Hamburg shooting: What you must know about Jehovah's Witness in Germany, its history and belief

By Team Newsable | First Published Mar 10, 2023, 11:12 AM IST

It is reportedly said that the international Christian denomination that was founded in the United States has more than 100-year history in Germany. Presently, about 170,000 members of the denomination call the European country its home.

At least seven people were dead and 8 injured during Thursday night (March 9) after shots were fired inside a building where Jehovah's Witnesses met in the northern German city of Hamburg.

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Germany🚨Suspected terror attack in Hamburg; Atleast seven people killed and eight others injured in a shooting that took place on Thursday night at a Jehovah's Witness center in the Gros Borstel district of Hamburg; Attacker reportedly neutralized. pic.twitter.com/16JHOBFBYs

— Megh Updates 🚨™ (@MeghUpdates)

Jehovah's Witnesses date back to the 19th century. It was founded by Charles Taze Russell, a minister from Pittsburgh. Now headquartered in Warwick, New York, it claims a worldwide membership of about 8.7 million.

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Here is a look at Jehovah's Witness' beliefs and their history in Germany:

There are over 2,000 Jehovah's Witness congregations and 170,491 ministers in Germany. According to the denomination's website, one in 498 Germans practice the faith.
It can be seen that Jehovah's Witnesses do not call their worship place a church, but "Kingdom Hall." This is because they believe the Bible refers to worshippers, not the building, as the church.
According to the denomination's website, Jehovah's Witnesses do not use the cross in worship as they believe the Bible indicates that Jesus did not die on a cross, but on a simple stake, and that the Bible "strongly warns Christians to flee from idolatry, which would mean not using the cross in worship."
On January 27, 2021, the German State Parliament commemorated the Jehovah's Witnesses' courageous stand against Nazi abuse. Due to COVID pandemic, the ceremony was hosted online and was viewed by more than 37,000 people from Austria, Germany, Netherlands and Switzerland.
About 1,500 Jehovah's Witnesses died during the Holocaust out of about 35,000 who lived in Germany and Nazi-occupied countries at the time. More than 1,000 died in prisons and concentration camps.
On January 27, 2017, Jehovah's Witnesses received the same legal status that is granted to major religions in Germany, which meant they are viewed as a single religious entity.
In the US, Jehovah's Witnesses suspended door-knocking in the early days of the pandemic's onset, just as much of the rest of society went into lockdown too.

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