Was it racism? Solingen is in shock after the fire with four dead. The city remembers events that occurred in 1993.

Mourning demonstration for the victims of the fatal fire on March 28 in Solingen Photo: Christoph Reichwein/dpa

SOLINGEN taz | Solingen is shocked and disturbed. Several initiatives called for a mourning demonstration on Thursday night. About 200 people went to the scene of the arson attack on March 25, which killed a family of four in the Höhscheid district.

The Muslim family, supposedly of Turkish origin, had recently arrived in Germany from Bulgaria. The parents were 28 and 29 years old, their children were three years and five months old. Other people were injured, some seriously. A year and a half ago a fire broke out in the old building with a wooden staircase that was extinguished. At that time the perpetrator could not be identified.

The prosecution has once again determined that the cause was arson; Remains of accelerator were found in the stairwell. Since then, people in the city have asked themselves: Was it a racist act?

In Solingen the memory of the attack on the Genç family that occurred 31 years ago, in which five people died, is still very present. The investigations are followed and commented intensely. People in the city are aware of this problem, especially those with a migration background. In January, more than 6,000 people gathered at a rally in the city with a population of 160,000 in response to far-right trends in the country.

There was no indication of a “xenophobic motive.”

Shortly after the fire, the prosecutor's office announced that there was no suspicion of any crime against a specific person and that there was no indication of a “xenophobic motive” at the time.

Since then, the term “xenophobic” has been criticized. “For immigrants from Solingen, who know the continuity of right-wing violence through the NSU, Halle and Hanau, the images from the house on Grünewalder Straße are extremely traumatizing,” says Sofia Eleftheriadi-Zacharaki, co-founder of BIPoC. Association of voices. “Furthermore, it is a slap in the face that 'xenophobic' motives are now once again being ruled out. The choice of words is decisive: the racist motives must be investigated.” The city claimed that all information about the fire came exclusively from the prosecutor's office.

“We are primarily responsible for our communication,” says Daniela Tobias, who participates in the Solingen alliance “Colorful instead of brown.” “Official authorities and the media must communicate with sensitivity and attention that the investigation is carried out with an open mind, that nothing is excluded that cannot be ruled out, that they perceive and address the justified fear of people with immigration status in the face of serious failures. in previous research. The prosecution, apart from the misleading term “xenophobia”, has done so quite objectively, says Tobias, adding: “That doesn't mean we should speculate. You can still talk about fear.”

An act in the “interpersonal area”

Thilo Schnor (Greens), the city's first mayor, comments: “It is a shock, also because the association with the arson in Solingen in 1993 immediately comes to mind. Since then, the city has been mourning and coping. the situation and has been intensely involved in the integration policy.” Some firefighters were already there on May 29, 1993 and experienced March 25 as a very stressful day.

There is no known organized far-right scene in the city, says an Antifa activist. Nazi stickers only appear sporadically on streetlights. Unlike Dortmund, for example, in Solingen in recent years there have been no visible neo-Nazi activities in everyday life, not even attacks on immigrants or people who identify as left-wing.

On Thursday night, the prosecutor's spokesperson told WDR that it was an act in the “interpersonal area.” On Friday, the prosecutor's office announced that a temporarily detained man had been released after a lengthy interrogation after verifying his alibi. The investigation will now continue “without deadline in all directions.” “Every lead will be investigated,” the spokesman said.