Süleyman Taşköprü was murdered on 27 June 2001 in his grocery shop on Schützenstraße in Altona by terrorists belonging to the National Socialist Underground (NSU). He was one of ten victims of a brutal series of attacks carried out by right-wing extremists in eight German cities between 2000 and 2007. The victims were nine men of Turkish and Greek descent and a policewoman. Two bomb attacks by the NSU in Cologne also left many people injured, some seriously. The crimes, which were not identified as right-wing terrorism by the investigating authorities for a long time, caused profound damage to societal interaction in Germany.
The artist Regina Schmeken visited the scenes of the NSU crimes 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 midst of German cities. Her photographs attempt to make the monstrosity of these acts comprehensible and remind us that the attacks were attacks on universal human rights and thus on our entire society.
The exhibition title refers to the locations of the crimes, as well as to the National Socialist propaganda slogan ‘Blut und Boden’ (Blood and Soil). The NSU invoked this ideology and believed it justified them in killing people. The exhibition not only reflects on the brutal acts that began 25 years ago on 9 September 2000 in Nuremberg with the murder of Enver Şimşek, but above all commemorates the people who lost their lives.
The Altonaer Museum commemorates Enver Şimşek, Abdurrahim Özüdoğru, Süleyman Taşköprü, Habil Kılıç, Mehmet Turgut, İsmail Yaşar, Theodoros Boulgarides, Mehmet Kubaşık, Halit Yozgat and Michèle Kiesewetter. 27 June 2026 marks the 25th anniversary of the murder of 31-year-old Süleyman Taşköprü, which was committed on Schützenstraße in Bahrenfeld.
Accompanying the exhibition, an additional space with video interviews with contemporary witnesses, activists and those affected, as well as a participatory installation, invites visitors to reflect on remembrance: Who were the victims? Who remembers, who is remembered – and who is overlooked? The space also addresses right wing violence in Hamburg since 1945 and provides information on how everyone can get involved in combating right-wing extremism and discrimination in everyday life.
‘The crucial person is missing from every picture: the executed man, the executed woman. The photographer has captured this horrific emptiness. I thank her for that.’
FERIDUN ZAIMOGLU
‘The most unsettling thing about these photographs is that neither the murderers nor the murder victims can be seen in them. It is precisely the inconspicuous, banal and ordinary aspects of Schmeken’s photographs that are uncanny.’
HANS MAGNUS ENZENSBERGER
