Nguyễn Văn Tú

Nguyễn Văn Tú (* 1963 in Vietnam ; † April 24, 1992 in Berlin-Marzahn ) was a Vietnamese contract worker . He was one of the first known deaths of right-wing extremist violence in the Federal Republic of Germany since reunification .

Life

Nguyễn Văn Tú came to the GDR in 1987 as a contract worker from the “ socialist brother country ” Vietnam . In the wake of reunification , many former contract workers lost their jobs. So did Nguyễn Văn Tú, until his release in November 1990 , he worked in the VEB rubber combine in Waltershausen .

did

The Vietnamese Nguyễn Văn Tú (German spelling: Tu Van Nguyen) was seriously injured on Friday, April 24, 1992 by the 21-year-old DVU sympathizer Mike Lillge with a knife stab in the lungs. The act took place on the green space in front of a supermarket on Brodowiner Ring in Berlin-Marzahn around 5:30 p.m. Nguyễn Văn Tú died that same evening in hospital.

Sequence of events

On April 24, 1992, 29-year-old Nguyễn Văn Tú stayed in front of the supermarkets on Brodowiner Ring with friends who were selling cigarettes and textiles from cartons. He had traveled to Berlin-Marzahn to visit a friend. Mike Lillge was also in the same green area with three friends, they stood around and drank beer, with the intention of going to the youth club "Die Wurzel" later on. The four youngsters had previously been to another clique member's apartment to play cards, where they had already started to consume schnapps and beer. The first provocations took place around 5:30 p.m. when Mike Lillge kicks one of the cartons of a Vietnamese man. He repeated this two more times, there were initial discussions between the two groups, which, however, separated again for the time being. Two of the young people around Mike Lillge leave the premises to fetch two deposited batons and reinforcements. Mike Lillge and another youth stay behind. Four or five Vietnamese confront Mike Lillge and his friend. There is a verbal argument and then a scramble. Mike Lillge has an opened butterfly knife in his right jacket pocket. Nguyễn Văn Tú is unarmed. Lillge takes the knife out of his jacket pocket and stabs Nguyễn Văn Tú in the left side of the body. Then he fled with his friend. Although the crime scene was well attended at the time, nobody intervened, and in the end Nguyễn Văn Tú's friends even had to drive him to a hospital themselves.

Court ruling

Mike Lillge was sentenced to four and a half years in prison on October 8, 1992 by the Berlin district court for bodily harm resulting in death . The Court finds as a motive vigilante justice against the backdrop of "xenophobic resentment" firmly. “The defendant stepped in because he was bothered by the fact that the Vietnamese traders were selling unpaid or untaxed cigarettes. While he expressed his displeasure with the Vietnamese, whom he and his friends used to refer to as 'Fitschis', in the manner described, he had nothing against the predominantly German customers, including some of his friends and his mother. Nor did he think of reporting the goings-on. ”(Judgment) The five-year prison sentence demanded by the public prosecutor was reduced to four years by the judge. According to the verdict, it is said that although the act was an “act of reprehensible vigilante justice”, it was not committed out of xenophobia , as Nguyễn Văn Tú had “unlawfully attacked” him.

By hearing witnesses, the police can refute the perpetrator's attempts to portray his act as an act of self-defense. The possibility of researching political motives is only investigated superficially. Mike Lillge states that he sympathizes with the DVU (German People's Union) . In his opinion, the right-wing party would “do something” against “foreigners” who commit crimes. He is not a skinhead and also represents other opinions. In his opinion, the “foreigners” who work could also live in Germany.

The court sees a clear will to attack on the part of Lillge and the three other young people with whom he was on April 24, 1992 at Brodowiner Ring. This could be concluded from the fact that two youngsters of the clique went out to fetch batons and reinforcements and Mike Lillge had an already opened knife in his jacket pocket. From the verdict it emerges that the previous history of the crime described by the accused must be put in the context of his aggression, which has become clear, based on resentment towards the Vietnamese trader. This is supported by the fact that Mike Lillge did not want to defend himself, but the supposedly threatening order.

In 2018, the case was retrospectively classified as PMK law and Nguyễn Văn Tú recognized as a victim of right-wing violence.

Commemoration

On the Sunday after the crime, a demonstration took place in Marzahn, in which around 300 people took part. The demonstration ended with a rally in front of the right-wing youth center "Wurzel", during which the demonstrators called for the Senate-funded facility to be closed. It was only four days before Nguyễn Van Tu's killing, on April 20, 1992, that around 200 young people were able to organize a “Hitler birthday party” in the “root”. On Thursday of the following week, around 150 people responded to a call by the "Association of Vietnamese in Berlin" and held a rally in front of the shopping center on Brodowiner Ring.

