Erfurt school massacre

Robert Steinhäuser (22 January 1983 – 26 April 2002) was a student of the Gutenberg Gymnasium until early October 2001. At the end of September 2001, he had spent a few days away from school, for which he presented a mandatory medical certificate which was quickly identified as a forgery. Because of this forgery, Steinhäuser was expelled by the principal.[3][4][5]

The investigation revealed that Steinhäuser had been doing research on the Internet into the Columbine High School massacre and had files relating to the crime saved on his computer.[6]

Due to the regulations used in the State of Thuringia at the time, Steinhäuser, on expulsion, found himself with no qualifications at all and therefore had very limited job opportunities.[4]

On the day of the shooting, before leaving his residence at his usual time, Steinhäuser armed himself with a 9mm Glock 17C, a Mossberg 590 Mariner 12-gauge pump-action shotgun,[7] which was unusable due to an earlier handling error, and a diving knife. Steinhäuser probably entered the school unmasked at 10:45, carrying his weapons and ammunition in his sports bag or backpack at the time. As Steinhäuser was in the hallway, he encountered the building's caretaker, Mr. Pfofenheuer, and briefly talked with him. He asked whether or not Ms. Alt, the principal, was in the building.[8] After this conversation, Steinhäuser went into the men's toilet on the ground floor. He put his backpack down in a stall and "geared up." He first put his shotgun across his back and his pistol with a 31-round magazine in a holster on his right leg. After this, he took four additional magazines for the Glock, along with 10 shotgun shells. He also put in earplugs and a black balaclava-like mask in which only the eyeholes are cut out.[2][9]

The shooting started shortly before 10:58 am. Steinhäuser left the restroom, and the rest of his weaponry, and walked down the hallway to the administration area. He rang the doorbell and then waited. The door was unlocked by buzzer and Steinhäuser entered. He fired one round at the assistant principal, Ms. Hajna, who was sitting at her desk, hitting her in the head, and killing her. He then turned to Ms. Schwertner, the secretary, and shot her twice, killing her as well. Steinhäuser then exited the administration area and quickly went up the stairs. When the headmistress went to check the noise, Steinhäuser had already left the room. Upon discovering the bodies, she locked herself in her office and alerted the police.

As Steinhäuser went up the stairs, he shot teacher Mr. Schwarzer three times as he unlocked the door to Room 102, killing him. Steinhäuser then crossed the hallway and entered Room 105. He shot the teacher, Mr. Wolff, twice in front of the class, killing him. As he leaves the classroom, Steinhäuser encountered another teacher, Mr. Schwertfeger, who had left his class in order to investigate the noise. Steinhäuser fired four times at Schwertfeger, hitting him three times and killing him.

Steinhäuser then left the second level of the school and went up the stairs again. He briefly looked into the first two classrooms on the right while tauntingly swinging his pistol. He then traveled farther down the hallway. As he did, Steinhäuser fired a shot towards a locker bay, hitting the farthest locker, but not injuring anybody. He then entered a through-room, Room 204, which had just emptied out the opposite door. He pointed the gun at two students, then turned away and followed the teacher, Ms. Klement, who had just exited the classroom. Steinhäuser crossed the classroom and exited out the other door. He immediately turned and fired at teacher Ms. Klement, shooting her five times, killing her. Steinhäuser then went farther down the hallway and entered Room 211. As he did, he closed the hinged blackboard and killed teacher Ms. Fulsche Baer in front of her class. He crossed the hallway and looked into Room 208. He didn't recognize the teacher, possibly thinking that she was a student due to the students gathered around her desk, and he didn't fire in this classroom. Steinhäuser also looked into the adjacent room, 207, and didn't fire as well.

Steinhäuser then went up the stairs to the fourth level of school. As he reached the top, he entered the first room, 307. Steinhäuser then crossed the room and fired eight shots at teacher Ms. Baumbach, killing her with six shots. He then turned and approached the door to the room. There, he reloaded his pistol, dropping the 31-round magazine, and inserting a 17-round one. Steinhäuser then looked into the adjacent room, 308. He then passed by a teacher who left the classroom to investigate the noise, not firing possibly because he didn't recognize her. He traveled farther down the hallway and entered the through-room, 304. He crossed the classroom and shot the trainee-teacher, Ms. Pott, four times in front of her class, in a similar fashion as Ms. Fulsche Baer. Steinhäuser then left the classroom and entered the other side of the hallway. As he traveled down the hallway, he encountered Ms. Sicker, who had opened the door to investigate the noise as she monitored an exam that was occurring at the time. She was fatally shot once in the face as she turned away from the hallway, and she collapsed into Room 303. Steinhäuser traveled farther down the hallway to Room 301. As he reached the classroom, he pushed a student out of the doorway and shot Mr. Lippe four times. Lippe would remain alive for over an hour before succumbing to his wounds.

