Our commitment in Zwickau
Offener Prozess and Alter Gasometer e.V. are cooperating to connect the remembrance work in Zwickau with the documentation center and to support the local actors. Nathalie Senf has been employed by Offener Prozess since January 15, 2026 with an office in the association house of the Alter Gasometer e.V.
A lot has happened since the citizen participation process in Zwickau:
Ten memorial trees for those murdered by the NSU were inaugurated on the Ziegelwiese in Schwanenteichpark in the fall of 2019. All of the memorial trees at Schwanenteich now have a sponsor. Among them are several schools:
Pestalozzi School, DPFA Schools, Käthe Kollwitz Grammar School, Peter Breuer Grammar School, Humboldt School, KOMPAKT School. The other sponsorships were provided by the Ev.-Luther. Kirchspiel Zwickau Nord, IG Metall Jugend, Roter Baum e.V. in conjunction with the star decorators and the youth advisory council.
For several years now, schools have had the opportunity to ask the Alter Gasometer e.V. education officer, Tim Sachse, about the NSU complex. He offers several formats on the topic. The sponsors carry out the “crane commemoration” on their own responsibility. This means that they commemorate the birthdays of those murdered by gathering at the memorial grove and attaching origami cranes to the tree. The decorations around this gesture vary.
There was criticism of the implementation of this memorial and the inauguration; for example, the bereaved were not included. It is possible that this will change in the future thanks to better networking with the Documentation Center and the subsequent networking meetings with the relatives of those murdered by the NSU.
The Alliance for Democracy and Tolerance in the Zwickau region, which is supported by the Alter Gasometer e.V., has played a key role in shaping remembrance work in Zwickau. Since 2012, the alliance has organized an annual series of events entitled “November Days“, which deals with the pogrom night of 1938, the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 and the NSU’s self-disclosure.
In Zwickau’s urban society, the remembrance of the victims of the NSU and the reappraisal of the NSU complex is largely shaped and supported by civil society. Actors from parishes, various associations, the Plauen-Zwickau Theater, the West Saxon University of Applied Sciences, various parties and trade unions are involved, and the city administration and district are providing support.
The Sternendekorateure, an initiative from Zwickau’s cultural scene, created the memorial benches as mobile objects of remembrance for the 5th anniversary of the self-unmasking. A bench was designed for each murder victim, on which the names and biographical details of the victims and the circumstances of their death can be read.
An 11th bench draws attention to the continuities of right-wing violence and poses the question of who still has to become a victim before anything changes. This bench is part of the exhibition Open Process.
Every year, the benches are part of the commemoration of the victims of the NSU in Zwickau. The city of Zwickau has commissioned an exhibition to be shown in the Priesterhäuser in 2024:
“Zwickau and the NSU. Dealing with right-wing extremist acts”
It is already clear from the circle of participants that there are various offers with different approaches in order to reach as many population groups as possible. From a lecture to an artistic discussion to a workshop or a panel discussion, many things are conceivable. Publicly accessible formats have so far mainly been realized in or near the city centre.
Ideas and suggestions for perpetuating remembrance and realizing joint (educational) events in Zwickau – but also in the surrounding area – can be addressed to Nathalie Senf.
