| Cologne school massacre | |
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Commemorative plaque |
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| Location | Cologne, Germany |
| Date | June 11, 1964 |
| Attack type | Mass murder, school shooting, murder-suicide, massacre |
| Weapon(s) | Flamethrower, lance, homemade mace |
| Deaths | 11 (including the perpetrator) |
| Injured | 22 |
| Perpetrator | Walter Seifert |
The Cologne school massacre occurred in a Catholic elementary school located at Volkhovener Weg 209 in the suburb of Volkhoven in Cologne, Germany on June 11, 1964. Walter Seifert, born on June 11, 1922, killed eight students and two teachers.
Seifert reportedly fell apart when his wife died in childbirth in 1961; his tuberculosis worsened and he was diagnosed with schizophrenia. He felt he was being treated unfairly by the government which he claimed was cheating him out of his war pension for his service in the Wehrmacht during World War II.
On June 11, the day of his 42nd birthday, Seifert took a self-made flamethrower, lance and mace and entered the schoolyard. After blocking off the main gate with a wooden wedge, he proceeded to kill eight students and two teachers and injure twenty two others, mostly students. He smashed in the windows of the buildings and pointed his flamethrower in the classrooms, setting the classroom on fire, effectively killing nine people. He was then confronted by a teacher, Ursula Kuhr, 24, whom he stabbed with the lance.
After he left the schoolyard, he swallowed a poisonous insecticide E605 in hopes of committing suicide before police could catch him. He was soon apprehended by police, but died in the hospital the next day from the poison.
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