Forms of remembrance
After the murder of Amadeu Antonio in 1990, the BIPOC community in Eberswalde lived in great fear. Everyday life was characterised by racist insults, exclusion from public life and the constant threat of being subjected to violence. Walking alone on the streets was considered life-threatening.
In 1994, the community founded the Palanca association to create safe spaces, strengthen solidarity and educate people about the history of contract workers. The African cultural association Palanca e.V. is still committed to better coexistence in Eberswalde today. Palanca e.V. organises an annual commemoration of Amadeu Antonio and is in close contact with his family in Angola and Germany. The association addresses anti-racism and right-wing extremist violence – both in educational programmes and in public – and offers refugees and African women a meeting place to break through isolation and share culture. Palanca e.V. also carries out integrative work with the aim of making cultural diversity visible and promoting unprejudiced coexistence and integrative measures.
The Amadeu Antonio Foundation, founded in 1998, also preserves his memory and campaigns in his name for civil courage and the fight against racism, anti-Semitism and right-wing violence.
The Barnimer campaign “Light me Amadeu” has been organising the annual commemoration of Amadeu Antonio since the mid-2000s. The campaign is made up of young and older people from Eberswalde, the Barnim district and beyond, who use a variety of formats such as workshops, talks and information campaigns to address racism and raise awareness of its effects and consequences. They work closely with the African cultural association Palanca e.V., the Eberswalde University for Sustainable Development (HNEE), the pan-African women’s organisation PAWLO and the Amadeu Antonio Foundation.
In Eberswalde, there is also a memorial plaque commemorating Amadeu Antonio, which the “Light me Amadeu” campaign is also working to make more visible and maintain. Since 2022, the plaque has been complemented by a history tree, which tells the story of Amadeu Antonio’s life, his dreams and his new home in Eberswalde. Several individual branches or plaques are dedicated to the racist murder of Amadeu Antonio and his memory. There is also contextual information to read here, such as the history of contract workers in the GDR.