In the youth welfare workshop, young adults and schoolchildren hammer names into aluminum strips, which are then riveted onto a steel ring and then welded to the memorial. The memorial has grown year after year, and even after 30 years, new rings are being added: by people who want to use their names to stand up against right-wing extremism and racism. In total there are now more than 7000.
New approach for new generation
Over the years, says Winfried Borowski, the head of the workshop, self-critically, it has become increasingly difficult to bring the topic of the Solingen arson attack closer to young people. The memorial is now very abstract and political. For young adults, 30 years is an eternity. He himself was born 15 years after the Second World War, and the experience of the war is far from his memory: “That was infinitely far away for me and it must be the same for young people today.“
Pictures of the victims are shocking
Borowski gives lectures and has also shown a television documentary in them for several years. It had become clear to him that the photos of the five murdered Turkish women and girls always affected the young people. An employee of the workshop confirms: “They were almost babies, others eight or nine years old. That definitely got me.“
The workshop has therefore together with the surviving family Youth designed large plaques with the stylized faces of the victims. From the weekend, the plaques will be on steles in the center of the memorial.
The memorial itself stands for the Solingen culture of remembrance; it is known far beyond the city limits. Many citizens, but also prominent visitors, stand for remembrance and reconciliation with their name rings. About 120 to 200 rings are added every year, says the youth welfare workshop. Incidentally, young people work here who previously had difficulty gaining a foothold in the workforce.