A week and a half after the shooting by Jehovah’s Witnesses in Hamburg that killed eight people, an ecumenical commemoration event is planned for today (5 p.m.) in Hamburg. In the main church of St. Petri, the aim is to give space to mourning, to give comfort and care. The offer applies primarily to the many emergency services who were deployed on Thursday and Friday and to the neighborhood around the crime scene, said a spokesman. The commemoration should not and cannot replace a funeral service for Jehovah’s Witnesses.
The organizers are the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Northern Germany, the Archdiocese of Hamburg and the Working Group of Christian Churches. Mayor Peter Tschentscher (SPD) also wanted to take part. The Jehovah’s Witnesses support the funeral service, but want to go their own way for a funeral service according to their Christian principles.
In the act on Thursday evening more than a week ago, a 35-year-old German in the north of Hamburg killed seven people – including an unborn child – with shots from a semi-automatic pistol and then killed himself. Nine people were injured.
