Although we don't yet know the motivation of the murder(s) today, this will be the largest act of terrorism in German history since 1980 when a Neo-Nazi blew detonated explosives in a crowded Beer Hall during Oktoberfest.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oktoberfest_terror_attack
The next largest terrorist attack in Germany was committed in 1993 by Neo-Nazi youth in Solingen in NRW murdered five Turkish-Germans in an arson attack on the family house.
Generally, Germany has not experienced any major Terrorist events in the Post WW II era, other than the Munich Olympics hostage deal in '72, a handful of murders at the hands of the RAF in the '70s and '80s, and a few isolated murders tied to Islamists in recent years.
That being said, there have been multiple acts of murder committed by Right-Wing extremists, not included in the definition of "terrorist attacks" that don't show up on the statistics. When I lived in East Berlin in the early '90s there were several neighborhoods dominated by "Kurzhare" or right-wing extremists in an environment where places like Marzahn were "no go" areas without extreme caution for a foreigner (Auslander) like myself.
Today is a sad day for Germany, a country where I made many friends, both "native" Germans as well as those of Turkish and Kurdish background living in heavily immigrant neighborhoods, where we would discuss politics over a beer and cigarettes, and sometimes tea and coffee, or at a local Imbiss.
Germany has a very different history than France/Belgium (and even the UK) when it comes to immigrant populations, and now that the "German Blood Laws" have been overturned, German citizenship and social acceptance into the polity has been long the norm rather than the exception.
I am saddened for not only the friends and family members of those that were murdered today, but also that once again Germany will need to look into their hearts and the ghosts of the past and future present, in order to find meaning in the face of a mass-murder insanity.
for comparison: the mass shooting death toll in america is, on average, over ten every
two weeks
