Many thanks to Hellequin GB for translating this article from Boris Reitschuster’s website. The translator’s comments are in square brackets:

The horror in Thuringia: “Assaulted, spat on, insulted, threatened”

Railway workers even lock themselves in for fear of migrants

It is politically extremely “incorrect” and has so far been an absolute taboo topic that hardly anyone has dared to address publicly. No wonder, as things are extremely explosive in red-green Germany: there is fear on the railways. It’s gotten to the point where employees are locking themselves in out of fear of migrants — as an official from the Railway and Transport Union (EVG) in Thuringia is now openly reporting.

Insults, threats and knife attacks are now the order of the day on the railway. When asked who is responsible, EVG office manager Steffi Recknagel says quite frankly: The main perpetrators are young asylum seekers. Stating this obvious fact is considered a particularly bad case of heresy in Germany in 2024.

Railway employees are increasingly exposed to attacks from passengers, especially on local trains, said the railway worker in an interview with Göran Schattauer from Focus Online: For the staff in Thuringia, the job is “sometimes life-threatening”.

‘Insults, threats, knife attacks’

“These are descriptions that leave you speechless, that trigger anger,” writes Schattauer, whom I know from our time together in the editorial office: “Frightening scenes that train drivers and train attendants in Thuringia experience almost every day: verbal and physical violence, insults, threats, knife attacks.”

“I have an average of three employees sitting in my Erfurt office every week for legal advice. They were attacked, spat on, insulted, threatened or pushed,” says Steffi Recknagel.

“The worst case was that a train attendant was threatened with a knife,” reports the railway worker in an interview with Schattauer. Another was attacked from behind: “She was deprived of air.” In other incidents, female employees were “slapped,” “kicked,” “pulled on their jacket,” and attacked in a “totally aggressive manner.” Sentences such as “As a woman, you have nothing to say to me!”

There are problems on a number of routes in Thuringia, says the trade unionist Schattauer. But it is particularly “extreme” on the approximately 50km-long route between Erfurt and Suhl. The Thuringian initial reception center for refugees is located there. Several hundred migrants live there, mainly from Syria, Afghanistan and Turkey. Many of them regularly take the train to Erfurt and back, says Schattauer.

She herself travels the Erfurt-Suhl route every day, said Recknagel in an interview with her colleague: “And unfortunately I have to say it this way: it is mostly young men from the initial reception center who misbehave so completely on our trains. They always travel in groups and feel strong together.” [That’ what I’d call a RAT-pack. Maybe they should start thinking of employing Kammerjägers/Pest-controllers throughout?]

Anyone who tries to make young men aware of the rules and laws in their host country must expect headwinds, says the trade unionist: “Recently, a passenger who got involved was also threatened. If something happens while driving, it’s now the case that one or the other says to themselves: I’d better look away now before I become the next victim.”

The railway workers themselves generally prefer to avoid conflicts. “It is sometimes life-threatening. Our people are afraid, very afraid,” says Steffi Recknagel: “We have employees who say: If these groups are on the train, then I won’t check tickets. Then I stay at the front with the train driver or lock myself in my cabin until I get to a safe station and they get out.”

The fact that security guards now travel on many trains is far from enough, said the railway worker. On the one hand, there are still too few, and on the other hand, “they can hardly do more than throw people out at the next train station.” The perpetrators would then usually be taken away by the police and questioned, but would be released immediately. “A week later we have the same people sitting on the train again and the whole thing repeats itself,” said the railway worker to Schattauer: “Nothing happens, just nothing happens.”

“Sometimes more than threatening”

According to the report, the works council of the private railway company Süd-Thüringen-Bahn has now even turned to the state government with a cry for help. In the incendiary letter from March — according to Schattauer, “a document that frightens and shakes up” — the employee representatives complain about the security situation on local trains. They describe it as “dramatic” and speak of a “sometimes more than threatening” development.

The letter states that “people with a migration background” from the asylum seekers’ home in Suhl were mainly responsible for the attacks. And further: “We are not talking about exceptions or the infamous “isolated cases” here; rather, we are talking about almost daily incidents.”

Many of the perpetrators do not have tickets and behave aggressively during checks. In addition to punches and kicks, female colleagues were “insulted in a sexist manner and spat on in a disgusting way.” Some of the immigrants had previously pulled down their pants and shown their private parts to the railway employees, Schattauer quoted from the letter.

This letter also reports on “excesses of violence among the members of this group of people themselves”. This then leads to emergency brakes having to be pulled or the doors having to be emergency unlocked on open roads. In one case, a “colleague had to continue the journey to Suhl station in fear of death and with a railcar that was heavily contaminated with human blood.”

