GERMANY/FILE: Rostock remembers night 20 years ago when mob set asylum seekers' home on fire.

Record ID: 857351

  • Title: GERMANY/FILE: Rostock remembers night 20 years ago when mob set asylum seekers' home on fire.
  • Date: 26th August 2012
  • Summary: ROSTOCK, GERMANY (FILE - AUGUST 24, 1992) (ORIGINALLY 4:3) (REUTERS) VARIOUS NIGHT SHOTS OF FLAMES RAGING OUT OF ASYLUM SEEKERS' HOME IN ROSTOCK'S LICHTENHAGEN DISTRICT, MOB CHEERING OUTSIDE MOB THROWING ROCKS AT BURNING ASYLUM SEEKERS' HOME FLAMES EMERGING FROM WINDOW CROWD NEXT TO BURNING HOUSE CHANTING "SIEG HEIL! SIEG HEIL!" ROCKS AND BOTTLES FLYING TOWARDS BURNING HOUSE PEOPLE WALKING PAST BURNING HOUSE CROWD CHANTING "GERMANY TO THE GERMANS, FOREIGNERS OUT!" (DEUTSCHLAND DEN DEUTSCHEN, AUSLAENDER RAUS) ONLOOKERS WATCHING NEAR "SPAR" SUPERMARKET VARIOUS OF GROUP OF POLICE IN RIOT GEAR WITH SHIELDS WALKING IN STREET POLICE RUNNING AS ROCKS ARE HEARD HITTING THE SHIELDS, POLICE RUNNING AFTER MOB
  • Embargoed: 10th September 2012 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Germany
  • City:
  • Country: Germany
  • Topics: Crime,Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVA9PRVX58F95LQ68FV7HZSS4Y3Z
  • Aspect Ratio:
  • Story Text: Twenty years after residents of Rostock's Lichtenhagen district joined right-wing extremists and set fire to the home of mostly Vietnamese asylum seekers, hundreds protest against xenophobia.

    Hundreds of people on Saturday (August 25) remembered Germany's worst post-war racist riots in Rostock 20 years ago when right-wing extremists set fire to an asylum seekers' home, cheered on by a mob of sympathisers.
    The building's mostly Vietnamese inhabitants were able to flee from the flames to higher floors at the last moment and no one was injured in the attack which at the time drew world-wide criticism and shocked a nation.
    The incident was preceded by days of violence between right-wing extremists, their supporters and the police in the north eastern port city of Rostock.
    On the night of August 24, 1992 an angry crowd attacked the so called "Sonnenblumenhaus" (sunflower house) which housed some 150 Vietnamese workers with rocks and molotov cocktails as a crowd of cheering supporters chanted Nazi-ear slogans such as "Sieg heil" and "Germany to the Germans, foreigners out."
    Saturday's demonstration against xenophobia and racism was organised by various leftist groups and supported by the city of Rostock.
    A plaque commemorating the events was put up outside city hall.
    "One goal of this demonstration was to install this memorial plaque to point out the institutionalised racism which occurs in this country," said Jochen Thelo, spokesman for the action group "The problem is called racism."
    According to Thelo, "there are people who say what happened then must never happen again. The residents there changed completely since then."
    "But there are others saying 'enough is enough and it wasn't really that bad' or who believe that those responsible all came from elsewhere. Both is wrong," Thelo said.
    German President Joachim Gauck was expected to attend a second commemoration day on Sunday in the city he was born in and where he worked as a Lutheran pastor during the East German Communist regime.
  • Copyright Holder: FILE REUTERS (CAN SELL)
  • Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2012. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
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