German businessman Kurt König kissed his five children goodbye - then IRA shot him dead at his Londonderry home
A remembrance service is to be held in Londonderry for a German businessman who had just kissed his five children goodbye when the IRA murdered him outside his front door.
Kurt König, 38, a Catholic man from Cologne, was killed on 21 November 1985.
IRA gunmen took a neighbouring family hostage overnight.
His wife and children heard the shots as the killers emerged from the house and opened fire at close range as Mr König was about to start his car.
In a statement, his children said that their father was "no-one's legitimate target".
He had previously supplied catering to the RUC.
His children said: “Forty years ago, our lives were changed forever, we lost a father whose life was taken in an act of violence, an event that not only stole a man we loved, but created a wound that has remained with us ever since.
"We remember the person he was, his kindness, his humour and the small everyday moments that made him who he was.
“Some people decided our father was a ‘legitimate target’ because his catering business involved him providing a service to members of the security force. Let us be emphatically clear; he was no-one’s ‘legitimate target,’ he was an innocent hard working man trying his best to provide for his family”.
“Forty years is a long time. Yet for those who loved him, the loss has never been measured in years, it is measured in moments he never got to see: birthdays, milestones, children growing up, life unfolding without him.
“These are the quiet absences that grief leaves behind. As a family we continuously ask ourselves, why, what was the point, what did it change?
“Did it change and help achieve some political aim… no the world continued to be the same.
“Did it change how people work and how they go about their daily lives...? No, the world continued to be the same.
“What it did change however, was a mother, who had to see their son be buried in a foreign country.
“It changed a housewife, who suddenly found herself all alone to raise 5 children.
“It changed 5 children, who had to bear witness to what happened outside their front door and had to grow up in life with no father to be there for support and guidance.
“And it changed 7 grandchildren, who lost the opportunity to be spoiled and be adored by a grandfather, who I know would have loved them so much."
However, Mr König's children added that "we remain here, stronger than grief" and that they are determined to honour their father "by living our lives shaped by the love he gave us and by carrying forward his legacy with dignity".
Kenny Donaldson, director of victims group SEFF, said the König's are "yet another family who were torn apart through the horrors of terrorism".
SEFF has helped arrange a 40th anniversary remembrance service for Mr König on Sunday 23 November at 4pm in St Columb’s Cathedral, Londonderry.