German city of Hanau to remember nine killed in 2020 racist attack

From left to right in the frame, Hanau Mayor Claus Kaminsky, Hesse state premier Boris Rhein and German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser stand in front of wreaths at the memorial site to the Hanau shooting victims
Mayor of Hanau Claus Kaminsky, Hesse state premier Boris Rhein and German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser stand in front of wreaths at the memorial site to the Hanau shooting victims at last year's memorial ceremony (image: Frank Rumpenhorst/dpa/picture alliance)

The German city of Hanau will commemorate the nine people killed in a racist attack there four years ago with a silent memorial on Monday. The city, located just east of Frankfurt, said there will be no political speeches at the event at Hanau's main cemetery "at the express request of the victims' relatives". 

The mayor of Hanau, Claus Kaminsky, will be in attendance along with German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser and other local and regional officials. They will lay wreaths and listen to an imam pray and recite portions of the Koran. On 19 February 2020, a 43-year-old right-wing extremist murdered nine people with migrant backgrounds in a racially motivated shooting spree in Hanau, including at a shisha bar. The gunman then shot his mother and himself. 

On Saturday, several thousand people attended a demonstration in Hanau in memory of the victims and called for a concerted fight against racism and right-wing extremism.

Kaminsky said the memory of the racist killings in the town on 19 February 2020 should bring the whole of Germany to an annual assessment of its fight against far-right extremism. "We are in a worse position in the fight against the right than we were on 19 February 2020," he said. "The good news is that we can see from the nationwide demonstrations that many people are standing up against it."    (dpa)