The German tourist killed in a grisly hit-and-run in Midtown had been in New York City with her husband to celebrate their 23rd anniversary, a close pal told The Post on Thursday — as the alleged unlicensed motorist who mowed the couple down faced a judge for the first time.

Mohammed Abouzaid, 40, allegedly claimed he didn’t know he’d hit anyone after cops caught up with him and arrested him over the Wednesday afternoon crash that killed and nearly decapitated 50-year-old Alexandra Sabine Lewalter Maric and left her husband, Udo Lewalter, 55, with a head injury.

“Alex was always cheerful and full of life,” longtime friend Udo Meixner, who knew the victim since she was 16, said in a phone interview in German, remembering the slain Apple employee as a loyal and devoted friend.

Abouzaid was charged with failure to yield to a pedestrian and leaving the scene of an accident. Instagram/Udo

“I never saw her have a bad day,” he said. “Throughout the years and decades it was always important for her to stay in touch. She never forgot a birthday and always congratulated me.”

Meixner, a journalist for the German outlet Nordbayerrischer Kurier, said the couple had taken a Virgin Cruise after arriving in the Big Apple earlier this month — only to meet with tragedy.

A rep for the luxury cruise line said the ship sailed from New York on Sept. 15, made stops in Massachusetts, Maine and Canada before returning to the city on Monday, a day after the couple’s wedding anniversary.

“They both loved cruise ships and traveled to New York on that ship,” Meixner said.

The heartbreaking new details came as Abouzaid was arraigned in Manhattan Criminal Court on charges of leaving the scene of an accident and failure to yield to a pedestrian — with a judge shockingly setting bail at $25,000.

The pair loved cruising and were in New York City to celebrate their anniversary after a Virgin cruise. Instagram/Udo

Prosecutors said the reckless driver only had a learners’ permit when he backed up a 2001 Toyota Sienna that he’d been living in “at a high rate of speed” around 2:40 p.m. at the intersection of East 40th Street and Fifth Avenue.

That’s when he struck the couple at the crosswalk, pinning the woman under his vehicle, and also hit a box truck stopped at the light, according to sources and a criminal complaint.

Both pedestrians were knocked to the ground, leaving the woman nearly decapitated. She was pronounced dead while her husband was sent to Bellevue Hospital, where doctors reattached a severed finger and treated a head wound that required stitches. He was in stable condition. 

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Abouzaid allegedly sped off in the minivan — which had a vanity plate reading “TIMES SQUARE” and a Mississippi tag — but was arrested nearby about an hour after the horrific crash, authorities and sources said. 

“He was living out of the car he was driving, that caused this accident, specifically killing one person, and the other hospitalized with a skull fracture. The defendant fled the scene after he hit a pedestrian,” Manhattan Assistant District Attorney Courtenay Cullen told Judge Janet McDonnell.

Mohammed Abouzaid is arraigned with the hit-and-run of the German couple on 5th. Ave. & 40th St. Steven Hirsch

Public defender  Eric Williams argued Abouzaid had “specific reasons” for driving off after the crash, including because “he was scared, he panicked, he doesn’t have insurance.” 

“He was caught at a box in an intersection, what he attempted to do was back up, he attempted to back up, and he hit a truck as he was trying to back up. Pedestrians were moving between his car and the truck. He doesn’t have insurance,” he said, asking the judge not to lock his client up. 

Williams said his client was a “local resident” living in the US for about two years, but it was unclear if he was in the country legally.

Mohammed Abouzaid, 40, was charged in connection to the horrific incident. Peter Gerber

The judge, who ackowledged the driver had been “reckless,” ordered him held on $25,000 cash bail or a $75,000 bond.

“I want to point out that he did show signs of not exercising due care,”  McDonnell  said. “He must have known that he crashed into a truck, and he did drive off at a high rate of speed in a crowded intersection, which can be defined as reckless, killing someone.”

Asked if the charges could be upgraded, a rep for the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office would only say that “the investigation is still ongoing.”

Lewalter Maric, from the German town of Selb, was a music lover from a young age, and married her husband on Sept. 21, 2002, with the couple moving to Hamburg, Meixner said.

Alexandra Lewalter was described my friends as joyful. Facebook/Alexandra Lewalter

The last time he saw her was when they attended a concert for the band “The Kills” together last year. 

According to their LinkedIn profiles, Lewalter Maric worked at Apple Retail Germany for the past 14 years, and her husband was a journalist for the outlet Bild, writing about technology and electronics.

The German consulate said it was aware of the tragedy and was assisting the NYPD as needed. 

“The injured person is being looked after by the consulate general,” they said in a statement. “Please understand that, for reasons of privacy protection of those affected and their relatives, we are generally unable to comment on the details.”