Arson attack in Duisburg-Wanheimerort in 1984

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During the arson attack in Duisburg-Wanheimerort on the night of August 26th to 27th, 1984, a fire was set in a house in which mostly immigrants from Turkey lived. Seven people died and another 23 were injured. The perpetrator was convicted of being a pyromaniac in 1996 . In 2018 the case was made public again, whereby a possible racist background of the crime came into focus.

Course of events and consequences

The corner house at Wanheimer Strasse 301 in Duisburg-Wanheimerort ( 51 ° 24 ′ 9 ″  N , 6 ° 45 ′ 5.5 ″  E ) is on the border to an industrial area on the Rhine and near the Hüttenwerke Krupp Mannesmann (at the time of the crime still Mannesmann ). In 1984 it was predominantly inhabited by guest workers from Turkey. The 57 residents of the apartment building were surprised in their sleep by the fire caused by arson in the stairwell - the first emergency call was received by the fire department on Monday, August 27 at 12:29 am.

From the Satır family living on the second floor, the 40-year-old mother, four children as well as the son-in-law and the newborn grandchild died in the fire or by jumping out of the window:

  • Döndü Satır, 40 years old
  • Zeliha and Rasim Turhan, 18 years old, and their son Tarık Turhan, 1 month old
  • Çiğdem Satır, 7 years old
  • Ümit Satır, 5 years old
  • Songül Satır, 4 years old

Rukiye and Aynur, two other daughters, survived severely injured by a crack in the window, as did their father Ramazan Satır, who had been out of the house at the time of the fire. 23 other residents of the house were injured. The dead were buried in Adana ; the father returned to Turkey and died in a car accident in August 1985.

Investigations and processing

After the perpetrator could not be identified for a long time , the defendant Evelin D. confessed to the crime in Wanheimerort in 1994 as part of the investigation into the arson attack on a refugee hostel in Duisburg-Hamborn on January 26, 1993 . Pyromania was determined as the motive for the crime and the perpetrator was admitted to a psychiatric ward with a judgment dated December 30, 1996, where she died in 2010. Although both acts were directed against migrants, one of the perpetrators' political motives was excluded.

Shortly after the crime, racism was rejected as a motive by the police and the public prosecutor. Instead, a gang war between Turks and Yugoslavs was held to be the cause - a Yugoslav resident of the house was in custody for several months. In isolated cases, racism was suspected as a motive in the media and civil society - as reported by Spiegel (42/1984) in a listing of right-wing extremist crimes without further comment: “In Duisburg seven Turks were killed in an arson attack on a building inhabited by foreigners. Swastikas were scratched into the wall next to the house entrance ”. In addition, a citizens' initiative was founded in Duisburg, which called for an open letter to investigate right-wing extremism . But this goal could not be achieved. Mayor Josef Krings was quoted in the WAZ “on the out-of-the-air allegations by DKP sympathizers that the house in Wanheimerort inhabited by Turks had been set on fire by neo-Nazis” with the words: “A deliberate misdirection. I'm not scratching a right-wing extremist who doesn't exist. ”The act was forgotten.

Found the case through research in the documentation center and museum about migration in Germany , an initiative founded in 2018 advocates a reassessment of the crime. She places this in a series of attacks newly investigated as a result of the NSU's uncovering , in which institutional racism steered the investigations in the wrong direction.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b "Duisburg 1984" , in: ak - analysis & criticism - newspaper for left-wing debate and practice, No. 642, October 16, 2018
  2. ↑ a b "New information after the major fire in Wanheimerort: 'Traces of liquid seen on stairs'", in: WAZ, September 19, 1984
  3. ↑ a b c d e f “Was it xenophobia? Turks died in fire in Duisburg ” , in: WAZ, 11.12.2018
  4. ↑ a b Ceren Türkmen and Bengü Kocaturk-Schuster: "Duisburg 1984: Working up, collectively commemorating and accusing" .
  5. ^ "Initiative DU August 26, 1984"
  6. ↑ a b c "Racism as a possible motive: the initiative wants to re-examine the arson attack in Duisburg in 1984" , Deutschlandfunk Kultur, 03.07.2019
  7. ↑ "Neo-Nazis: Our Dream" , in: Der Spiegel, October 18, 1984
  8. ↑ WAZ, 9/25/1984
  9. ↑ "Duisburg: 'Racism was not spoken of" " , in: nd, 6.11.2018

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