The Tragic Story of The 1964 Cologne School Massacre 

Such a tragic case. Thank you all for watching. Your support is truly appreciated!

A flamethrower is said to be one of the most terrifying weapons to face. Few people would stand against it unarmed and unprotected. Admirable people, those teachers. I hope they are remembered for a long time.

In 1994 a maniac called Garnet Bell attacked pupils sitting their A Level exams in Sullivan Upper school in Northern Ireland, with a home-made flame-thrower. Six boys suffered burns, three of them serious. Bell, who was himself a former pupil of the school, had manufactured the device from a fire-extinguisher. I wonder if he got the idea from this guy? Bell died in prison from bowel cancer while serving a life sentence in 1997. He was denied, rightly in my opinion, permission to be released early so he could "die with dignity" (his words, not mine) in a hospice.

That young lady saved so many children she should receive a posthumous award!!

I find these old cases particularly fascinating. What a tragic and heartbreaking case! 😪 How they underestimated Seifert, in spite of clear warning signs about his mental instability. The teacher who tried to protect the children.. what a lady. A harrowing story expertly related to us with great compassion. Thank you, Paul.. 🤗

An incredibly wicked act. To prey on the defenseless is the height of cruelty and cowardice.

that kind of selfless bravery is something we can only hope is in us when the situation calls for it. RIP to those brave souls.

This case gutted me. To be remembered not for doing something good as a tribute to his wife and child, but instead to attack the most vulnerable amongst us…I cannot comprehend it. Those poor babies just starting their lives and those brave teachers. It’s always AFTER something like this that something is done about people with these kinds of issues. Utter waste and tragedy. As always you are incredible at presenting these cases. Thank you so much!❤️

He attacked children with a flamethrower ? What a P.O.S. ! Condolences to all those who lost loved ones at the hands of this coward. R.I.P. to the innocent 😢.

It's sad to know school violence/massacres have been a thing for so long. Schools are meant to be a safe environment for everybody.

Thank you for covering this case, since it is not well known even in Germany. Also props for making an effort to pronounce any of the names, although some were still pronounced incorrectly. I know it's not easy for non-native speakers to get them right. 🙂 Looking forward to more episodes on lesser known tragedies!

oh dear, this tragedy is simply horrible. i cannot begin to imagine the fear and horror the pupils must have gone through, poor children. my admiration goes to the teachers, they didn't hesitate to put themselves in danger to save their pupils, even when they knew it would cost them their lives. i also love how the neighbourhood got together to assist the victims, it's heart warming to think about.

How awful. I can not even imagine how terrified those poor children must have been

My sadness for the people who died and are affected, and my condolences. May they that died rest in peace! You represented the case very well, I had never heard of this.

Wow, I have never heard of this before. Extremely sad event indeed. Thank you for brining these stories to our attention.

I could listen to you recount history for hours honestly

Of all the tragedy's you have covered, this has to be the worst. With all the mass shootings that have happened, this attack has to be one of the most brutal ways an individual could be killed. I salute the teachers who stepped up to defend those who could not defend themselves. I also salute your memoriam of those who died, so that they be remembered rather than the coward who killed them. May they rest in peace.

Never heard of this one. Great work, as always!

How absolutely horrendous. He just snapped… those poor families too. Finding out this is what happened to your child on on a seemingly normal day. And medical technology wasn’t as good as it is now. How truly awful. Thank you for all the work you put into your channel sir. Your thorough research pays off by telling gripping stories that educate us history and true crime buffs. I also enjoy the background you’ve set up during your narration (which I think is top notch as well). Please, keep up the good work! I’ve shared your channel with family members who have similar watching interests. They enjoy your work as well. Cheers mate.

Not the first time you're picking a case from my country. And always so accurate and well researched. Thank you so very much, I highly appreciate that.

What a horrible tragedy. Thank you for sharing this event, as always in your matter-of-fact, non-sensationalist manner. This is just one of many reasons why I enjoy this channel so much.

What a fascinating and sad story. Thank you for your dedication to telling stories that most have never heard of before. I could listen to you tell stories all day.

As long as the weapon or attacker is focused on a teacher or other adult, children can escape. Too bad some cops can't seem to understand this.

Awww, I was looking forward to the “Right then, take care” at the end! Please bring it back😢

Oh wow! I grew up in Germany but have never heard of this case. This happened a few years before I was born. I'll never understand why someone like that doesn't just take himself/herself out first if they're planning on doing so anyway. Why inflict pain, or even death, on others? Did he choose a school because of the loss of his child? Senseless tragedy all the way around.

I love your voice! Thank you for sharing!

Thank you for naming the victims.

