A mass shooting in Hamburg, Germany last month that left eight people dead including the shooter, shows the complicated influence of far-right ideologies, journalist Annika Brockschmidt writes for Religion Dispatches.
The suspect, identified by authorities as Philipp F., 29, was a former Jehovah’s Witness who entered a Jehovah’s Witness Kingdom Hall and opened fire.
Philipp F.’s manifesto, which praised Adolf Hitler and Vladimir Putin, is among the most recent example the role far-right ideologies play in radicalization that leads to violence.
Brockschmidt writes that: “motives for mass shootings aren’t always clear—often they’re complex and muddled. However, certain characteristics can be found in most mass shootings. The Hamburg shooter shares a common trait with others: his misogyny runs deep throughout the manifesto, including his firm belief in patriarchal hierarchy.”
“The Hamburg shooter, like many adherents of far-right beliefs, derives the legitimacy for his contempt for women from God.”
A reading of the manifesto reveals a belief in spiritual and hierarchical superiority of men over women, a “patriarchal orientation” rooted in right-wing Christian theology that can also be found in among Jehovah’s Witnesses, Brockman writes.
“Many of his claims are also in accordance with a number of broader right-wing Christian beliefs: he condemns abortion as murder, rails against sex work and is explicitly anti-LGBTQ.”
Although many of the beliefs Philipp F. expresses largely conform with Jehovah’s Witness ideology, his belief that Hitler got the idea for his “1000-year Reich” is attributed to Jesus, according to Brockman, who notes that Jehovah’s Witnesses were persecuted under the Nazis.
“While a lot of his manifesto reads like the unique ramblings of a distressed mind, there is another trait the Hamburg shooter shares with other far-right mass shooters: antisemitism. In his manifesto he spreads the classic Christian antisemitic myth that Jews were guilty of the murder of God—also known as deicide,” Brockman writes.
“He then moves on to claim that this was intentional on the part of Jesus as his brutal execution was necessary to save humanity. Another deeply antisemitic conspiracy myth he spreads (which I will not reproduce in detail here) portrays Russia as an instrument of God and Ukraine as the subject of God’s punishment.”
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