Cologne
A ceremony themed “All Together” was held in Cologne to commemorate a racist incident that took place 20 years ago on Köppsstrasse, also known as Turkey Street.
Large numbers of people gathered to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the horrific attack carried out by the neo-Nazi terrorist group National Socialist Underground (NSU) in 2004 and to pay tribute to the victims.
On June 9, 2004, the NSU organized a bomb attack on a main street with mainly Turkish shops, injuring a total of 22 people, six of them seriously.
Although then-Interior Minister Otto Schilling said there was no racist motive behind the attack, it was later revealed that it had been planned by the NSU and, after the last court hearing, which lasted five years, in 2018, five suspects were sentenced to various penalties.
The memorial, held to commemorate the tragic incident, was attended by German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier, North Rhine-West State Premier Hendrik Wüst, Health Minister Karl Lauterbach, Turkish Consul General in Cologne Turan Kaya and Cologne Metropolitan Mayor Henriette Reker.
“This incident will remain a dirty shame in our country's history that we must all overcome,” Steinmeier said, adding that “it is impossible to undo what happened.”
Speaking at an event attended by many people and victims of the attack, the president stressed that the German government should have been more decisive in combating extremism and systematically monitored it in the 1990s.
The president said the purpose of the evaluation was clear: that they “want to do a better job in the future and have the ability to do so.”
After the ceremony, Chancellor Steinmeier visited victims injured in the horrific bomb attack.
