Cologne school massacre

The Cologne school massacre occurred in a Catholic elementary school located at Volkhovener Weg 209 in the suburb of Volkhoven in Cologne, Germany on June 11, 1964. Walter Seifert, born on June 11, 1922, killed eight students and two teachers.

Seifert reportedly fell apart when his wife died in childbirth in 1961; his tuberculosis worsened and he was diagnosed with schizophrenia. He felt he was being treated unfairly by the government which he claimed was cheating him out of his war pension for his service in the Wehrmacht during World War II.

On June 11, the day of his 42nd birthday, Seifert took a self-made flamethrower and lance and entered the schoolyard. After blocking off the main gate with a wooden wedge, he proceeded to kill eight students and two teachers and injure twenty two others, mostly students. He smashed in the windows of the buildings and pointed his flamethrower in the classrooms, setting the classroom on fire, effectively killing ten people. He was then confronted by a teacher, Ursula Kuhr, 24, whom he stabbed with the lance.

Reportedly throughout the attack, survivors claim that Seifert repeatedly chanted "I am Adolf Hitler the Second!"(unproofed)

After he left the schoolyard, he swallowed a poisonous insecticide E605 in hopes of committing suicide before police could catch him. He was soon apprehended by police, but died in hospital the next day from the poison.

Victims

Gravestone for Ursula Kuhr on Cologne Südfriedhof

Teachers:

• Gertrud Bollenrath, aged 62
• Ursula Kuhr, aged 24

Students:

• Dorothea Binner
• Renate Fühlen
• Ingeborg Hahn
• Ruth Hoffmann
• Klara Kröger
• Stephan Lischka
• Karin Reinhold
• Rosel Röhrig

Notes

• Both teachers who died had a school named after them.
• Anna Langohr, one of the surviving teachers, was presented with the Medal Cross by Pope Paul VI as well as other decorations from the city.

External links

• Ursula Kuhr Schule Page on the massacre (In German, with pictures)