Assassination attempt in Solingen

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Coordinates: 51 ° 11 '2.8 "  N , 7 ° 5' 23.6"  E

Joint demonstration by Germans and Turks at the crime scene in June 1993
Untere Wernerstraße 81, chestnuts grow on the site of the burned down house
Traces of the fire ruin behind the fence

The assassination of Solingen was in Westphalia North Rhine- Solingen perpetrated crimes, which fell victim to the early morning of May 29, 1993 five people. The act, also known as the Solingen arson attack , had a right-wing extremist background.

Historical context

After reunification in 1990, between 1991 and 1993 there was a “pogrom mood” in parts of the German population and a wave of racist and xenophobic violent riots, particularly against asylum seekers (see asylum debate ). Starting with the riots in Hoyerswerda and Rostock-Lichtenhagen , in which it was only by chance that there were no fatalities, there were imitation acts in western Germany as well, which resulted in several deaths. In 1992, two girls and their grandmother were killed in the right-wing extremist murder attempt by Mölln .

Sequence of events

Six months after the Mölln attack , five people died in the attack on a two-family house in the West German city of Solingen, which was inhabited by people of Turkish descent , and another 17 suffered permanent injuries:

  • Gürsün İnce (born October 4, 1965)
  • Hatice Genç (born November 20, 1974)
  • Gülüstan Öztürk (born April 14, 1981)
  • Hülya Genç (born February 12, 1984)
  • Saime Genç (born August 12, 1988)

Gürsün İnce (27) and Saime Genç (4) succumbed to their injuries after jumping out of the window. A six-month-old baby, a three-year-old child and 15-year-old Bekir Genç were rushed to hospital with life-threatening injuries. Bekir Genç suffered severe burns and has undergone a total of 30 operations and skin grafts since the attack . 14 other family members suffered some life-threatening injuries.

The five victims of the arson attack were buried near Taşova in Turkey. Numerous members of the Turkish government took part in the memorial service, as did Federal Foreign Minister Klaus Kinkel, who represented the Federal Republic of Germany. As with the Mölln assassination attempt , in which Chancellor Helmut Kohl did not attend the funeral service and his government spokesman Dieter Vogel said the federal government did not want to resort to “condolences”, Kohl refused to attend the funeral service even after the Solingen attack.

Investigations

The police and officials of the special commission SOLE of the Federal Criminal Police Office , based at the police headquarters in Wuppertal, arrested three young men and young people between the ages of 16 and 23 from the Solingen neo-Nazi scene on June 4, 1993 on the basis of a preliminary arrest warrant for murder and serious arson . The suspects were flown to the Federal Court of Justice in Karlsruhe. Two investigating judges from the Federal Prosecutor's Office conducted the interrogations in the presence of representatives from the Federal Criminal Police Office. The fourth suspect was also identified after the first arrests.

According to a confession by the older suspect, a hen party took place in the clubhouse of an allotment garden in the south of Solingen on the night of the crime. Three suspects were drunk and disturbed the party and were expelled from the clubhouse by the host and two Turkish citizens present. The three suspects met the 16-year-old suspect shortly afterwards and planned the act. The four people then procured gasoline and broke into the Genç family's hallway. There they poured gasoline over a chest, formed a newspaper into a torch, and lit the incendiary device. Until then, the two confessions of two suspects coincided. On June 5, 1993, after around ten hours of interrogation, the investigative authorities had largely cleared up the crime.

However, the investigative authorities also made mistakes: Conversation protocols were not kept, debris was not secured and fingerprints were not taken. Nevertheless, Attorney General Alexander von Stahl spoke of "first-class criminalistic work".

Two of the arrested men corresponded to the common perpetrator image: young people with a broken home, early violent, belonging to the right-wing extremist scene. The other two suspects did not fit into the usual grid. One grew up in a family of craftsmen in Solingen, the fourth came from a family of doctors. To this day, these two vehemently deny that they had anything to do with the attack. After 127 days of trial, all four defendants were sentenced on October 13, 1995 before the Düsseldorf Higher Regional Court to long prison terms or prison sentences.

Judgments

The sixth criminal division of the Düsseldorf Higher Regional Court convicted the 24-year-old Markus Gartmann (he confessed to the crime, but later revoked his confession; he was 23 years old at the time of the crime) to 15 years imprisonment for five murders , 14 assassinations and particularly serious arson . The 18-year-old Felix Köhnen (16 years old at the time of the offense), the 19-year-old Christian Reher (also 16 years old at the time of the offense) and the 22-year-old Christian Buchholz (20 years old at the time of the crime) were sentenced to the highest youth sentence of ten years .

