Sedat
Gürbüz

19. February 2020

Hanau

Life of Sedat Gürbüz

“When Sedat was born, the sun came out,” says his mother Emis Gürbüz. His parents were overjoyed on the day of his birth on 16 May 1990. His grandmother was bursting with pride over her first grandchild. At the age of one and a half, Sedat was already speaking in full sentences and enchanted everyone around him with his intelligence and charm. His mother read him both German and Turkish fairy tales. Sedat, usually full of energy, could sit still for hours for these stories.

His mum said: “At nursery school, everyone called him Sidat at first. He took to it for the first month. When I called him Sedat at home, he said to me: ‘Mum, my name isn’t Sedat. My name is Siiiiiidat.’”

Sedat played football for FC Dietzenbach until he was 18. He often went to Eintracht Frankfurt matches, he liked the atmosphere in the football stadium.

From the day he was born, Sedat loved the sun and the warmth. As soon as the temperature allowed, he would leave the house in a T-shirt and shorts, but not without choosing his outfit carefully.

He realised early on that he wanted to start his own business one day. In 2017, he became a partner in the Midnight shisha bar and made his dream come true. Midnight became his second home. Sedat was almost always there, thanks to him there was always a familiar, peaceful atmosphere. Everyone was welcome here, whether they were in a good mood or looking for a distraction from the stress of everyday life. If a guest couldn’t pay, Sedat would still serve them a drink. Trust was important to him. Sedat always looked after his employees. Once, an employee asked him for tips for a job interview with a company. Sedat was happy to help; after all, the employee wanted to make more of himself and get ahead. He himself had always been grateful to all his supporters.

One of them was always his grandmother. He called her every day to see how she was doing and whether she needed anything. Sedat was a popular person. When he entered the room, the sun would rise. Sedat was born in Langen, but grew up with his parents and brother in Dietzenbach. Sedat’s mother has lived in Dietzenbach for 50 years and his father for more than 30 years. Sedat liked the colours white and blue. He would have turned 30 on 16 May 2020. His family cut a blue cake on this day. It was the first birthday without Sedat, everyone was there, only he was missing.

Sedat was unable to fulfil his heart’s desire to start his own family and have children, even though he loved children so much. He was a kind-hearted person. He was held in high esteem by everyone. He was the one who loved people – regardless of their origin, faith or skin colour. He loved life in all its ups and downs. He was always ready to help, whether old or young. If the murderer had known Sedat, he could never have murdered my child: ‘Wherever he went, he shone like the sun.’”

Written by Emiş Gürbüz, Sedat’s mother

Forms of remembrance

In addition to the first anniversary of the attack, on which demonstrations and commemorative events took place in Hanau and nationwide (“Hanau is everywhere”), a monthly commemoration was established at the two crime scenes by the relatives of the 19 February Hanau Campaign group. In addition, a memorial with all the pictures of those killed was installed at both crime scenes. Later, the city of Hanau also installed memorial plaques at both crime scenes. On the Day of Civil Courage 2020, a cross was also erected in memory of Vili Viorel Păun, and a year later Vili was awarded the Hessian Medal for Civil Courage by the State of Hesse. Vili Viorel Păun had tried to stop the perpetrator on the night of the crime and paid for it with his life. In Dietzenbach, a memorial stele was also erected for Sedat Gürbüz after a long struggle by the Gürbüz family. A memorial plaque in Erlensee also commemorates Kaloyan Velkov, who lived there. in 2022, the Hamza Kurtovic Award was presented to 14 winners in Hanau in honour of Hamza.

“Remembering means changing”

The Campaign group 19 February Hanau worked together with Forensic Architecture/Forensis on the civil society investigation of the case and, together with the Campaign group in Memory of Oury Jalloh, initiated the exhibition “Three Doors”, which has since been shown at the Kunstverein Frankfurt, HKW Berlin, Depo Istanbul and other venues. The theatre play “And now Hanau”, which was created in collaboration with theatre maker Tuğsal Moğul, also serves to commemorate those affected by the attack. 2024 also saw the first “Say their names Cup”, a charity match between the U19 teams of Eintracht Frankfurt and FC. St. Pauli.

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.

In the terrorist attack in Hanau on 19 February 2020, nine people were murdered in two locations for racist motives. Ferhat Unvar, Hamza Kurtović, Said Nesar Hashemi, Vili Viorel Păun, Mercedes Kierpacz, Kaloyan Velkov, Fatih Saraçoğlu, Sedat Gürbüz and Gökhan Gültekin.

At the first crime scene in the city centre on Heumarkt, the perpetrator murdered Kaloyan Velkov in the La Votre bar, where Kaloyan worked as a bartender. He then shot Fatih Saraçoğlu on the street, who had brought a friend there. Sedat Gürbüz was murdered in his bar Midnight.

Vili Viorel Păun drove into the street looking for a parking space and the perpetrator fired several shots at his car. Vili chased after the perpetrator, first preventing him from parking and then following him to Kesselstadt. On the way, he tried to call 110 several times in vain. He was shot dead in his car in the car park at Kurt-Schumacher-Platz in Kesselstadt.

The perpetrator then murdered Mercedes Kierpacz, Gökhan Gültekin and Ferhat Unvar in the 24/7 kiosk. In the neighbouring Arena Bar, he shot Said Nesar Hashemi and Hamza Kurtović. There were numerous survivors at the crime scenes, some of whom were explicitly threatened or survived seriously injured.

The attack lasted just over 5 minutes in total. The perpetrator was known to the police and the public prosecutor and had a legal firearms licence despite self-disclosure. Days earlier, he had used graffiti to draw attention to his website, where his racist manifesto could be viewed. He later murdered his mother before killing himself. His father, who is known to have shared his son’s extreme right and racist worldview, was the only survivor in the house. He claimed not to have seen or heard anything. The police already knew the address of the perpetrator shortly after the attack, but they did not enter the house until four and a half hours later.

Sources

19feb-hanau.org
no-final-report.org