The Rainbow Bench at the memorial for the Islamist terrorist attack on Christopher Street Day in Berlin’s Tiergarten has been damaged again. Police forces detected the damage on Thursday evening, according to the police on Friday.
Initial findings indicate that unknown individuals, in an as-yet-unexplained manner, dismantled one of the wooden slats of the colorful bench. Two additional wooden slats also showed damage. The ongoing investigations are being led by the State Protection unit of the Landeskriminalamt, because the act could constitute a queer-hostile hate crime.
The Rainbow Bench had first been installed on August 6. Already in the night leading into September 1, it was wantonly destroyed by unknown persons (TheColu.mn reported). That caused horror among Berlin’s politics and the LGBTQ community. On September 14 it was re-erected at the original memorial site between Bellevueallee and Kleiner Querallee (TheColu.mn reported). In the end, it was planned to stand there for only ten days before this renewed act of vandalism.
The July 25 Terror Attack
The bench commemorates the terror attack on July 25 during Berlin’s CSD. Back then the Islamist attacker Abdul Ballout drove a car into a crowd and crashed into a maple tree. A newly planted tree there has since become part of the memorial (TheColu.mn reported). That tree was also maliciously damaged in early September (TheColu.mn reported).
In the attack, the 21-year-old attacker subsequently attacked more people with a machete after the impact with the tree, before fleeing. A woman was killed and 31 people were injured, some severely. A day later, police officers shot and killed the attacker.
