German president commemorates 2004 Cologne neo-Nazi attack
June 9, 2024
German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier on Sunday called for people to stand together on the 20th anniversary of a neo-Nazi attack in the western German city of Cologne.
In 2004, 22 people were injured, some severely, by a nail bomb that was left in front of a hair salon in Cologne, which lies in the state of North-Rhine Westphalia.
What did Steinmeier say?
Germany's president urged for people to support democracy and oppose political extremism.
"It is important that we outlaw violence in the political battle of opinions — regardless of the motives behind it: whether left-wing or right-wing extremist or religious fanaticism, violence destroys democracy, and we don't want that," Steinmeier said while speaking at the site of the 2004 attack.
"We are gathered here because it is important and also urgent to see, hear and recognize the stories and pain of those who were severely injured in body and soul and who were on top of that wrongly accused," Steinmeier said, referring to police investigations into the Turkish community over the bombing.
Steinmeier spoke with Hasan and Özcan Yildirim, whose hair salon was targeted in the attack.
Thousands of people attended the anti-racist event in Keupstrasse in Cologne's Müllheim neighborhood. The motto of the event was "birlikte" — meaning "together" in Turkish.
The Turkish population is one of the largest immigrant groups in Germany.
Prominent musicians and comedians also performed at the event.
What do we know about the 2004 nail bombing and the NSU?
Police investigated the Turkish community for years after the attack.
In 2011, it was discovered that right-wing extremists Uwe Mundlos and Uwe Böhnhardt of the National Socialist Underground (NSU) carried out the attack.
The NSU group committed a series of murders in Germany in the 2000s.
Those killed included nine tradesmen of Turkish and Greek background and one German policewoman.
Mundlos and Böhnardt committed suicide in 2011.
NSU member Beate Zchäpe was sentenced to life imprisonment by the Munich Higher Regional Court in 2018.
sdi/nm (dpa, EPD)