Berlin, July 27th, 2026 (The Berlin Spectator) – Two days after a suspected Islamist attack near Berlin’s Christopher Street Day parade, the woman who died has been identified as a Polish national who had traveled to the city with her daughter. Chancellor Friedrich Merz, meanwhile, signaled that the assault would carry political consequences, while doctors reported further progress among the most severely injured victims.
Berlin’s governing mayor, Kai Wegner, confirmed the victim’s nationality on Monday at an exhibition opening at the Red City Hall. The CDU politician said the woman was a Polish citizen who had been in Berlin with her daughter when she was killed in the attack.
Wegner addressed his condolences to Poland’s chargé d’affaires, Jan Tombinski. “What happened on Saturday moves me deeply, and my thoughts are with you, and above all with the daughter, the family of the murdered woman,” he said.
Condition of Patients Improves
At Berlin’s Charité hospital, the condition of the four most seriously wounded victims has continued to improve. “The physical condition of the four patients continues to stabilize, which is encouraging,” a hospital spokesperson said Monday. “Three patients have meanwhile been moved to a regular ward, one is still in intensive care, but is also on the road to recovery.”
The Charité had treated eight of the 29 people injured in Saturday’s attack, four of whom were released the same day. The remaining four underwent emergency surgery and intensive care, suffering primarily stab wounds along with bone fractures caused by the collision with the attacker’s vehicle.
Speaking in Berlin, the Chancellor said it was still too early to define exact policy steps, but that the government’s response could not stop at words. “What is also clear is that we cannot stop at expressions of sympathy,” Merz said. “We will have to respond with composure, but also with determination.”
“Attack on Our Freedom”
The CDU leader raised the question of how the suspected attacker had been able to approach the vicinity of the CSD celebration on Saturday evening unimpeded, and whether the attack could have been prevented.
He rejected any notion that the site had been picked at random. “The target of this attack was not chosen at random,” Merz said. “It was not only an attack on the queer community, it was an attack on our freedom, it was an attack on our liberal society. It was an attack on our freedom and our liberality. We will do everything to protect and defend this freedom, this openness, this liberality of our society.” Defending that openness, he added, was a task for the government as much as for society at large.
Merz said the attack had been discussed within the CDU’s leadership bodies. “We are thinking of and praying for the person who was killed, for the relatives and for the injured,” he said. “On Saturday, they were all at a celebration of openness, diversity and freedom, peacefully celebrating people who were attacked by an Islamist who wanted to attack these values.”
“Love is Stronger than Hate”
Berlin’s CSD association said it intends to keep advocating loudly for queer rights in the wake of the attack. Board member Marcel Voges told the “Spiegel” that online and everyday hostility toward the community carries real safety consequences. “The hostility we experience online and in everyday life is not a pleasant situation and has consequences for our safety,” he said. “For me, that means we have to become even louder and even more visible.”
Voges was the one who took the stage near the Brandenburg Gate on Saturday evening to tell the crowd the event needed to end. He told the “Spiegel” that in the moment, he had little information beyond the severity of the situation. “At that point I only knew that the situation was very serious. Beyond that I knew few details”, he said, adding that his main concern was avoiding panic during the evacuation. “I wanted to do everything to prevent turmoil and panic. What mattered to me was that participants got home safely and that everything stayed peaceful.”
In a statement, the organization stressed it condemns violence in all its forms while naming the ideology behind Saturday’s attack directly. “Right-wing or religious ideologies pursue the goal of suppressing queer people. We name Islamist terror clearly and without relativizing it,” the statement read, while also warning against using the attack to fuel hostility toward Muslims or people of certain backgrounds. “Love is stronger than hate”, the group added.
The suspected attacker, identified as Abdul B., was shot dead by police on Sunday evening during an operation at an allotment garden site in Berlin-Spandau. According to police, he charged at officers with a bladed weapon before special forces opened fire.
