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Commemoration of the shooting spree in Trier: Memories and warnings
Learn about significant political events and historical dates from December 1st, including the Trier shooting.
Commemoration of the shooting spree in Trier: Memories and warnings
On December 1, 2025, we look back at an event that shocked the German news: the shooting spree in Trier. On the same day five years ago, more precisely on December 1, 2020, a 51-year-old man from Trier deliberately drove an off-road vehicle through the crowd in the pedestrian zone. The gruesome act killed seven people, including a nine-and-a-half-week-old baby and its 45-year-old father. In addition, 22 other people were injured, some seriously Süddeutsche.de reported.
The crime occurred at 1:46 p.m. and covered a distance of around one kilometer, of which around 650 meters was a pedestrian zone. The perpetrator, who was drunk at the time of the crime (with a blood alcohol level of 1.12) and suffering from paranoid schizophrenia, was arrested by the police just four minutes after the first emergency call. Live ammunition was found in his vehicle, but no weapon. Until this incident, he had no police history like that Wikipedia shows.
Social reactions and commemoration
The sadness over the incomprehensible event was palpable in Trier and the surrounding area: an official danger notice was published via the MoWaS warning system, and the city ordered mourning flags to be displayed for two days. The day after the crime, a memorial prayer took place in Trier Cathedral, followed by a large memorial service at the Porta Nigra. A nationwide moment of silence has been scheduled for December 3, 2020 at 1:46 p.m.
A remarkable step towards remembrance and commemoration was the inauguration of a memorial on December 1, 2024, which consists of six 2.80 meter high bronze memorial steles and glorifies the victims of the rampage. A year after the inauguration, in November 2023, memorial plaques with the names of those who died were laid in the pedestrian zone to commemorate the terrible event.
Legal consequences and numbers
The perpetrator was sentenced to life imprisonment on August 16, 2022, with the sentence including four counts of murder and 14 counts of attempted murder. An appeal led to a new hearing in May 2024, which resulted in the similar verdict, confirmed by the Federal Court of Justice on January 28, 2025. In Germany, shooting sprees and rampages have become more serious in recent years, with a total of 34 deaths being counted in March 2025, according to Statista, in the statistics of the past years, which come from various press reports Statista.
December 1st remains not just a date on the calendar, but a memorial to all who experienced the suffering and loss. Society will continue to be asked how it can deal with violence and its causes in order to avoid such tragic incidents in the future.