No one expects them to end up in government (not this time, at least) with the centre-Right Christian Democrats (CDU) as favourites to lead some sort of coalition. Florian’s colleague, Guido Hornig, offers one explanation of sorts: ‘We used to have a lovely country. But now people won’t walk through the centre of this town after 8pm because they feel it is too dangerous.’

The fragile state of Germany’s once-mighty economy is clearly a major factor, too. Having relied for so long on cheap Russian gas and a global appetite for their petrol-powered cars, Germans suddenly find the world has moved on. Infrastructure is creaking, be it the roads, trains or internet access, while one national obsession remains as healthy as ever: bureaucracy. Yet all the opinion polls are clear that immigration is the number-one issue in this election – and that was before Thursday’s outrage in Munich.

Less than a month ago, in the Bavarian town of Aschaffenburg, another (Afghan) asylum seeker wielding a knife attacked a party of children in a park in scenes reminiscent of last summer’s Southport atrocity. A child and an adult lay dead, with many injured. The suspect should have been deported months earlier but for a series of bureaucratic blunders.

This is prosperous West Germany, just an hour from Frankfurt’s banking district. ‘I hope the AfD don’t get a majority,’ says pensioner Elfriede Reck. ‘But it’s the politicians who caused this. Officials knew about that killer before he did it, yet two people had to die before anything happened.’ Now, they are saying exactly the same in Munich this weekend. Germany’s political class has not felt this nervous in living memory.