazi and ultranationalist political party in Germany. The party was founded in 1964 as successor to the German Reich Part ...

(NPD) and the German branch of the British neo-Nazi terrorist group

Combat 18 Combat 18 (C18 or 318) is a neo-Nazi terrorist organisation that was founded in 1992. It originated in the United Kingdom, with ties to movements in Canada and the United States. Since then it has spread to other countries, including Germany ...

(C18). Ernst had been previously convicted for knife and bomb attacks against targets connected to ethnic minorities in Germany.

Aftermath

Following the death of Lübcke, the city of Kassel held a rally with up to 10,000 people attending who held banners that said in German "#FlagForDiversity" and "Together we are strong" with the following statements delivered by Bishop and , director of the Staatstheater Kassel that said "Whoever violates the dignity of people, in violence or in words, puts himself outside our democratic community, there are no ifs, ands or buts" and "cowardly people who in the anonymity of the internet wanted to feel powerful". Two others, Elmar J. and Markus H. were arrested on suspicion of ties to the killer. An investigation by the

Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution The Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (german: Bundesamt für Verfassungsschutz or BfV, often ''Bundesverfassungsschutz'') is Germany's federal domestic intelligence agency. Together with the Landesämter für Verfassungss ...

(BfV) found that a

doomsday prepper Survivalism is a social movement of individuals or groups (called survivalists or preppers) who proactively prepare for emergencies, such as natural disasters, as well as other disasters causing disruption to social order (that is, civil disord ...

network ''Nordkreuz'' (German: Northern Cross) had ammunition, firearms, and body bags, as well as "kill lists" for politicians after acquisition of a database of 25,000 names, which they shared on the messaging app

Telegram Telegraphy is the long-distance transmission of messages where the sender uses symbolic codes, known to the recipient, rather than a physical exchange of an object bearing the message. Thus flag semaphore is a method of telegraphy, whereas ...

References

External links