Most Americans have this image of Germans as iconic and stoic in some ways. Occasionally, you have a reminder that chaotic behavior is allowed.
This week....the local newspaper up in Koln brings up an update to a funeral episode from July of last year (2015).
It is one of those stories that probably has a rich story leading up to the funeral but no one lays out the dead guy (Kar-Heinz B.). Generally, when papers won't avoid confrontation with legal issues.....you last name get labeled with the first letter only.
Karl-Heinz has passed on from unspecified ailment (age 59). So the funeral unfolds.
It's best to say that Karl-Heinz has made a name for himself and the family over the past couple of decades through the scrap metal business. It's a tough business and sometimes kinda unfair to some people.
As the head of a scrape metal 'clan'.....he had angered a few people. The journalist writing the article hints that maybe some folks were invited to the funeral, and some folks were NOT invited to the funeral. It's up to you to guess the circumstances, and hostility that this generated.
What is said that the funeral possession met up at the 'hof' and had laid Karl-Heinz into the ground. It is reported that some uninvited folks showed up at this point to show their respect (or perhaps disrespect).
Words were said. Some folks took the words as insults.
A fight at the graveside then broke out. Someone from the family called the cops. It would have been almost mid-day....on a hot July day....with perspiration and sweat likely part of the occasion. You can imagine the cop car showing up at a graveyard. The two guys probably got out....viewed the mess, and they ended up calling for two more vehicles before peace was restored.
So, it's taken roughy six months for the cop report, police interviews and prosecutor interviews to occur. Grievous bodily harm charges have been drafted up. There is at least one charge of insult....which usually hints that someone said something to provoke another. There is talk of disturbance of the peace (considering it is a graveyard, it might be an easy charge to push).
It's acknowledged that some of the witnesses have not been cooperate in the interviews and that probably has delayed this a fair amount.
All of this....over a dead junkyard guy? Yeah. There is some epic book here waiting to be written over Karl-Heinz, his life history, and the drama at the funeral with a fist-fight. I don't know Karl-Heinz or his history.....but I'd take a guess that he'd be awful proud of some of the activities that occurred at the funeral.
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