The British King Charles III. laid a wreath at the St. Nikolai memorial in Hamburg, together with Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier and Mayor Peter Tschentscher. The former Hamburg main church was destroyed during British and American air raids in World War II. The Hamburg Bishop Kirsten Fehrs spoke the “Coventry Litany of Reconciliation” in the presence of Charles and his wife Camilla. The prayer of reconciliation originated in 1959 in the English city. Coventry was heavily bombed by German air raids in November 1940.
The Hamburg boys’ choir sang the hymn “If ye love me” by the English composer Thomas Tallis (1505-1585) as a sign of reconciliation and hope for a peaceful future.
The ruins of St. Nikolai on Hamburg’s Hopfenmarkt are dedicated as a memorial to the victims of war and tyranny between 1933 and 1945. The surviving 147 meter high tower served as a target marker for British and American bombers during air raids during World War II. On July 25, 1943, the church was badly damaged. The attacks on Hamburg under the code name “Operation Gomorrah” lasted until August 3, 1943. The bombs sparked a firestorm in which around 35,000 people died and 120,000 were injured.
Memorial St. Nikolai
