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In 2016, the Islamist assassin Anis Amri drove a stolen truck to a Berlin Christmas market. He killed twelve people and wounded a dozen.
Berlin – It is the fourth year that on December 19, at precisely 8:02 p.m., twelve bells rang from the Memorial Church on Breitscheidplatz. They remember the twelve victims of the terrorist attack four years ago.
Despite the corona pandemic, there was a little prayer at the Memorial Church. The twelve dead were also commemorated with wreaths, flowers and candles.
In addition to the families of the victims and survivors, the Mayor of Berlin Michael Müller and the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Ralf Wieland (both from the SPD), as well as the Federal and State Commissioners of Victims, Edgar Franke and Roland Weber, participated at the memorial ceremony.
The service was relayed on the Internet. Family members of victims and other interested visitors can register to participate directly. The Christmas market at Memorial Church was banned due to the risk of infection.
Berlin Mayor Müller said several precautions had been taken since the attack. However, the risk of terrorism still exists, as demonstrated by the Islamist attacks in France this year.
The Archbishop of Berlin, Heiner Koch, said in his sermon that after December 19, 2016, the history of Berlin “will no longer be the same as before.” “Those bloody memories never stop hurting.” The anniversary of the attack is a reminder of “what violence people are capable of.” At the same time, he asked that memories be seen as a challenge to “do everything” so that such events do not happen again. Keeping memories alive is “an attempt not to let the catastrophe happen in vain.”
Michael Müller (SPD, l), mayor of Berlin, and Reinhard Naumann (SPD), district mayor of Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf, before the start of a memorial service
Federal Justice Minister Christine Lambrecht also highlighted in advance the new efforts against these acts. “We have to stop the spiral of hatred and violence that can motivate radicalized violent criminals to commit horrible crimes,” said the SPD politician. He announced further strengthening of European cooperation.
Recognizing, preventing and prosecuting Islamist acts remains “the highest priority for the security authorities and the judiciary,” Lambrecht emphasized.
In view of the terrorist attack on Breitscheidplatz in December 2016, the minister declared: “We will continue to be there for the victims.” Think of their families, as well as the wounded and first responders who have suffered the consequences of the attack to this day.
► After the terrorist attack in December 2016, there were repeated criticisms of the authorities in dealing with the victims and their families. Later they also admitted mistakes.
Israeli Rami Elyakim also lost his wife. He himself was seriously injured and slowly struggled to come back to life. Four years after the attack, he told BILD: “I am in pain, my life has changed as a result of this act and what I have now hurts. Everything has changed.”
And also: “Now I have to keep the family together. I give my children what they need, but they lost their mother, it is a great loss for everyone. I miss my friend at all times, her thoughts are with me. “
► BILD reporter Matthias Bieder was one of the first to report live from Breitscheidplatz. “It was a ghostly and terrifying image,” he recalls the moment four years after the fact. The situation was “one of the most depressing moments of my journalistic career,” he says.
The terrible act of December 19, 2016
Anis Amri (then 24), a rejected asylum seeker from Tunisia traveling through Germany with forged identities, shot and killed a truck driver in Berlin on December 19, 2016.
With the vehicle stolen, it first goes through Breitscheidplatz, then turns around and kills eleven people at Breitscheidplatz at the Christmas market, at least 48 were injured.
The scene of the terrorist attack shortly after the crime.
Amri fled to Italy, where he was shot and killed during a police check in Milan on December 23, just days after the crime.
The attack revealed a total failure of the German security authorities. Amri has been a topic over and over again since 2015.
► Berlin Interior Senator Andreas Geisel (SPD) presented an anti-terror plan only on Friday. This is intended to act more effectively against the threat of Islamist attacks. The key points are better equipment for the police, closer observation of Islamists by the Office for the Protection of the Constitution, deportations, strategies against radicalization and the quick reaction of the police and rescue services in an emergency . Repression and prevention must be more closely linked.