Steinhäuser then descended the stairs to the third level. As he did, he was asked by a student: "Is it normal that I'm deaf now?" He nodded, patted her on the back, and passed her by. As he reached the third floor, he fired twice at teacher Ms. Burghardt, who was standing near the entrance to Room 201. Both shots hit her, and she ran into the classroom. Steinhäuser stood in the entrance of the classroom and fired one shot, that hit Ms. Burghardt as she ran away. She collapsed in the doorway leading to Room 202. He crossed the classroom and fired two more rounds at Ms. Burghardt, killing her. Steinhäuser then stood over her body and shot her an additional time. He then left Room 202 and re-entered the hallway before proceeding to Room 204. In Room 204, Steinhäuser reloaded his pistol again, inserting a 17-round magazine and ejecting a live round. He then left the classroom through the opposite door. When he entered the hallway, he headed to Room 208, which was locked, and unsuccessfully attempted to open it. Steinhäuser ejected a live round and fired eight times at the door. The bullets passed through the door and hit students on the other side, killing students Ronny Möckel with two shots, Susann Hartung with one, and injuring another student in the knee.

Steinhäuser then left the third level and went down the stairs. He went down the hallway and looked into Room 108, which was empty. Steinhäuser then fired a shot through the door of the men's restroom. It struck a backpack on the far left side, but didn't injure anyone. He then looked into Room 107, which was also empty. Steinhäuser then went down the stairs and returned to the ground floor. He went down the hallway and entered the stairwell to the yard. He descended it and exited the school building.

When he exited, he started to chase nearby teacher, Dr. Dettke, who had helped in evacuating students. As Steinhäuser chased Dr. Dettke, he fired two shots, both of which struck parked cars. Dr. Dettke was then shot in the upper back, which caused her to collapse on the ground. While on the ground, she was shot an additional four times at close range, killing her. At 11:05 am, a janitor called the police. At 11:12 am, the first police car arrived at the school, responding to the calls from the headmistress and janitor. As Steinhäuser noticed a police car pull up onto the street, Steinhäuser fired a shot into the air before taking cover behind a tree. He then reloaded his pistol, inserting another 17-round magazine. Steinhäuser fired at the police car with four rounds before heading back into the school. PHM Engelhardt fired two shots towards him, but both missed.

As he entered the school, he went back up to the ground floor and proceeded down the hallway before going up the stairwell. On the landing between the ground and first levels, Steinhäuser approached the window facing towards the police car he had seen. Two police officers, PHM Gorski and PHM Baldauf, were putting on ballistic vests and walking towards the yard. Steinhäuser shot out the window at PHM Gorski, striking him in the neck before his ballistic vest was secured. He fell to the ground, his vest opening as he did, and was shot an additional three times, killing him.[2]

Steinhäuser went up the stairs to the first level. He went down the hallway and entered Room 104, which was being re-floored. He took off his mask and briefly talked to the workers. Steinhäuser then put on his mask again and left room 104, went back down the hallway, and headed up the stairs to the third level. He then crossed the entirety of the third floor before going back down the opposite stairwell to the second floor.[10] As Steinhäuser went down the hallway, a teacher, Mr. Heise, opened the door to Room 111. Steinhäuser pointed his pistol at Mr. Heise, then lowered it and said: "Herr Heise, für heute reichts.", which translates to: "Mr. Heise, that's enough for today.".[11] Mr. Heise then tried to persuade Steinhäuser to enter Room 111 with him to talk. He opened the door wider and invited him in. Steinhäuser entered, Mr. Heise then shoved him into the classroom before shutting and locking the door. Mr. Heise ran away from the room and towards the stairwell. Steinhäuser then walked further into Room 111. Steinhäuser then killed himself with a shot to the right temple.[12]

From the first shot to Steinhäuser's suicide the spree lasted no more than 20 minutes. One and a half hours later, Steinhäuser's body was found by a special police detachment (SEK) in Room 111. The gunman had killed 16 people in the massacre—The school's assistant principal, secretary, ten teachers, one trainee-teacher, two students, and one police officer.[13] 71 rounds were fired throughout the whole series of shootings.

