Sad – Finance Minister Commits Suicide Over Corona Virus

The ravaging corona virus has continued to exact humanity in a multiplicity of ways,  this time forcing a minister to take his own life.

The victim is a finance minister whose body was found near a railway track on Saturday.

The man,  Thomas Schaefer, was until his death, the finance minister of Germany’s Hesse state, and allegedly took his life after being “deeply worried” over how to cope with the economic fallout from the coronavirus, state premier Volker Bouffier said Sunday.

Schaefer, 54, was found dead near a railway track on Saturday. The Wiesbaden prosecution’s office said they believe he died by suicide.

“We are in shock, we are in disbelief and above all, we are immensely sad,” Bouffier said in a recorded statement.

Hesse is home to Germany’s financial capital Frankfurt, where majo lenders like Deutsche Bank and Commerzbank have their headquarters.

The European Central Bank is also located in Frankfurt.

A visibly shaken Bouffier recalled that Schaefer, who was Hesse’s finance chief for 10 years, had been working “day and night” to help companies and workers deal with the economic impact of the pandemic.

“Today we have to assume that he was deeply worried,” said Bouffier, a close ally of Chancellor Angela Merkel.

“It’s precisely during this difficult time that we would have needed someone like him,” he added. Popular and well-respected, Schaefer had long been touted as a possible successor to Bouffier.

Like Bouffier, Schaefer belonged to Merkel’s centre-right CDU party. He leaves behind a wife and two children, GulfNews reported.