Mohamed Atta - Germany

Germany

Upon graduating from Cairo University, Atta's marks were average and insufficient to be accepted into the University's graduate program. His father insisted he go abroad for graduate studies, and had Atta enroll in a German language program at the Goethe Institute in Cairo. In 1992, Atta's father invited a German couple over for dinner while they were visiting Cairo. The German couple ran an exchange program between Germany and Egypt, and suggested that Atta continue his studies in Germany. They offered him a temporary place to live at their house in the city. Mohamed Atta ended up in Germany two weeks later, in July 1992.

In Germany, Atta enrolled in the urban planning graduate program at the Technical University of Hamburg-Harburg. Atta initially stayed with the two high school teachers, but they found Atta frustrating owing to his closed-mindedness and intensely introverted personality. Atta also began adhering to a strict Islamic diet, frequented the mosque, seldom socialized, and was unfriendly towards the couple's unmarried daughter who had a young child. After six months, they asked him to move out.

By early 1993, Atta had moved into university housing, sharing an apartment in Centrumshaus with two roommates. He remained at Centrumshaus until 1998. During that time, his roommates became aggravated with Atta, who seldom cleaned, and kept to himself to the extent that he would walk in and out of a room without acknowledging others. Beyond anything else, they could not deal with Atta's personality, described as "complete, almost aggressive insularity".