Merkel told reporters that the assailants “wanted to undermine our sense of community, our openness and our willingness to help people in need”.
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“What we always warned of has now happened”, Frauke Petry, head of the rightwing populist AfD party, said in a statement.
Merkel’s popularity, already eroded by the refugee crisis, is likely to suffer again after a temporary boost following Britain’s vote last month to leave the European Union.
Officials in Bavaria – where three of the attacks took place – are calling for tougher screening of refugees and the reversal of a government policy not to deport people to conflict zones.
“Our state works better than most and… our people are quick to support each other in times of extreme stress”, it said.
“We are talking about a huge litmus test, not just for Germany but for the whole of Europe”.
A week of bloody attacks has frayed nerves in Germany, which led the way in accepting asylum seekers from Syria.
Investigators say he was obsessed with mass killings, including Norwegian rightwing fanatic Anders Behring Breivik’s 2011 massacre, and have ruled out an Islamist motive. The leaders discussed a number of issues, namely the recent violent attacks in southern Germany and the situation in eastern Ukraine, according to the White House Press Secretary office.
An axe and knife attack on a train in Wuerzburg on 18 July was carried out by an asylum seeker from Afghanistan.
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24 July: A failed Syrian asylum seeker blows himself up outside a music festival in the small Bavarian town of Ansbach, injuring 15 other people.
