On June 2, 2019, 65-year-old Walter Lübcke was enjoying a quiet evening sitting in his garden when he was shot in the head at close range by a right-wing extremist. The assassination shocked the whole country.

The perpetrator, Stephan E.*, later said that his motive was to punish the politician from the center-right Christian Democratic Union (CDU) for his refugee-friendly stance.

In 2015, when hundreds of thousands of refugees came to Germany, mainly from Syria and Afghanistan, Lübcke supported the policies of then-Chancellor Angela Merkel and campaigned for his compatriots to show empathy and welcome these individuals.

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On October 14, 2015, Lübcke, a regional governor in the city of Kassel, in the central state of Hesse, appeared at a town hall meeting in the small town of Lohfelden to explain to the locals why accommodation for the new arrivals was being set up in their community.

Several far-right supporters were among the crowd and proceeded to heckle Lübcke. One of them was Stephan E.

In response to a stream of derision from among the crowd of several hundred people, Lübcke felt he had to speak out in defense of Germany's democratic values: "It's worth living in this country," he said. "You........

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