Right-wing terror | A long overdue memorial for victims of the NSU terror

Chemnitz, along with Zwickau, was one of the cities where the right-wing terrorists of the "National Socialist Underground" (NSU) were able to live undetected for years and plan their crimes. Between 1998 and 2011, Uwe Mundlos, Uwe Böhnhardt, and Beate Zschäpe murdered ten people, most of them businesspeople of immigrant origin. The terrorist trio also carried out three bomb attacks and 15 robberies. In the Saxon city, " they found shelter and protection, " said Gamze Kubaşık, whose father, Mehmet, was shot dead in Dortmund on April 4, 2006: "This is part of the history of this city."

Since this Sunday, this dark chapter has been remembered in Chemnitz: in the new documentation center "Open Trial," which is located in the heart of the city center and aims to commemorate the NSU's crimes and the state's failure to solve them, as well as to remember the victims. It is the first facility of its kind in Germany . Its construction is "long overdue," said Kubaşık at the opening. After all, 14 years have passed since the NSU trio exposed themselves. While there has since been a court case and numerous investigative committees in the Bundestag and several state parliaments, the investigation remains patchy. The "systematic failure of the authorities" in solving the crimes has "had no consequences to date," said Abdulla Özkan, who was seriously injured in a nail bomb attack by the NSU on Keupstrasse in Cologne in 2004.

"It's not enough to document; decisive action is also needed. Such acts must never be repeated."

Abdulla Özkan, victim of the NSU attack in Cologne's Keupstraße in 2004

The Chemnitz Documentation Center is the result of efforts by civil society. For example, the ASA-FF association and the local Offener Prozess initiative created a traveling exhibition on the topic years ago. After traveling to many German and European cities, this exhibition, now revised and in its current form, forms the basis for the documentation center. The aim is to "add a new chapter" to German remembrance culture, said Max Bohm of Offener Prozess. On the one hand, the focus is to be on the perspectives of the relatives and victims of the NSU terror. On the other hand, the goal is to "help prevent similar right-wing terrorist structures in the future." Jörg Buschmann of the RAA Sachsen, which is also one of the sponsors of the center, explained that the center aims to serve as a meeting place, exhibition space, and archive, and also to conduct research on right-wing terrorism. The goal is to investigate the connection between the NSU terror and the baseball bat years of the 1990s in East Germany.

In Saxony, there had long been hope of being able to host the planned nationwide NSU Documentation Center, the establishment of which the former traffic light coalition had envisaged in its coalition agreement in 2021. This hope has been dashed. In a feasibility study commissioned by the Federal Agency for Civic Education and presented in spring 2024, relatives of the victims and other affected parties expressed serious objections to a Chemnitz location. They pointed to strong right-wing extremist structures in Saxony and a "perceived threat situation for people perceived as migrants." Federal policymakers, which must set the organizational framework for the center, took these concerns into account. A draft bill presented by then-Interior Minister Nancy Faeser in the summer of 2024 envisaged the establishment of a documentation center and a foundation to support it in Berlin. Other locations and initiatives throughout Germany could be "integrated under the umbrella of the foundation through funding," it stated. However, the Bundestag did not pass the law due to the premature end of the "traffic light" coalition. The new governing coalition of the CDU/CSU and SPD has now chosen Nuremberg as the location in its coalition agreement. Whether and when work on a center there will begin remains to be seen.

For the time being, its functions will therefore only be fulfilled in Chemnitz. The new center will initially serve as the "central point of contact for educating people about the crimes of the NSU complex and keeping alive the memory of the murder victims and those affected by the NSU's right-wing terror," its sponsors say.

Whether the Chemnitz center can fulfill its self-declared mission in the long term remains to be seen. Its construction is part of Chemnitz's activities as European Capital of Culture. Funding is currently only secured until the end of the capital year in December. While there are "signals for further funding," Bohm said, "nothing is finalized yet." Katja Meier, a Green state parliament member who, as former Minister of Justice, was strongly committed to the establishment of the Chemnitz Documentation Center, called for funding beyond the end of the year: "The goal must be for the pilot project to become a permanent focal point." Those affected, however, see a responsibility on the part of politicians not only to finance facilities like the one in Chemnitz. "It's not enough to document," said Abdulla Özkan, "but also decisive action, consequences, and willingness. Such acts must never be repeated."