Revisiting the Future: An Application Evoking the NSU Complex in Chemnitz
In the heart of Chemnitz, Germany, a digital memorial space serves as a poignant tribute to the victims of the National Socialist Underground (NSU) terror group. This online platform, inaugurated on August 15, 2020, by Open Process and Causa Creations, is a testament to the resilience of those who seek to remember and educate about the tragedies of the past.
Conceived in 2023, the app, re:member the future, is designed in the style of street art and print graphics, opening up new visual access points for remembrance. Georg Hobmeier, its developer, describes it as a sign, a place that refers, accuses, remembers, and hopefully enables a better future.
The digital memorial is a gesture of accusation and hope, a space that commemorates 10 victims, including Enver Şimşek, Abdurrahim Özüdoğlu, and Michèle Kiesewetter, as well as survivors, injured, and relatives. It serves as a digital archive, providing accessible historical documentation, testimonies, and educational resources to the public.
The app creates immersive experience spaces where digital monuments and local contexts are intertwined. It provides a clear link between the NSU complex and local structures in Chemnitz, making the absence of a city-erected memorial in Chemnitz visible and tangible. This digital intervention serves as a symbol of resistance and clarification, fostering a multi-perspective and lively culture of remembrance.
The digital memorial emerged as part of broader efforts to preserve the memory of NSU victims and confront the failures in investigating and acknowledging right-wing hate crimes. It serves as a response to the invisibility that victims and their stories initially faced within mainstream historical and political discourse.
The purpose of the digital memorial is threefold. First, to honor and remember the victims of NSU violence. Second, to raise public awareness about right-wing extremism and its consequences. Lastly, to foster critical reflection on institutional responses and societal complicity or neglect.
By enhancing public knowledge and keeping the victims' narratives visible in collective memory, the digital memorial supports scholarly and activist work related to combating neo-Nazism and racism. It encourages dialogue on race, justice, and remembrance within Germany and internationally.
Gamze Kubasık, daughter of Mehmet Kubasık, a victim of the NSU, poignantly states, "Justice can only be created if we are given space to remember." The digital memorial, in its symbolic and educational capacity, offers precisely that space.
While the app does not mention the construction of a physical memorial in Chemnitz, it serves as an impulse for such a project. As the digital memorial continues to evolve and grow, it remains a beacon of hope for those seeking to remember, understand, and prevent the recurrence of such tragedies.
