Following the alleged murder of a family in Solingen, the victims will be mourned on Thursday. A racist motive cannot be ruled out.
Bulgarian family of four killed in suspected arson in Solingen Photo: Oliver Berg/dpa
SOLINGEN/BERLIN dpa/taz | After the alleged arson attack in an apartment building in which four people died, several clubs called for a mourning demonstration on Thursday in Solingen. The “Turkish People's Association of Solingen and its surroundings”, the “Armin T. Wegner Society”, the “Anti-Fascists of the Bergisches Land” and the “Solingen Appeal” requested that this be held together at 5:00 p.m. in front of the house of Grünewalder Straße. 69 to cry.
People mourn the Bulgarian family of four and worry about the seriously injured who died in the March 25 fire. In addition to the parents, aged 28 and 29, their three-year-old son and a five-month-old baby died in the large fire that occurred in the apartment building. Other residents were also injured, some seriously. As the escape route through the staircase was blocked, some residents jumped out of the windows.
In the joint appeal, the clubs criticized the fact that the prosecution had not found evidence of a racist motive. “We see things differently after the experiences of the arson in Solingen in 1993, after the NSU murders, after Hanau and Halle,” the appeal said, “the ongoing racist mobilization reminds us not only of , the social mood of the nineties”. before Rostock, Mölln and Solingen.”
The alleged arson shocked many people, because the catastrophic fire not only stirred up bad memories in many Solingen residents: In May 1993, five people were murdered in a racist arson. It was one of many attacks in a national wave of right-wing violence in the early 1990s, also in the wake of the “asylum debate” of the time.
The majority of residents are of immigrant origin.
In fact, a fire had already started in the same house a year and a half ago. WDR reported – also on the stairs at that time. The city's head of social affairs, Jan Welzel, said he was deeply shocked and expressed his condolences to the bereaved. He assured those affected that they will receive help quickly and without bureaucracy. A total of 30 people are affected by the fire.
According to the prosecution, other people of immigrant origin also lived in the Solingen apartment building that was allegedly deliberately set on fire. “The house was undoubtedly also inhabited by immigrants,” a spokesman for the Wuppertal public prosecutor's office said on Thursday. The Islamic association Ditib said in a statement on Wednesday night that the fire occurred “in a house inhabited mainly by people of immigrant origin.”
The prosecution assumes arson. Traces of accelerant were found on the wooden staircase, the investigating authority reported on Wednesday. Murder and attempted murder are being investigated. From the prosecutor's perspective, there was no evidence of a “xenophobic motive.” However, authorities also assume that those killed were probably a family from Bulgaria, but identification was still pending.
Those seriously injured were also Bulgarians
The prosecutor's spokesman added on Thursday that it is currently assumed that, in addition to the murdered family, another seriously injured family was also Bulgarian. It is not yet possible to say whether there will be other nationalities among the residents.
According to the Turkish-Islamic Union Ditib (Cologne), all but one in the house are “Muslims of Turkish origin from Bulgaria or Turkey.” According to the Islamic association, the murdered family was a “Muslim family with Bulgarian citizenship.”
The local Ditib community has already started initial talks with the bereaved. On Tuesday night, residents jumped into the street from the burning century-old building for fear of dying. According to a statement from the city of Solingen, three people were seriously injured. According to the prosecution, five other people also suffered injuries, although less seriously.
Many politicians and political initiatives asked for clarification. The Amadeu Antonio Foundation also called for “thorough investigations” into the 1993 arson. The prosecutor's office announced “in a very short time that there was no 'xenophobic motive'. “But there is no evidence to the contrary,” the foundation wrote. The question arises whether the lessons of the past are being ignored: before the case is hastily closed, thorough investigations are now needed: “history has shown too often that racism in Germany is a deadly reality.” (with dpa)