After revisions, the 1997 judgment was confirmed by the Federal Court of Justice . The regional court in Wuppertal sentenced the four perpetrators in May 2000 to pay Bekir Genç 250,000 marks in compensation for pain and suffering. However, the sentence could not be carried out at the time because two perpetrators were still in custody. Christian Buchholz stated that he had no money and Felix Köhnen could not be reached. According to a press report from 2003, the registration office refused to provide the address on the grounds that the released prisoner was a person worthy of protection.

All four have now been released, two of them early for good conduct.

Reactions and commemoration

Banners at the joint demonstration

The Solingen attack in 1993 was the low point of a wave of xenophobic , racist attacks on people of foreign origin in Germany. Only three days earlier, on May 26, 1993, the Bundestag changed the German asylum law and introduced the third country regulation.

The attack triggered violent reactions. On the evening of May 30, 1993 around 3,000 mostly nationalist Turkish migrants demonstrated again in downtown Solingen and destroyed several windows of shops and cars. The police forces were reinforced by officers from the Federal Border Police (BGS) and GSG 9 . 62 demonstrators were briefly arrested. On June 5, 1993, a registered demonstration in Solingen resulted in violent riots again. For fear of riots, only about 12,000 came instead of the 50,000 demonstrators planned by the organizer. Right from the start, stones flew into the crowd, and rival Turkish groups and German autonomists clashed. Apparently the clashes were incited from the environment of the right-wing extremist Gray Wolves .

During these riots, nationalist Turkish-born migrants and politically left-wing Kurdish migrants clashed, and clashes broke out between these two groups and the police. German autonomists were also involved in the riots. Four people involved and 15 police officers were injured. Property damage worth several million D-Marks resulted . There were also riots in other cities, for example in Bremen and Hamburg. On the event podium, u. a. Ulle Huth from the Solingen Artists Association.

For the relatives of the victims, the Ford works in Cologne made a total of DM 100,000 available on June 1, 1993 and the Bertelsmann Group made a million DM on June 2, and handed the amount over to the North Rhine-Westphalian state government under Johannes Rau in trust .

Memorial plaque for the victims

In Untere Wernerstraße 81 , only a few steps in the cellar are reminiscent of the house of the Genç family. A green wire fence stands in front of it, at the left end of which there is a memorial stone with the inscription “At this point Gürsün Ince, Hatice Genç, Gülüstan Öztürk, Hülya Genç and Saime Genç died as victims of a racist arson attack”. In 1998 the city created terraces together with the “SOS Rassismus” association and, at the request of the Genç family, planted five young chestnuts.

Hülya-Platz in Frankfurt am Main (2004)

In Frankfurt-Bockenheim , the small square between Friesengasse and Kleiner Seestrasse was named Hülya-Platz in 1998 to commemorate Hülya Genç and the other victims. A citizen's initiative erected a man-high replica of the Hammering Man on this square, striking a swastika here. With the help of a crank and a bicycle chain you could do this beating movement yourself. After repeated vandalism on this and a replacement sculpture, the installation of memorial plates in the floor is now being considered.

Genç Prize for peaceful coexistence

The Mercimek-Platz in Solingen

On May 26, 2008, shortly before the 15th anniversary of the attack, the € 10,000 Genç Prize for peaceful coexistence was awarded for the first time in the Solingen theater and concert hall as part of a commemorative event . It was donated by the Turkish-German Health Foundation with its founder and creator Yaşar Bilgin and should be awarded every two years in the future. The first prize winners were the Lord Mayor of Cologne Fritz Schramma and Kamil Kaplan. Schramma received the award for his role as a mediator in the dispute over the construction of the Cologne Grand Mosque . Kaplan lost several relatives in the fire in Ludwigshafen in February 2008. In spite of the great loss, he had "found well-regarded words of balance, prudence, understanding and reconciliation, thus setting a strong example in the midst of a heated atmosphere and having an extremely positive influence on the public mood," said the jury's statement .

