The traffic light is planning an NSU documentation center and right-wing terror archive, but so far there has been a lack of money. That’s supposed to happen now, despite the budget freeze.
There will be money for the center to commemorate the victims of the NSU Photo: dpa
BERLIN taz | The message of the traffic light in the coalition agreement was clear: we will “Energetically push forward” the NSU investigation. One was promised NSU documentation center and a right-wing terror archive. The only problem is that the responsible ministries recently did not budget any money for either. Now the traffic light factions made improvements and added items to the budget for the projects – which should remain in place despite the budget freeze.
That’s what’s planned Right-wing terror archive will be financed with 1.8 million euros next year. The Federal Government Commissioner for Culture, Claudia Roth (Greens), is responsible for this and wants to set up the archive digitally. It should be launched by November 2024. According to her company, the money will be used to provide the technical infrastructure and to secure and digitize files that are in state or civil society hands.
There will also be 500,000 euros for the NSU documentation center next year. The responsible Federal Ministry of the Interior under Nancy Faeser (SPD) was the last to do so Report from the Federal Agency for Civic Education (bpb). However, the location and design of the center remain open. A feasibility study should now be available by the end of February 2024.
Neither the Ministry of the Interior nor the cultural representative Roth had originally earmarked the money for the 2024 budget. It was explained there that the costs cannot yet be quantified based on the current project status. Initiatives that were supposed to take part in the projects objected firm financial commitments and more speed demanded.
“Not a side note”
In the Bundestag’s most recent budget adjustment session, the traffic light factions stopped the funds. “Dealing with right-wing extremist crimes and their social circumstances is not a side note,” said Green MP Misbah Khan, who also negotiated, to the taz. “It is the central starting point for combating right-wing violence today and creating social cohesion.” The budget funds are used to set an example: 12 years after Self-exposure of the NSU the coming to terms with the terror will be “further institutionalized”.
The now imposed budget freeze The traffic lights said on Tuesday that this should not affect the projects. Current government spending is not affected, only long-standing commitment appropriations. The plan is to formally conclude the budget discussion on Thursday and pass it in the Bundestag on December 1st.
The Green MP Khan demands that it stays that way and that the fight against right-wing extremism and the already burdened organized civil society “does not become an opposition political plaything”. Finance Minister Christian Lindner (FDP) and Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) must quickly ensure planning security.
It will take some time until it is realized
However, the path to the NSU documentation center is still a long one. Saxony has already presented a feasibility study for a center in Chemnitz and Zwickau, where the NSU was in hiding for years. The families of the NSU victims recently made it clear at a meeting with the Federal Agency for Civic Education Both places are “perpetrator cities” for them and they preferred central metropolises such as Berlin or Munich for the center.
The “National Socialist Underground” around the Thuringian neo-Nazis Beate Zschäpe, Uwe Mundlos and Uwe Böhnhardt went underground in 1998 and had ten people were murdered between 2000 and 2007 and injured around 30 people in three attacks. In 2011, Mundlos and Böhnhardt shot themselves after a failed bank robbery and Zschäpe sent the letters of confession with which the group exposed themselves.
