School shootings in Germany

This church in the western German city of Saarbrücken housed a secondary school from 1820 to 1891. On May 25, 1871, Julius Becker, a pupil known as an eccentric loner, shot at two fellow students after his father received a note warning of his worsening grades. Both boys were badly injured, but recovered. Becker was ruled non-accountable for his actions by a court, and likely died in an asylum.

This funeral procession was held in the northern city of Bremen in 1913 for five girls, aged 7 to 8, who died during a gun attack on their school by a 30-year-old unemployed teacher, Heinz Schmidt, on June 20. Several other girls, staff members, a roofer and some boys playing outside also were injured in the attack on Sankt-Marien-Schule in the Walle district. Schmidt ended his days in an asylum.

On June 11, 1964, a 42-year-old man, Walter S., used a homemade flame thrower and lance to fatally injure eight children and two female teachers at a Catholic elementary school in the Volkhoven district of Cologne. Twenty more children and two teachers received burns. S. later killed himself by taking poison. Before dying, he said the attack motive was that people wanted to kill him.

These are the weapons used by 34-year-old Czech refugee Karel C. in a deadly attack on the Freiherr-vom-Stein comprehensive school in Eppstein in what was then West Germany. C. killed three students aged 11-12, a teacher and a police officer and injured another 14 people, before killing himself. An autopsy showed he acted under the influence of alcohol, but the motive remains unknown.

The massacre in Erfurt, the capital of the German state of Thuringia, took place on April 26, 2002, at the Gutenberg-Gymnasium. Robert S., 19, who had been previously been expelled from the school, shot and killed 13 staff members, two students and a police officer. A teacher finally managed to placate him before pushing him into an empty room, where he committed suicide.

On November 20, 2006, Sebastian B., an 18-year-old ex-pupil of the Geschwister-Scholl Schule in the western town of Emsdetten, went on a rampage at the school with various guns and smoke bombs. He shot and injured four students aged 12-16 and a janitor. A teacher and 16 police were also injured by smoke bombs, before B. shot himself. Police later said he often played a violent video game.

On March 11, 2009, Tim K., an ex-pupil from the Albertville-Realschule in the southern town of Winnenden, went on a shooting spree at the school with a pistol he took from his parents. He killed nine pupils aged 14-16, eight of them girls, and three female teachers. On a further rampage in Winnenden and nearby Wendlingen, he killed three more people, then himself. No motive was ever found.