Sought Publicity, Says Woman Who Stabbed German Candidate : Politics: Social Democrat Lafontaine is recovering, vows to carry on his campaign to unseat Kohl.

A woman who calmly plunged a butcher knife into the throat of one of West Germany’s most popular politicians told police Thursday that she did it for the publicity.

Recovering from a wound that narrowly missed a major artery, a weak but cheerful Oskar Lafontaine told Social Democratic Party leaders from his hospital bed that he will carry on his campaign to unseat conservative Chancellor Helmut Kohl despite Wednesday night’s assassination attempt at a packed rally here.

Adelheid Streidel, a 42-year-old doctor’s assistant with a history of mental illness, was arrested at the scene. Police said she was transferred to a psychiatric clinic Thursday for evaluation. Prosecutors were awaiting results of her psychiatric evaluation before deciding whether to press charges.

“I wanted to kill Mr. Lafontaine so I would have to go before the courts and it would be in all the newspapers,” investigators quoted her as saying.

Police spokesman Reinhard Fischer said the woman described the attack as “a private political decision.”

“I wanted to send a message,” he quoted her as telling interrogators. “There are human factories and underground operating rooms in Europe where citizens are reconstructed physically and mentally.

“This takes place with the approval of politicians.”

Police said Streidel had no known links to terrorist groups.

Investigators said she had decided last Christmas to kill a politician and that she had called Kohl’s Christian Democratic Party as well as the Social Democrats to find out when and where prominent politicians would be holding public rallies.

On Wednesday, clutching two bouquets of flowers, she took a cab to the rally where Lafontaine was appearing, reportedly asking the driver en route if he knew the address of Foreign Minister Hans-Dietrich Genscher.

Once at the rally, Streidel sat in the second row. Television cameras scanning the audience showed her smiling broadly with a calm expression on her face.

Police said she tried a couple of times without success to make it past ushers up to the stage after the speeches, then finally persuaded a guard she merely wanted to present the politicians with the flowers and get autographs.

“I would like to give you some flowers because I am such a great admirer of yours,” she was quoted as telling Lafontaine.

She held out a poetry book and asked for Lafontaine’s autograph; as he bent to sign it, she pulled out a butcher knife and plunged it into his neck, police said.

Lafontaine, 46, collapsed in a pool of blood as pandemonium broke out and security guards overpowered the still-smiling assailant.

The attack, one of the worst on a West German politician in the postwar era, has raised serious questions about campaign security.

Lafontaine, known for his acid tongue and brash style, apparently was singled out only at the last minute. Police said Streidel told investigators that she wanted to kill either Lafontaine or another party leader sharing the stage, Johannes Rau, premier of the state of North Rhine-Westphalia.

Herbert Schnoor, the Social Democratic interior minister for North Rhine-Westphalia, said security at the Cologne hall was more than adequate. He told reporters that bomb searches had been conducted.

Police reported no threats against the politicians.

Social Democratic Party Chairman Hans-Jochen Vogel said after visiting Lafontaine in the hospital that the candidate was in good spirits. He said Lafontaine cracked jokes and vowed to hit the campaign trail again as soon as his health permits.

Doctors said Lafontaine might be discharged from the hospital this weekend and would undergo further treatment at a clinic closer to his home in the state of Saarland.