I'm not trying to judge whether whatever anybody did in this specific example (as little as we know) was valid self-defense. I'm just trying to convey some aspects of German law which may be very strange to people from other legal cultures.

For example, whenever I'm reading an article about "the new Texan shoot-first-ask-later law"[1]/stand-your-ground/castle-doctrine I'm very disappointed in the emotional reporting, because it seems so mild and almost pacifist.

[1] to use the cliché