Mail Bomb Kills German Postal Worker, Hurts 11 Others

A mail bomb packed with nails exploded in the sorting room of a suburban Frankfurt post office Wednesday, killing one woman, injuring 11 other postal workers and raising fears of a new wave of terrorism in Germany.

The device detonated just before 8 a.m., when a mail handler tossed the package it was in onto a conveyor belt. Authorities said they believe the bomb was meant for an unknown recipient in Frankfurt and went off in the post office by accident.

“So far, we are assuming this is an ordinary crime, because there has been no letter claiming responsibility,” said Job Tilmann, spokesman for the public prosecutor in the state of Hesse, when asked whether the crime might have a political motive. “But we haven’t ruled out that possibility yet.”

Tilmann added that the bomb appeared to have been built according to plans published in far-left newspapers in the former West Germany in the 1970s, a time when bombings and high-profile assassinations were far more common here than they are today.

Wednesday’s blast came at a time of unease in Germany over several bombings by a little-known leftist group called the Anti-Imperialist Cell and over two recent waves of letter-bombings in neighboring Austria that appear to have been the work of neo-Nazis.

There has been much speculation about links between the Austrian attackers and the German extreme right.

The most recent Anti-Imperialist Cell bombing in Germany occurred in April, in suburban Duesseldorf, when an explosive device was left on the doorstep of Joseph-Theodor Blank, a member of Parliament.

Blank, a Christian Democrat, was away at the time, and his wife and children escaped injury because they had become suspicious and moved to the back of the house before the bomb exploded. Police said they would have been killed had they opened the front door.

The Anti-Imperialist Cell issued a communique saying it had targeted Blank because he represented the “German elite.”

In neighboring Austria, far-right racists are believed to be behind nearly 20 bombing attacks since December, 1993, which have killed four people and injured nine others.

All the dead in the blasts were “Roma,” as one of the two Gypsy groups in Austria prefers to be called; all of the recipients have been institutions or individuals who help minorities and foreigners.

Only two men, both neo-Nazis, have been arrested, and no one has been convicted. There is extensive cooperation and computer networking between the neo-Nazis of Austria and those of Germany, including the circulation of bomb-building guides.

“Of course we are terribly frightened,” said Frankfurt postal employee Georg Merten after Wednesday’s fatal blast. “It’s not nice to be a potential target for attacks like this. Usually our tough schedule demands that we throw parcels onto the conveyor belt. But now I’m going to be more careful.”

Immediately after the explosion, all other parcels at the mail station--a center that handles only packages--were checked for explosive contents.

But officials said there is little they can do over the long term to ensure total security at all mail centers in Germany. “How can one check all the 680 million parcels which are dispatched every year all over Germany?” asked Claus Gellersen, city editor of the Frankfurter Rundschau newspaper.

Christian Retzlaff of The Times’ Berlin Bureau contributed to this report from Frankfurt.