In February 2020, an armed man attacked two bars in Hanau, killing nine people: Gökhan Gültekin, Sedat Gürbüz, Said Nesar Hashemi, Mercedes Kierpacz, Hamza Kurtović, Vili Viorel Păun, Fatih Saraçoğlu, Ferhat Unvar, and Kaloyan Velkov. Seven more people were injured.
The massacre was not a random act of violence but a targeted racist attack on brown people, motivated by xenophobic hate. The murderer was moved by far-right extremism, fueled by misogyny, eugenicist beliefs, and the AfD’s anti-immigrant views.
Six years later, anti-Muslim and Islamophobic harassment proliferates in German society; police budgets expand while cultural integration funds are cut, surveillance intensifies through racial profiling, and "security" rhetorics justify state violence against marginalized communities.
It is clear that Germany's self-proclaimed “remembrance culture” is not willing to acknowledge its selective and exclusive policies: it offers commemoration only to those who fit the state narrative, suppressing forms of remembrance that create discomfort or dissent.
This year, Migrantifa has initiated an Alliance Against Racism Action Day, modeled on March 8 and May 1, to mark Hanau's sixth anniversary. Through a series of events extending the demonstration's demands for state accountability and justice, they transform commemoration into an ongoing struggle.
What inspired you to create a recurring Action Day around Hanau's anniversary?
The racist attack in Hanau in 2020 was the founding moment of Migrantifa Berlin. Many of us became politicized through the grief and helplessness we felt during that time. This year’s motto of the Action Day, “As long as we breathe, we fight”, pretty much sums up why we take to the streets every year on this day. There is no alternative for us. If we want to live, we have to fight. And we are fighting to prevent another Hanau. As long as any of us still breathe, we will fight for our lives, for the legacy of those we’ve lost, for those of us still to come.
Who participates in this alliance?
This is the third year of organizing said day. As Migrantifa Berlin, we are leading the organization of the Antiracist Struggle Day in Berlin, our city. In an alliance with other Migrantifa groups from Basel, Cologne, Nuremberg, Gottingen, and the Rhein-Main area, we are calling for an international Antiracist Struggle Day (Antirassistischer Kampftag). Showing unity beyond the cities we live in is important to us, which is why we hang the same posters across our streets, announce the same call for the demonstration and deliver the same speech in every city that participates. Organizing such big demonstrations each year is a lot of work. We welcome groups in other cities to join and organize demonstrations for the cause in their regions. We collaborate with other local groups to support us with technical and safety concerns during the demonstration, and of course, to spread the word on social media and in the city. We invite groups to speak at the demonstrations and to share their struggle and anger. But we also organize events leading up to February 19th. For example, we organized a screening of the documentary Das deutsche Volk together with the Communist Youth League (Kommunistischer Jugendbund).
What happens during this day?
At 6 PM at Leopoldplatz in Berlin Wedding, we begin with a rally to remember the murdered people of Hanau, and all the names that are added annually to the list of victims of far-right aggression and police violence. There will be speeches, live music, and a place to lay down flowers. For us, commemorating and mourning as a community is a political act in itself, but it is equally important to transform this mourning into anger and to bring this anger to the streets. This is why the last, and maybe most powerful, part of the day is the demonstration, where we take to the streets loudly and show resistance.
This February 19th is during Ramadan, which is why we invite everyone to share iftar with us at 5.30 pm on Leopoldplatz. We will serve çay and dates.
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How should action challenge anti-immigration politics and the state's role in creating the conditions that led to Hanau?
The reason why Hanau marks such an important day for us is because it shows the complicity of the state in this racist attack: how the murderer was a known Nazi, how the emergency door of the shisha bar was locked because of the recurring raids, the emergency calls that were not answered, and how some of the police forces were later revealed to be in fascist chat groups. These are only a few of the many examples of the overarching “failure” by the police that night. But we actually don’t like to call it a failure, because Hanau was not a coincidence; it is the product of a racist system working just like it should. With our action, we keep calling out this system and refuse to stay silent, and we also keep building a community that shows solidarity, where we can rely on each other, instead of calling the police when problems occur.
How has the awareness around Hanau changed over the past six years?