On the occasion of the 20th anniversary, the Genç Prize was awarded for the second time in June 2013. The winners were Sebastian Edathy , the chairman of the first NSU investigative committee of the Bundestag , and Tülin Özüdoğru, whose father Abdurrahim fell victim to the NSU's extreme right-wing murder series of migrants in 2001 .

Reactions abroad

Voices from the Turkish government intensified the protests of people of Turkish origin in Germany. The ambassador to Bonn at the time, Onur Öymen , advised to equip himself with fire extinguishers and to lock the doors, as further acts of violence would threaten; President Süleyman Demirel called on the federal government to do more to protect foreigners. A group of parliamentarians from the Israeli Knesset warned of the dangerous developments and also called on the members of the Bundestag to take increased protective measures. After a call on a Dutch radio station, private individuals sent more than a million postcards with the inscription “Ik ben woedend!” (Translation: I'm angry! ) To Helmut Kohl . The action was then heavily discussed in both countries. She was later viewed critically in the Netherlands; it came from an attitude of self-righteousness, commented the newspaper De Volkskrant . Federal Foreign Minister Kinkel declared that the allies would begin to doubt Germany; The existing criticism of the federal government's immigration and naturalization policy intensified in the international press. In particular, adherence to the ius sanguinis in German citizenship law was described in the Anglo-American press as unsuitable for modern, human rights-based liberal democracy .

Survivors of the Genç family

Today the Genç family lives in a house financed by insurance and donations and equipped with surveillance cameras. Some family members have been given opportunities to take jobs with the city. The survivors are still suffering from the consequences of the crime and are afraid of further attacks. Psychological and medical care is still necessary.

In the years after the murders, the mother, grandmother and aunt of the victims, Mevlüde Genç , tried again and again to achieve reconciliation between the people of Solingen and their families or the Turkish population in the city. Mevlüde Genç, who now has German citizenship , was awarded the Federal Cross of Merit.

In relation to the investigation into the murders of the NSU against migrants , Mevlüde Genç expressed her confidence in the German state.

memorial

The Solingen Citizens Memorial
Plaque at the memorial

The Genç family had originally been promised that a place would be found in the center of the city to commemorate the five murdered people. This was also approved by a council resolution on March 3, 1994. However, the memorial was then erected 2.5 kilometers outside the center on the site of the Mildred Scheel Vocational College, to which Hatice Genç went. The reason for this was that it should not endanger social peace in the city center.

10,000 people came to the inauguration in 1994 on the first anniversary of the arson attack. The memorial was initiated by Heinz Siering, the head of the Solingen youth welfare workshop. It was designed according to a design by artist and art therapist Sabine Mertens: two large metal figures - a symbolic pair of parents - framed by a wall of hand-sized metal rings, tear apart a swastika . Every ring - there are now more than 5,000 - has a name. At the inauguration, the first five rings were given by the crowd; they bore the names of the five murdered women and children. A metal plate is attached to the ring made of rings. It is labeled as follows:

“Memorial
Solingen Citizens
We don't want to forget.
We don't want to look away.
We don't want to be silent.
Many people in this city remember
the victims of the arson attack
on May 29, 1993.
Connected like these rings, we want to
live together. "

  • Stage of the memorial event on the 25th anniversary of the Solingen arson attack

  • Memorial with flowers on the 25th anniversary of the Solingen arson attack

In September 2012, a square in the immediate vicinity of the Solingen town hall in downtown Solingen was named after the hometown of the Genç family, Mercimek-Platz .

On May 29, 2018, a commemoration ceremony was held at the Mildred Scheel Vocational College to mark the 25th anniversary of the victims of the Solingen arson attack. Due to the risk of storms, it had to be canceled prematurely.

Quotes

"Today, one day after the verdict, we turn to all young people in Germany and Turkey ... The judge rightly called that a senseless act yesterday, based on racial hatred ... We have young people, regardless of whether we are Germans or Turks, regardless of our skin color or which country we come from, have common interests. ... We have to work together to improve. Hatred only divides and, in the worst case, leads to such terrible and senseless acts. ... Something like that should never happen again. "

- Fadime and Bekir Genç : In: Metin Gür, Alaverdi Turhan: The Solingen files

“The most moving thing for me is the attitude of the Genç family. There was no hatred, no farewell, but always the call for reconciliation between people and peoples. That is the positive signal after the terrible deed. "

- Johannes Rau : on the occasion of the 10th anniversary

"It's been 25 years now.
At that time an indescribable crime was committed.
Five innocent people were killed.
But have the rest got away?

