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Around 150 people attended a vigil in Berlin in her memory
on Sunday.
President Joachim Gauck has described the student as a
"role model".
A man, 18, is in custody over the 15 November attack, which
left Ms Albayrak in a coma. Her life support was switched off on Friday.
She had intervened when she heard cries for help from the
toilet of a fast food restaurant in the town of Offenbach, near Frankfurt,
where the two girls were being harassed, German media report.
Later, one of the men returned and attacked her in the car
park, striking her head with a stone or a bat.
Her parents made the decision to turn off life support on
her 23rd birthday when doctors told them she would never regain consciousness
and was brain-dead.
A card from a 10-year-old girl left outside the hospital in
Offenbach on Sunday reads: "Dear Tugce, I admire your courage. You are a
hero. Rest in peace."
A petition calling for Ms Albayrak to be awarded the national order for merit posthumously has gathered over 100,000 signatures.
Confirming he would consider the award, President Mr Gauck
wrote to her family to say: "Like countless citizens, I am shocked and
appalled by this terrible act. Tugce has earned gratitude and respect from us
all.
"She will always remain a role model to us, our entire
country mourns with you.
"Where other people looked the other way, Tugce showed
exemplary courage and moral fortitude."
Before Sunday's "civil courage" vigil on
Oranienplatz in Berlin, tributes were paid in Offenbach, with people holding
signs which read "Thank you, Tugce".
Oranienplatz is in the heart of Berlin's Kreuzberg district,
which has a large Turkish community. Ms Albayrak, who was from the town of
Gelnhausen, also near Frankfurt, was Turkish by origin.
Her attacker, named only as Senal M from the Sandzak region
of Serbia, has confessed to striking Ms Albayrak.
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