But no memorial for the victims of the NSU? | Culture | '
The former railway site in Cologne-Mülheim is still empty. If it goes according to the plans of the Berlin artist Ulf Aminde, here, at the entrance to the Keupstraße, a concrete slab should soon spread. It would be exactly as big as the foundation of the opposite hairdressing salon, before which on 9 June 2004 the nail bomb of the right-wing extremist NSU exploded. Twenty-two people were injured, four of them seriously.
If you approach the platform, you can make virtual walls out of it into the sky, which in turn flash short films. A smartphone app with augmented reality makes it possible. "The films should deal with the migrant perspective," says Aminde.
A meeting place that should grow
His memorial has been conceived by the artist as a place of encounter in the growth of which anyone who wants it can participate. "Everyone is invited to produce films that can be seen by everyone – residents from the area, where many people of foreign origin live, as well as pupils or students – that is a very important idea of this memorial," emphasizes Aminde.
The Nail Bomb Attack of Cologne on June 9, 2004.
The result is a "critical archive of the migrant resistance". "We shed light on the historical context in which the NSU was able to perpetrate its attacks and murders," the artist explains. "We shed light on the political climate and the history of racist violence in which the bombing hit."
A "Critical Archive of the Migrant Resistance"
Meeting place and living film archive, with this idea the Berlin artist convinced the city council of Cologne two years ago. The inhabitants of Keupstraße were also enthusiastic. But today, shortly after the 15th anniversary of the attack on 9 June, the construction of the memorial is back in the stars – Cologne Mayor Henriette Reker said the proposed property belongs to a private investor group, which they could make any specifications. One should look for another place.
Meral Sahin from the interest group Keupstraße
But rejects the Meral Sahin from the interest group Keupstraße: Without visual axis to the place of attack, the installation does not work. Residents and the initiative "Keupstrasse is everywhere" criticize the city of Cologne: "Those responsible still have not understood what significance this memorial has," it says in an open letter that can be read on the Internet. "We are in negotiations with the city and with the investor who owns the site," Ulf Aminde complains to ‘. "And right now I have the impression that those affected are denied the reminder of the attack and, above all, the right to be remembered."
Victims became suspects
It is not by chance that the emotions in the monument are striking. Because only seven years after the bloody nail bomb attack the deed was attributed to the real perpetrators – the right-wing terrorist cell National Socialist underground (NSU). Until then, the victims were not allowed to be victims: the then Federal Interior Minister Otto Schily had ruled out a terrorist act and located the perpetrators "in the criminal milieu" of the mainly Turks inhabited district. A fatal miscalculation that turned victims into suspects and destroyed trust in the rule of law.
Was the state blind in the right eye? The question killed many cultural workers. The documentary "Der Kuaför aus der Keupstraße" by Andreas Maus illuminated the events. Even as the legal work-up in the Munich NSU trial dragged on like a bubblegum, Maus' Film went on in the cinemas – as a mixture of reportage and interviews. Interrogations made Maus repeat by actor. Original records from the investigation files served as a source. Maus took the perspective of the residents and let them tell what they had gone through.
Film scene from "The Kuaför from the Keupstrasse"
A recurring sequence showed how steel nails – accompanied by spherical sounds – fall in slow motion. The trick was to show that what can not be must not be. The whole street was under suspicion, "said Maus of the German wave." Unbelievable, how the police tried to push these people into a certain corner. "
"Who holds his protective hand over the murderers?"
But also in theater and literature, the assassination worked. Wolfgang Schorlau chose his very own narrative style to stage the NSU scandal: In his political thriller "The Protective Hand", he also had the security authorities investigate the perpetrators of the NSU murder series rather than the perpetrators. Files are shredded, the protection of the Constitution has its fingers in the game: "What, if that is not a mere official failure, who holds his protective hand over the murderers?" Asked Schorlaus novel.
Scene from the play "Die Lücke" at the Schauspiel Köln
Just a stone's throw from the point of attack on Keupstrasse, the Schauspiel Köln performed Nuran David Calis's play "The Gap" in his alternative quarters. Here, too, the victims were given one voice – in a very practical way: The author, director and filmmaker put local residents and business people on stage together with actors. To present the events, a few pictures were enough of the destroyed Keupstrasse and a surveillance video. On one of them, one of the two bombers pushes his prepared bike past the shops. Facts, minutes and dialogues were presented. Calis' message: The nail bomb has deepened the gap between Turkish parallel world and German majority society.
In Dresden, which for years talked about xenophobic Pegida demonstrations, the theater "Mein deutsches Land" by Thomas Freyer staged the NSU chronicle as a long-term detective story. In Münster brought the city theater "Even Germans among the victims" of Tugsal Moğuls – a tour de force through the flood of facts and the hair-raising inconsistencies of the NSU complex. Even the German television made the events of Cologne film material – for example in "Last Exit Gera – Eight Hours with Beate Zschäpe".
"Birlikte – Getting together"
Every year, many Cologneers celebrate the anniversary of the nail bomb attack in Keupstraße with art and cultural festivals in Cologne-Mühheim – all under the motto "Birlikte – Zusammenstehen". The most prominent guest in 2014 was the then Federal President Joachim Gauck.
The then Federal President Joachim Gauck at the cultural festival "Birlikte – Zusammenstehen"
Will there be a memorial for the victims of the Keupstraße attack? The supporters of the idea are still optimistic, including Yilmaz Dziewior, director of the Cologne Museum Ludwig. His house will present the award-winning memorial designs for an entire month in an exhibition. And artist Ulf Aminde finds: "Instead of saying, 'Keep the high good of private property' should we take the 'heart-on-the-job-perspective', then a solution should be possible."
From the 28th of June the Museum Ludwig in Cologne shows Ulf Aminde's memorial design. The exhibition will run until the 28th of July and presents the memorial on a scale of 1:10.
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