Today an anti-fascist rally took place in front of the Kulturhaus in Karlshorst. The occasion was the meeting of the cultural committee of the district council. A worthy commemoration of Eugeniu Botnari should be debated there. Botnari was fatally injured more than four years ago during a right-wing assault in the Lichtenberg S-Bahn station. The rally reinforced the demand that it cannot be about any form of commemoration. The naming of the southern station forecourt after Botnari alone is appropriate to the cruelty of the act. In this way a worthy sign against right-wing violence in the district can be created. To show that many people think this way, an open letter was read out during the meeting with the demand. At the same time, a list with signatures of 173 supporters was handed over to the chairperson of the cultural committee, Camilla Schuler, and the city councilor for culture, district mayor Michael Grunst. He spontaneously put himself on the list of supporters.
In the meeting of the cultural committee, the Lichtenberg Memorial Initiative was represented with its own contribution to the requested naming of the site. This is documented below. Unfortunately the response was modest. Thus, the committee members of the SPD declared that they did not see the committee as the right contact point. First the district office had to make proposals for a commemoration. Afterwards, the committee could debate them. This was the end of the matter. Now everyone is waiting for the proposals of the district office. But one thing is particularly tricky. In Berlin, streets and squares may only be named after a person after the fifth anniversary of his or her death. In the case of Eugeniu Botnari, this will not be until next year. For this reason, some committee members let it be known that the demand would have no chance of success. This argument is hypocritical. Those who support the demand for a place name after Botnari can already make the necessary decisions now to implement them in due course. The district office also knows now that there are over 170 people who will be watching him closely and will not tolerate political excuses. The fact remains that we ourselves must fight for a worthy commemoration of the victims of right-wing violence. Every support is necessary.
Addendum: Less controversial were the discussions about naming a previously unnamed street intersection in Karlshorst after the Digedags – well-known comic figures from the GDR. As it looks like there will be a Digedags Square in Lichtenberg faster than an Eugeniu Botnari Square. There could hardly have been a clearer symbol for the political significance of commemorating the victims of right-wing violence in 2020 in the Federal Republic of Germany.
A brochure on the murder of Eugeniu Botnari was also published this year:
Speech of the Lichtenberg Memorial Initiative before the cultural committee of the BVV on 28.10.2020
Dear members of the Cultural Committee of the Lichtenberg District Assembly,
I speak to you today as a representative of the initiative “Active Remembrance in Lichtenberg”. We would like to take this opportunity to take the floor and emphasize our demand for a worthy commemoration of Eugeniu Botnari. More than 170 organizations and individuals support the call for the southern forecourt at Lichtenberg S-Bahn station to be named after Botnari as a victim of right-wing violence. They have signed the Open Letter which we have handed over to the Chairman of the Committee and the responsible District Councilor today.
Our concern has a socio-political scope that should not be neglected. Since 1990, there have been more than 180 victims of racist, anti-Semitic and right-wing political violence in the Federal Republic of Germany. Despite this shockingly high number, commemoration of them is not a matter of course – not even in Lichtenberg. Instead, incidents of right-wing violence and propaganda are once again on the rise in our district, as the Lichtenberg Register documents. Against this background, it is important to publicly address such acts and the ideology behind them with their deadly consequences. The fates of those affected must be made visible, not the perpetrators. It is our democratic duty as a cosmopolitan urban society to take a clear position against inhuman threats. The commemoration of victims of right-wing violence is thus a task for society as a whole. Right-wing attacks do not happen in a vacuum. They require an environment that makes them possible. The attack on Eugeniu Botnari could happen because the perpetrator felt safe. As people from Lichtenberg, we all have a responsibility not to make such acts possible or at least to remember those affected appropriately. As members of the Cultural Committee of the Lichtenberg District Assembly, you now have the chance to take on this responsibility. You can make an important contribution and decide or at least recommend the naming of the still nameless southern forecourt of the Lichtenberg S-Bahn station in Eugeniu-Botnari-Square.