Your delivery is magnificent. 💛 Thank you.

How heartbreaking. Thank you for sharing!

RIP to the little ones and the Heroes.

All I can say is my condolences to All of the teachers and children of schools attacked across the world no matter how far back in time. Unfortunately it won't be the last. I wish there was a way of stopping these sick twisted individuals from even starting their downward path to violence on this scale. Excellent read. Never heard of this one and in a way wish I've never heard about it period. Thank you. I think.

Seemed like a man who experienced a lot of grief in his life with little to no capability to handle it. Hopefully we become better at spotting the warning signs so these people can receive help before committing these heinous crimes.

School massacres have been around much longer than many people think. I'd like to see an episode on some of the oldest.

This story is completely heartbreaking.💔 I can’t even begin to imagine this tragedy & the enormous grief of the families involved.

It's so sad to think that this could have been prevented by grief counseling or even proper mental health treatment earlier. It's horrible imagining how frayed his suffering psyche must have become after the traumas he went through. It's so heartbreaking that without all the untreated trauma, he could have been a nice person to have around.

How utterly awful.

Thanks!

What's also sad is, that Anna Langohr was actually retired two days before the incident, but was still needed, because of the lack of teachers in the school. She also knew Walter Seifert, because he was a former student of her. And as he approached she saw his very grim face and shouted to her students "Run away, children, run! I think, this is a murderer!". That's how she described it in an interview a few years after it happened.

I'm shocked that the teacher who was burned survived her wounds.

There was a guy in the U.S. who blew up a school after killing his wife and setting his house on fire. Why? Because he was angry that he had to pay taxes to support the school. No other reason. A guy in China apparently massacred schoolchildren walking home with a knife. I'm not sure why, I think I heard something about him being upset because he was treated poorly when he was a kid, but that also makes no sense because none of those kids had anything to do with his childhood trauma. Monstrous people like to target schools and kids because kids can't fight back the way adults can. They're easy targets for the monsters to prey on. It's so sad. Why do humans have to be the realest and most terrifying monsters in our world? There's no Big Bag Wolf to fear, no werewolf, mummy, ghoul, or vampire. It's all just people, and worst of all they look just like you or me. That's way more terrifying than any horror movie could ever be.

Horrific.. I'm from germany but never heard of this before! Thanks for this video!

What an interesting story, thank you for uploading it.

Kinda strange to hear about my home city on that amazing channel.

Hello Paul as always sensational job on these videos so tragic but fascinating at the same time how people do stupid things it's interesting to see how ridiculous humans act

Did the first teacher survive? The one who was leading exercises and who then was engulfed in flames?

I can't even imagine being set on fire ! How horrific ! Utterly heartbreaking. 😢

Thank you.

God bless those who teach children.

And just today (2/7/23) I read a report that the "security guard" at a school in USA has been released without penalty - after failing to stop a gunman entering a school and killing several pupils. He only had ONE job ... ... 😒🥺

Incredibly cruel.

Walter Seifert got off easy, but then again, he should had been treated for his mental health long before he got married. I think the death of his wife and child set him off. RIP to the victims. They don't deserve to die like that.

What a tragic way! BTW, you kinda look like Emperor Wilhelm I of Germany.

That´s so strange, I don´t live far from Cologne and I only learned about this desaster last year or so. I had never heard of it before.

Oh my goodness! What a horrible tragedy and loss of innocent lives. My condolences to the families who lost loved one at the hand of this lunatic. Thank you Paul for sharing this story. It breaks my heart to hear such things….. but we must all remember that evil is in the world and is trying to corrupt everyone’s lives. May God have mercy! ✝️🙏

Wait what? He attacked a school with a flamethrower? excuse my language but WTF!

Thank you so much. So very sad

Gorgeous again! Your German is adorable 😉

This is the first time I've ever heard of this. Unimaginably horrific!

Goes to show that people have always been capable of surreal cruelty. Imagine living through this, and in your old age seeing school shootings broadcast into your living room...

Seifert is pronounced "saifat", the s is soft, like in "buzz". That doesn't take away from the respectful presentation, as always. I just left that for the curious people.

So he hated the government and decided to kill innocent children?? Just crazy and so sad...

Uff da. And dang. Talk about warning signs not heeded. 😮😢

So very sad. Never heard of that story. God has a special place for people like him.

We’ll I never heard anything of this tragedy. Memphis Tennessee

Omg this is terrible 😢, I have never heard of this one , what he did was so wrong but to attack children is on another sick level, thank you Paul for sharing ❤❤❤❤

I always love your videos. Thank you for all you do. BTW, I imagine you living in a castle 🤣👏🏼

😔💔 Heart wrenching .

