The place where the world collapsed for the Genç family is a quiet Solingen cul-de-sac. The front gardens of the detached and semi-detached houses in Untere Wernerstraße are well-kept, and children play on the sidewalk. But behind house number 79, the good order ends abruptly. Where the Genç family's house stood until 30 years ago, there is still a deliberate deep gap.
Reiner Burger
Political correspondent in North Rhine-Westphalia.
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Where the foundations once were, stately chestnut trees commemorate the dead: five girls and young women between the ages of four and 27. "We have continued to live with our pain to this day, but we want there to be no racism," says 55-year-old Hatice Genç, who lost two daughters on May 29, 1993. "Xenophobia should stop." That is why commemoration is important.
On the night of May 29, 1993, four young xenophobes between the ages of 16 and 23 arranged to give "the Turks" a "lesson." One of the young men suggested the house of his neighbors across the street as the target for the attack. A little later, two of the perpetrators poured gasoline over a large area in the entrance to the Genç family's house and set it on fire.
The flames quickly ate their way up the wooden staircase to the roof. For the five young women and girls, any help came too late. More than a dozen other family members suffered injuries, some of them life-threatening, and are still suffering from the consequences today. Like Bekir Genç, who had to undergo around 30 operations due to severe burns.
A turning point in Germany
"Solingen" was a turning point. At the beginning of the 1990s, several racist arson attacks had already been carried out. In September 1991, neo-Nazis and sympathizers attacked a refugee home in Hoyerswerda, Saxony, and in August 1992 a right-wing extremist mob in Rostock set fire to the Central Asylum Seekers Reception Center for Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania.
Only a few weeks later, two Turkish girls and their grandmother were killed in an arson attack in Mölln, Schleswig-Holstein. In North Rhine-Westphalia, too, there had already been an arson attack on a home for asylum seekers, at the end of 1991 in Hünxe.
But the Solingen act shook Germany especially. "Solingen" marked the end of many supposed certainties. After May 29, 1993, racist arson attacks could no longer be dismissed as a predominantly East German problem, as a long-term consequence of the SED dictatorship.
The fact that such an act was also possible in Solingen, where people from many countries had been living together peacefully for so long, shocked a broad public. The image of the charred house of the Genç family went around the world. And shortly thereafter, the images of angry Turkish youths and left-wing extremist free riders from near and far who marched through Solingen and vandalized shops.
Genç advocated reconciliation and tolerance
In these days of horror 30 years ago, Mevlüde Genç found the strength for a touching call for reconciliation and peaceful coexistence at the coffins of her daughters, granddaughters and niece laid out in front of the ruins of her house: "The death of my relatives should open us up to be friends. Let's live hand in hand with each other."
Since then, Genç – who became a German citizen soon after the attack – has worked tirelessly to promote reconciliation, tolerance and encounters on an equal footing. Mevlüde Genç used the central commemorative event five years ago with the then Chancellor Angela Merkel (CDU) to renew her message. "We are all God's creatures." She hopes that everyone will "live together in fraternity" and look to the future, to the positive.
Genç had been preparing for the 30th anniversary for some time. In a letter to the mayor of Solingen, Tim Kurzbach (SPD), she raised the question of "how knowledge about the arson attack, its prerequisites and consequences, could be passed on to future generations."
Mevlüde Genç will no longer be present at the central event for the 30th anniversary. The Ambassador of Peace, who was awarded the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany and had been in poor health for some time, died in October at the age of 79. The list of participants makes it clear how strong their legacy is: On Whit Monday, Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier and Bundestag President Bärbel Bas, the two highest state representatives in terms of protocol, want to come to Solingen. Federal Interior Minister Nancy Faeser (SPD), other federal politicians and North Rhine-Westphalian Prime Minister Hendrik Wüst (CDU) as well as several members of his black-green state cabinet have also announced their attendance.