The attack on the Berlin market in 2016, where twelve people lost their lives, had a hard impact on the country.
Germany is once again in mourning this Friday evening, after the deadly car crash into the crowd at the Magdeburg Christmas market. According to initial information, a black BMW traveled nearly 400 meters after crossing the security barriers of the market in this city in the east of the country. If the identity and motivations of the driver remain unclear this Friday evening, his act is in line with similar attacks in the past during popular events across the Rhine.
The bloodiest attack committed on German soil to date during a Christmas market remains that of Berlin on December 19, 2016. In a ram truck, Anis Amri, an Islamic State terrorist, overturned Dozens of people at the Christmas market on Breitscheidplatz, near the Memorial Church. In total, twelve people were killed in this attack, claimed the next day by Daesh, and around fifty others injured. To date, this act remains the deadliest jihadist attack perpetrated on German soil.
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Anis Amri, a 24-year-old Tunisian, initially robbed the driver of the truck, a 37-year-old Pole, before killing him and beginning his mad chase through the streets of the German capital. The terrorist managed to escape, before being shot dead near Milan, Italy on the night of December 22 to 23. His run lasted four days. On Thursday, a tribute was paid in the capital in memory of this tragedy.
A German of “Turkish origin” targeted a “large crowd”
The worst was surely avoided on November 12, when a 17-year-old young man “radicalized” was arrested on November 6 in the north of the country in Elmshorn, Schleswig-Holstein. According to the authorities, the suspect of “Turkish origin» aimed at a “large crowd” without having yet decided to target a particular Christmas market. Police investigations revealed “significant radicalization of the accused» and this “extremist Islamist attitude has led to very concrete attack plans.”
Since the unprecedented attack by the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas against Israel on October 7, 2023, which triggered the war in the Gaza Strip, German authorities have increased their vigilance in the face of the Islamist threat and the resurgence of anti-Semitism, as well as many countries in the world.
Several deadly attacks involving foreign nationals have shocked Germany in recent months. At the end of August, a knife attack committed by a Syrian and claimed by IS left three people dead and several injured during a party in Solingen (west). In June, another knife attack, attributed to an Afghan during an anti-Islam rally in Mannheim (west), left one dead, a police officer who had intervened.
The authorities also foiled plans for attacks. In March, two Afghan suspected IS sympathizers suspected of having planned an attack near the Swedish Parliament in response to Koran burnings were arrested in eastern Germany.
France also targeted in the past
Another planned attack on a Christmas market linked Germany to France on December 31, 2000. Linked to al-Qaeda, the group of individuals had placed a bomb at the foot of Strasbourg cathedral, to target the oldest Christmas market in France. The pressure cooker, stuffed with explosive products, was finally foiled by cooperation between German and French police officers. The terrorists were arrested on December 26 on German territory.
Eighteen years later, a new attack hit the Alsatian city and its market on December 11, 2018. Chérif C., a 29-year-old Strasbourg resident with an “S” registration, had fired near the Strasbourg Christmas market. Results: five dead and eleven injured. The radicalized repeat offender also wanted to target “symbols of the disbelievers”. Following his act, the man was shot dead by the police and the attack was claimed by Daesh.
Previously, a French Christmas market had also been affected by the terrorist threat. On December 21, 2014, a motorist crashed into the crowd at the Christmas market in the city center, shouting “Allah Akbar”, before injuring 13 people. The next day, in Nantes, another driver killed a man and injured nine other individuals present in the city market, even if the prosecution had ruled out any “act of terrorism».
