Hanau gunman posted manifesto railing against ethnic minorities, called for genocide

The gunman who killed nine people in Germany's Hanau and then turned his weapon on his own mother and then himself reportedly did it out of apparent hatred of minorities. According to reports, the 43-year-old gunman has been identified as Tobias Rathjen. Citing a video and a lengthy manifesto Rathjen had posted on social media, investigators have reportedly said that he appeared to have been motivated by racism. Reports claim that authorities are treating the attacks as an act of domestic terrorism.

Guided by 'conspiracy theories'

Born in 1977 in Hesse, Rathjen trained as a bank clerk in Frankfurt. He then graduated in business management from the University of Bayreuth in 2007.

(A screen grab featuring suspect Tobias Rathjen)

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According to reports, there is no indication that Rathjen was acting on behalf of a larger organised network and the interior ministry of Hesse state told local media that the gunman was not on police radar for holding rightwing extremist views. It has also been revealed by various reports that Rathjen had a personal website that contained a 24-page manifesto about his life story. As per the manifesto, Rathjen's thoughts and actions were being controlled by mind-readers working for an unnamed “intelligence agency”. The website was taken down within hours of the attack.

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Reports have claimed that while there are no direct mentions to acts of terror in Rathjen's website, there do exist lengthy passages that announce that ethnic minorities in Germany, like those of African, Asian and Middle Eastern descent must be "completely annihilated".

“If there was a button available that would make this become a reality, I would press it in a flash,” he wrote. Reportedly, personal experiences at school and work, and newspaper reports of fights between Germans and “foreigners” made Rathjen arrive at his belief.

According to reports, a few days before the attack, Tobias had uploaded a video on YouTube in English wherein he warned Americans that they were being controlled unnamed "devil-worshipping secret societies".

(Image Credit: AP)

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