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1982 Nuremberg shooting
1982 Nuremberg shooting
	Nuremberg Nuremberg (Germany) Nuremberg Nuremberg (Bavaria)
Location	Twenty Five discotheque and Luitpoldstrasse, Nuremberg, Bavaria, West Germany
Date	24 June 1982; 42 years ago ; c. 9:45 p.m. (UTC+02:00)
Attack type	Mass shooting, far-right terrorism, murder–suicide
Weapon	.357 Magnum Smith & Wesson revolver; 7.65mm Walther PPK semi-automatic pistol; 9mm Luger P08 semi-automatic pistol
Deaths	4 (including the perpetrator)
Injured	3
Perpetrator	Helmut Oxner

On 24 June 1982, a mass shooting occurred in Nuremberg, Bavaria, West Germany. 26-year-old Helmut Oxner opened fire inside a discotheque and in the street, killing three people and wounding three others before killing himself. A known neo-Nazi with links to far-right organizations and previous violations of firearms laws, Oxner targeted foreigners during his shooting spree.

Shooting

At 9:45 p.m. on 24 June 1982, Oxner drove from his parents' house in the suburban neighborhood of Röthenbach into the city center, parking in Kartäusergasse.^[1] He carried a shoulder bag concealing three handguns and 200 rounds of ammunition.^[1] At Königstrasse 74, Oxner descended the steps to the Twenty Five discotheque, a venue frequented by black customers.^[1]^[2] When asked to pay by the bouncer, Oxner drew a .357 Magnum revolver from his bag and shot and killed William Schenk, a 24-year-old African-American civilian resident of Nuremberg.^[2] Oxner ran inside the discotheque, shooting randomly at perceived foreigners on the dance floor.^[1]^[2] He killed a 27-year-old African-American army sergeant, Rufus Surles, and wounded a Korean woman.^[2] Ali K., a waiter described variously as Turkish or Libyan, charged Oxner and disarmed him, but was injured when Oxner took out a Walther PPK pistol and continued shooting.^[1]^[3] Arming himself with the Walther PPK and a Luger P08 pistol, Oxner exited the bar.^[1]^[2] He spared a local resident after demanding to know whether he was Turkish; when the man answered to the contrary, Oxner ran off towards Luitpoldstrasse.^[2] While running, he shouted at local police officers taking cover, stating, "Ich schieße nur auf Türken!" (I only shoot at Turks!)^[2]^[4] At some point, he also shouted, "Es lebe der Nationalsozialismus!" (Long live National Socialism!)^[2]

In Luitpoldstrasse, Oxner spotted a group of foreigners and shot at them, killing 21-year-old Egyptian Mohamed Ehap (or Ehab) and wounding Sultan A., a native of Libya, in the jaw.^[2] Oxner then took cover in Klaragasse, exchanging gunfire with police who arrived at the scene.^[2] After being shot in the hip by an officer, Oxner turned his gun on himself and shot himself twice in the heart and lungs, dying instantly.^[2]^[4]^[5]

Perpetrator

The gunman was identified as Helmut Oxner, a 26-year-old German man who worked as a roofer for his father.^[3]^[4] Oxner was a known extremist with ties to several far-right organizations.^[2] From 1979 to 1981, Oxner attended local meetings of the National Democratic Party of Germany, as well as its youth wing, the Junge Nationalisten.^[2] He was expelled from the organization in January 1981 after making anti-Semitic statements.^[2]^[4] On 23 June 1982, one day prior to the shooting, Oxner and a 29-year-old accomplice appeared in court, charged with incitement and making threats for insulting Turkish and Jewish people in telephone calls.^[2]^[4] Having alluded to the murder in their calls, the two were investigated for involvement in the murder of Shlomo Levin, a Jewish community leader shot to death in 1980.^[4] However, they were determined to have had no connection to the shooting.^[4]^[6] After the two men confessed to the separate crime of vandalising Nuremberg's city walls with neo-Nazi slogans, Oxner's accomplice was sentenced to 15 months in prison, while Oxner himself retracted his confession and had a retrial scheduled in the fall of 1982.^[a]^[2]^[4]

In 1977, Oxner joined a sport shooting club and was allowed to possess weapons after the gun range instructor and neighbors testified to his character and expertise with firearms.^[4] According to Der Spiegel, complaints were routinely filed to the city government warning of Oxner's illegal possession of firearms and his potential for violence, but no action was taken.^[2]^[4] City official Helmut Rietzer later stated that the government believed Oxner was an ardent supporter of violent ideas, but not at risk of taking violent action.^[4] In early 1981, during a search of Oxner's house, police determined he illegally possessed at least two pistols and confiscated them.^[2]^[4] He was charged with violating firearms laws.^[2]^[4] Several months later, police dropped the charges, merely requesting Oxner pay 200 Deutsche Marks to charity.^[2]^[4]

Along with his weapons, Oxner's shoulder bag contained stickers reading "We Are Back" and containing the letters NSDAP, an abbreviation for the Nazi Party's official name.^[3] A prosecutor's spokesman stated that the stickers contained the initials "ao", possibly linking them to the NSDAP/AO, an American neo-Nazi organization founded by Gary Lauck.^[3]

Aftermath

The government and media's labelling of the attack sparked controversy, as the shooting was officially described as a "rampage" with no political connotations.^[4] The state of Bavaria's special criminal investigation commissioner, Erwin Hösl, described Oxner as mentally ill, while Bavaria's Interior Ministry stated he was a "terrorist loner."^[4] Der Spiegel unfavorably compared this and the police's treatment of Oxner's firearms violations to actions against left-wing criminals.^[4] In 2012, the Interior Ministry classified the attack as being motivated by xenophobia and right-wing views; therefore, the attack was targeted towards foreigners, and not a random rampage.^[7]