News

Open Process—a documentation center on the NSU complex—is following with great concern the reports that the 2027 federal budget no longer includes funding for the planned NSU Documentation Center in Nuremberg. This threatens to bring to a standstill a project that the federal government itself had announced as a policy priority and enshrined in the coalition agreement.

Managing Director Dr. Nora Krzywinski explains:

“This is a serious breach of trust for several reasons: It is a broken promise to the victims’ families and the survivors of the attacks, who have been calling for a dignified place of remembrance and reflection for years. It is also yet another instance of the government shirking its responsibility—a responsibility it itself had recognized as necessary when it enshrined the center in the coalition agreement.”

For the relatives of those murdered—such as the family of Mehmet Kubaşık, who was murdered by the NSU in Dortmund in 2006—this halt brings yet another disappointment and the painful feeling that their perspective is being treated as a political afterthought. Gamze Kubaşık, a political educator and daughter of Mehmet Kubaşık, comments:

“We, the survivors’ families, have been given promises time and time again. I think of the words of the then-Chancellor and the assurances given by many politicians that the past would be addressed, remembered, and that responsibility would be taken. Nearly 20 years later, we are still waiting for those promises to be turned into action.”

The timing of this decision is particularly troubling. It comes at a political juncture when the AfD continues to gain ground in polls and election results, and when several federal states are facing important state elections. To put a project aimed at coming to terms with right-wing terrorism on hold in this very climate sends a disastrous signal to all those who believe in a resilient, historically conscious democracy.

A nationwide NSU documentation center is not a secondary cultural-policy issue, but a democratic necessity. The question is whether the state is prepared to draw visible, lasting conclusions from institutional failures and right-wing terrorism—especially when doing so becomes politically inconvenient.

At the same time, the current debate highlights just how crucial the question of location is for the nationwide effort to come to terms with the NSU case. A single center in Nuremberg cannot, on its own, adequately reflect the diverse local spheres of influence of the NSU in Dortmund, Kassel, Rostock, Hamburg, Munich, and indeed also in Zwickau and Chemnitz. That is why we advocate for a multi-site approach that strengthens existing local civil society structures rather than replacing or supplanting them with a centralized model. Coming to terms with the past and remembrance must take place where those affected live, where the crimes occurred, and where support networks remain active.

Civil society actors in Saxony and “Open Process”—a documentation center on the NSU complex—have been engaged in coming to terms with the past for years and know from their own experience how important reliable political support is for this effort. We therefore call on the federal government to continue planning the nationwide NSU Documentation Center as a multi-site initiative, to provide the necessary funding, and to fulfill its responsibility toward those affected by the NSU complex.


Photo: Mark Frost, work by Mark Mühlhaus in the exhibition “Open Process”