A website for the victims of right-wing and racist violence in Berlin
Since spring 2019 representatives of commemorative initiatives are meeting regularly to discuss and prepare the project of a shared website.
The project:
- We are not an NGO but activists from commemorative initiatives. We accomplish everything on our own.
- The website is an open project. Groups are invited to join in. If we did not contact or reach some initiatives yet, that are or have been active in this regard, that’s not intentional. We are at the very beginning of the project and at the same time try to involve new activists or groups, develop basic structure of the website and compile the texts and images to be published for the individual victims.
- We are particularly interested in the feedback and participation of relatives and friends of the victims.
- This site does not aim at completeness, only the tip of the iceberg of right-wing and racist violence is known anyway.
- The website will initially be a construction site and posts that have already been posted are currently focusing on a few people. We strive for the site to provide at least an overview as quickly as possible of the victims who are or were already present in the work of individual initiatives in Berlin.
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The focus is on the memory of the victims, but our position against right-wing and racist violence, the responsibility of the state and its institutions for racism, fascism and social chauvinism should also become visible.
Individual contributions to the murdered should contain – insofar as this is possible in individual cases:
- information about the victim’s personal history and history (not solely related to the crime).
- The act should be presented with a temporal and local classification.
- Information about the investigation and trial.
- Information about public remembrance, the history of initiatives and social reactions
Victim of right-wing and racist violence in Berlin
- 05. Jan 1980 – Celalettin Kesim (36), in Kreuzberg
- 12. Mai 1989 – Ufuk Şahin (24), im Märkischen Viertel, Reinickendorf
- 07. Jan 1990 – Mahmud Azhar (40), in Dahlem (died 6.3.)
- 11. Dez 1990 – Klaus-Dieter Reichert (24), in Lichtenberg
- 27. Okt 1991 – Mete Ekşi (19), am Adenauerplatz, Charlottenburg (died 13.11.)
- 24. Apr 1992 – Nguyễn Văn Tú (29), Marzahn, recognized by the state
- 29. Aug 1992 – Günter Schwannecke (58), in Charlottenburg (died 5.9.), retrospectively recognized
- 21. Nov 1992 – Silvio Meier (27), in Friedrichshain, recognized by the state
- 24. Okt 1993 – Hans-Joachim Heidelberg (28), in Schöneweide
- 23. Jul 1994 – Beate Fischer (32), in Reinickendorf, retrospectively recognized
- 26. Jul 1994 – Jan Wnenczak (45), driven into the Spree
- 06. Okt 1999 – Kurt Schneider (38), in Lichtenberg, retrospectively recognized
- 24./25. Mai 2000 – Dieter Eich (60), in Buch, retrospectively recognized
- 05. Nov 2001 – Ingo Binsch (36), in Marzahn, retrospectively recognized
- 13. Jun 2003 – Attila Murat Aydin (33) (also known as the graffiti artists Maxim), in Treptow-Köpenick
- 06. Aug 2008 – Nguyễn Tấn Dũng (20), in Marzahn
- 05. Apr 2012 – Burak Bektaş (22), in Neukölln
- 20. Sep 2015 – Luke Holland (31), in Neukölln
- 01. Feb 2016 – Jim Reeves (47), in Charlottenburg
- 20. Sep 2016 – Eugeniu Botnari (34), in Lichtenberg
This list is certainly not complete, we are grateful for tips and contributions.
Political background
Right-wing and racist killings have been a mass phenomenon, especially since the german reunification. But even in the 80s there were more and more of them.
We want to make this visible using the example of Berlin, because these murders do not happen far away, but here on site – with almost 20 known right-wing and racist murders, Berlin is one of the focal points of right-wing violence in Germany without even adressing the high amount of murders in the surrounding region.
Relatives and friends of the victims often complain that the police and judiciary did not protect the victims. Rather, the “investigative authorities” in many cases are more concerned with disguising the motivation of right-wing / racist perpetrators and the production of “individual perpetrators” by trying to keep the organized background of many of these acts invisible. This is how they protect the perpetrators and prevent them from being effectively combated. It is in particular “Staatsschutz” and “Verfassungsschutz” that strengthen and finance right-wing structures through the system of confidential informants.
Commemorative initiatives
In individual cases, there have been commemorative initiatives for many years. Some regularly organize memorial events, campaign for the renaming of streets or squares after the victims, and design memorial sites. In Berlin these are e.g. the memory of Silvio Meier and Dieter Eich.
In other cases, demonstrations and rallies only occurred briefly after the murders themselves. Or the often scandalously trivialized court proceedings against the perpetrators led to public protests. That was the case after the murder of Ufuk Şahin (1989), Mahmud Azhar (1990), Mete Ekşi (1991), Nguyễn Văn Tú (1992).
The undisturbed murder of the NSU over a decade, while the victims and their relatives saw their names dragged through the dirt, were accused and persecuted instead of the perpetrators and no critical public opposed this, also shocked us. Since then, more and more commemorative initiatives have been forming across the country. Victims of right-wing violence and their relatives should never be left alone in this way again.
Remembrance of cases almost forgotten in public was resumed. In recent years there have been commemorative activities and events for Mahmud Azhar (2017), Nguyễn Văn Tú and Nguyễn Tấn Dũng in Marzahn, Ufuk Şahin, Beate Fischer (both Reinickendorf) and Kurt Schneider (Lichtenberg) (all 2019).
The memory of Burak Bektaş (2012) and Luke Holland (2015) in Neukölln and Eugeniu Botnari (2016) in Lichtenberg were added recently.