“We don’t need to talk at this point about the psychological consequences for our still quite young colleague and the passengers, given the scenes that could have come from a civil war zone!” the letter continues. There are also reports of an incident at the train station in the small town of Zella-Mehlis. A railway employee had to “stand protectively in front of two young girls who were being severely harassed by members of the group of the people mentioned”. She was then “threatened and panicked to such an extent” that she “had to flee across the tracks in order to avoid becoming a victim of direct physical violence!”

According to Schattauer, the works council writes in the incendiary letter: “We are talking about a mother of two children, to whom we do not want to have to explain why their mother is in the hospital or why she’s no longer coming home!” The situation is now so dramatic that even husbands privately accompany their wives who work for the railways on the train in order to “protect them!”

In the letter, the authors complain that politicians keep talking about “integration” and “tolerance towards migrants.”

They counter with this: “How can you expect citizens of this country to be open to the refugee policy that is being practiced when this is happening — practically every day, and not just on public transport! — while having to witness such violence, brutalization and absolute contempt for our laws and society?”

Most perpetrators do not have even the slightest respect for the German state and the German police. How should they then have respect for the service employees of the Süd-Thüringen-Bahn and the security forces deployed, asks the works council, according to the report. The idea is “an absolute joke”.

The signatories call on the government to “defuse or put an end to these scandalous conditions in a timely manner.” One sees politicians as having a duty because: “Who, if not you, created these conditions?”

According to Schattauer, the employee representatives also write that they are aware that their descriptions could “pull them into a certain political corner” and could be labeled as “xenophobic” or even “right-wing extremist”: “But at this point they have to speak in plain language!” [The truth will not set you free in Germany; it puts you behind bars.]

Really enough?

According to the report, the letter led to representatives of the railway company, the federal police and the Thuringian Ministry of Transport meeting at the end of April. They agreed to increase security personnel on the Erfurt-Suhl route. The state of Thuringia promised to cover the costs. In addition, such meetings should now be held every three months and a “security concept” should be developed. [When one thinks that Suhl was at one stage THE place to go for perfectly crafted guns, during the Renaissance and afterwards, one wonders why this couldn’t be the case again?]

However, in a conversation with Schattauer, rail union member Steffi Recknagel has doubts as to whether this will really help: “Politicians have shown understanding and promised support, but we now finally want to see the facts!” It is not yet clear at all when the promised money will arrive and how many additional security employees can be deployed on the problem route. [Sorry to burst your bubble, but puppeticians always SHOW understanding, but this is simply part of their act to lull and gull the simple-minded. It means absolutely NOTHING.]

The trade unionist would like “more control” for the security guards and “consistent prosecution” of the perpetrators. What happens on the trains in the Free State is a reflection of the conditions in our society, she says: “It can’t just be dismissed like that.” [It will be dismissed until you all scream for an total surveillance state, and then these selfsame perps will be the “Security” forces for the SS (Surveillance State), while your trains will roll towards a different destination for those who won’t OBEY.]

As shocking as the conditions described are, it is gratifying that courageous people are speaking out about them and are at least being mentioned in a major media outlet. Imagine for a moment if it were the other way around — it weren’t people who had been living here for a long time who were regularly threatened by immigrants, but rather immigrants by Germans. We would get a lot of coverage of this in the major media; it would be one of the central topics.

Journalistic betrayal

But with a few exceptions such as this one, the major media keep quiet about these massive problems that scare people, or at best dutifully report them in small print so that hardly anyone sees them. This turning a blind eye, this betrayal of basic journalistic principles, is one of the main causes of the conditions described.

How long will the media and large parts of politics want to look the other way and keep quiet about the problem or sugarcoat it?

Afterword from the translator:

Where do the police fit into this scenario? I can remember a time — not so long ago in fact — when we saw members of this profession dragging homeless people off the train because they were not wearing a mask. Or if people got off at a station in a town where some event critical of government policies was announced — and we all have seen the footages where people would be met by the police right on the platform. They were on sledding hills, in parks, beaches practically everywhere that people could be on their own or in groups.

So they must exist somewhere, really, I have seen them, you have seen them… beating old ladies walking their dogs or tackling people who have a different mindset than the political prescribed one! But if you want to take a train in Thuringia or anywhere in Germany? This peculiar speciality of theirs somehow doesn’t work any longer, or what?

And since an “arm’s length” distance is no longer enough — neither on the train nor anywhere else, I suggest changing the distance rule in which an arm’s length becomes a Mediterranean width. In my opinion, this would provide a significant improvement.