Her hands rest calmly on the table. She looks directly into the camera. With a firm voice, Newroz Duman of the “February 19 Hanau Initiative” begins her statement.
“To this day, many questions remain unanswered,” she says. “To this day, no one has taken responsibility, let alone faced any consequences—to ensure that what happened never happens again.” There hasn’t even been an apology. “But we won’t let this go.”
This introduction is followed by a systematically presented account. Point by point, the members of the Hanau initiative lay out their allegations in a video lasting just over an hour.
Killed Son
Among those speaking are relatives of the victims. “Because of their mistake, I lost my child,” says Emiş Gürbüz, the mother of the murdered Sedat Gürbüz. She, too, accuses the authorities of negligence.
Why was the Hanau perpetrator granted a gun permit—even though he had previously appeared multiple times in police records and had been involuntarily committed due to paranoid schizophrenia? How could it have happened that the emergency number 110 was temporarily unavailable on the night of the attack? What role did the attacker’s father, who still lives in Hanau-Kesselstadt, play?
All these questions are weighing heavily on the minds of the relatives, friends, and acquaintances of the victims in Hanau—even a year after the attack—or, rather, especially now. For the relatives, the anniversary means “feeling that powerlessness all over again,” according to the initiative’s video.
What is the federal government doing?
Even though many questions remain unanswered locally—and may well remain so—the Hanau massacre is having consequences, at least at the federal level.
The federal government has committed to combating right-wing extremism and racism more systematically. In May 2020, it established a committee for this purpose.
The goals: to raise awareness of racism, to prevent all forms of hostility toward others, to protect victims of discrimination, and to recognize and value the diversity of society.
In November, the committee presented its findings: a catalog of 89 measures. These range from additional funding for prevention efforts to the creation of a new office of an anti-racism commissioner. The federal government plans to spend approximately one billion euros on these initiatives between 2021 and 2024.
A central component of the government’s plans is a proposed “Law to Promote a Resilient Democracy,” which IGMetall alsosupports. The law is intended to create a reliable framework for programs that promote democracy.
In addition, the federal government intends to remove the term “race” from the Basic Law because the term has racist origins and “human races” do not exist. The message: Racist discrimination has no place in the constitution.
These measures have not yet been finalized. That is expected to happen in the first quarter of 2021.
Discrimination as an Everyday Experience
However, everyday racism will not disappear simply because of a law. It manifests itself in the daily lives of many people with a migrant background: on the street, when applying for an apartment, and when looking for a job.
A recent study by the University of Tübingen found that experiences of racism and discrimination in government agencies, vocational schools, and workplaces are a major obstacle to accessing the labor market, especially for refugees.
But even people born in Germany frequently have such experiences.
Christiane Benner, Vice Chair of IG Metall: “February 19 will remain a reminder—a reminder that the fight against right-wing extremism and racism must take place every day. This requires clear stances, funding, and personnel. Efforts in education, prevention, and remembrance must be better supported and funded. Racist acts must be legally classified and treated as extremist crimes,” says Benner, adding: “We demand that the memory of all far-right murders—whether in Halle, Kassel, Hanau, or by the NSU—remain alive and that political consequences finally be drawn from them.”
An incident in Frankfurt am Main illustrates just how necessary the commitment to solidarity and against racism is. Since mid-2020, a large-scale graffiti mural in the city has commemorated the victims of Hanau. It features their portraits, along with the slogans “Racism kills” and “Never forget.” In late December, unknown individuals defaced the graffiti.
Even in 2021, respect for victims of racist violence is still not a given in Germany.
The official memorial service marking the anniversary of the Hanau attack will be livestreamed online at hanau-steht-zusammen.de. A digital book of condolences is also available on the website.
