It has been almost exactly a year since four men in Frankfurt-Höchst wanted to kill two other men.

They first attacked them with sticks, then they used knives.

The police finally arrested the group under strong suspicion.

Actually, they should have been tried soon.

But now they are free - because the judicial system is overloaded.

This has a devastating effect.

The state has apparently reached a point that judges and public prosecutors warned about six months ago.

There was talk of an impending collapse if more jobs were not finally created.

From a judiciary that has its back against the wall.

All of this has now happened.

There are no quick fixes

At least as catastrophic is the external effect that was achieved by this collapse: the knowledge that the German legal system, which was always considered one of the most reliable, does not manage to bring violent criminals to justice within a certain period of time.

The police, who have taken note of the development with a mixture of horror and solidarity with judges and prosecutors, can already hear grueling sentences such as: “The criminals that we painstakingly identified are now free and celebrating.

And in a month or two they went into hiding.” It is indeed no exaggeration to worry about how such messages are received by some offenders: the system that is tasked with bringing them to justice is failing.

This is socially explosive.

However, it is also a reality that there will be no quick fixes.

The opposition in the Hessian state parliament may try to put pressure on the new justice minister, Roman Poseck.

But from one day to the next, no new judges will be found who could take up their duties immediately, even if the positions existed.

Moreover, the issue is too serious to be used for political bickering.

On the contrary, it should be trusted that the problem will now be solved by the minister who inherited the problem - and who still knows it from the bottom up.

Roman Poseck, while still in his capacity as President of the Higher Regional Court, had himself warned that the courts were overburdened.

He knows the hardships that are in every judge's office.

He will know how to use this advantage.

But first you have to let him do his job.