Bloody Soil Scenes of NSU crimes

An exhibition with photographs by Regina Schmeken

Süleyman Taşköprü was murdered by the terrorists of the National Socialist Underground (NSU) in his grocery shop in Schützenstraße in Altona on 27 June 2001. He was one of ten victims of a brutal series of attacks carried out by the right-wing extremists in eight German cities between 2000 and 2007. The victims were nine men of Turkish and Greek descent, as well as a policewoman. There were also many injured and seriously wounded in two NSU bomb attacks in Cologne. The crimes, which took place in secret for a long time, left deep marks on society.

Photographer Regina Schmeken visited the NSU crime scenes in 2013 and 2015/2016. Her large-format black and white photographs show the disturbing normality of the scenes of hatred and violence in the centre of German cities. Through her camera, they become silent witnesses to the crimes that took place there.

The exhibition title refers to the National Socialist propaganda formula ‘Blood and Soil’ and thus to the ideological background of the radical right-wing perpetrators. This makes the exhibition not only an artistic confrontation with the NSU, but also a warning monument against racism and right-wing extremism in the present.

With this exhibition, the Altonaer Museum commemorates the series of murders of Enver Şimşek, Abdurrahim Özüdoğru, Süleyman Taşköprü, Habil Kılıç, Mehmet Turgut, İsmail Yaşar, Theodoros Boulgarides, Mehmet Kubaşık, Halit Yozga and Michèle Kiesewetter, which began 25 years ago with the murder of Enver Şimşek in 2000.

27 June 2026 marks the 25th year since the murder of 31-year-old Süleyman Taşköprü, which was committed in the immediate vicinity of the Altonaer Museum.