Hamburg, with approximately 1.9 million inhabitants, is Germany’s second largest city following the capital Berlin. It struck 8:45 p.m. (local time) this Thursday, March 9, 2023 in the Alsterdorf district of the great northern metropolis. The worship of the religious community of Jehovah’s Witnesses, which began at 7 p.m., had just ended, and the faithful were in discussion, when the horror film began to unfold; according to the testimony of a survivor.
A worshiper had already left to go home, when, according to the chief of police, the killer shot ten times at her car in the parking lot. Slightly injured, she managed to flee and alarm the police. Mr. Andy Grote, who serves as Minister of the Interior in the city-state of Hamburg, acknowledges that he has never experienced a drama of such magnitude in the history of this great metropolis. The politician also admits that without the rapid intervention of the special forces, without their courage, there would probably have been many more victims. According to a representative of the police, there would have been 7 people killed: 4 men and 2 women, aged 33 to 60 and a 7-month-old fetus, a little girl whose mother would have survived, seriously injured. The 8th victim would be the killer himself who killed himself with his semi-automatic pistol when the police arrived. Several people, 6 women and 2 men, between 23 and 46 years old, were also injured. And among the injured would be an African of Ugandan origin who would have recently arrived from Ukraine, probably because of the war.
How did we get here? Who is the man who took it upon himself to take so many human lives?
Philip F., 35, is a German citizen who was born and raised in Bavaria in southern Germany, into a family of devout believers. He would have studied in Munich and would also have trained as a bank employee. A former football teammate with whom he had played in his native region describes him as a calm person. Since 2015 he was registered in Hamburg where he lived until that fateful Thursday. A year and a half ago he had left the community of Jehovah’s Witnesses, probably not on good terms. And according to witnesses, he would have kept a grudge once morest the members of this religious congregation. According to the explanations of the police, as a member of a sports shooting team (Sportschützenverein) in Hamburg, he obtained since December 2022 a license to possess weapons and since December 12 he legally possessed a pistol. -automatic which will later prove to be the murder weapon. In January 2023, the Hamburg police receive a letter from a citizen; letter in which the anonymous sender warns of a possible mental illness of Philip F. According to the letter, the future killer would be very angry with Jehovah’s Witnesses and his former employer. The subsequent police check at his home might not lead to the conclusion that the sport shooter was an extremist.
After the tragedy come the questions and the reproaches made to the authorities in charge of security. Is German gun law too liberal? After the anonymous letter making case of a possible psychic derangement of the one who will henceforth remain in the German criminal archives, as one of the greatest killers, why hadn’t he been subjected to a medical examination, in order to possibly reconsider the level of risk in relation to his license to possess a semi-automatic pistol? These are some of the questions that many German media and citizens ask themselves. In the same vein, Mrs. Nancy Faeser, Federal Minister of the Interior, in her reaction to television, would plead for a strengthening of the law on weapons, and especially for a ban on semi-automatic pistols.
PS: Jehovah’s Witnesses are a Christian community that has its own interpretation of the Bible. The faithful believe in Jehovah as God the almighty creator, and submit to very rigid rules. They are convinced that God will destroy mankind in favor of a new world to come. Worldwide, Jehovah’s Witnesses have approximately 8 million followers. Their global headquarters are in New York. The German community, with less than 200,000 faithful, is one of the largest in Europe.
Bibliography: Bayerischer Rundfunk (BR). ARD Tagesschau, RTL Online
Samari Tchadjobo
Germany
