Two weeks after the Hanau shootings, the central memorial service was held on Wednesday evening in Hanau. Chancellor Angela Merkel and Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier were among the 650 invited guests.
Hanau, 4 March 2020: In the evening the central memorial service was held in Hanau, near Frankfurt am Main, to pay tribute to the victims of the attacks on 19 February. A 43-year-old German shot nine people with an ethnic minority background, before turning his gun on his mother and himself.
Chancellor Angela Merkel writes in the book of condolence. The day after the attack, which had a right-wing extremist background, she spoke out clearly and resolutely against racism in society. "Racism is poison. Hatred is poison. We stand resolute with all our strength against those who aim to divide Germany."
Several hundred invited guests attended the memorial service on Wednesday. Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier attended, as did Chancellor Angela Merkel.
The town of Hanau is to erect a central memorial to the victims in the city's main cemetery, announced Mayor Claus Kaminsky. "So that this terrible 19 February, and the suffering of the victims and their families is never forgotten."
Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier appealed to the audience to actively defend democracy. Democracy, he said, does not live simply because the Basic Law or constitution prescribes it. "It lives and endures if we want it, and if we work for it - and if we stand against those who question it or fight it."
At the end of the service, the families of the victims paid tribute, each with a "guardian angel" who was a representative of either the federal or state government, or of the city of Hanau.
Chancellor Merkel was "guardian angel" for the father and brother of Fatih Saraçoğlu, who was killed in the attack. Together they laid a white rose on the stage.