{"id":119184,"date":"2021-04-18T14:41:11","date_gmt":"2021-04-18T06:41:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.namnewsnetwork.org\/?p=119184"},"modified":"2021-04-18T14:41:13","modified_gmt":"2021-04-18T06:41:13","slug":"covid-19-germany-to-mourn-80000-pandemic-victims-at-memorial","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/?p=119184","title":{"rendered":"Covid-19: Germany to mourn 80,000 pandemic victims at memorial"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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BERLIN, April 18 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Germany will hold a national memorial service on Sunday for its 80,000 victims of the coronavirus pandemic, sharing the pain of grieving families and those who died alone because of Covid curbs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chancellor Angela Merkel and President Frank-Walter Steinmeier will join an ecumenical service in the morning at Berlin\u2019s Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church, a memorial against war and destruction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They will later attend a ceremony at the capital\u2019s Konzerthaus, where the president will make a speech.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With pandemic curbs still in force restricting the number of people who can attend, the ceremonies will be broadcast live on public television.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAs president I believe it is very important for us to stop to say goodbye in dignity to those who died during the pandemic \u2014 including those who did not fall victim to the virus but who also died in loneliness,\u201d said Steinmeier as he announced the national service.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Besides suffering the pain of losing a loved one, restrictions in place to curb infections mean that relatives are often unable to even hold their family members\u2019 hands as they lay dying.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Others have been left grieving on their own, as funerals or memorials are curtailed by pandemic curbs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a dialogue with the president earlier this year, relatives of coronavirus victims voiced their loneliness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Michaela Mengel broke down in tears as she recalled how she was only able to watch on her phone as her daughter died in hospital from the coronavirus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cLast time I saw her alive was on Christmas Eve when I had to leave the hospital. She had oxygen piped into her nose, she looked at me with her big eyes,\u201d Mengel told the president.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSince she could not talk I told her, bye my dear, I love you, mama will be back.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Steinmeier stressed that it was important to look beyond the daily victim counts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBehind every number, there\u2019s a human fate,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Regional leaders urged citizens to join in the remembrance including by lighting candles by their windows from Friday to Sunday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe want to be aware of what we lost, but we also want to find hope and strength together,\u201d the premiers of Germany\u2019s 16 states said in a statement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sunday\u2019s ceremony comes as health authorities warn that many more will succumb to the virus, as Germany struggles to put down a vicious third wave gripping the country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Europe\u2019s biggest economy had come out of the first wave relatively unscathed but has struggled to take decisive action to end the current one fuelled mainly by the more contagious British variant.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Merkel\u2019s government is seeking greater powers to impose tougher measures such as night-time curfews, in a bid to circumvent Germany\u2019s powerful regional authorities, some of whom have resisted implementing tough restrictions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But the amendment which would impose so-called \u201cemergency brakes\u201d still has to be approved by parliament, where opposition parties like the pro-business FDP have vowed to vote against it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Merkel urged swift and decisive action.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe virus doesn\u2019t forgive half-hearted measures, they only make it all worse,\u201d she told the Bundestag lower house on Friday at the start of a debate on the amended law.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe virus doesn\u2019t let you negotiate with it \u2014 it only understands one language, the language of resolve.\u201d — NNN-AGENCIES<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

BERLIN, April 18 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Germany will hold a national memorial service on Sunday for its 80,000 victims of the coronavirus pandemic, sharing the pain of grieving families and those who died alone because of Covid curbs. Chancellor Angela Merkel and President Frank-Walter Steinmeier will join an ecumenical service in the morning at Berlin\u2019s Kaiser […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":119185,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[209],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119184"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=119184"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119184\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/119185"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=119184"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=119184"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=119184"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}