Churches call for peace
Traditional Christmas sermons also commemorate the victims of Magdeburg.
Berlin (dpa) - In the traditional Christmas sermons on Christmas Eve, the two major Christian churches in Germany focused on messages of peace and commemorated the victims of the Magdeburg attack. Catholic and Protestant clergy emphasised the Christian message of peace and the idea of reconciliation. In church services all over Germany they also commemorated the victims of the attack on the Magdeburg Christmas market. On Friday, an Islamophobic doctor from Saudi Arabia killed five people and injured 235, some of them seriously. In his Christmas address, Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier also commemorated the victims of this act of violence and called on the population to stand together.
Across Germany, the church services on Christmas eve draw the largest attendance of the year. Around 46 per cent of the German population are Christians, while roughly the same number of people describe themselves as non-denominational. Approximately 6.7 per cent of the population are Muslims.