I,just have no words 😭😭😭😭😭.

Sadly this reminds me of what Billy Ferry did on July of 1983 in Palm Harbor Florida when he threw buckets of gasoline at people in a Winn Dixie Grocery store checkout line and set them on fire, killing five people and injuring thirteen others.

Utterly horrifying! Wow. That's put a dampener on my Friday evening.😣

Still my favorite channel❤

While I'm inclined to understand his rage, knowing very well how terrible medical neglect can be. No amount of mistreatment could ever justify attacking an elementary school, let alone in the way that he did.

I get the dude being upset, I get his pain and sense of injustice. But what he did to that school did nothing to harm those who wronged him, all it did was make more victims of injustice and pain.

My uncle Franz Ludwig was a young foto reporter at that time and he took fotos of that burnt school at Volkhoven. He later became a well known freelance fotographer and graphics designer. He died in 2020.

Well I never...heard of that one before! You must have dug that out from way down deep in the vault!

a mace, lance, and flamethrower? where did he think he was going, battle with knights from the dark ages?

Why!?just why!? Those teachers were so brave, those poor babies.

Our society seems determined to extinguish their own childhood agonies of the soul by murdering other innocent children. It's so heartbreaking.

A fascinating case, but were tragic aswel, never heard of this one.

I've heard people say that person X meticulously planning his crime proves he was mentally sane, but this sad case seems like a good example of that you can have more than one screw loose, and still meticulously plan a heinous crime. His poor, poor victims (both those who died, and those who survived).

Why would he put miners in his basement? Doesn't he know they'll just end up digging their way out of it?

Holy Jesus Christ. How absolutely horrifying. And that's not taking the Lord's name in vain. That's a prayer...

A sidenote from a german citizen: In 1960s the man could have bought a semiautomatic .22 rifle , needed no licence until either 1969 or 1972. Since 1972 a licence is necessary for all firearms. But this case shows, that a mass murder case is sadly possible also with selfmade weapons.

Did anyone else come here assuming this must have happened in the USA 🇺🇸?

It is not " Seafert" , it is "Saifert" . Names are not to be "translated", for two obvious reasons . One of them is respect

I remember a case in Northern Ireland around 1990, where some guy walked into a high school during exams and started burning up the place. He got red “water” fire extinguishers, powered by CO2, and replaced the water with petrol. I thought that this was the case.

As a paramedic for more than 42 years, I have seen more than my share of people with any variety of psychiatric illnesses. I can usually find some compassion for them; but this! Why the children? This boggles the mind and makes me realize even more that I will never truly understand what makes a mentally ill person tick.

This reminds me of the US Civil Defense fallout shelter signs I used to see as a child.

Very surprised that I only hear of this despicable crime now, especially as I live in Germany. God, rest the souls of those passed and Bless those that did their best to save your children.

So very sad

It takes a big man to target elderly women and small children. 😡

So that’s how the flamethrower school bus attack in the movie “Hobo with a Shotgun” was inspired!

Its kind of odd we all use the French spelling of Cologne for the German city of Koln XD

He should have been insitutionlised the moment he told his brother of his plans for the basement.

What an incredibly tragic case all round. The teachers were amazing. Thanks to them the death toll was not as high as it might have been but still incredibly awful.

Although school shootings and this are equally evil acts, the children and teachers injured and killed in this incident must have suffered so much pain until they died... or for those who lived, possibly the rest of their lives. It's one of those things that does make you think he got off easy, dying fairly quickly from a gunshot wound to the leg.

This made me cry

This is so much like a attack in my state of Michigan in the town of Bath. A man, pissed because of taxes he had to pay on the new school, planted several explosive devices in the school killing many. It happened in the 1930’s so unsurprisingly the country was horrified.

This one is particularly harrowing - it's true that he showed signs of mental instability, but from the sounds of it, he *liked* children. A lot of these cases we cover show killers taking revenge on people who wronged them (whether the slight was perceived or real), and a lot of violence in their pasts with similar targets, but I couldn't spot any precursor as to why a school would have been his target. That's the scariest thing to me. A police station would have made sense. A military base. A hospital, even - he showed some outward signs of hating all these people. But he didn't seem to show any outward signs that his mental illness would have led him here. There was no way others could have stopped it, it seems, except for locking him up for writing a few crazy rambles, or just being a schizophrenic in general, and we can all agree we don't want to lock people up for a diagnosis alone. That's what scares me about these ones - he had this brewing in his head for a while and no one could have predicted it.

Welp I live in Cologne, have done so since the 90s. I would remember if an act so heinous were ever mentioned. I guess it's so pointless and far out there it can't even serve as a sensible cautionary tale.