Background to the foundation:
In 2001, the daughter of a German-Iranian family was seriously injured in an attack on the Probsteigasse. In 2004, a nail bomb exploded in front of a hair salon on the Keupstraße, injuring numerous people, some of them seriously. Since the NSU exposed itself in 2011, it has been clear what those affected, the relatives, and survivors of the NSU murder series have been saying from the beginning: the perpetrators were Nazis and the motive was racism. After the explotions, those affected were left alone with their pain and grief for years.
Even anti-racist groups failed to understand or adopt the affected families’ perspective—or to challenge the racist police investigations and the smear campaigns in the media. This was despite the fact that the Simsek, Yozgat, and Kubaşık families had already taken to the streets in 2006 in Kassel and Dortmund, joined by thousands from the Turkish–Kurdish community, demanding truth and accountability – and chanting ‘Kein 10. Opfer’ (‘No 10th victim’).
Goals and tasks:
In order to break this silence, enter into dialogue with those affected, and build trust, the initiative “Dostuk Sineması” organized an anti-racist film and event series in various venues, tea rooms, and restaurants on the Keupstraße in 2013. For the first time, those affected spoke publicly about how they had experienced the nail bomb attack in 2004 and the subsequent criminalization and stigmatization, and how the attack by the Nazi terrorists was only able to unleash its full destructive power through the “second bomb,” the police investigations, and the media smear campaign. In 2014, some of them, together with allies, founded the initiative Keupstraße ist überall (‘Keupstraße is everywhere’) in order to prepare for the upcoming NSU trial in Munich and to appear there together. The nationwide mobilization, Day X, in Munich in January 2015 took place with the large participation of those affected and their relatives. Through the solidarity they experienced, they were able to find the strength to bring their perspective to the trial and to act more assertively. This important experience laid the foundation for long-term solidarity, cooperation, and networking with those affected by racist and anti-Semitic violence.
Some members of the initiative “Keupstraße ist überall” (Keupstraße is everywhere), together with victims of NSU terrorism, individuals, and initiatives from across Germany, initiated the tribunal NSU-Komplex auflösen (‘Dissolve the NSU Complex’). It took place in May 2017 at Schauspiel Köln and drew significant public attention. The focus was on the knowledge of those affected. They used the safe environment of the tribunal to share their stories, formulate their analyses, voice their demands, and give expression to their wishes, their anger, their grief and their hope. In doing so, they accused those responsible in the NSU complex, pointed to the patterns of structural racism, defended their rights, and thereby strengthened the society of the many.
Since the tribunal, we at the Herkesin Meydani initiative have been campaigning for the creation of an anti-racist memorial in the immediate vicinity of the site where the nail bomb detonated in 2004. The memorial is intended to serve as a permanent reminder of the crimes committed by the NSU and the struggles against racism and anti-Semitism, as well as creating a place for people to come together. The city administration and former investors on the property ignored and delayed the realization of the project. At the end of 2020, the site changed hands and has since belonged to the real estate investor Gentes. After two years of enormous activist pressure, a council decision was finally made in November 2021 that achieved a number of things, including the installation of a dignified memorial plaque in the Probsteigasse with a meaningful text and statements from those affected.
The new investor for the site on Keupstraße has committed to providing the city with space for the memorial free of charge in 2021. However, with this deal, the city has relinquished all responsibility for the memorial’s timely completion, as the site will serve as a construction site until the investor has finished the buildings. It is completely unclear when this will happen and when the memorial can be erected there.
In April 2023, we opened the “Raum für alle” (Space for Everyone) at the corner of Keupstraße and Genovevastraße, creating a place for encounter, remembrance, art, and culture where people from the street, the neighborhood, and the city can come together. Together with those affected and the artist Ulf Aminde, video works are already being produced for the virtual reality archive of the memorial. In addition to our work for the memorial site in Cologne, we networked nationwide with other victims, relatives, and survivors of right-wing, racist, and anti-Semitic violence, as well as allied initiatives.
We work on a voluntary basis and are financed primarily by solidarity donations, which are always welcome. The Lückenlos e.V. association is a non-profit organization.