Moellner Rede im Exil – Speech of Moelln in Exile – Adetoun Kueppers-Adebisi – In Memoriam der Opfer des Rassismus in Deutschland In Memoriam Victims of Racism Germany

Moellner Rede im Exil Adetoun Kueppers-Adebisi

I thank you very much for your presence.
All of You feel very, very sincerely and warmly welcomed.
I particularily welcome the presence of family Arslan.

The title of my speech today is
Speech of Mölln in Exile.

Today in 2014, the white Germany celebrates 25 years of the fall of the Berlin Wall
For us – with a migration background – there is hardly any reason to celebrate.

We today commemorate the 22nd anniversary of the racist arson attack of Moelln
and we remember the victims.

Therefore, I would like to begin my speech with a minute of silence for the victims.

M I N U T E   O F   S I L E N C E

Yeliz Arslan, 10 Years R.I.P.
Ayse Yilmay, 14 Years R.I.P.
Bahide Arslan, 51 Years R.I.P.

More members of the Arslan family were seriously injured.
Already earlier, nine people of Turkish origin were heavily injured in an attack in the Ratzeburger Street.

It was November 23rd, 1992, that would link the history of the hitherto peaceful Schleswig-Holstein town Mölln inseparably with the history of Germany.

Let us recall. What had happened?
It was close to Christmas. The days grew shorter. The nights grew longer and cooler.

Only three years had passed
since the Monday demonstrations in Leipzig,
the fall of the Wall dividing Germany,
Welcome money, and the Germany-wide, WE ARE THE PEOPLE – Calls

And only two years had passed
since the reunification
of Germany East
with Germany West.

And only two years had passed since the murder of Amadeu Antonio Kiowa from Angola,
who in December 1990 in Eberswalde
became one of the first known death tolls of racist violence in Germany
after reunification.

Less than 1 year had passed since September 1991
as in Hoyerswerda at the first neo-racist Pogroms in Germany
up to 500 white-German Neo-Nazis and sympathizers
attacked the asylum home and then a refugee’s home.

And how did the German politicians and the German state react?
Well, – the victims were mostly deported.

Attacks and deaths in Greifswald, Saal, Saarlouis, Huenxe and Mannheim followed.

And only two months had passed since August 1992
as in Rostock during a neo-racist pogrom
several hundred neo-Nazis in front of up to 3,000 cheering spectators
threw fire bombs
against Asylum seekers and former contract workers from Vietnam.

Only 2 months and already the media of the Republic
again aired pictures of fire-bombs as from war zones
into the midst of the slowly waning German national euphoria.

And again, the images of victims of German neo-Nazis and sympathizers
for a short time become top news for the German media worldwide.

Images that sustainably should manipulate the self-image of white Germany of itself.

Images of burning houses and murdered children and adults
Images of vulgar terror from the right
against our civilian population.

Images that burnt itself into the collective memory
like a never-ending nightmare.

Images, that German media and politicians
previously reflected only in Apartheids countries such as South Africa,
or in the civil rights struggles of the Black population in the USA.

Large rallies and human light chains should follow throughout Germany
And images of outrage and solidarity came with it,
Images of incredible anger, fear and collective Desperation.

Images of helplessness of a reunited Germany,
that since the defeat of the fascists in World War II
separated into two states by a wall
had tried
to throw off the Un-spirits and racist continuities of the Nazi past.

In vain!
The images of the German genocide on Africans in the ex-colonies,
the images of pogroms against Jews and the disabled,
the images of mass sterilizations of Black Germans
the images of the murder of Sinti and Roma in labor camps,
the images of the murder of gays and lesbians.

These pictures, they were revived.

The German new beginning had failed.
Refuted was the myth taught to the pupils in schools,
That this would not be possible in Germany EVER AGAIN.

I myself come from Solingen.
And in the vicinity of the neo-Nazi fire-bombings of May 1993 I have witnessed
the kind of psychic impact,
caused by a state´s failure to protects its citizens,
and by the media issuing xenophobic and spreading anti-immigrant slogans
and by the state apparatus showing solidarity for the perpetrators rather than for the victims.

Because the attack in Solingen sparked heated reactions.

Just like in the racism motivated acts in the United States,
in the Ban Lieu in Paris in France,
or in England, in Brixton and Birmingham

in May 1993 about 3,000 rose in the center of Solingen,
predominantly migrants and of Turkish descent
and destroyed windows of shops and cars.

And how did the German government react?
They simply changed the constitution.
The debate led to the so-called asylum compromise 1992/93
between the governing parties CDU, CSU and FDP and the SPD opposition.

With the constitutional amendment, the individual right to asylum was severely limited
and sent threatening signals to the victims and into all our communities.

That is like,
if a woman is raped
and then is accused of having worn the wrong attire.

Anyway the number of asylum seekers dropped significantly,
so that the asylum debate abruptly lost its importance.

But that did not bring peace to the civil society.

New Time. April 5th, 2012. Burak Bektas was murdered on a public street
Against the background of the National Socialistic Underground complex
we know
Again Racism was the motivation!

The nail bomb attack in the Keupstrasse in Cologne
Again Racism was the motivation!

Racism has historically been the motivation!

Racism is the motivation in the future!

And again, migrants are the victims

Oury Jallouh – murdered in police custody

Christy Schwundeck – shot in a Job Center by the police

Again migrants are the victims

Ibrahim Arslan organizes resistance against racism
and simultaneously must cope with the traumatic aftermath.

Namuk Arslan organizes resistance against racism
and simultaneously must cope with the traumatic aftermath.

Yildez Arslan organizes resistance against racism
and simultaneously must cope with the traumatic aftermath.

How else should a mourning and commemoration day be?

Then in the tension between
resistance and trauma management

Creating an agenda that this may never happen ever again!

Terror – State and Nazis – hand in hand

How should „our“ resistance look like then?

Forgivingness of the victims?

The offenders protected – The court negotiation drawn into length –

And when will the cry out sound through Germany?

Racism is a weapon!

Racism kills!

Our weapon is solidarity

I welcome the solidarity of this event

In the future
street names shall bear the names of the victims

Thank you.

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