Ten years after OEZ attack, Steinmeier urges fight against racism as families demand full inquiry
Bundespräsident Frank-Walter Steinmeier told a Munich commemoration that Germany is 'a country with a migration background' and demanded a determined fight against racism, as relatives of the nine victims called for a parliamentary inquiry into the 2016 attack.
A city remembers
Munich marked the tenth anniversary of the right-wing extremist attack at the Olympia-Einkaufszentrum with a large memorial ceremony on Wednesday. A stage was set up in front of the shopping centre on Hanauer Straße, adorned with photographs of the nine victims: Armela, Can, Dijamant, Guiliano, Hüseyin, Roberto, Sabine, Selçuk and Sevda. At 17:52, the exact moment the first shots were fired on 22 July 2016, buses and trains across the city came to a halt for a minute of silence. Hundreds of people gathered behind barriers, while relatives and politicians sat in the front rows. Among the officials were Bundespräsident Frank-Walter Steinmeier, Bavarian Landtagspräsidentin Ilse Aigner (CSU), Ministerpräsident Markus Söder (CSU) and Munich's Oberbürgermeister Dominik Krause (Grüne).
Steinmeier's appeal
Steinmeier used his speech to call for a resolute fight against racism and antisemitism. He stressed that migration history is not limited to individuals but belongs to the entire country.
Let us finally understand: it is not only individual people who have a migration history - our whole country has it. Germany is a country with a migration background. That is what defines us.
The Bundespräsident said the attack "concerns our whole country" and assured the bereaved: "You are not alone." He also acknowledged that it had taken far too long for the authorities to officially recognise the attack as right-wing terrorist violence. Steinmeier placed the OEZ attack in a longer line of far-right violence, referencing the NSU murders, the Halle and Hanau attacks, the killing of Kassel Regierungspräsident Walter Lübcke and the 1980 Oktoberfest bombing.
Families demand answers
The emotional centre of the ceremony was the contributions of the victims' relatives. In eight personal addresses, some delivered through tears or read out by others, they remembered the dead and voiced anger at the authorities' handling of the case. Gisela Kollmann, grandmother of the murdered Guiliano, directed her frustration at the politicians present.
We would have needed your support much earlier. We had to fight for everything and had no help.
Yasemin Kilic, mother of Selcuk, said she still waits every day for her son to walk through the door. Margareta Zabërgja, sister of Dijamant, expressed dismay that "today again people sit in our parliaments who create enemy images." The families unanimously demanded the immediate establishment of a parliamentary investigation committee in the Bavarian Landtag to clarify possible failures in the investigation and any networks behind the attacker.
The attack and its delayed recognition
On 22 July 2016, 18-year-old David S. shot dead eight young people and one adult woman at the OEZ. The victims had Turkish, Greek, Albanian or Sinti and Roma backgrounds. The attacker later killed himself when confronted by police. For years, authorities treated the crime as an apolitical amok run driven by personal motives. It was only in 2018 that the Federal Ministry of Justice recognised it as right-wing extremist, and in October 2019 Bavarian authorities classified it as "politically motivated right-wing violence." Steinmeier addressed the delay directly.
It has probably taken far too long for the bereaved and relatives until the right-wing terrorist attack at the OEZ was clearly and publicly recognised as such.
- First shots fired at the Olympia-Einkaufszentrum; nine people killed, attacker later takes his own life.
- Federal Ministry of Justice recognizes the attack as right-wing extremist motivated.
- Bavarian authorities classify the attack as 'politically motivated right-wing violence'.
- 10th anniversary commemoration with Bundespräsident Steinmeier and families.
A pattern of violence
Landtagspräsidentin Aigner placed the OEZ attack alongside the attacks in Oslo and on Utøya, the NSU murders, and the shootings in Halle and Hanau. She said it was important to stand up every day against "misanthropy of all kinds." Oberbürgermeister Krause called it one of the most severe right-wing extremist terrorist attacks in the history of the Federal Republic and asked why society finds it so difficult to name right-wing terror for what it is. The commemoration ended with a renewed pledge from officials to remember the victims and their stories, but the families' demand for a full inquiry remains unresolved.