On May 3, 1992, the association organized a funeral march followed by a Vietnamese funeral service at the crime scene, in which around 2000 people took part. Shortly after the crime, the Antifa put up a first memorial plaque in the Marzahner Promenade , which was damaged several times and ultimately stolen.

At rallies, activists and memorial groups repeatedly call on the district administration to take part in the memorial of Nguyễn Van Tu. From the "Template for information for the District Assembly on January 14, 2011" it emerges that no new memorial plaque should be attached. It says: “Placing a plaque in front of or in a shopping center does not do justice to the tragic event. It therefore does not seem appropriate to set up a memorial in the vicinity of the Brodowiner Ring shopping center. The memory of Nguyễn Van Tu is preserved in the atrium of the district central library. The sculpture “Torso eines Fallenden” by Wieland Förster located there bears a dedication inscription for Nguyen Van Tu on the base, with which the tragic event is commemorated in a dignified place. The artist was so moved that he wanted to remember the terrible deed with a dedication inscription. ”With the dedication inscription, the artist Wieland Förster wanted to remember the death of Nguyễn Văn Tú, it reads:“ On April 29, 1992, the Vietnamese Nguyen was found in Marzahn Van Thu killed. ”Both the date of death and the name of the person killed are incorrectly stated on it.

In 2017, memorial initiatives from Marzahn-Hellersdorf called for a rally on the occasion of Nguyễn Van Tu's 25th anniversary of death. A year later, on April 24, 2018, activists placed a granite slab with an inscription for Nguyễn Văn Tú at the crime scene. In addition, they put up posters in the area to publicly inform about the crime. Shortly after the connection, the memorial stone was first poured over with concrete and completely disappeared a few weeks later. The left assume that it was neo-Nazis who removed the stone. It is also possible that the regulatory or green space office took action because the memorial stone was not approved.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Serdar Arslan: Nazis in Marzahn: Disturbed commemoration . In: The daily newspaper: taz . June 7, 2018, ISSN  0931-9085 ( taz.de [accessed on May 17, 2019]).
2. ↑ Commemoration: Racist murders in Marzahn - Antifa Northeast. Retrieved May 17, 2019 . 
3. ^ Racism & right-wing violence in Marzahn-Hellersdorf. In: Dunkelzifer Unknown, Issue 3. AK Rights Violence, Anti-Racist Registration Office, AStA Alice Salomon University, April 2018, accessed on May 19, 2019 . 
4. ↑ ^{a b c d} Dorina Feldmann, Michael Kohlstruck, Max Laube, Gebhard Schultz, Helmut Tausendteufe: Classification of politically right-wing homicides - Berlin 1990 to 2008. Universitätsverlag der TU Berlin, accessed on May 19, 2019 . 
5. ↑ Nguyen Van Tu and Ingo Binsch: Murdered by the Nazis | Coordination Office for Democracy Development Marzahn-Hellersdorf. Retrieved May 19, 2019 . 
6. ↑ Commemoration: Racist murders in Marzahn - Antifa Northeast. Retrieved May 19, 2019 . 
7. ↑ Nguyễn Văn Tú is stabbed to death in Marzahn by a DVU sympathizer. Retrieved May 19, 2019 . 
8. ^ Berlin-Marzahn: Nguyễn Van Tu stabbed | Antifa information sheet. Retrieved May 19, 2019 . 
9. ^ Belltower.News editorial staff: More victims of right-wing violence recognized. In: Belltower.News. Retrieved May 19, 2019 . 
10. ^ Berlin-Marzahn: Nguyễn Van Tu stabbed | Antifa information sheet. Retrieved May 17, 2019 . 
11. ↑ Commemoration: Racist murders in Marzahn - Antifa Northeast. Retrieved May 17, 2019 . 
12. ↑ bugera: Marzahn | Alliance against Racism. Retrieved May 17, 2019 . 
13. ^ Berlin-Marzahn: Nguyễn Van Tu stabbed | Antifa information sheet. Retrieved May 17, 2019 . 
14. ^ Commemoration of racist murders in Marzahn | antifa-berlin.info. Retrieved May 17, 2019 . 
15. ^ Template for information for the meeting of the District Assembly on April 14, 2011. Accessed on May 17, 2019 . 
16. ↑ Memorial plaques in Berlin - Memorial plaque advertisement. Retrieved May 17, 2019 . 
17. ↑ Nguyễn Văn Tú - April 24, 2017 | Antifascist collective. Retrieved May 17, 2019 . 
18. ↑ In memory of Nguyễn Văn Tú | Antifascist collective. Retrieved May 17, 2019 . 
19. ^ Johanna Treblin: Brief commemoration for right-wing murder victims (new Germany). Retrieved May 19, 2019 .