Berlin at noon on Sept. 14: Silence reigns in Germany’s capital. Cars stop in the middle of the street. People stop walking. Store owners turn off their lights. No one speaks.

Hamburg, at noon: Silence. The same in Brussels, in Paris, Madrid and London. More than 800 million people in Europe interrupt their daily life for three minutes to think of the countless victims of the terrorist attacks on the United States. The European Parliament has declared it a day of mourning in Europe. German political leaders stand next to citizens in the streets, showing their solidarity with the American people. In D?sseldorf, a service is held by the two leaders of Germany’s churches. The church is packed with hundreds of people, the service is broadcast live.

Three days after the attacks on the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon in Washington, Germany is still in shock, its people are mourning. “When I first heard about the attack, I thought it was a bad movie,” says Simone Joerg, a 25-year-old student in Mainz. “Then I realized that a nightmare had come true.” She was supposed to study for her final exams, the decisive oral examination that stood between her and a master’s degree in social work. “I could not concentrate,” she says. “I just watched the news all day.”

A bank teller from Saarbr?cken just shakes her head.

“This is a new form of terrorism,” she says, “and intelligence services worldwide have failed. I thought they were there to protect us.” It is a tragedy for the American people, she adds, but “it is also a [lousy] feeling for Europeans right now.”

Dr. Nicolaus Reifart, a well-known cardiologist in Germany, was supposed to attend a conference in Washington this weekend, where he was to introduce new findings on heart surgery. The conference was canceled, he says, and he is “stuck in Germany.”

The situation at Frankfurt Airport borders at chaos, as ever-changing news reports come in. The terminals are filled with people, many of them Americans waiting to get home. “I just heard that an American Airlines flight was cleared and is to leave now for the United States,” a woman from California tells the public television channel ZDF. She was booked on Lufthansa, which canceled all flights to the United States for the day. “I am frustrated,” she says, “I think they should fly out Americans first, no matter what airlines they are booked on.”

A couple from Chicago is trying to get some information. They were visiting their former exchange students in Germany and were supposed to fly back to Illinois on Wednesday, the man says. He has been trying to reach the airline, but phones are always busy, he explains. “We want to get back, be with other Americans. We have to start a completely new life now.”

Two Australian women try to make their way through the crowd. “We are breaking off our vacation early,” one says. “We don’t want to be in Europe now. Who knows what they will attack next?” Yes, she says, she is terrified of flying, but “I just want to be home.”

The Airport Clinic is ready to help. “We are shocked,” says Rainer Hoffmann, a physician there. “We are on standby around the clock.”

Germans do not feel safe after the attacks. There have been bomb threats in Frankfurt and Berlin, and the city-state’s election campaign has been put on hold.

Foreign embassies are under heightened security, and several cultural events have been canceled across the country.

Germans assemble spontaneously in front of American institutions and the consulate in Frankfurt, leaving flowers, lighting candles. Services are held in large cities and tiny villages, as Germans try to grasp the tragedy.

Teachers do not attempt to stick with lesson plans. “We are trying to help the kids understand what has happened,” says Pia Reibel, a fifth-grade teacher in Hesse. A few in her class cried, others became aggressive because they could not deal with the horrific pictures they saw on TV, she says.

But Germans too are afraid of the consequences of the attack. She is scared, Joerg says, because she does not know how far President Bush will go in his retaliation. The bank teller from Saarbr?cken adds, “If the Americans do not think through their response, it could lead to a spiral of violence.”

After the North Atlantic Treaty Organization announced its willingness to invoke the mutual protection principle and three men were arrested in Hamburg on Thursday in connection with the attack, Germans are worried even more. Theoretically, Germany has been protecting the terrorists, the woman from Saarbr?cken says. “So will Bush retaliate against us, too?”