Germany commemorates 40th anniversary of Oktoberfest attack
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Germany on Saturday commemorated the 40th anniversary of the bomb attack that killed 13 people — including the bomber aGundolf Koehler — were killed and more than 200 injured. at Munich’s Oktoberfest beer festival, in Munich, Germany, on the 26 September.
In a ceremony on Saturday Munich will inaugurate a new information site that tells the story of the attack.
A handout photo made available by the German government shows German president Frank-Walter Steinmeier (2-L), together with survivors (L-R) Robert Hoeckmayr, Gudrun Lang, Renate Martinez and Dimitrios Lagkadinos during a commemoration ceremony at the site of the 40th anniversary of the Oktoberfest bomb attack in Munich, Bavaria, Germany, 26 September 2020. EPA-EFE/Guido Bergmann
Four decades on, prosecutors in July finally classed it a political attack — the deadliest far-right assault in post-war Germany.
Investigators initially assumed the 21-year-old Koehler was a depressed geology student, who had acted because of relationship problems and exam stress, downplaying his known links to the extremist scene.
(FILE) – The site where a bomb killed 12 people and also injured 200 revellers at Munich’s Oktoberfest beer festival, in Munich, Germany, 26 September 1980 (reissued 26 September 2020). . EPA-EFE/ISTVAN BAJZAT
But further revelations about the extent of Koehler’s involvement with the far-right and speculation he may not have acted alone prompted prosecutors to reopen the investigation in 2014.
After interviewing over a thousand witnesses and combing through 300,000 documents, investigators believe Koehler aimed for the attack to be blamed on the far left.
Illuminated figures of a documentation exhibition of the Oktoberfest bomb attack are pictured during a commemoration ceremony at the site of the 40th anniversary of the Oktoberfest bomb attack in Munich, Bavaria, Germany, 26 September 2020 EPA-EFE/LUKAS BARTH-TUTTAS
His goal had been to influence that year’s general election and usher in a conservative candidate as chancellor.
The Oktoberfest 2020 had to be cancelled due to the worldwide coronavirus pandemic.
