On 17 November, Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier paid tribute to the dead at the main ceremony of remembrance in the plenary chamber of the German Bundestag to mark the Day of National Mourning.

Prior to that he took part in a wreath-laying ceremony at the Neue Wache in Berlin, the central memorial for the victims of war and tyranny, together with representatives of the constitutional organs comprising the Bundestag, the Bundesrat, the Federal Government and the Federal Constitutional Court.

The text of the tribute reads:

We remember today the victims of violence and war, children, women and men of all nations.

We remember the soldiers who fell in two World Wars, those who lost their lives through acts of war or subsequently as prisoners, expellees and refugees.

We remember those who were persecuted and killed because they belonged to another nation, because they were deemed to belong to another race, because they belonged to a minority or because they were deemed unfit to live on grounds of illness or disability.

We remember those who died because they resisted tyranny and those who perished for their beliefs or their faith.

We mourn the victims of current wars and civil conflict, the victims of terrorism and political persecution, the Bundeswehr soldiers and others killed while serving with missions abroad.

We remember today also the victims of hatred and xenophobia here in Germany, who died because they were deemed different or weak.

We grieve with all those who have lost loved ones, and share their pain.

Yet we live in hope of reconciliation between people and nations. And we recognise our responsibility for peace both at home and in the wider world.

The presidential tribute to the dead at the main ceremony of remembrance of the German War Graves Commission is a tradition started by Federal President Theodor Heuss in 1952.

On the Day of National Mourning, the nation remembers the victims of war and tyranny. It was introduced in Germany in 1919 and, since 1952, has been commemorated two weeks before the first Sunday in Advent. On this day, flags in Germany are flown at half mast.