One of the five victims of Friday's attack in Magdeburg was nine-year-old Andre Gleissner. “Let my little teddy bear fly around the world again,” his mother wrote in a farewell post on social media. The local fire brigade also paid tribute to the deceased nine-year-old. The boy belonged to her children's unit.
On Friday evening, a passenger car, driven by a Saudi who had been living in Germany since 2006, drove at high speed into a crowd of people at a Christmas market in Magdeburg in eastern Germany. Five people were killed and 200 injured in the attack. The perpetrator was arrested.
The police said the victims were a nine-year-old boy and four women aged 45, 52, 67 and 75.
The Bild daily reported that the deceased nine-year-old was Andre Gleissner. He was at the fair with his family, with whom he moved to neighboring Lower Saxony in 2024.
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Police at the site of the attack in Magdeburg FILIP SINGER/PAP/EPA
“Let my little teddy bear fly around the world again”
The mother of the deceased nine-year-old, Désirée Gleissner, posted a farewell post on Facebook.
“Let my little teddy bear fly around the world again… André didn't do anything to anyone… he was with us on earth for only nine years…. Why so… I just, why, I don't understand… now you are with grandma and grandpa in heaven, they missed you so much… as much as we miss you now, you will always live in our hearts… I promise you that,” she wrote.
“I'm speechless. Thank you for all your condolences,” she added in another entry.
Firefighters also said goodbye to the nine-year-old
Local firefighters from the German commune of Schöppenstedt also said goodbye to the deceased boy. The boy was a member of a children's unit in the town of Warle, located near Magdeburg.
“It is with deep regret that we also mourn André, a member of the children's fire brigade in Warle, who left us much too early. Our thoughts are with André's loved ones, whom we want to support in this difficult time,” it said. Firefighters appealed for donations to the family of the deceased boy.
“We ask ourselves, is there still a safe place?”
Friedrich Kramer, bishop of the Evangelical Church in central Germany, also spoke about the deaths during the memorial service in Magdeburg.
– Being shocked, we ask ourselves if there is still a safe place that no one will destroy. Where is it? One that no one will destroy. How do we explain to our children that a boy died at a Christmas market? How can we talk about this without arousing fear or anger or hatred? – he turned to the faithful.
Flowers at the fair at the site of the attack in MagdeburgPHILIP SINGER/EPA
Main photo source: Désirée Gleißner/facebook