But what is behind the fate of Eugeniu Botnari? Eugeniu Botnari became a victim of right-wing violence at Lichtenberg S-Bahn station almost five years ago. At the time of his death he was just 34 years old. He left behind a wife in Moldova and relatives in Berlin.
When he died, Botnari had only been in Berlin for one year. Although he mostly had no permanent residence, he lived in the city. Like all of us, he used the streets and squares in Lichtenberg. That is why he must be remembered here as well.
His death is terrifying for many reasons: On September 17, 2016, Eugeniu Botnari was beaten with quartz gloves in a back room of the store by the then store manager of the EDEKA branch in the S+U train station in Lichtenberg, and his head was injured. The manager had previously suspected him of theft. There is no proof of this. After the assault, the perpetrator sent pictures of his act with racist comments to other employees. Three days later, Eugeniu Botnari died of a cerebral hemorrhage, which was partly caused by the beatings. The perpetrator André S. was sentenced to imprisonment for bodily injury resulting in death. During the trial, it became clear that the pejorative and violent treatment of homeless, migrant people in supermarkets was not uncommon. There was no doubt for the court about the right-wing background of the inhuman act. Nevertheless, Botnari has not yet been officially recognized as a victim of right-wing violence. One reason may be that the perpetrator was not a neo-Nazi, but a person from the so-called “middle of society”. Thus, the death of Eugeniu Botnari shows that right-wing violence is a problem for society as a whole. We want to send a clear signal against this:
– against racism, which came to a deadly end here, as so often in the Federal Republic of Germany – against the continuing discrimination of unemployed and homeless people – against the daily looking away at violence in the Lichtenberg neighborhoods – and finally against the inhuman violence and the assumption that some fellow human beings are worth less than others because of their origin or way of life
We want to break the silence. For far too long the fate of Eugeniu Botnari has been forgotten. We want to name the injustice that happened to him. To this end, we are counting on your determined assistance. We need a publicly visible sign in the place where the crime took place. It is part of the local history of the neighborhood and must be remembered. The effort required to rename it is minimal. In contrast to a renaming, even the few residents could keep their addresses in Weitlingstraße.
We want the much-cited diversity in the district to be reflected in the street scene. The naming of the station square after Botnari would bring a victim of right-wing violence back into the center of urban society. In contrast, a commemorative plaque at the edge would place him in a position beyond his death in which Eugeniu Botnari and other people who have a similar history are already in anyway.
Moreover, the latest attacks on the provisional memorial plaque for Kurt Schneider have shown that the places of remembrance of victims of right-wing violence are themselves subject to destruction. This danger would not exist if a place was renamed. A sign could perhaps be damaged, but the memory of Botnari would remain in the maps, in the heads and perhaps in the hearts.
We are not alone with this view. The people who signed our Open Letter share it. Most of them live and work in Lichtenberg. Others come from other districts of Berlin, but also from Ulm, Landau, Halle or Saale. It is important to them that nationwide, victims of racist violence are remembered. The renaming of the square would thus make clear beyond the local context how a city society assumes responsibility. This is particularly important in a district like the Weitlingkiez, where extreme right-wing structures were once firmly rooted. By naming a public square after a victim of right-wing violence who has not yet been officially recognized, the district of Lichtenberg can make history nationwide. This would be an incredibly important step in the recognition of victims of racist violence.
We find: As diverse as the people in the district are, as diverse must be the stories that the streetscape tells – even if they hurt. But only by remembering the horrors that happened in our district can we together prevent them from repeating themselves. We appeal to you. With your decision, please make sure that you set a highly visible sign in memory of Botnari at a central place in the district and name the southern forecourt of the Lichtenberg train station after him. Please do not push him again to the edge of the district’s history with commemorative forms that can easily be overlooked. We advocate that Eugeniu Botnari Square be dedicated on the 5th anniversary of his death, that is, on September 20, 2021. Thank you very much for your attention. For a dignified commemoration of Eugeniu Botnari and all victims of right-wing violence