The Albany Gazette - Vandals uproot Berlin tree commemorating Pride attack victims

The maple, planted in August in Berlin's Tiergarten park, was uprooted on the eve of a key election in the neighbouring state of Saxony-Anhalt in which the far-right, anti-LGBTQ AfD party is expected to secure an easy majority.

The tree and bench constituted a place of remembrance for victims of a suspected jihadist attack on the Pride march in July that killed a 65-year-old Polish woman and wounded around 30 people.

"The commemorative tree was... pulled up by the roots," a police spokeswoman told AFP, confirming a report by public radio RBB.

Last week, police said wooden slats from the adjacent rainbow bench had been torn off with "considerable physical violence".

They noted that other benches nearby had been left intact.

"I say to all the queer people in this city: you are not alone," Werner Graf, head of the Green group in the Berlin parliament, said on Sunday.

"We will replant this tree -- as often as necessary."

Mitte district council has pledged to replace the vandalised bench, which it said "stands for our freedom and for solidarity with the queer community".

"Whoever destroyed it wants to make a statement against these values. Our basic values are not up for debate," Mitte district mayor Stefanie Remlinger said on Tuesday.

Revellers at the July Pride march -- one of Europe's largest -- were targeted in a vehicle ramming and machete attack, which police suspect was carried out by a 21-year-old German man who had pledged allegiance to the Islamic State group.

Police shot the suspect dead the following day after he had gone on the run.

July's attack was one of several which have shaken Germany in recent years.

The deadliest was a car ramming that killed six people and injured more than 300 at a Christmas market in 2024 in Magdeburg, the capital of Saxony-Anhalt.

The convicted perpetrator was a Saudi national who supported far-right views and radical conspiracy theories.

(M.Scott--TAG)