Good evening,


the current news situation gives little cause for celebration.

Anyway - it's raining.

But in some municipalities it is already too much.

risk of flooding.

The last newsletter for this week could also be entitled "Crime" - because that's exactly what our authors have dealt with.


Marie Lisa Kehler

Deputy head of the regional section of the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung.

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Not free until 2025 at the earliest:

the murder of eleven-year-old Jakob Metzler 20 years ago shocked and paralyzed an entire city and country.

The question of "why" remains.

"It's just as tormenting as it was then," writes our author Helmut Schwan, who recalls the terrible act in September 2002 and everything that followed.

For example, there was the debate that triggered the actions of Wolfgang Daschner, then Vice President of the Frankfurt Police.

Daschner, driven by the hope of finding Jakob alive, instructed the interrogators to threaten Markus Gäfgen, who was then a suspect and later convicted, that he would be hurt if he did not say where the boy was.

In retrospect, the process was overshadowed by the debate about whether the human dignity of a kidnapped boy counted more than that of the alleged kidnapper.

"The right thing about the debate was to reassure oneself of the principles of an enlightened community of values, which include the unshakeable prohibition of torture," writes our author, who at the same time recalls how difficult this discussion was for many trial observers at the time, threatened to superimpose the terrible deed on them.

Gäfgen could be released from prison in September 2025 at the earliest.

Investigations closed:

The Hanau public prosecutor's office has closed investigations against the weapons authority of the Main-Kinzig district due to the allegation of negligent homicide in connection with the racist attack in Hanau.

The public prosecutor sees no "fundamental misconduct".

Relatives of two victims had filed criminal charges against the weapons authority.

The accusation was raised that the perpetrator of the attack, who shot nine people, seriously injured several and then turned the gun on himself and his mother, had

illegally obtained a gun permit.

The public prosecutor's office, on the other hand, comes to the conclusion that there is not sufficient suspicion to file a public complaint that would lead one to expect a conviction of the accused or other persons, as our correspondent Luise Glaser-Lotz reports.

Expand video surveillance:

Two men died this summer after serious acts of violence in downtown Wiesbaden.

"Bodily injury resulting in death" - according to police circles.

Suspects have been identified in both unrelated cases.

But because

the question of guilt is not so easy to clarify in both cases, the accused are not in custody.

In one of the cases it could be self-defense, in the other it is not certain exactly how the victim died.

The increasing escalation of violence - a problem in Wiesbaden.

Mayor and head of the regulatory department Oliver Franz (CDU) also says so.

"It must be possible for the people of Wiesbaden to move safely through the city center at night," he demands in an interview with the FAZ. In the past, numerous crimes have been solved with the help of video surveillance.

Franz is therefore committed to not only maintaining video surveillance in Wiesbaden, but to expanding it.

“There are no bans on thinking for me.

If there is another location in the city that is identified as a crime hotspot, then it needs to be looked into whether CCTV will be introduced there.”