Rampage
15th anniversary: School in Winnenden remembers the victims
White roses stand at the “Broken Ring” memorial at a school in Winnenden. This is to commemorate the 16 people who died in the shooting spree. photo
© Bernd Weißbrod/dpa
15 years ago, a former student shot 15 people at a secondary school in Winnenden and Wendlingen. Winnenden commemorates the victims year after year with bell ringing, church services and roses.
On the 15th anniversary of the school shooting in Hundreds of people remembered the victims in Winnenden near Stuttgart and in Wendlingen. On Monday at 9:33 a.m., as in previous years, all the church bells in the small town near Stuttgart rang for several minutes.
The former student broke into the secondary school on March 11, 2009 and opened fire with his father’s pistol. He murdered eight female students, one student and three teachers. On his escape to Wendlingen, the 17-year-old shot three other people and himself.
“This brutal act shows that non-violence is unfortunately not a given, and that violence between people can break out at any time, even without a war,” said Winnenden’s mayor Hartmut Holzwarth at the memorial service in the morning.
At the “Broken Ring”, Winnenden’s public memorial within sight of the school, two students read out the names of the murdered after the bell rang. Most were 15 or 16 years old. While the graduating classes of the secondary school, the school management and teachers took part in the memorial service, other students formed a human chain around the school building where the rampage had started. On the anniversary of the crime, three memorial services and a string of lights were also planned for the evening.