A video appeared five years ago that divided the republic: Was it evidence of a hunt for migrants in Chemnitz? Hans-Georg Maassen, head of the Office for the Protection of the Constitution, denied that. A t-online video analysis brings clarity.
The most important things at a glance
August 26, 2018 plays a key role in the deep fall of Hans-Georg Maassen. Maassen was once a sought-after man in one of the most important positions in the state. As President of the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution, it was his job to protect the free democratic basic order in Germany. CDU member Maassen advised politicians and authorities and was in close contact with the country’s most important security forces.
You can follow the analysis in the video here.
Today, the 61-year-old is in early retirement. Most of his former party friends no longer want anything to do with him. He is accused of occupying extreme right-wing positions and of sympathizing with the AfD. And the CDU wants his expulsion. His successor as head of the Office for the Protection of the Constitution, Thomas Haldenwang, accuses Maassen of subsequently damaging the agency.
All of this has a lot to do with a video from Chemnitz from August 26, 2018 and the then 22-year-old Afghan Alihassan Sarfaraz. Sarfaraz can only be seen in the video for three seconds, then you can only see him from behind. He runs away from aggressive men from a demonstration who insult him and his friend and want to attack them, while a woman’s voice in the background vigorously warns: “Hare, you stay here.”
This 19-second video from Chemnitz divided Germany five years ago. It was recorded on the edge of a fury march after asylum seekers stabbed a German in an argument. Some saw this as evidence of a “hunt”, as the federal government later described the scenes in Chemnitz.
Others felt that nothing had happened there. For them, the head of the Office for the Protection of the Constitution, Maassen, became a figurehead: He told the “Bild” newspaper that there was “no reliable information” that foreigners were being hunted down in Chemnitz and spoke of possibly targeted misinformation. Maassen thus made assumptions and allegations that were not even checked by his office’s research.
“There is no evidence that the video circulating on the Internet about this alleged incident is authentic. In my cautious assessment, there are good reasons to believe that this is deliberate misinformation in order to possibly distract the public from the murder in Chemnitz. “
Hans-Georg Maassen on September 7, 2018 in the “Bild” for the “Hase” video from August 26, 2018.
t-online evaluated the famous video and little-known video material and put it together into a mosaic. For Alihassan Sarfaraz it was a big surprise that there were any more recordings at all. They show the continuation of the 19 seconds and they prove what Sarfaraz knew: his pursuers only turned away briefly and then started running again, chasing him. In combination, the three videos result in a mosaic five years after the event that clearly shows: There were scenes that can hardly be described as anything other than hunts. You can see it in the video above.
The prehistory – the death of Daniel H.
August 26, when the “Rabbit” video was made, is not only the day when a wave of protests broke out with nationwide mobilization. It is also the anniversary of Daniel H’s death. The city festival was celebrated in Chemnitz on August 25th. The 35-year-old H., who had his slightly darker skin color from a Cuban parent, was still out and about in the city after his parents died. He got into an argument in which he was stabbed several times and two of his companions were injured.
The news of his death spread quickly – and also that the suspects had come to Germany as asylum seekers. The story shortly after the fact was that a courageous German father had to die because he stood in the way of lustful foreigners. Because the local media tag24.de and “Bild” had spread on the morning of August 26 that Daniel H. and his friends wanted to help women who had been molested by foreigners.
