Government plans €6.2 million for NSU centre in Nuremberg

The German government plans to provide around €6.2 million to establish a national documentation and education centre on the crimes of the far-right NSU terrorist group in Nuremberg, BR and Nürnberger Nachrichten report.

A ministry spokesperson said legislation to create a public-law foundation would probably begin in autumn, with the foundation to be established in 2027. The money is intended to come from unused funds transferred from the current federal budget to the 2027 budget.

The plans follow months of pressure from relatives of the 10 people murdered by the National Socialist Underground, or NSU, between 2000 and 2007. They have warned that the project must not be allowed to fade away.

Mandy Boulgarides, whose father Theodoros Boulgarides was killed by the NSU in 2005, said politicians’ statements about democracy and remembrance were not enough. The crimes of the NSU, racism, far-right extremism and the failure of state institutions must not be left to be forgotten, she said.

Green Party lawmaker Marlene Schönberger described the planned release of unused budget funds as “a step in the right direction”. She said the repeated changes over recent months had placed a heavy burden on relatives of the victims and survivors of the NSU’s terror.

The project was already proposed by the previous governing coalition. According to the Federal Interior Ministry, the centre is intended to address a gap in remembrance and historical and political education. It should inform the public about the NSU’s crimes, the dangers of far-right extremism and the conditions in which it develops.

The Federal Agency for Civic Education is already preparing elements for an exhibition, initially planned as a travelling exhibition. Victims and relatives of NSU victims are involved in the work and are represented on an advisory board for the documentation centre and exhibition. They also contributed to a feasibility study.

Gamze Kubaşık, whose father Mehmet Kubaşık was shot dead in Dortmund in 2006, said relatives had initially hoped that they would finally be heard. She said, however, that they were now disappointed because they were learning much of what was happening through the media.