Those affected
Probsteigasse

19. January 2001

Cologne

Background

On 19 January 2001, the right-wing extremist terrorist cell “National Socialist Underground” (NSU) carried out a parcel bomb attack in Cologne’s Probsteigasse. The target of the attack was an Iranian grocery shop. The owners’ daughter was seriously injured and it was only by luck that no one died.

The investigations following the attack were unsuccessful for a long time, particularly because the investigating authorities did not believe that there was a right-wing terrorist background to the attack. As a result, no attempts were made to contact the numerous undercover agents of the Office for the Protection of the Constitution, who were deployed in the relevant milieu.

A sketch of the perpetrator created shortly after the attack, which bears a striking resemblance to one of these undercover agents, was therefore not analysed as a lead.

The family still assumes that none of the male members of the NSU cell who were found dead when the NSU was uncovered actually planted the bomb in the shop.

The fact that this perpetrator was not identified still poses a threat to the family today.

Forms of remembrance

Various forms of remembrance of the attack in Probsteigasse have taken place in recent years. Numerous Cologne campaign groups regularly organise a joint commemoration on the anniversary of the attack on 19 January, at which the still unresolved questions about other supporters of the NSU and the role of the domestic secret service are raised.

At the end of 2021, Cologne City Council decided to erect a memorial plaque designed by Daniel Poštrak in memory of the 2001 attack in Probsteigasse. It was unveiled on the anniversary of the attack, 19 January 2023.

On 9 November 2021, Cologne City Council also decided to accept the design by artist Ulf Aminde as the winning design in the artistic competition for the erection of a public memorial to the NSU attacks in Keupstraße and Probsteigasse. However, the memorial has not yet been realised owing to conflicts of interest between the city, the campaign groups and the landowners. Bureaucratic hurdles and the technical complexity of the project are also delaying the process. Despite these obstacles, various campaign groups such as “Keupstraße ist überall” and “Herkesin Meydanı” continue to campaign for the construction of a public memorial. The website www.mahnmal-keupstrasse.de documents these efforts.

What happened

This memorial chronicle addresses right-wing, racist and anti-Semitic violence, including specific incidents, backgrounds and consequences. The content may contain incriminating descriptions of violence, discrimination and suffering.

The following fold-out section “Description of the offence” describes specific acts of violence. We would therefore like to point out to those affected and readers that dealing with this content can have a re-traumatising effect. Before accessing the content, please check whether you feel mentally and emotionally able to deal with such topics and, if necessary, do not do so alone.

The NSU attack in Cologne’s Probsteigasse was a right-wing terrorist act by the so-called “National Socialist Underground” (NSU) that took place on 19 January 2001. Between 2000 and 2007, the NSU murdered ten people, nine of whom had a migration background. The target of the attack was a grocery shop in Probsteigasse, which was run by a family from Iran. On 19 January, the perpetrator left a basket containing a parcel bomb disguised as a tin of stollen in the shop, which the 19-year-old daughter of the shop owners opened weeks later out of curiosity. She suffered severe burns from the explosion, remained in a coma for a month and a half and only survived by sheer luck. She was only released from hospital three months after the attack.

The family had to close their shop and still suffers from the physical, material and psychological consequences of the attack to this day.

Sources

https://www.br.de/mediathek/podcast/saal-101/5-24-nsu-sprengstoffanschlag-probsteigasse-koeln-beweisaufnahme/1818655

https://migrations-geschichten.de/probsteigasse/

https://www.stadt-koeln.de/leben-in-koeln/kultur/denkmal-zu-den-anschlaegen-des-nsu-der-keupstrasse-der-probsteigasse

(The text was authorised by the family and the lawyer Edith Lunnebach)