Saturday, October 1, 2022

The Terror That Was The Bremen School Shooting

The Bremen School Shooting took place at approximately 11:00 a.m., when a shooter entered St. Mary's Catholic School, carrying a briefcase packed with ten handguns and hundreds of rounds of ammunition. The killer's name was Heinz Schmidt. He was 29 years old. 

Reports of what took place say that after entering the school, he met up with teacher Marie Pohl in the hallway on the first floor. Pohl had just stepped out of her class when she encountered Schmidt. Pohl questioned Schmidt about what he was doing there. She knew Schmidt because he was also a teacher at that school before being recently fired. Schmidt shot at her. He barely missed shooting her in the head.

In a panic, Pohl runs into a nearby classroom. At the same time, Schmidt entered the classroom that Pohl initially came out of. In that classroom, he came into contact with 65 students, all girls between 6 and 7 years old. He immediately began opening fire at the children. 

The frightened children didn't know where to run so they hid under their tables. That didn't stop Schmidt from instantly killing two of them and wounding another. And when the children tried to run out of the classroom, Schmidt followed them. 

Shooting at them as pursued them, one girl is said to have fallen down some stairs and actually broke her neck and died. He then tried to enter another classroom but found the door locked. Inside, a quick-thinking teacher realized what was taking place and locked herself and her class in. 

At some point, a janitor appeared and tried to subdue Schmidt. He shot at the school janitor, hitting him in the face. Schmidt then tried going up some stairs but was tackled by a teacher. Sadly, Schmidt broke free and shot that teacher in his stomach and shoulder. After that, Schmidt started shooting out a window at children in a schoolyard. He shot five boys. Right after that, teachers, school employees, and the janitor, all rushed and finally subdued Schmidt.
 
When Schmidt was led away by police, an angry group of parents met the police outside. The police were outnumbered as they beat up Schmidt. The crowd of angry citizens then attempted to lynch Schmidt. It was only because the police managed to hold back the mob that Schmidt wasn't lynched on the spot. 

The 29-year-old killer indiscriminately shot at students and teachers alike, actually killing five girls and wounding more than 20 others children and staff. Heinz Jakob Friedrich Ernst Schmidt was in fact a recently fired teacher at the school. The unemployed teacher was never tried for the crime and was instead sent directly to an insane asylum where he died almost 20 years later of tuberculosis.

The Bremen School Shooting took place on June 20th, 1913, at St Mary's Catholic School in Bremen, Germany. Which of course proves such heinous acts are also nothing new to Europe.

Tom Correa