We see a lot of politicians and other liberal forces trying to hijack the story by leaving out the role of the police or framing it as an isolated killing of a psychopath. In recent years, some of the families of the victims spoke up in anger, calling out that even now, there is still no real justice. For example, Emiş Gürbüz, the mother of Sedat, spoke during an official remembrance event last year in front of Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier and the mayor of Hanau, Claus Kaminsky. She called out the complicity of the city of Hanau and rejected the plans for the memorial. The survivors and families of the victims wanted the memorial to be located at the marketplace, but the city denied this and placed it somewhere else. After the speech, she was called out in an official press statement by Hanau’s government, accused of being disrespectful to the other families of the victims. It is quite revealing but comes as no surprise to us that politicians neglect the demands of the families of the victims, and when accountability is asked from them, they deflect and defame. Unfortunately, this hasn’t been a topic of discussion among the public. Our goal is to change that.
What needs to be done to reject the state's portrayal of Hanau as an isolated incident? Do you connect the murders of Hanau to wider patterns of institutional racism, police ties to the far-right, and state negligence?
By embedding Hanau into a broader analysis of state oppression, far-right violence, and racism, we are connecting different struggles rather than isolating them. For us, Hanau is inseparable from the police killing of Lorenz A. in Oldenburg last year, the militarization, the rise of authoritarian forces in Germany, and the repression of protest and freedom of speech. We are fighting against racism in Germany as migrants, but are equally supporting the struggles of the diaspora of the people in Palestine, Sudan, Iran, Kurdistan, and many other places.
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Do you link the Hanau massacre to today's criminalization of Palestine solidarity, the silencing of dissident voices, and Germany's supplying of weapons for the genocide in Gaza?
It is crucial to us to make these links visible. For example, this year, the demonstration is happening in Wedding for the first time. It is a known workers' neighborhood and home to many migrants. Recently, a weapons factory belonging to Rheinmetall has been reactivated there, supplying ammunition for the wars killing our people all over the world. We don’t criticize the workers who provide their labor in the factories. We want to make visible how armament and special budgets for the military here affect the ongoing genocide and killing, while the military budget is taken from our taxes, health, and education system. Those who protest against Rheinmetall and military budgets are confronted with police violence or are being shut down, while the shareholders are counting their profits.
Can Hanau become a sustained organizing focus rather than just one day of remembrance? Can protests build enough political power to force real change in how Germany confronts racism?
To mourn the dead means to stand for the ones who are alive. With the demonstration, we want to breach the oppressive status quo and demand a better life for all. We depart from the streets, where our voices can be heard by many. We are joining our anger and strength by showing up for each other and in solidarity with all oppressed people worldwide. We honor the legacy of struggle that came before us, and which resonates across history, for example, International Women’s Day on March 8th or Labor Day on May 1st. We believe that commemoration and mobilization in joint resistance can cause real change. That is why we established the Antiracist Struggle Day.
Lastly, what advice would you give to those starting to organize against violence, racism, and militarization?
We can only fight for the revolution as a collective. Especially nowadays, with rising authoritarian forces, it might feel scary to get active and show resistance. This debilitating feeling causes separation and is part of the oppression of the state. We can only overcome this together. So join a movement and get organized!
Every person affected by racism is welcome to join our monthly Wilkommenscafé at Rote Lilly in Neukölln every last Wednesday of each month at 7 PM. We invite you to learn more about our work and to join Migrantifa Berlin. No prior knowledge is required!
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After the racist attack in Hanau on February 19th 2020, Migrantifa Berlin was established as an antiracist and anticapitalistic structure. Since then, the group has offered its radical left perspective to discourses around migration and class struggle in Germany through organizing demonstrations or events such as discussions or fundraisers at Rote Lilly, the group’s space in Neukölln. Recent subjects of their political actions have been social cuts, the racist framing of Neukölln in German media and politics, the repression of protest in solidarity with Palestine, and resistance to militarization. This year, for the third time, Migrantifa Berlin is calling for an Antiracist Struggle Day on February 19th.
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Cover, Fig.1/2: Hanau is überall demo 2025, Photos by Joschi Wolf
