Cologne school massacre

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Cologne school massacre
Location Cologne, Germany
Date June 11, 1964
Attack type fire/suicide/stabbing
Deaths 11 (including the perpetrator)
Perpetrator(s) Walter Seifert

The Cologne school massacre occurred in a Catholic elementary school located at Volkhovener Weg 209 in the suburb of Volkhoven (Cologne, Germany) on June 11, 1964. Walter Seifert (born June 11, 1922) killed eight students and two teachers and then eventually himself.

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[edit] Perpetrator Walter Seifert

Seifert reportedly fell apart when his wife died in childbirth several years before; his tuberculosis worsened and he was diagnosed with schizophrenia. He felt he was being treated unfairly by the government which he claimed was cheating him out of his war pension for his service during World War II.[citation needed] After he left the schoolyard, he swallowed a poisonous insecticide E605 in hopes of committing suicide before police could catch him. He was soon apprehended by police, but died in hospital the next day from the poison.

[edit] Weapons

  • A flamethrower
  • A long lance

[edit] The massacre

On June 11, the day of his 42nd birthday, Seifert took the flame-thrower and lance and entered the schoolyard. After blocking off the main gate with a wooden wedge, he proceeded to kill eight students and two teachers and injure twenty one others, mostly students. He smashed in the windows of the buildings and pointed his flamethrower in the classrooms, setting the classroom on fire, effectively killing several people. He was then confronted by a teacher, Gertrud Bollenrath, whom he stabbed with the lance.

[edit] Victims

Teachers:

  • Gertrud Bollenrath, aged sixty two
  • Ursula Kuhr, aged twenty four

Students:

  • Dorothea Binner
  • Renate Fühlen
  • Ingeborg Hahn
  • Ruth Hoffmann
  • Klara Kröger
  • Stephan Lischka
  • Karin Reinhold
  • Rosel Röhrig

[edit] Aftermath

One of the barracks in which the massacre occurred was torn down later that year.

[edit] Current use

The original brick building as well as 2 of the 3 original barracks remain standing to this day. Every year on June 11th, a memorial wreath is placed in front of the brick building to commemorate the deceased and the events. In 1979, a new cultural center and art gallery ([1])was constructed behind the school. It remains there to this day.

[edit] Notes

  • Both teachers who died had a school named after them.
  • Anna Langohr, one of the surviving teachers, was presented with the Medal Cross from Pope Paul VI as well as other decorations from the city.

[edit] External links

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