Jena, September 11, 2026 – On the 26th anniversary of the death of the first NSU victim, Enver Şimşek, the city of Jena held a memorial service on Friday to commemorate the victims of the right-wing terrorists. Lord Mayor Dr. Thomas Nitzsche and Thuringian state parliament member Katharina König-Preuß spoke at the memorial plaque about the necessity of a comprehensive investigation and a vigilant, civil-society-based coexistence.
- Event: Commemoration of the 26th anniversary of Enver Şimşek’s death
- Location: Memorial plaque and square in Jena
- Participants: Lord Mayor Dr. Thomas Nitzsche, Katharina König-Preuß, and others
- Date: September 11, 2026
Commemoration of all ten NSU victims
Enver Şimşek was attacked and severely injured in Nürnberg on September 9, 2000; he succumbed to his injuries two days later, on September 11. He was the first of a total of ten murder victims of the National Socialist Underground (NSU), whose core trio originated from Jena.
The crimes, committed between 2000 and 2007, claimed the lives of people who sought to build a safe and better life in Germany. The memorial plaque in Jena stands as a representative symbol for all those killed and serves as a reminder for lasting commemoration.
Background: The ten victims of the NSU
The National Socialist Underground murdered ten people between 2000 and 2007. As part of the commemoration, the following victims are remembered by name:
- Enver Şimşek
- Abdurrahim Özüdoğru
- Süleyman Taşköprü
- Habil Kılıç
- Mehmet Turgut
- İsmail Yaşar
- Theodoros Boulgarides
- Mehmet Kubaşık
- Halit Yozgat
- Michèle Kiesewetter
Municipal processing and upcoming events
The years of trivialization and the inadequate investigations by authorities, which falsely linked the victims to organized crime, remain a dark chapter in contemporary German history. This makes the continuous local processing in Jena all the more important.
To scientifically examine the origins of the NSU in Jena, the former Rosenthal Scholarship for Fine Arts was repurposed into a scholarship for political education. The results of this investigation, as well as further projects, will be presented to the public in the autumn as part of a final presentation and an accompanying series of events.
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Commemoration on the occasion of the 26th anniversary of Enver Şimşek’s death
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