The Bavarian capital mourns the victims of the shooting rampage from last Friday, July 22 with an official mourning week announced by Mayor Dieter Reiter after the shooting at a McDonald’s franchise and at the OEZ shopping mall. The central event, which will also mark the end of the week, will be a commemorative assembly in Munich on Sunday, July 31 which will be attended by German Chancellor Merkel and President Gauck, sueddeutsche.de reported yesterday, July 28, 2016.
We have repeatedly reported about many high profile events in the city which have been cancelled or postponed. In a sueddeutsche.de editorial, Franz Kotteder asks why the free concerts which are part of the Theatron Festival at the Olympiapark and the Summer Festival at the park had to be cancelled (both festivals are organised by the City of Munich), while tomorrow’s huge Olympic Stadium concert and “biggest folk-rock-n-roll-party-of-the-world”, by Austrian “Volksmusik” star Andreas Gabalier is set to take place as planned in front of 70,000 fans.
Mayor Reiter says that his influence is limited to events organised by the City and that he can only recommend to private organisers to cancel similar events.
Edmund Radlinger, chairman of the fairground stall operators, says: "We are fully behind the week of mourning." As true Munichers, he says, they have supported the Mayor’s decision from the start. "But I do not understand why the ones are mourning and the others are not." Kotteder writes: “He is right. Whoever understands, thinks of mourning in only one category: business.”