Voting events - An AfD politician was injured with a knife after seeking to confront the assailant.
A brief video, just 22 seconds long, shows a chaotic scene with dark and unstable images. The conclusion? An AfD candidate for the Mannheim local elections, 62-year-old Heinrich Koch, chases after a man in a blue shirt. The person filming shouts at the pursued man to "stay there!" and "lie down immediately!" The man in question seems to be holding something resembling a knife. A scuffle ensues, the footage becomes blurred, and not much is distinguishable. The cameraman makes a grunting noise and yells for the police to help. The man with the knife flees, and the video ends.
Several questions remain unanswered: Once more, a politically affiliated person in Germany has become the target of violence. This man is Heinrich Koch, he's been nominated as an AfD candidate for Mannheim's local election. Things have been tense in terms of political violence lately, with individuals like SPD campaigner Matthias Ecke, who landed in the hospital with severe wounds. But what lies behind the motive of the humble knife-wielding man in Mannheim? Unfortunately, the motive remains nebulous.
The police and the prosecutor's office haven't been able to establish a political motive. Authorities reveal that the 25-year-old suspect defaced and stole several AfD posters and that Koch pursued and apprehended him. But when the young man was arrested, mental health issues emerged, as shared by the police and the prosecutor. "[The suspect's] mental status became apparent during the arrest," law enforcement and the public prosecutor report. Was the suspect even aware that he was attacking an AfD politician? Their investigation doesn't seem to be pointing in that direction.
The young man has seemingly been committed to a psychiatric hospital, but this doesn't rule out the possibility of political motivation. During his day in court, which took place on Wednesday, the investigating judge issued a detention order. However, the suspect is most likely experiencing mental health challenges.
For the AfD, it's crystal clear that this crime was a political act. They believe it to be the work of left-wing extremists - a notion the investigators can't confirm. Koch, citing injuries sustained during the scuffle, said he had seen call-to-attack posts on the internet beforehand. He claimed cuts to the ear and stomach and spent the night in the hospital for treatment.
At the very beginning of the video, one can see Koch moving to arrest the young man. However, by the time he realizes the youth has a knife and he has been injured with it, he's already past that point. The attack would've happened without the video. "I didn't notice that in the adrenaline rush, I wanted to arrest him," claimed Koch. Reacting on autopilot, he used his training as a reserve lieutenant in close combat to defend himself.
The aftermath of the incident brings many different reactions: the AfD interprets the event as politically motivated. Koch went so far as to inform the German Press Agency that he was hurt in the attack. But his attempt to give chase even after being stabbed contradicts his actions suggested in his statement. Koch turned on the camera as a precaution after the initial pursuit. His initial reactions indicate he was more focused on arrest, not seeing the knife.
Many on the political right accuse left-wing extremists of perpetrating the act. They assign it to "left-wing extremism" and label it as a "failure of the Federal Interior Minister, Nancy Faeser." The man in question has been condemned strongly by various agents across political parties, from the AfD's state chief Markus Frohnmaier to Faeser herself. She stressed that she stands firmly against political violence in all its forms, wishing the victim of the stabbing a full recovery. Mannheim's Mayor Christian Specht called the act cowardly, whilst Green Bundestag deputy Franziska Brantner bemoaned the rising political violence affecting politicians of all parties in the region.
Interestingly, it's unclear if the sentence regarding the suspect's mental illness was made public by the time some commentators made their statements. Mental illness may not automatically discount a political motive.
