“These are not all junkies and alkies”
Attacks on the homeless have increased since the pandemic began, police figures show. A look at the attack on Wiener Platz, at one that was very close and at local offers of help.
The man in the lumberjack shirt who is said to have almost killed a homeless man by stabbing his neck in the Wiener Platz subway station on February 21 has been arrested. After a large poster campaign with a photo of the easily recognizable suspect, the investigators of the Cologne homicide commission “Holzjäger” caught the suspect about two and a half weeks after the attack.
Marked lumberjack shirt: The Cologne police had been looking for a man who is said to have attacked a homeless person on Wiener Platz with a knife. (Source: Dominik Sommerfeld)
“The violence against the homeless is becoming increasingly brutal. The homeless are set on fire, attacked with paint and knives,” says Linda Rennings, who looks after the homeless with her association “Heimatlos in Köln”. Massive prejudices against homeless people are often the reason; Many would think that these people do not deceive and are a burden to society. “Not all junkies and alkies are,” says Renning. And: “The pandemic has made the misery on the streets of Cologne visible.”
Cologne: Police confirmed higher number of attacks on homeless people
At the request of t-online, chief inspector Christoph Gilles from the press office of the Cologne police confirmed a significant increase in attacks against the homeless in the pandemic years 2020 and 2021. In 2018 the police reported 83 offenses, a year later 120 offenses. In 2020 there were 186, in 2021 151 offences.
Christoph Gilles says: “It cannot be ruled out that the increase in these offenses could also be related to the subjectively perceived increased influx of other Eastern European people into the homeless scene in recent years.”
Of course, these are just assumptions and experiences of two people who are involved in the topic, of course it doesn’t explain why violence against homeless people is increasing. But they are clues.
She knows what it’s like to be homeless: Linda Rennings helps with her association “Homeless in Cologne”. She has now lived in her own apartment for more than ten years. (Source: Dominik Sommerfeld)
In any case, Linda Rennings knows how quickly life can throw you off track and onto the street. For five years she “made records” herself, as it is called in the jargon of the street culture scene. For more than a year she lives in the Cologne-Dünnwald cemetery to be close to her beloved deceased grandmother, sleeps on one of the benches, goes to the dumpster.
But “et kölsche Linda” is a stand-up woman, she moves into a shared flat for mentally ill homeless people. “Then I did training as a convalescent companion for people with a psychiatric diagnosis as part of an EU program. I’ve lived in my own apartment since 2011.”
A trusted person around Wiener Platz
Today she writes for “Draussenseiter”, Germany’s oldest street magazine, which has been reporting on the situation of homeless people in Cologne for 30 years. As a non-partisan, knowledgeable citizen, she makes her knowledge available to the left-wing faction in the Cologne city council.
Linda Rennings is on site at Wiener Platz every day, always accompanied by her dog Clayd. She has a close relationship of trust with the people in the milieu. Their activities include handing out 40 to 60 meals every Thursday and vouchers worth ten euros for shopping in a supermarket.
“I wouldn’t be there for a long time without Linda. This angel saved my ass,” says Udo from the underground scene at Wiener Platz. The city of Cologne, i.e. Rennings, urgently needs to create more emergency accommodation. Not least for homeless people with dogs. “A dog is very important to homeless people. It’s the only friend they have left.”
New contact point with FC help
Linda Rennings has great hopes for the new contact point for the homeless just a few steps from Wiener Platz, with which she cooperates intensively: the “Mülheimer Arche”. “The new contact point offers the chance to equalize and pacify the hotspot in the subway.”
The container facility “Mülheimer Arche” was built by the association “Arche für Obdachlose” founded on Shrove Monday – in association with 1. FC Köln, Ass Huh and the Bethe Foundation. For the time being, 200,000 euros from donations are available for the “Mülheim Arche”. The contact point is initially open for three months.
On five working days, initially from 12 p.m. to 4 p.m., three specialists from the Catholic Men’s Social Service (SKM) will advise the people. If you like, you get a warm soup and the opportunity to do laundry, get clothes or just warm up. There is also a medical practice for people without health insurance. The operator is the medical association Caya (Come as you are).
Such offers are intended to protect the homeless and give them a safe space. So that there is as little opportunity as possible for such acts as dying in the “lumberjack” investigation.