Hamburg gunman: distraught businessman who writes an apocalyptic book

HAMBURG — Details emerge about the gunman who shot dead six Jehovah’s Witnesses in Germany, painting a picture of a troubled businessman fighting paranoia and writing an apocalypse-themed book.

Police identified the killer as Philipp F., a 35-year-old ex-member of the Christian group, who targeted the congregation in a Hamburg meeting hall before turning the gun on himself.

Investigators are still looking for a motive for Thursday night’s attack, which also injured eight people.

– Go to hell –

On Amazon, Philipp F. advertised his self-published book The Truth About God, Jesus Christ and Satan, a mixture of business advice and fundamentalist prose.

It has now been removed from the site, but German media said it described his three-year “personal journey into hell” and described a “higher heavenly government” of 101 million spiritual beings.

Philipp F. says he grew up in a strictly evangelical family and had “prophetic dreams” during his childhood.

The 292-page book portrays the Covid pandemic and the war in Ukraine as divine punishment and outlines fears of a third world war.

According to Der Spiegel newspaper, the letter expresses pro-Russian and misogynist views.

– Troubled Businessman –

The shooter’s professional website is packed with references to the Bible and Liverpool football club.

He advocates the end of the internal combustion engine and pleads for the “maximization of happiness in human and animal life”.

It’s also full of prophecies – he foresees a “great change in the architecture of the world we live in” and in the heavens “where spirit people live”.

On his website and his LinkedIn account, Philipp F. presented himself as a successful businessman.

For 250,000 euros per day bot he offered consulting and general management services and justified the princely sum by saying that he was able to generate “added value of 2.5 million euros” for companies.

He also promoted his “holistic” approach, which encompasses “theology and law.”

The sole proprietor lost his job in 2020 and billed himself as a self-employed financial advisor, though his website doesn’t mention any recent engagements.

According to the investigators, he was apparently involved in disputes with several companies and filed criminal charges, including against a Bavarian company where he was previously employed.

– Anger and Warnings –

Police said the shooter left the religious community “apparently not on good terms” about a year and a half ago.

According to some reports, he chose to leave, but other witnesses said he was avoided. The Bild newspaper reports that he was disfellowshipped after the publication of his apocalyptic economics book.

An anonymous tip went to the Weapons Control Agency in January. Philipp F. may be suffering from an unrecognized mental illness and was “particularly angry at religious members or at Jehovah’s Witnesses and his former employer”.

Police visited him at his modest apartment in a gray building in the west of the Hanseatic city, but said they found nothing of concern and left on the grounds that he had been “cooperative”.

According to German media, he was little known in his neighborhood.

Searches after the shooting uncovered 15 magazines, each containing 15 bullets, and four other packages of ammunition, each containing around 200 rounds.

He was legally in possession of the weapon he used in the attack.