Germans sympathize with parents of André (9) who died: ‘Goodbye my angel’

The parents of 9-year-old André, who died at the Christmas market in Magdeburg, are making an impression on social media with their message on Facebook in which they commemorate their son. “Why?”, his mother wonders. “André didn’t hurt anyone.”

“Let my little teddy bear fly around the world again,” mother Désirée Gleissner of 9-year-old André wrote on Facebook with a photo of the boy. “Goodbye my angel,” writes his father Marco Gleissner.

The message is shared en masse and messages of support for the parents under the message pour in. In one day, the message has already been shared more than 180,000 times.

On Friday evening, André and four adults were killed in the attack on the Christmas market in Magdeburg. A 50-year-old man drove into the crowd at the busy Christmas market in the German city at 7 p.m. The police speak of 200 injured, forty of whom are in serious condition.

The boy lived an hour’s drive from Magdeburg in the village of Warle. He was a member of the children’s fire brigade in the village in the state of Lower Saxony. The Lower Saxony Youth Fire Brigade (NJF) expresses its support in a message condolences to the family and commemorates their youth member.

“André was taken out of life by this senseless act,” the youth fire brigade wrote. The NJF has set up a donation page “to financially support the family during this difficult time.”

How the attack could have happened and whether it could have been prevented by better security measures is still a big question mark. According to the police, the perpetrator of the attack used an escape route to enter the Christmas market. It is unclear how he was able to pass police units that were supposed to guard this road.

In light of the events in Magdeburg, safety measures at Christmas markets are being reexamined. “We have always said that a risk of an attack cannot be completely ruled out,” said the head of Germany’s federal criminal investigation department, Holger Münch.

Watch a reconstruction of the attack in Magdeburg in the video below:

In an interview with the German channel ZDF Münch discusses the attack. He confirms that the authorities received a tip in November 2023 about the suspected perpetrator of the attack. “Appropriate investigation was then carried out. He was not known for violence,” he says.

Further investigation must reveal what the perpetrator’s motive was and whether the security authorities made any mistakes. “We have a completely atypical pattern here and we must analyze it calmly.”

The 50-year-old suspect remains in pre-trial detention. He is charged with five counts of murder and multiple counts of attempted murder.