Uprooted

A tree planted at the site of a fatal attack on this year's Berlin Pride march has been destroyed, just days after a commemorative rainbow bench there was vandalised, German police said on Sunday. 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.

"As often as necessary"

"I say to all the queer people in this city: you are not alone," said Werner Graf, head of the Green group in the Berlin parliament. "We will replant this tree, as often as necessary." Mitte district council has pledged to replace the vandalised bench, saying it "stands for our freedom and for solidarity with the queer community".

Revellers at the July Pride march, one of Europe's largest, were targeted in a vehicle ramming and machete attack by a 21-year-old German man who had pledged allegiance to the Islamic State group. Police shot the suspect dead the following day. The deadliest recent attack in Germany was a car ramming that killed six and injured more than 300 at a Christmas market in 2024 in Magdeburg, the capital of Saxony-Anhalt, carried out by a Saudi national who supported far-right views.