Overview
On the evening of 19 February 2020, a gunman carried out a racist terror attack in the city of Hanau, in the German state of Hesse, near Frankfurt. The perpetrator, 43-year-old German national Tobias Rathjen, shot and killed nine people of migrant background at two locations associated with shisha bars before driving home, where he killed his 72-year-old mother and then himself. The attack is regarded as one of the deadliest far-right terrorist acts in Germany since reunification, and it intensified national debate about right-wing extremism and racism in the country.
The nine murdered victims came from a range of backgrounds, including people of Kurdish, Turkish, Bosnian, Romani and other origins. Several others were wounded. The attack provoked widespread shock, vigils across Germany, and condemnation from political leaders, who described it as an act of racist terrorism.
The attacks
The shootings began at around 10 p.m. at a bar and kiosk in Hanau's city centre, where the gunman opened fire and killed several people. He then travelled by car to a second location in the Kesselstadt district, attacking a shisha bar and an adjacent kiosk, where he killed further victims. In total, nine people were murdered at the two scenes, and several more were injured.
After the shootings, the perpetrator drove to his home in Hanau. There, police later found the bodies of the gunman and his mother. He had shot his mother before turning the weapon on himself. The perpetrator was a legal gun owner and a member of a shooting club, a circumstance that fed subsequent debate over German firearms licensing.
Perpetrator and motive
Tobias Rathjen was a German citizen who had lived in the Hanau area. Before the attack he had published a manifesto and videos online expressing racist, xenophobic and conspiratorial views, including calls for the elimination of entire populations from certain countries. German federal prosecutors classified the attack as having a far-right, racist motive and treated it as an act of domestic terrorism.
The manifesto also contained material described as reflecting paranoid and delusional thinking. Authorities and commentators noted that the writings combined a clear extremist, racist ideology with apparent signs of mental disturbance. The Federal Prosecutor General (Generalbundesanwalt) took over the investigation given the terrorist nature of the crime.
Investigation and official failings
In the aftermath, scrutiny fell on whether authorities could have prevented the attack. It emerged that the perpetrator had previously contacted federal prosecutors with a complaint reflecting his conspiratorial beliefs, yet he had retained firearms licences and access to weapons. Questions were raised about gun ownership controls and about how warning signs had been handled.
Particular controversy surrounded the police response on the night of the attack, including reports that an emergency call number was difficult to reach and that an emergency exit at one of the locations had been locked, issues raised by victims' relatives who argued that lives might have been saved. These concerns later became central to demands for an independent inquiry.
Aftermath and remembrance
The attack prompted large memorial gatherings in Hanau and across Germany, and senior politicians, including the federal president and chancellor of the time, condemned the killings as racist terrorism. The bereaved families formed an initiative to press for accountability, transparency and remembrance, and they pushed for a parliamentary committee of inquiry in Hesse to examine the conduct of the authorities.
Hanau has since become a focal point in German discussions about racism, right-wing extremism and the protection of minority communities. Annual commemorations honour the nine murdered victims, and their names have been widely publicised as part of efforts to ensure they are remembered as individuals rather than reduced to statistics.