A memorial plaque for the shooting

Steinhäuser's family issued a statement to news sources saying that they "will forever be sorry that our son and brother has brought such horrifying suffering to the victims and their relatives, the people of Erfurt and Thuringia, and all over Germany."[14]

In 2004, after repeated public criticisms of the police response to the shooting, the state government of Thuringia tasked a committee to release a final report on the shooting.[15]

The state government of Thuringia reprimanded the principal of the school for the expulsion of Steinhäuser, saying she had overstepped her legal powers and violated the rules of the procedure. There were no further legal consequences for the principal and she remains in charge of the school as of 2017.[16]

Likewise, the Thuringian education law was caught in the crossfire of criticism. Since Steinhäuser was already an adult, the school administration was not required to inform his parents about their son's expulsion from school. In contrast to most other German states at this time, the state of Thuringia did not automatically award the middle school certificate at the end of the 10th Grade. Students who did not pass the final exams therefore did not have a school certificate, which left them with limited job prospects.[4] In response to the shooting, a law was enacted that would give high school students the option to take an exam at the end of the 10th Grade at their own request. Since 2004, this exam has been mandatory for all Thuringian high school students.[17]

The shooting also led to public discussions on the effect of violence in media and its effect on the youth, especially in relation to computer games of the first-person shooter genre, so-called killer games and dealing with fictional violence in other media. According to the report of the Gutenberg Commission, Steinhäuser had some violent movies such as Fight Club, Predator and Desperado, as well as the video games Return to Castle Wolfenstein, Hitman: Codename 47 and Half-Life. Steinhäuser was apparently not interested in the game Counter-Strike, which was often mentioned in connection with the shooting by the media. The discussions contributed to a revision of the Protection of Young Persons Act and helped to strengthen the rules for these legal areas.[17]

In addition to the reform of the Protection of Young Persons Act, gun laws were tightened. The legal minimum age for those who wanted to join a shooting club was raised from 18 to 21 years and anyone under 25 years wishing to handle firearms was now required to undergo a medical-psychological examination.[4] Pump-action firearms were banned altogether. Furthermore, the retention requirements for firearms and ammunition were significantly tightened.

After the rampage, around 700 students were diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder, about one hundred of whom were still under treatment for one year after the shooting. 10 years after the killing spree, there were still six witnesses in psychological therapy, including four who had initially rejected a follow-up program. These adolescents had "time-delayed disturbances such as memory gaps and extreme avoidance behavior". The Thuringian Accident Insurance Fund as payers has so far taken over childcare costs for the victims in the amount of about 5.6 million Euros, including about 2.2 million Euros as pension payments, for example, for survivors' pensions.[18]

Steinhäuser's last words – Für heute reicht's ("that's enough for today") – was also the title of a controversial book about the massacre written by Ines Geipel, who alleged that there were several mistakes made by the police on the case. Geipel, and relatives of some of the victims, criticized police for the initial speed of their response. The police had initially believed there was a second gunman, leading them to retake the school one level at a time rather than storm the entire building.[19] Police laws and police training were reformed in most federal states in response to the shooting. While police patrols were previously required to wait for a special task force, policemen all over Germany now get the necessary training and equipment to deal directly with mass shooters.[4]

Heise was hailed as a national hero for locking Steinhäuser in a room, which ended the killing spree, but was later subject to backlash from some members of the public due to questions about his role. Erfurt Mayor Manfred Ruge said he fully believes Heise, but acknowledged the teacher's rather direct and animated style combined with the vast media coverage had caused resentment in the town.[20]

The massacre led to the development of a code word that could be broadcast over the public address system to warn teachers of a shooting. "Mrs. Koma is coming", which is "amok" spelled backwards, was later used at the Winnenden school shooting to alert teachers to that attack.[21]

Steinhäuser was mentioned in a video created by Pekka-Eric Auvinen, who killed eight people during the Jokela school shooting in Finland.[22]

• List of rampage killers (school massacres)
• Winnenden school shooting
• Emsdetten school shooting
• Ansbach school attack

• Media related to Gutenberg-Gymnasium at Wikimedia Commons