German State Finance Minister took the final step of taking his own life after expressing “despair” over how to handle the economic fallout from coronavirus, says official reports.
Thomas Schaefer, who was the finance minister of Germany’s Hesse region, was found dead after suicide on railway tracks at Hochheim, which is near Frankfurt on Saturday.
As per reports, the 54-year-old had become distressed as to how to handle the coronavirus crisis sending the global markets into freefall, said State governor Volker Bouffier on Sunday.
Moreover, he said Schaefer was particularly concerned about “whether it would be possible to succeed in fulfilling the population’s huge expectations, particularly of financial help.”
“I have to assume that these worries overwhelmed him,” Bouffier said. “He apparently couldn’t find a way out. He was in despair and left us.”
Authorities investigating Schaefer’s death said questioning witnesses led them to conclude that he died by suicide.
Moreover, Schaefer was a member of Chancellor Angela Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union and had held his position for a decade.
