Radicalism - Steinmeier attends commemoration ceremony for NSU attack in Cologne.
On Sunday, Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier is set to address an event commemorating the actions of the neo-Nazi terrorist organization NSU in Cologne, which occurred 20 years ago. This group had set off a nail bomb in Kepustraße, a district in Cologne renowned for its Turkish restaurants and businesses, on June 9, 2004. As a result, 22 individuals were injured, with some sustaining serious damages.
Initially, law enforcement searched the Turkish community for the culprits. It wasn't until seven years later that the responsibility for this attack was assigned to the NSU killers Uwe Mundlos and Uwe Böhnhardt.
To mark the 20th anniversary of this event, a cultural festival named "Birlikte" (which translates to "Together" in Turkish) is being organized in Cologne. The objective of this festival is to facilitate mutual understanding and celebrate the harmonious coexistence that the two neo-Nazis sought to destroy. A similar festival was held 10 years ago for the 10th anniversary of the attack, receiving widespread acclaim from the public.
The NSU had been committing anonymous murders in Germany since 2000. Their victims were nine business owners of Turkish and Greek ethnicity, as well as a police officer. Apart from Mundlos and Böhnhardt, Beate Zschäpe was also involved in these crimes. In 2018, the Munich Higher Regional Court sentenced her to life imprisonment.
