Those affected
Rostock-Lichtenhagen

22. August 1992

Rostock-Lichtenhagen

Background

The racist attacks on the Sonnenblumenhaus in Rostock-Lichtenhagen in 1992, which continued for days, were directed against asylum seekers who were housed in the initial reception centre there and against Vietnamese people from Rostock who lived in the neighbouring building. During the attacks, they were inadequately protected by the police. People from the house had to rescue themselves from fires on at least two occasions.

It is still unclear how many people survived the pogrom in the reception centre or which countries they came from. The only people known to be affected today are Roma from the south of Romania. They came to Germany in the early 1990s to escape the antiziganist discrimination in Romania and to give their children a better life.

The Vietnamese people from Rostock who were attacked had come to Germany in the 1980s as so-called “contract workers”. Most of them had been living in the Sonnenblumenhaus for several years by 1992. During the pogrom, they defended themselves and organised themselves into the association “Diên Hồng – Together under one roof” in October 1992.

Those affected by the pogrom received neither offers of compensation or damages from the state nor support in the form of counselling, psychological support or individual help. Presumably most of the asylum seekers concerned left Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania again to escape the ongoing violence and the threat of deportation or were deported. It was not until 1997 that the right of residence of former contract workers from Vietnam was finally regulated politically. Ten years after the events, the mayor of Rostock at the time, Arno Pöker, officially apologised to the Vietnamese survivors for the first time. in 2022, a representative of the Rom*nja affected, Izabela Tiberiade, took part in an official commemoration ceremony for the first time.

Forms of remembrance

The first attempt to erect a memorial site was made just a few weeks after the pogrom. The “Sons and Daughters of Deported Jews from France” and the Roma National Congress placed a memorial plaque on the town hall on 19 October 1992 and occupied the rooms of the CDU parliamentary group in the town hall. Their aim was both to commemorate the racist violence and to protest against the imminent deportation of those affected by the pogrom. Many of the activists were arrested in clashes with the police and the memorial plaque was removed shortly afterwards.

In the years that followed, civil society campaign groups and activists from the cultural, media and academic sectors in particular kept the memory of the events alive. A variety of formats were used in an attempt to deal with the pogrom and its consequences for the present.

On the tenth anniversary of the pogrom in 2002, the Rostock city council organised a commemorative event. The mayor at the time, Arno Pöker, apologised publicly for the first time to those affected by the racist violence and called for the city’s society to continue to come to terms with the events.

Different perspectives still characterise the activities commemorating the pogrom today. For example, while some emphasise Rostock’s transformation into a cosmopolitan and tolerant city, others point to the continuity of racism and right-wing violence.

These different perspectives became particularly clear on the 20th anniversary of the pogrom in August 2012. While the city council organised a celebration in front of the Sonnenblumenhaus under the motto “Lichtenhagen moves”, more than 6,500 people demonstrated through Rostock under the slogan “The problem is racism – boundless solidarity”.

An “oak of peace” planted by the city of Rostock as a memorial in front of the Sonnenblumenhaus was sawn down a few days after the commemorative event. A statement said that the oak tree, as a “symbol of Germanism and militarism”, could not be a worthy memorial to the racist pogrom.

Shortly afterwards, the municipality founded the “Commemoration Working Group”. Since then, representatives of Rostock’s parliamentary groups, city administration and city society have been discussing appropriate commemoration on various topics. To commemorate the pogrom in Lichtenhagen, the working group initiated an art competition that resulted in the decentralised memorial “Yesterday Today Tomorrow”, which was unveiled in 2017/2018.

For a long time, the perspectives of those affected by the pogrom hardly played a role in commemoration. It was not until 2022 that Izabela Tiberiade, a representative of the affected Roma took part in an official commemorative event. in 2023, those affected from Romania visited Rostock again for the first time and spoke at an event in the town hall. In 2024, the first public event was held with representatives of the Roma community in Craiova and the Vietnamese-German community in Rostock.

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.

Since 1979, staircases 18 and 19 of the Sonnenblumenhaus have housed a hostel for contract workers from Vietnam and presumably also from Cuba, Mozambique and Algeria. Many of the contract workers left Germany after 1989. Around 100 people from Vietnam still lived in staircase no. 19 of the Sonnenblumenhaus. In December 1990, the Central Reception Centre for Asylum Seekers (ZASt) of the state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania was set up in staircase no. 18. The ZASt was repeatedly overcrowded from the summer of 1991. In the summer of 1992, asylum seekers had to wait outside the building, sometimes for days, without any provisions.

From 22 to 24 August 1992, several hundred violent criminals, supported and applauded by up to 3,000 spectators, attacked the initial reception centre for asylum seekers in staircase no. 18 and the hostel for former contract workers from Vietnam in staircase no. 19 with stones and incendiary devices. For three days, the police were unable to stop the attacks and adequately protect those under attack. At least once, asylum seekers had to rescue themselves from the building after a fire. After the initial reception centre was evacuated on 24 August, the police withdrew and the perpetrators of the violence set the house on fire. The Vietnamese people from Rostock who were trapped inside saved themselves by climbing over the roof of the burning building.

The day-long attacks in Rostock-Lichtenhagen are now regarded as the largest pogrom in German post-war history. Instead of effective protection for those affected by right-wing violence, the pogrom was followed by deportations and a fundamental tightening of asylum laws.

Sources

app.lichtenhagen-1992.de

lichtenhagen-1992.de/media/