The country is still mourning.
Don't forget this big hole.
It was only youngsters like us.
How could they have so much hatred here? (points to the heart)

But their heads had been turned.
The right-wing extremist view as you can see.

And we say "NO" to fanaticism.
And we say "NO" to fascism.
And we say "NO" to racism.
We should turn within ourselves,
because this monument here should teach us:
We must defend ourselves against atrocities.
Be it that we stand here and set an example.
Or be it that we are actively involved.

A little empathy always creates harmony and positive energy. "

- Poem by students of the Mildred Scheel Vocational College In: Alliance for Tolerance and Civil Courage (Ed.): Brochure with speeches on the 25th anniversary in memory of the victims of the Solingen arson attack. Blade city of Solingen.

Movie

literature

music

Web links

Commons : Solingen arson attack  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Matthias Quent : Racism, radicalization, right-wing terrorism. How the NSU came about and what it reveals about society. Beltz Juventa, Weinheim, Basel 2016, pp. 177–179. On the context of Ulrich Herbert : History of Germany in the 20th Century. CH Beck, Munich 2014, pp. 1171–1180.
  2. ↑ Chancellor Kohl refused to go to the funeral service. In: Süddeutsche Zeitung . May 29, 2013 ( sueddeutsche.de ).
  3. ↑ Heribert Prantl : First the law dies, then the person dies , Süddeutsche.de, May 29, 2013.
  4. ↑ WELT am SONNTAG, "Solingen attack largely cleared up - steel: No evidence of organized right-wing extremism", June 6, 1993, pp. 1. u. 4th
  5. ^ The Solingen "lone perpetrators" are organized Nazis - research and newspaper article evaluations on the perpetrators and their environment. In: ZAG - newspaper of anti-racist groups. No. 8, 3rd quarter 1993, pp. 31-33.
  6. ↑ Hatice Akyün, Alexander Smoltczyk: Xenophobia: The memorandum . In: Der Spiegel . No. 22 , 2003 ( online - May 26, 2003 ).
  7. ↑ The Genç family lives today without a thought of revenge. In: Westdeutsche Zeitung. May 26, 2008 ( wz-newsline.de ).
  8. ↑ Are fascist immigrants allowed to protest against racist terror? - Statements by autonomous groups on the riots, in: ZAG - Zeitung anti-racist groups, No. 8, 3rd quarter 1993, p. 34.
  9. ↑ Neither home nor friends. In: Der Spiegel , issue 23 of June 7, 1993, accessed on May 12, 2013 ( online ).
  10. ↑ Frankfurter Info: Memorial event on the occasion of the 18th anniversary of the Solingen assassination attempt - The "Hammering Man" has to go back to Hülya-Platz! ( Memento from December 26, 2015 in the Internet Archive )
  11. ↑ News between Kleine Seestrasse and Friesengasse
  12. ↑ solingen.de: Genç Prize is awarded for the first time - Prize Winner Kamil Kapla ( Memento from October 13, 2012 in the Internet Archive )
  13. ↑ Stefan Braun: Honored NSU victim moves guests to tears. In: Süddeutsche Zeitung. June 25, 2013. Retrieved June 26, 2013 .
  14. ↑ Christoph Driessen: History of the Netherlands. From sea power to trend land. Regensburg 2016, p. 250; Triadafilos Triadafilopoulos: Becoming Multicultural: Immigration and the Politics of Membership in Canada and Germany. UBC Press, Vancouver, Toronto 2012, p. 143 f.
  15. ↑ Erwin Koch : Three years after Solingen: “I am dead and still alive.” Conversation with Mevlüde Genç. In: The time . May 31, 1996, accessed March 19, 2012 .
  16. ↑ Ayten Hedia: I trust our state , Süddeutsche.de, May 3, 2013
  17. ↑ Resolution proposal ( memo of December 23, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) , City of Solingen, September 1, 2012
  18. ↑ Stefan Prinz and Andreas Tews: Thunderstorm prevents speeches by the ministers , solinger-tageblatt.de, May 29, 2018
  19. ↑ Severe weather: Memorial event for the Solingen arson attack canceled , wz.de, May 29, 2018
  20. ^ Michael Heuer: ZDF Frontal "Haftprüfung". ZDF, September 21, 1993, accessed March 24, 2017 .