Kohl Aide ‘Satisfactory’ After Surgery Removes Bullet : Germany: An emotionally disturbed drug abuser is held in the shooting of the interior minister.

Interior Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble, key negotiator of German unification, was reported in satisfactory condition Saturday after surgeons removed a would-be assassin’s bullet lodged near his spine.

A 37-year-old man described by police as an emotionally disturbed drug abuser was being held in connection with the shooting Friday night at a campaign rally in the Black Forest town of Oppenau.

The man, identified by German media as Dieter Kaufmann, “felt the state was constantly following him and that Schaeuble therefore was responsible,” said Horst Knoepfler, a spokesman at the state Interior Ministry in Baden- Wuerttemberg.

“The assailant at this point is considered psychiatrically disturbed, and the attack had nothing to do with terrorism,” Knoepfler said in a telephone interview.

Peter Raisch, spokesman for the State Criminal Office, confirmed that Kaufmann believed he was being persecuted and “was of the opinion that if he killed Schaeuble, his torment would end.”

Schaeuble, 48, had stopped to sign autographs while leaving the tavern where he spoke about German unity when the gunman jumped up from a nearby table, pulled out a .38-caliber revolver and fired three or four shots, police said.

A bodyguard was shot in the stomach trying to protect Schaeuble, who was struck in the jaw and chest, authorities said. Schaeuble’s 19-year-old daughter witnessed the attack.

The assailant was immediately overpowered.

Neurosurgeons operated on Schaeuble for five hours Saturday to remove the bullet lodged near his spinal column. A statement issued by Schaeuble’s ministry said he was in “satisfactory and stable” condition.

The bodyguard was expected to be released from the hospital today.

Knoepfler said Kaufmann apparently got the revolver from his father’s gun case, where it was kept with hunting rifles.

Kaufmann had a history of drug-related offenses, according to police. He reportedly served three years in prison for a 1983 drug felony and was also arrested for attempting to break into a pharmacy, Knoepfler said.

It was the third assassination attempt against a German politician in six months.

Opposition chancellor candidate Oskar Lafontaine survived being stabbed in the throat by a deranged woman at a campaign rally last April. Three months later, the leftist guerrilla Red Army Faction planted a car bomb in an unsuccessful attempt to kill Schaeuble’s top anti-terrorism expert, Hans Neusel, who escaped with minor cuts.

A woman who witnessed the attack against Schaeuble told German Radio that he was conscious immediately after the shooting.

“I saw Mr. Schaeuble lying on the ground, with a shot here in the back and here near the ears,” she said. “I told him, ‘You must not die.’ He raised his head to me, looked at me and said he couldn’t feel his feet. He had no sensation in his feet.”

Chancellor Helmut Kohl flew to Freiburg on Saturday to visit his longtime associate at the Albert-Ludwig University Clinic.

Schaeuble, a former speech writer for Kohl, entered Parliament 18 years ago and was catapulted into the limelight shortly after being named interior minister in April, 1989.

He became the key negotiator of the historic treaty between East and West Germany that resulted in their unification Oct. 3.